I enjoyed it from Episode 1, accept I thought Boons character lacked something, and I was not surprised that he was axed by Roddenberry, if the actor did not full fill his expectations they were written out. At first I thought it was going to be a bit of a 'flash gordon' style Sci Fi, but it developed especially the Taelons and Ron the head FBI and Companion security chief. He was great and kept character all the way through the 110 episodes.Well I enjoyed it, it held me in suspense, I thought some of the stories were below standard, but overall I thought it improved as series evolved. There were some great scripts, characters, and acting over all. I like the creation of the Taelon ship and the Taelons it was completely new. I would be pleased to own the series, and Majel Barratt had a hand in producing it. And acting too. It rated a good 8 in my opinion.

Believe me I wanted this series to work, but the early departure of Kevin Kilner dealt a near death blow after season one. Robert Leeshock just wasn't right for the part and Jane Heitmeyer did an admirable job as lead but the series just got too messy and confused at that point. I don't know what happened in Season Five, what a mess. Sometimes its time to drop the red cape and just stick the sword in the bull, if you know what I mean. The only consistent thread holding the series together were the amazing performances of Leni Parker and Anita LaSelva as the two Taelons in quiet idealogical conflict. If not for their talents and well-written dialogue they would have been two weird bald man-chicks in a B-movie series.If only this series could have ended at season 4 and picked up later by SyFy...

As many commenters have said, the S1 is truly genius and the rest can be ignored.Except the well planed characters, lots of social-psychology thinking, actually what I really like is the overall taste/style of S1. It's more like a slow and idea provoking poem rather than a bloody fighting modern story. I watched S1 around 2002. Then seek the rest like crazy. However, after I finally got all the rest, I even fell in sleep while watching! really. Like Steve Jobs' commented on Microsoft: the only problem is that it simply has no taste, not in the small way, but a big way.I think the only positive thing in S2-S5 is that Agent Sandaval survives till the end: he rocks!

The pilot episode written by Gene Roddenberry is excellent, but the show goes nowhere, all hugger mugger and no real story. Roddenberry's basic idea, that contact between humans and superior aliens will not be all black and white but will be filled with ambiguities, is a good one. Later writers, however, think in terms of good aliens and bad aliens. The use of female actors to play androgynous aliens was a good idea, but in later seasons everybody except Da'an overdoes it. In the third season, there are a number of scripts by Howard Cheykin, who is an excellent writer, and who wrote some memorable episodes of The Flash TV series, as well as some great graphic novels. However, he is unable to do anything here, because he is locked in to what is really not a workable story line. I have not watched the fifth season, but I have read that it throws out most of what was established in the first four. For scifi completists only.