Science-fiction. Drama. Epic. Novel for television. All are accurate descriptions for Babylon 5 -- but "soap opera" may be as fitting a description as any other.

Soap operas brought the continuing story format to television and have had the arena largely to themselves throughout most of its history. They are a constantly growing and evolving entity dating back to the heyday of radio.

Many of the story elements radio soaps used -- particularly the combination of daily family life and outlandish problems -- became staples of the genre, and some of those staples made their way onto creator J. Michael Straczynski's show.

Virtually every soap opera features stories of unrequited love, romantic triangles, people returning from the dead, and as much anguish and suffering the writers can possibly inflict on their characters.

Heartache? Babylon 5 featured three notable cases of unrequited love during its run -- all of which featured other important soap elements as they played out.

Lennier fell in love with an older woman -- his mentor, Delenn -- and told her how he felt only when he thought they were about to die.

Though Lennier was never a serious challenger to Sheridan for Delenn's affections, his obsession provided an important bump in the road for the couple when he was tempted to allow Sheridan to die in a shipboard accident.

Security Chief Zack Allen never did much about his feelings for telepath Lyta Alexander, who remained almost completely unaware of them.

In a twist that combined both soap opera anguish and SF plotting, Zack's one baring of his heart occurred when a Vorlon-induced compulsion left Lyta completely oblivious.

Finally, Lyta's relationship with fellow telepath and wannabe martyr Byron created a full-fledged love triangle. When she finally left the station after Byron's death, Zack let her go without even saying goodbye -- a tragic ending for all involved.

Susan Ivanova and Marcus Cole may have shared the most tragic of all the unrequited loves on the show, however. Marcus would ultimately give up his life to save the woman he loved, only telling Susan how he felt about her as he slowly died at her side.

It's stories like these that force soap fans to watch their shows with a full box of tissues close at hand.

In five years, Babylon 5 had six characters -- John Sheridan, Morden, Anna Sheridan, Adira Tyree, PFC "Dodger" and Zoe -- return from the dead. Even soaps don't use this particular plot device that much.

Like the soaps, Straczynski's epic also made use of disposable villains like Mr. Morden, Lord Refa and Emperor Cartagia.

Such characters are short-term bad guys responsible for carrying out all the vile, nasty, unforgivable acts that the plot requires, but would deny the villain-in-residence -- in B5's case, Londo -- any hope of redemption if he actually did them.

Especially for female viewers, one of the most maddening soap opera cliches in existence is that of the woman who can't live without a man.

Babylon 5 had one of these characters in the form of Lise Hampton.

Lise Hampton first cropped up as a dark moment from Garibaldi's past. After Garibaldi left her on Mars, she married a man named Franz, had a baby, divorced Franz, then married billionaire William Edgars.

Mere days after Edgars was murdered, Lise came full-circle and hopped back into bed with Garibaldi. She could give some of the most shameless, man-clinging women on daytime television a run for their money.

The most compelling argument for Babylon 5's soap opera heritage may be Sheridan and Delenn. The strength of a soap opera's core couple -- the "super-couple" -- can make or break a show, and Straczynski's romantic leads are a classic example of the type.

The path to super-coupledom is a lengthy one, and it always filled with difficult obstacles. These bumps in the road to romance frequently include family disapproval, returning lost loves, even the death and revival of at least half the couple.

Sheridan and Delenn faced disapproval from her family. Not one, but two, of Sheridan's ex-wives came back to disrupt the life he was building with Delenn. Sheridan died at Z'ha'dum, and came back.

The duo also endured Sheridan's incarceration, the Shadow War, numerous attempts on both their lives and that thorny issue over whether to sleep with the bed tilted or flat.

Sheridan and Delenn survived everything that was thrown at them, and grew stronger with each passing crisis. The only rite of passage these two missed was the splashy soap wedding.