Almost as long as the series has aired, so too has Niles Crane gazed wistfully after his 'working class Venus', Daphne Moon. In fact, the first example of Niles' immediate attraction to his father's new health-care worker appears in only the third episode of this first season, 'Dinner at Eight'.

Niles can manage nothing more than an incredulous and repetitive, "You're Daphne?" Once his ability to speak reasserts itself, he reveals a knowledge of English dialects thanks to the year he spent studying in Cambridge, and professes himself quite the Anglophile.

Thus, in the space of a single short meeting, Niles Crane is well and truly smitten.

From this defining moment on, the in-joke of Niles' utter fascination with Daphne, and her complete obliviousness to this ardour recurs in almost every episode of the season. An interesting aspect to these early seasons of Frasier is the way Niles tries, mostly unsuccessfully, to reconcile the passionate feelings Daphne arouses within him, with the fact that he does indeed love his neurotic (and ever-absent) wife, Maris.

The most important season one episode, from a Niles and Daphne fan's point of view, would have to be the wonderful 'A Mid-Winter Night's Dream'. In this episode, Daphne's flirtation with a waiter at the Café Nervosa first prompts Niles to jealousy, and when he later sees her kissing her new beau goodnight at Frasier's front door, he is driven to still deeper distress.

The episode culminates at the mansion Niles shares with his wife, on the archetypal dark and stormy night. Daphne arrives, soaked to the skin, ostensibly to assist in preparing a romantic meal to welcome Maris back home. She reveals that her waiter has dumped her, and cries on Niles' shoulder. When the telephone rings and Niles discovers that his wife will not be able to make it back home that evening after all, panic stirs inside him, not remotely helped by the way Daphne is drying her hair provocatively before the fire.

The evening grows steadily more cosy. A power-cut requires the introduction of candlelight, Daphne's sodden clothing is discarded in favour of the only outfit she finds which fits her; a white, short, silk nightdress. Niles fights this unintentional seduction with amusing ambivalence, until he finds himself lying beside Daphne, talking intimately, as the candlelight flickers.

"Your glockenspiel has sprung to life!"

Daphne despairs over the way she gives her heart away so readily, and Niles assures her that this is not a fault, but a gift. She thanks him for his support and tells him, "I'm glad we ended up like this, tonight." Niles stutters his way through his response and, as Daphne lies quietly with her eyes closed, he is helplessly drawn, and lowers his head to steal that first, heady kiss.

Fortunately he is saved from himself by the way his glockenspiel, a musical clock purchased on his honeymoon, chooses that very moment to burst into song. Daphne stirs and notes the clock, and Niles remembers that he is a married man, and that the act he has been contemplating is the ultimate betrayal of those marriage vows. He declares his love for Maris to Daphne, quite sincere, though he does distinguish between the comfortable feelings he has for his wife and the fiery passion stirring inside him. Daphne despairs that any man will ever love her in the way Niles loves Maris, and Niles manages to laugh at the irony of her words, before reassuring her that some day a man deserving of her will happen along, "... just as soon as the gods create him."

After this, the next significant episode for Niles and Daphne is the season closer, 'My Coffee with Niles'. Although the episode does not focus on this budding dynamic, there is an important exchange between Niles and Frasier in the Café Nervosa.

Daphne leaves the café, accepting Niles' offer to loan his umbrella and oblivious to Niles' innuendo as he calls, "I've always had an ear for your tongue!" Frasier, who we have seen becoming increasingly intolerant of Niles' infatuation throughout the season, demands to know whether Niles has fallen in love with Daphne.

"I'm sorry Frasier, for some reason I feel a little dizzy."

Niles cannot answer, one way or the other. "I can't get her out of my mind!" he rails, after conceding that he can't deny the possibility that his feelings have grown beyond infatuation. When Frasier dryly suggests that what Niles wants is to remain secure in his marriage and enjoy an extra-marital affair with Daphne, Niles is clearly tempted by the idea. Thus, the season ends with Niles still wrestling with the irreconcilable feelings the two women in his life are arousing.

After Niles' introduction to Daphne in 'Dinner at Eight', there are only three episodes in the entire season which do not revisit this particular sub-plot, making it one of the main constants of the series. Besides the stories already described in detail, honourable mentions for Niles and Daphne exchanges must go to the following episodes :-

'The Crucible' - featuring the first example of another series constant; Niles sneaking a surreptitious sniff of Daphne's hair.

'Miracle on Third or Fourth Street' - in which Niles has Daphne trying on tiny cocktail dresses, supposedly in order to make a choice for a gift for Maris. When Daphne reveals that one of the dresses was so close-fitting, it required her to remove her underwear, Niles smoothly drops his glass in response.

'Can't Tell a Crook by his Cover' - with Niles escaping a beating only by the skin of his teeth, when he discovers that Daphne has gone on a date with an ex-con, and goes tearing after to 'rescue' her.

'Give Him the Chair' - when Niles offers Maris' new emerald necklace to Daphne to try on, his tremulous fingers manage to drop it down the front of her blouse.

'Travels with Martin' - which sees Niles do the unthinkable and accept an offer to accompany Frasier and his father on a road trip in a Winnebago, only after discovering Daphne will be going along, too. Niles attempts to videotape Daphne as she sleeps and we are introduced to yet another image which will be revisited throughout the series: Niles gazing dreamily at Daphne's rear end.

"I just grab a fresh pair of knickers and see where the wind takes me!"

Of course, given that the first season's established pattern of interaction between Daphne and Niles requires Daphne's utter obliviousness to the rather obvious and awkward signals Niles is emitting, the main conclusions we can draw from the season are to do with Niles' feelings, rather than Daphne's. It will be some time before we are offered any kind of a glimpse into the way Daphne views her employer's little brother.