The idea first started as a question: how do you design an SF show
for television that won't kill itself financially...then how can you
design a show in such a way that it tells a story over X-number of years,
like some of the multi-novel cycles that are the hallmark of SF
literature?

The obvious framework seemed to be a crossroads or meeting place of
some kind, a place of commerce and trading. It's much more difficult and
energy-consuming to go down into a gravity well every time you want to
drop something off, so this led to a space station/community. I kind of
knew pretty much where I wanted to go right off the bat, but it took me
another six months to a year to *really* decide on what the arc of the
story was to be. In the years since, I've added a bit around the edges,
fleshed out some of the characters and their own personal arcs, but it's
still essentially the same story.

jms