Perhaps I am not seeing the whole picture here, but I felt farscape was much more stringently scripted than most other series... it is comparable to Babylon 5 when it comes to story arcs... even though the introduction of Scorpius into the plot is what kick-starts it... that might not be until late in season 1? But it is certainly not as episodic as the various treks out there, or any other Gene Roddenberry production. But it has its share of monster of the week episodes... it is after all an American series from a while back, before they discovered that the majority of episodes did not necessarily have to be self contained. You will notice that as the story builds on, previous experiences play larger roles. one small incident in an episode can be shown to have momentous effects in later seasons