Firefly! That is, if you haven't already seen it.

It's the only thing that comes close. In terms of character development, I find Firefly to have been even better than BSG in many respects.

Also, while I gave up on Star Trek long ago, I've heard that the later seasons of Enterprise were pretty decent.

It can be argued that LOST could be classed as scifi/fantasy, broadly speaking. If you haven't seen it, do so and quick.

Yeah. Firefly.

Also, it's sort of goofy in a classic low-rent BBC sci-fi way, but the new Dr. Who is very character-driven, and Billie Piper as Rose is adorable. Start with the 2005 season (with Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor).

Babylon 5. It gets off to a bit of a shakey start in season one. And they were supposed to be canceled at the end of season 4, so it's kind of rushed and season 5 is kind of empty. But when it's good, it's the best sci-fi that's ever been on TV.

I confess that the new Dr. Who is underwhelming me (Tennant). I'm so glad K-9 is not staying. Could do with a bit less of the Buffy-ness of the show (more science, less teen heartbeat stuff).

I think eps 2 and 3 so far this season of DW have been quite good and would be good introductions to the new DW for American audiences. I've noticed that the one thing that a lot of Americans have problems with is the underlying layer of intentional cheesiness, though.

I think Farscape was character-driven and quite good for that, and other, reasons. But there's just not a lot of really good stuff out there. BG is, in my opinion, the best of dramatic SF in decades. Later B5, later DS9, Farscape. I tried to watch B5 again, but I couldn't stomach the first season. DS9 was hard-going at first, too, but it was rewarding near the end. Not that it was "great", though.

Buffy and Angel were very good, though inconsistent, if they count as SF, which they don't, really.

last season's Doctor Who.

Yeah, Babylon 5 is the most Galactica-like show, if you haven't seen it. (I'd take Farscape first though.) And, if you have seen it, the Star Wreck movie can be amusing (perhaps compelling if you can get past the Finnish).

Lexx is probably the my favoritest show ever. At the very least Xev is the sexiest creature in the history of the teeveeneeverse, but the show mixes plenty of smart questions into it's queef.

Really, though, dodgy's cousin, sad is the dude you should be asking.

I'll second Farscape though I haven't watched it in a couple seasons. It used to be a very clever, very well written story with excellent twists and turns. And hot alien chicks, of course!

I wish I could recommend something else, but there isn't much else. BSG is hands down some of the best TV SF I've ever seen. I like all the other suggestions, too, especially Farscape (once you realize it's a vehicle for Jim Henson productions). Lexx had its charms as well but was consistently more difficult to get.

The new Doctor Who is also excellent. Last season's episode "Dalek" is very close to the best of the entire series, and there were several almost as good. I wished Eccleston had stayed, but I liked "The Christmas Invasion" with Tennant, especially the moment where the alien says "Sorcery!" and the Doctor says, with menacing authority, "Time Lord." I'm a couple eps behind and didn't like the first one this season ("New Earth"). But the writing (many by Russell T. Davies of Queer as Folk) is very strong and often has thematic subtleties, and I'm really liking the new emphasis on the Doctor's Companion (Rose, played by Billie Piper) as a fully-fleshed-out character in her own right, and with consequences in her life for being with the Doctor instead of her Earth life.

Personally I consider BSG and DW together to be more regular new SF television than I was ever blessed with as a kid. In those days we merely required it be non-embarrassing. And usually forgave it anyway.

Firefly was good, but had certain annoyances for me. I still recommend it.

I have considered some of the fan-Trek, but I've been too busy with the above.

Nthing Firefly.

Dano, you are my new best friend.

Yes - LEXX! Some episodes are questionable, but most are very, very good. Excellent, even. It is a criminally underrated show.

My favourite episode (and one of the most accessible to newbies, IMHO) is Brigadoom, which presents the backstory of Kai - Last of the Brunnen-G (and one of the main characters), as a stage musical.

Yeah check out Firefly. It's very good. I have my days where I don't think it's sci-fi at all, just a frontier western set on a spaceship. BG addresses a much more out-there what-if scenario and with much more technological verisimilitude.

Firefly also didn't have a lot of time to overcome its episodic "situation drama" mode and really develop any kind of plot. It's not plot driven. It's situation and character driven. Still good, but don't expect the same things from BG and Firefly.

Another show to look into is Space: Above and Beyond, which BG reminds me of in many ways. It lasted one season, and had a very good twist finale. The IMDB entry has a page with two excellent pieces of series trivia.

Just thought of another one, Dark Skies, another one-season series from the mid '90s. Its teaser/motto was "Twentieth-century history as we know it is a lie." To the good revisionist-history premise add great chemistry between the leads, scary aliens, even scarier bad guys (among them JT Walsh), and interesting scripts. Not sure if it's available on DVD, but this was one series I hated to see end.

Seconding Space: Above and Beyond. If character development over several episodes is why you like BSG, then you'll like Space: Above and Beyond as well. In addition, the show has fantastic music by Shirley Walker (who's sort of a poor man's Danny Elfman).

There is a very funny uncredited cameo in the first episode.

FWIW: BG is blowing my mind, especially the major twist in the 2nd season's finale. In general, I find each episode to be very well structured and fleshed out, and the 1st season's 1st ep (I think) "33 minutes" was amazing.
I thought Dark Skies was brilliant, but since I've never been into the whole conspiracy thing I couldn't really get into it, I didn't have the background or interest.
I've never really gotten into Firefly, either, not sure why. I watched the first ep. of the new Dr. Who, and was amused but not sucked in.
I'll look into Lexx and DS9.
Thanks!

I can't recommend any TV shows, but if you've never seen the movie Android, it's just great.