"IF one stuck to the general guidelines of the B5 universe...."

My point is, until we've established for you what those guidelines
ARE, particularly in terms of the new characters we'll be bringing in,
that's problematic at best.

"...do we attribute that to better writing (on TNG) after the first
season?"

Yes. Nobody knew what the hell they were doing there the first
and second seasons. Things improved quite dramatically when later they
brought in Jeri Taylor, who was instrumental in stopping the revolving
door of writers there (something just under 30 writer/producers have left
or been fired off TNG since it started, which is *unheard* of in TV, the
bulk of it those first two years, maybe 23 or so).

"Ya mean people didn't send in their teleplays for "Murder, She
Wrote?""

Yes, they did...and as soon as it was determined (by partly peeling
back the flap) that it WAS a spec script, it was sent *immediately* to
Legal Affairs, which sent it back to the writer in question, with a note
telling them that it had not been read, and not to do it again.

jms