First off, welcome Cloak!
started w/ep 210 as that's where MPI started the tapes back in the '90's and also where most syndication runs, including the one on the SciFi Channel, started.
As no one else has mentioned this yet, I should probably say that, actually, Sci-Fi began both their '92-'95 and '95-'97 runs with Ep #1. And when they brought DS back in January '99, they began with Ep #189.
I've mentioned this before, but I didn't start watching DS originally until somewhere around Ep #313. I distinctly remember David being trapped in the mausoleum's secret room and Barnabas and Willie arguing in the Old House's drawing room. When I went back to school in September '67, a friend that I hadn't seen all summer told me that he'd started watching this daytime show with a vampire on it and I should check it out too. Needless to stay I got hooked and pretty much haven't looked back since.
I didn't see from Ep #210 onward until they were first syndicated in '76. I didn't see Eps 1-5 until they were shown at the '89 NY Fest. And I didn't see Eps 6-209 until Sci-Fi showed them for a second time in '95 (and even then I didn't see a few because Sci-Fi skipped them - those I didn't see until '97 when I got the MPI tapes).
I honestly wish I had originally seen DS from Ep #1 all the way through. As mscbryk points out, when it comes to so many of the original characters, the pre-Barn eps are:
critical in understanding who all of these other people are
And I definitely found out that I enjoyed pre-Barn just as much as anything else that came along later.
the inimitable fountain pen plot which is so pre-barn. (tongue)
Yes, THE true must-see plot. If you haven't seen THE PEN plot, you simply haven't seen DS!!