Before the highly acclaimed 1990s sci-fi series "Babylon 5," there was "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future," ostensibly a dystopian show aimed at children in the late 1980s (and released on DVD last week, including a feature-length documentary).

"I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to write a show in such a way that it had an arc to it?" said J. Michael Straczynski (JMS to his fans), writer for "Captain Power" and creator of "Babylon 5." "That to me, creatively, was the most fun."

Shows with long-running arcs like "B5" and, later on, "Lost," may be commonplace now, but they were unusual at the time of "Captain Power."

"I figured this is a great place to cut my teeth. I thought, here’s where I can test out the model of doing a show with an arc," said Straczynski, who had written for "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" and "The Real Ghostbusters." "I had an idea for down the road, for a show with a five-year arc to it, where every year was a volume in that story. I thought I would try it on a small scale and see if it would work, and sure enough, it did. It gave me the tools I needed to go on and do 'Babylon 5.' " FULL POST