Anyone Watching the Original Series (spoilers ok)?

Finished the rewatch a few days ago.

First thoughts: overall, watching it three or four episodes at a time I was impressed at just how "even" the series is. Despite being written by 19 different authors, having the same script editor all the way through really affects the stability of the continuity, keeping a lot of consistency and making some of the more outre episodes feel as though it is just a weird adventure happening to the same people.
The first series has, IMNSHO, the least number of clunky episodes, but also the least number of standouts: it felt, as I said above, like an ongoing serial. Ditto the second series, although it had some real clunkers (Hostage and Voice From The Past are amongst the worst episodes and they are really only let down by a couple of dodgy scenes and some moments that just scream, "WE'VE RUN OUT OF MONEY!"), but it felt like a show that was beginning to stretch its format and try some new stuff. Except for the way that Jenna and Cally were relegated to looking after the ship.
Series C feels the most generic, even though it contains a lot of my favourite episodes (Aftermath/ Powerplay, City, Rumours, Deathwatch, Terminal). It suffers from just being a series of random adventures without "a line through the pattern of infinity" to mark some kind of continuity. And, yes, I know a lot of people like that. It also has a few rubbish stories (Moloch and Dawn Of The Gods are a bit ordinary, IMNSHO) but takes some interesting risks (Sarcophagus), although the continuing attempts by Servalan to get hold of the Liberator are wearying.
Series D felt like a reinvention. It had a strong-ish start (Rescue, which I love despite the dodgy Dorian Gray retelling) but failed to capitalise on that until Headhunter: the scripts between really felt as though they needed a few more revisions to them or just more time. The second half is a spectacular series of setbacks on the part of the characters as they head into failure after failure after failure until THAT ENDING. And the way that Avon starts to mirror Blake's original plan of setting up alliances and networks is handled terrifically. Where it's let down is in the episodes that were clearly rushed: Animals feels as though it would have been an okay Cally story (although she gets brainwashed rather than possessed here and the age gap between her and Justin is less squicky); Assassin is a pretty good episode but suffers from one performance that really drags it down to ordinary; I wish Power had focused more on the decaying technologies rather than the gender issues; and Stardrive would have been much better with better thought out antagonists.
I also wish the show had dealt more effectively with Dayna and Soolin: Josette Simon is great but I would have liked to have seen some more stories focused around her during her time. Glynis Barber is also fantastic in just about every scene she's in, and works really hard with scripts that don't really give her much to do or work with.
On the whole, I felt that the show has aged pretty well. When the effects work they are really good for a show ofthat vintage. When they don't they are an embarrassment. The writing still stands up, especially the episodes by Chris Boucher who was one of the few writers who could create a script that gave all the regulars something to do.