CRUSADE - DID IT SUCK?
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- Опубликовано: 26 мар 2019
- Following the landmark Babylon 5 is no easy task, but J.Michael Straczynski took a stab at it with Crusade. Was it any good?
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Check out exo squad animated series
I'd love the 2199 videos.
You should touch on the Mass Effect Trilogy and paragon lost. Also a seperate Andromeda video. Or hell just cover Sci-Fi games as well. Advent Rising for the original XBox was amazing as well. I honestly think it would be interesting to see you cover Sci-fi game.
Thanks, Roman. I really like your videos. I'm a huge Babylon 5. So it's always nice to meet someone who loved the series as much as I do.
@@DemonSlayer648 I have plans for a Gaming focused channel which I'm launching with friends of mine. Mass Effect and other Sci - Fi games will definitely be covered.
This is the disadvantage of being a sci fi fan. Our good shows always getting backstabbed or cancelled
Not always(Thanks to Amazon)
Definitely, like the last season of ReBoot was initially going to be 3 TV movies broken up into 12 episodes (plus a 13th musical episode) with the show's creators opting to make the episodes as long as they needed to be rather than trying to cram their story into 21 minute episodes (the extra stuff would have been included on the DVD of the season, with the fact that viewers could now see 'the whole story' being one of the selling points). Cartoon Network, who were airing the show in the US, planned to air the first three seasons during the week on heavy rotation before premiering a new episode of the fourth season on Prime Time on the Friday night. This sparked interest from toy retailers, and a massive toy line with multiple waves was planned.
Then Warner Bros, Cartoon Network's parent company, got involved. They weren't too happy about CN giving so much airtime to a property they didn't own, so they decided to run through seasons 1-3 once, and then the fourth season episodes were going to air at 11:30 on Saturday evenings or something like that. The toy retailers weren't happy about this, and cancelled as much of the toyline as possible since Irwin (who were making the toys) had already produced several toys. As well as this, the initial 13 episodes was cut down to just 8, and Mainframe (the company producing the show), who had previously said that the show's creators could extend deadlines if needed and use as many animators as they needed to complete this season, went back on this decision and the extra length episodes were dropped. This meant that all the story they had for the first two movies had to be crammed into those 8 episodes, and a lot of stuff ended up on the cutting room floor. This, unfortunately, includes the ending as there was no way for them to satisfyingly wrap up the story in the amount of time they had, so they opted to instead end the episode (and subsequently, the series) on a cliffhanger that has yet to be resolved.
Or sometimes even drawn out too long until it becomes mediocre. (S4 Blakes 7 definitely, Reboot Doctor Who absolutely, Andromeda arguably). And then when you do actually get something new and enjoyable, the fans chuck a fit and call you a 'fake fan' for *daring* to enjoy it.
Jokie155
Like the people who claim you 'aren’t a true Star Wars fan' if you enjoyed The Last Jedi.
Agreed. Don't hate me but I really liked Defying Gravity.
JMS had said that he had intended to resolve the Drakh plague after two seasons and move onto other storylines. He once mentioned that the hybrid-shadow vessel was part of a larger Earth conspiracy dated back to before even Babylon 5.
I was just about to make a similar comment. We would also have found out about the Apocalypse Box Gideon talked to as well as the Tecnomages and their use of Shadow tech.
@@paulaburrows8660 Correct that the Techomages rebellion against the Shadow long ago and that the voice in the Apocalypse Box was Gideon since he got trapped inside. Those I was never sure if he was supposed to had been trapped in the box sometime in the past or in the present.
They were criminaly under used. Wanted to see them come back.
Aaahh you are whetting my appetite but I am not getting satisfied!
It's a shame it was never continued, even within the comics or novels. Would have been interesting.
I still quote Galen with his saying, " There is always hope, only because that is the one thing no one has figured out how to kill. Yet."
*Nervous laughing*
Peter Woodward is Galen. Edward Woodward is his dad who was on The Equalizer among other things. Peter himself was in the 1980 BBC production of Sense and Sensibility playing Willoughby - did an excellent job.
Actually his father Edward did appear in an episode
The Equalizer was one of my favorite shows. Was at a convention where Peter Woodward was but the line was hours deep. Crusade was a great series. Shame it didn’t last long. The writing and acting in Babylon 5 and Crusade was top notch.
That was his dad? Love both shows.
I know the guy from the history channel. When history was good he did a weapons show. Anyo e remember that?
@@jagsdomain203
The entire Woodward family are fencing experts. They even did a small movie in which they play a family of fencing experts, which is sadly very hard to find.
@@SierraSierraFoxtrot would love to see that!
When you realize the show used the 3 trilogy book series about Centauri, Bester, and technomages (featuring Galen) as canon...it had soooooo much potential. Was a sad day....like firefly....
I loved Crusade and it had so much potential. Technomages were an awesome idea. Luckily there was a book trilogy written around Galen which was pretty good.
Tech images were a shitty concept.
@J Velez >>> WHY?
@octavya360 >>> _"Ah, my liver. I was wondering where that had got to."_
😊😊😊
It had so much potential. The fact that one of the next episodes was going to have lyta and bester in it, the mysterious apocalypse box, the link between the technomages and the shadows (eventually detailed in the technomage trilogy).
I was so angry when it got cancelled, especially given the stupidity of stargate and its multiple spin offs. It actually had a narrative arc which we know something about.
I like the score but agree with the point about muted sound battles. Opening score is haunting, especially with the two questions asked typically by the vorlons, who are you; and what do you want by the shadows; here asked by Galen suggesting some link between the technomages and the ancients.
Great ship, great cast and much improved CGI. Wish it had been continued. Stracyzniski created such a rich universe with so much mystery and now it languishes. Beings such as the soul hunters: who were they, where did they come from? I'm aware of the fan theories as to these questions but never truly explored.
all true except disparaging stargate’s good name! :3
Agree with you except the slander on Stargate
Thanks for this.
You're the first person I've found that hasn't declared Crusade as crap.
It is flawed, just like season 1 of B5 was, but it did show promise and I enjoyed it.
As someone else said, JMS planned to find a cure for the plague in the 2nd or 3rd season, but sinister forces in EarthGov would declare them traitors. So Excalibur would simultaneously be trying to get the cure back, be on the run and trying to clear their name. The last part would probably involve trying to find and expose the traitors in EarthGov, and would require help from Sheridan and Lockley.
Thanks for the great analysis of another cancelled potential Scifi classic. 😃
@Madison williams
How mature.
I could never get into it, I've tried a few times, but then I just come back to rewatching B5, which takes a while XD
Crusade did not suck
AOL/TW bean counters, on the other hand.....
Riiiiight . I'm gonna need those TPS reports on that so if you could come in on Saturday to finish them up that'd be great.
Oh, and Sunday too.
Thaaanks.
It sure did suck. But it sucked while Gary Cole was a captain in a leather jacket so I think we all agree we can call that a wash and it should have been renewed for more.
@@TheAes86 I'm gonna need you to come in on Saturday to fill out next week's reports too, but merge them into this week's. Thaaaaanks.
Oh, I'm also gonna need you to come in on Sunday and do a new set of next week's reports separately since we no longer have any for next week!
@Kerta Drake Sounds like my job with government where I spent all my time justifying how our department (5 people, I recall) spent our time. We also had another whole department whose job was to work with all the other departments in our section to coordinate how we all said we were spending our time. I lasted 10 months before quitting without having another job lined up beforehand.
Note: these numbers had only passable bearing on what we actually worked on.
Yeah, crusade sucked.
I agree. I loved B5 and Crusade was a worthy successor to it. Whenever questions such as "Which series deserved another season?" I always list Crusade. I want more season of Crusade but it will never be.
The characters were all interesting, particularly Galen and the Technomages. Gods, I wanted to learn more about them and how they do what they do. I liked Dureena, The sexy thief with issues character might be a trope but I was fine with it. Carrie Dobro did it well.
Curses to the studio executives who killed this show before it could properly develop. May they lose their jobs and resort to working in fast food to pay the bills.
Would you be interested in seeing the two fanmade scripts I wrote, to try to advance the plot? Picks up in season 2, alongside other fan scripts on fanfiction.net, and ends with a season 2 cliffhanger.
So there's actually a trilogy of books about the Technomages, and they are phenomenal. If you're interested in learning more about them I strongly recommend getting your hands on them. They have *quite* the dark past.
To find out more of the history & development of the Techno-Mages, check out Jeanne Cavelos's book, "The Passing of the Techno-Mages". Written from an outline by JMS, it contains dialog and scenes from both Babylon 5 & Crusade, woven into the story of Galen's life and education. The book has 3 volumes and contains almost 900 pages, complete. Would love to see this transitioned back to a visual medium.
Amazing video! I wish we had got more of Crusade, there was something there, something that I can’t quite put into words because it isn’t really explainable, certain episodes really got to me, the Bester one, the one with Dr Franklin, they had a core from the original but yet something new. And seeing Bester never gets old.
This is a minute thing that Babylon 5 did and Crusade did too which I love. The gas mask or Oxygen mask prop. I love it. And there's no logical or articulate reason. It just fills me with joy as much as it fills Sheridan, Sinclair and co.'s lungs with air.
I Love Every Aspect Of The Babylon 5 Universe
Even LEGEND OF THE RANGERS?
Yes, Even That, Too. I Never Held Any Ill-Vibes Of The Shows. My Sole Disappointment, Is That Many Have Past On, And The Creator, In This Environment, Is Unlikely To Continue. ‘That’ Is The Killer Mood.. But All Great Moments Must End.
G'Kar was good in it. Some performances neat. Still pretty weak. River of Souls started well, but never perhaps hit full potential of possibilities. Lost Tales a mixed bag, but nice to see characters again.
@@chrissonofpear1384 Lost Tales was weak because of the budget. If they had given JMS the money he needed, it could've been the rejuvenation the series needed to do loose end stuff. But no, TNT doesn't give a shit.
@@Theomite I think Lost Tales' big mistake was even more conceptual: starting up even more plotlines, rather than picking up any of the many loose strands which had been left dangling over the years. It was just like "Oh look, more storylines that will never get resolved," the same kind of burnout that X-Files fans ended up with. If JMS had focused on one of the bigger unresolved stories, like the Telepath War or curing the Drakh plague, it probably would have gotten more interest.
And sure, he didn't have enough of a budget to tell those stories in the first go, but he could have *started*, and that would have made it easier to build interest and funding for bigger-budget followups.
I was overjoyed when I first watched Crusade to find that Galen and the Technomages would be a staple of the series. I had been hoping for that ever since I first saw them on B5. I was equally annoyed that Crusade never got the chance. I agree that some of the episodes were weak, but not so weak that I wasn't willing to slog through them to get to the good ones.
Did you read the Technomage novel trilogy? Is counted as official Babylon 5 material, set during the main B5 show.
Anyone noticed the starship trooper armour. They also reused it in firefly. I guess after starship troopers, the armour just got thrown around between producers ETC.
I'm still pissed this show got axed....I WANNA KNOW HOW THE STORY ENDS, GODDAMMIT!!!
well obviously there saved earth cause Susan Ivanova (not sure was on earth at the time but definitely was later) & Dr Stephen Franklin (Stephen we know was on earth at the time) in the last episode of Babylon 5 which was base after earth was hit with the plague as it was also when they shut down Babylon 5 Susan was on earth when she go her message to go to Minbari & Stephen was on Mars so the quarantine of earth had to have been lifted but yes I would have like to have seen how they did it
@@cliffordtasker4637 Yeah, this is quite obvious. It's also obvious that Spider-Man and Black Panther are coming back from Thanos' snap(since their sequels are slated to happen)...but I still want to see "Avengers Endgame" to see HOW it happens. That's what I mean about I wanna know how the story(Crusade) ends. I wanted to see 4-5 seasons of it to see it happen.
@@les4767 I know it's obvious just you said you like to know what happened not how..lol
@@les4767, from what JMS said, the Drakh plague storyline would’ve ended in just two seasons. _Crusade_ wasn’t going to be just about that. There would’ve been other story arcs.
Also, there was the conspiracy among members of Earthforce experimenting on more Shadow Tech, and the crew becoming pariahs for being suspected of delivering a 'fake cure'...
I agree, it did not suck. From the episode descriptions that did not get filmed it looked like the overall story arc would have been very interesting.
And don't forget, we're missing episodes entirely too. So what we have and that it vaguely works is even more amazing.
I had almost entirely forgotten about this. The techno mage guy was really fun. Cole was just the sort of actor to play the captain role. I might actually look for a copy of this. Need something for after i have finished Farscape.
if still interested look me up on deviantart or other sites and ill get you a copy
crusade is included in the babylon 5 dvd box set along with all the movies
I'd love to see a Netflix show in the Babylon 5 universe.
Definitely a reboot would be pointless although...
Netflix would be a great option.
But I would be okay with a reboot of Crusade. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this series and wished it would have continued. Most know that the Drakh plague story-line would have concluded no later than Season 2. But I would have liked to see JS idealized version of that series without any interference. The actors are obviously older so can't really continue on where they left off, so start fresh with new actors.
@@ejungleskaI'd be happy with a Crusade show. Considering DS9 ripped off B5 then maybe Crusade could rip off Voyager and send the ship to the delta quadrant.
Or Amazon, since they already have The Expanse )))
@@ejungleska Can't see a Netflix reboot of Crusade after we they did to Sense8
A remake could happen. And I think eliminating the weakest points of season one and five woul,d be awesome. Too bad you have to have a whole new cast as so many of the original characters have died at way young ages. Mostly from long term effects of alcohol and drugs, but that was the premise of Babylon 5, they rolled the dice on those kinds of actors on the cheap in order to ressurrect their careers.
Technomages are awesome, and Gallen specifically is terrifying. He had his own trilogy that showed the relation between the Technomages and the Shadow. Gallen’s mindset for spell casting let’s him tap into the buried power.
Ah Crusade, the Babylon 5 equivalent of Firefly. God I wish they hadn't cut this show short.
As much as I've hated most reboot. Crusade is one that I'd want to watch
Me too
Such is the fate of the Babylon 5 franchise. Forever screwed over in every way possible. "Oh, your series is now ending early, better wrap it up fast! Oh, we changed our minds, you get another season now... aaaaand canceled. You can have a spinoff though! Aaaaand canceled. Go ahead and try again though, no, we're not gonna make that one. Come back in a decade. Hey, make a movie to bring it back! Anthology? Whatever. We aren't gonna let you do another one anyway."
@Brad Viviviyal Garbage???
the thing is TNT actually did Finish Crusades, but they did so under a different name and a different time, it was called The Last Ship. From commentary JMS did for the Crusades DVD, it is clear that for at leas the first three season The last Ship follow the outline of Crusades.
Crusade being cancelled removed a potential classic epic series from the TV archives. Just listen to the JMS commentary on the final episode of the DVD release for what was planned for the five year story arc. And the series was axed just before Bester's return was due to be filmed.
I really liked this show and particularly loved Galen.I thought it would delve into aspects of the B5 universe that we B5 fans were curious about like the techno mages, some of the other races that left and a few that were only touched upon in B5. I also hoped we'd get to revisit with a few of the B5 cast and aliens too. Sadly it was not to be.
It also had the fantastic Peter David in the writers' room, which had me "geeking" out pretty hard back when it came out.
It was a cross between Star Trek and Space Battleship Yamato, right down to the Main Cannon/Wave Motion Gun.
And the English version also had a Captain Gideon!
@@zoppie Yes, but he commanded the Andromeda
The Yamato Gun of Starcraft's Battlecruiser must be a nod to that.
@@Aivottaja , sorry, not much of a video gamer. so I don't know.
Great video!
Does anyone remember The Lost Tales?
I will make a video on that too :)
The Lost Tales was damaged by very low budget. That alone was distracting and limiting. Loved the intro for sure.
i remember buying Lost Tales with the hopes they would make more... shame it never happened
I'd recommend the Legions of Fire trilogy. Also the Technomage trilogy, if that grabs your interest. Psi Corp trilogy features major characters only in book 2 and 3, and has to skirt much of the actual fall of Psi Corp.
Lost tales was alright but it did seem a bit low budget but apart from that it was ok not great but ok
Please do Starship Troopers Roughnecks. My favourite series that never got finished, even if the VFX quality is all over the shop at times.
I was working alongside Foundation imaging when they were making that. I was on another project and never worked roughnecks but some of my friends did.
The initial five episodes before the studio started forcing their hand are the best Crusade has to offer. Although some of the episodes made later in the production are also very good (The Path of Sorrows, Appearances and Other Deceits, and The Well of Forever) and it is frustrating that this show didn't get a chance to reach its stride. I would love to have seen more of this cast since the regulars all stand out very strong except the chief doctor (similar problem Babylon 5 had at the start).
The black uniforms are indeed better than the initial gray and red pseudo starfleet Star Trek costumes. Fight me.
The episodes were aired out of order. I devised my own order to make it flow better, they being:
War Zone - The Long Road - Appearances and Other Deceits - Racing the Night - and then largely in JMS recommended order. Whether you end with Rules of the Game or Each Night I Dream of Home is up to personal preference.
I prefer this order:
Babylon 5: A Call to Arms
1. War Zone
2. The Long Road
3. Ruling from the Tomb
4. Appearances and Other Deceits
5. Racing the Night
6. The Needs of Earth
7. The Memory of War
8. Visitors from Down the Street
9. Each Night I Dream of Home
10. The Path of Sorrows
11. Patterns of the Soul
12. The Well of Forever
13. The Rules of the Game
That's nearly the same I as I have, but I have Ruling from the Tomb later on (it's set in June) and I switch 9 with 13. This way, the uniform change is accommodated, but we can still say they liked an excuse to wear the old ones later.
I just wanted to get Trace Miller out of the way. For some reason some love putting The Path of Sorrows as the third or fourth episode which I don't understand considering it reveals things way too early in my opinion.
I would have loved five seasons of Firefly.
Oh man were not going to blow up again are we? I hate blowing up
Kind of a relief to know I'm not the only one who really loved this. I was a kid when all the babylon 5 stuff came out and I was the only person I knew who watched it. Still have trouble getting my friends to do it.
I totally forgot about Gideon's talking box.
That was pure JMS magic and a tragic unanswered question.
I wish that they would re-master Crusade with entirely different soundtrack music, preferably by Franke. Crusade would instantly be immensely better. Even re-purposed B5 music would be better.
With the cgi that Lost Tales had would bring it much further!
I disagree with all the criticisms about the music. I liked the uniqueness of it. I also liked the music on the original B5 pilot by Stewart Copeland. Franke’s music is pretty standard imo.
@@skepticalfaith5201 I love both soundtracks.
I'm afraid I didn't like 'Crusade's' music either. I found it a constant irritant.
No. The music was perfect for the show. You can't just pick music that you like and try to marry it to a show.
We're off to outer space... we're leaving mother earth... to save the human race... our star blaz-wait!
I miss the B-5 universe, it's sad that we didn't see them meet up with G'kar & Lita or other old cast members, on their travels
I agree 100% with your assessment. Especially the music and choices with the score and direction at times. Some others may have mentioned this, but having read the next 3 unproduced scripts, I have to say this show was probably going to be _amazing._ Two of the three that I had read we're going to turn the show completely on its head. And the other was going to give us Bester. I really do wish we could have seen that. Even if it had to continue in novel form.
Why does Peter Woodward have so little work on screen? He's amazing!
The amount of times Galen pulled the crew's butt out of the fire made him... overpowered I guess is a good term. He would've become a deus ex machina, sucking all the drama and tension out of episodes.
Check out mel Gibson's the Patriot , he's in that too
He was also on a couple episodes of Charmed. He does a lot of voice over work.
Woodward was also in National Treasure 2 as a cop in london
I've seen him host a few different things on History Channel over the years since Crusade. Well, back when History channel actually did history and not just reality shows.
Wow!
I gotta find out what kinda health regimen Edward Woodward was on!
He looks 20, even 30 years younger than when he was on The Equalizer 15 years before Crusade!
*sighs* A short lived show with so much potential.
I loved this show, short as it was. I will point out, however, that you can get this story by watching Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers, here in the US). An alien race will destroy the earth in a period of time unless an experimental vessel can stop it. Both ships even have an ultra powerful main weapon that temporarily disables it.
In case you're still jonesing for closure.
Biggest difference, as far as that goes, is that the _Yamato_ knew that there was a solution and where it was to be found. The _Excaliber?_ Not so much.
Can't think of an animated scifi movie? TITAN AE! :D If you haven't seen it you gotta give it a chance.
animatrix, akira, ghost in the shell
Oh my god Titan A.E totally slipped my mind
@@AsianTheDomination Evidently several things slipped my mind haha
The Lensmen movies.
Still haven't got any?
Yamato 2199 is very cool. Looking forward to your video
I want to say thank you for doing this video sometimes I feel like I'm one of the only people that remembers this series 😢 .
I liked the variety in the episodes. People may not mention "Visitors from down the Street" but it was fun and an interesting take on alien psychology. One great thing about the B5 writing is that alien races have their own beliefs and motivations. The Narn and their hatred for the Centauri also had a deep spiritual background, their warship classes were named after great thinkers. The Drazi, "Green"....."Purple".
All the aliens aren't brainless fools. (Except the Nakaleen Feeder". I saw a similar thing with "Enterprise" and the backstory and development of the Andorian society and their relationship with humans. And the Vulcans changing from purely logical to sometimes duplicitous allies with their own agenda. These things make the cloth the storyteller weaves so much richer and brighter.
Crusade might have even more missed potential than Firefly - yes I said it.
I'd agree with that.
I disagree, simply because Firefly showed more consistency with the development value of its episodes when compared to how many throwaway episodes Crusade put out. Though to be fair, it is all speculation on how they might have changed, be it improved or failed, if given more time to develop.
I agree. But then again, I didn't like "Firefly" all that much. A friend of mine had me watch through the whole show and the movie and those were probably the most boring 15 something hours of my life.
In my Opinion Firefly and Crusade are not comparable. Crusade would be more like an ST-Voyager kind of show with an high end military tech ship with an somehow specific mission and for that the mission to explore unknown places. Firefly is there for unique and different simply cause it is one of the very few Sci-fi which don't focus on the all fancy military and high end tech but on the small people. Less politics and more how the everyday life for a normal person in this universe can be with slightly overaged (for them but for us still future) tech and a crew for which the ship is not only workingplace but real home and all the charisma that comes with it. Actually the only other show apart from Firefly that catches a little of that kind of flare is Cowboy Bebop and maybe Killjoys with lucy. That is also one of the only points i miss in The Expanse. The Rocci just don't feels like home cause it leaks the personal additions and comfortable liveingspace Serenity for example has with its many personal touches like the furniture, wooden table and chaos on board wich makes it overall believe able someone is living there. Never was a huge fan of clean StarTrek like ships.
But nevertheless Crusade had huge potential. The crew was nice and interesting, the ship was really cool (all through it always reminded me of one of that Staffweapons from stargate) and it had the starfurys ^^ and an already established whole universe to explore.
As a matter of fact I am not. Might really be the reason I didn't like it.
I was really looking forward to this series to find out why Galen didn’t leave with all the other techno-mages.
So much potential just pissed away.
Firstly the technomage novel trilogy is complete garbage and has severe continuity issues with both shows and the Centauri Trilogy. An unfilmed Crusade script established that Galen was on a mission for the technomages to destroy leftover shadow technology possessed by earth and anything else advanced the Excalibur could find. Which is why they kept an eye on Gideon knowing he was obsessed with the earthforce attempt at making a shadow vessel that destroyed his ship. Also that 1. the technomages were an ancient order that had reverse engineered shadow technology. 2. The technomages left to avoid a fight with earthforce black ops (with a side benefit of avoiding the shadow war). Note in A Call to Arms Galen said that they left during the shadow war to keep their technology from falling into the wrong hands. The wrong hands was ultimately revealed to be earthforce. Fits with the crusade script - not with the books.
He did leave with them. Get the DVD complete set. He talks about leaving and part of the reason that he came back.
The intro at the time was epic. Hell my first time on fb, i posted the questions asked in the crusade introm
"Yeeaaah, if you could just go ahead and fly the space ship on Saturday, that'd be great. Mmkay? Mmkay." -Cpt Lumbergh
Daniel Dae Kim is always fantastic, even when he's just a side character (As in 24). Didn't know he was in this, might have to give it a shot
Edit: How couldn't you think of Titan AE?!?!
He was pretty great in "Angel."
@@Shadowman4710 Didn't know he was in Angel! Never got around to watching either Buffy nor Angel, unfortunately
There seems to be a major resurrance in the "Buffy" and "Angel" fan bases these days with all the reactor videos showing up on RUclips and Patreon. As somebody who watched all these shows when they were airing in the 90's and early 2000's I highly reccomend them. I'd go so far as to argue that the current "Golden Age" of television we're experiencing with shows like "Game of Thrones" and "The Expanse" (as well as countless others) owe a great deal to these shows. "Firefly" and "Farscape" are two more from this era that I would reccomend to all sci-fi fans...and "Space Above and Beyond" if you can find it, which came out about the time that "Star Trek: Next Generation" was ending.
It was not only good it deserved better treatment from the network than it got. They should have allowed Straczynski to write it the way he wanted to.
Good summary, thanks for sharing.
Crusade was my first sci fi show. I was a scifi book fan before, and Crusade showed me what this format could bring to the genre. It's the reason why I gave Star Trek another chance.
Great video,completely agree about the score, killed the battles. Earth final conflict did it suck next!?
Crusade was very good, especially the X-Files spoof episode.
That was perhaps my favorite and I frequently quote it when dealing with UFOlogists online.
I think what a lot of people are missing is, there's a lot of room for your OWN storylines. I played a video game (long dead) which had a 'Babylon 5' mod to it; extremely well done, excellent core of role-players with us. Our whole story ran around the Vorlons and Shadows who chose to REMAIN, and these factions had flipped their viewpoints COMPLETELY. The Vorlons who stayed, now felt betrayed by their comrades whom 'fled' and abandoned their charges, so, in a fit of outrage, they decided to wipe them out (and proceeded to attack Alliance worlds, while restoring a planet-killer that hadn't been operational when the Shadow War started...). The Shadows, however, felt that the path of their brethren wasn't theirs; SOMEONE needed to look after these stupid mortals, so why not them? They were actually ALLIES of the 'the good guys', running reconaisance for them, and helping track down the planet-killer in the end (and actually were the ones that forced the Drahk to attack Earth, because THEIR (the Drahk's) plan was revealed too early because of them, and they too felt betrayed by their former 'masters'. Sound fun? It was. I got to play Galen. Spent most of my time sneaking around in a ship with exotic weapons that I rarely had to use, and trying to steer people AWAY from getting killed (ask about the hologram fleet of Warlock Destroyers that dropped into Babylon 5 when six Vorlon dreadnoughts arrived to cause chaos!). All and all, there are a BILLION stories (and storylines) left to tell in that universe. WHY someone didn't get the rights to make a FULL ON online game, and make it a TRUE role-playing experience, including active G.M.'s and an ever-exapanding universe, I'll never know. I guess it only sounded like a good idea to me.
In closing, I guess I'll just quote Galen (once again), as to the Fate of Babylon 5 et al...
Care no more to clothe and eat,
to thee the reed is as the oak,
the sceptre,
learning,
physic,
must,
all follow this,
and come to dust,
All lovers young,
all lovers must,
consign to thee,
and come to dust.
Earth Force has a really weird idea of what constitutes a destroyer. The giant Omega-class, that are the backbone of the Fleet, is also a Destroyer.
Do Space, Above and Beyond please!
Working on it :)
u certainly would not have had to pay me to watch more Crusade. =P
Okay, the fact that you used music from Star Trek Online for the background is wonderful. Thank you.
The Needs of Earth is one of my favorite episode in scifi. The comments made at the end are so sad and true, Dr Chambers comments on the importance of art and culture, and Mathesons log entry is so sad and so true.
Daniel Kim was great in Lost, but here he (and Marjean Holden) were wooden, flat, and uninteresting. Galen, Dureena, Gideon, Max were the most interesting to watch (in that order.)
TNT did a lot of strange things at this time. Pretender films and no new season for it? Mortal Kombat? Bull? They clearly had no audience. They were just showing a hodge podge of films and shows. No real audience beyond bored boomers and Xers. The problem was that TNT had no branding then. This was pre-We know drama.
I blame AOLTW bean counters.
I loved that shot of the Warlock class.
Good roundup of a show that had potential. B5 started out slow bit gained momentum as it went. Many thx
I "SO" wanted to see a Arc about the telepath war. When lyta Alexander (patrica tallman) looks at garabaldi & he realizes she was a Vorlan superweapon... "Remember Byron!!" When they put those black contacts on Patrica tallman she looked like a bad-ass...
As I understand it, part of the reason Crusade got cancelled was because TNT head office decided to change the corporate strategy - rather than diversifying and seeking a broader audience, they decided to focus on their particular niche, which I've heard described as "sex and wrestling" (not having lived in the US, let alone watched TNT, I can't vouch for the accuracy of this description) - so the fate of B5/Crusade in that sense was just due to bad timing, rather than anything to do with the show itself.
Of course, what TNT then proceeded to do was a pretty disgusting example of playing corporate politics - rather than risk any embarrassment or second-guessing, they did their level best to prove that B5 and Crusade were rubbish, and Crusade totally deserved to be cancelled by burying them and limiting themselves to the contractually required reruns necessary to prevent the broadcast rights from lapsing and possibly being picked up by someone else who might make the show a visible success.
@@scotttild WB funded the creation of B5 originally, having commissioned it as part of their PTEN experiment (joint with some other company whose name I forget), so they owned (and still own) the broadcast rights. When PTEN went under (a mix of the network failing to attract audience (outisde of Babylon 5) and both WB and the other company wanting to develop their own networks independently of each other) and TNT came in to fund Season 5 (and 4 TV movies and a spin-off series), they licensed the broadcast rights as part of that deal, and controlled the US broadcast of B5 for the next several years before the rights reverted to WB.
WB has the TV rights to the B5 universe, but, for whatever reason, JMS kept the movie rights (I'm not sure on the full breakdown of other rights). However, there was an additional layer of corporate politics within WB as well - programming for PTEN, including commissioning original shows, was handled by the department responsible for handling syndication, not the department usually responsible for developing new shows, so there was always a degree of tension over funding B5 (according to JMS) and when PTEN folded, B5's fate at WB was entirely in the hands of people who'd been competing against it for studio resources, and who had a strong motive for not making some other department's decisions that encroached on their turf look good...
But for a few years after Crusade was cancelled, TNT controlled the US broadcast of Babylon 5, and bounced it around early morning slots with no advertising beyond TV listings, so fans had to keep resetting their VCRs (or TIVOs) to catch episodes.
After a couple of years, TNT cut their losses, and the rights were relicensed to Sci-Fi, who initially also commissioned a pilot for a new B5 series, Legend of the Rangers, but that fell foul of a scheduling conflict (airing opposite a major sportsball game - which hit the overall ratings, though figures on the West Coast where they didn't conflict were stellar) and of Sci-Fi's changed direction - this was about the time that Sci-Fi decided they didn't want to make space shows (see also reversing their previously announced decision to make a fifth season of Farscape). While they didn't fund a new B5-related show, Sci-Fi did at least show B5 and Crusade in a sensible fashion.
This was a show that I was pulling for. It had the potential to be something quite extraordinary. A damn shame.
4:55 That's Peter Woodward, Edward's son, who played Galen. Eward Woodward did an excellent cameo, as 'Alwyn', an aging Techno Mage with a love for dragons, in the episode 'The Long Road'.
I agree about the music score. It made Crusade nearly unwatchable.
Hove you ever seen earth final conflict from gene roddenberry? I remember liking it.
SG1 and Atlantis also had some awesome space battles. Oh, and I do agree with your assessment of Galen. He was my favorite.
I really liked it and was really happy to discover it in the B5 dvd boxset.
I liked it....the concept was good but the budget was obviously not there
B5 needs a Expanse level reboot.
It'll never happen. JMS said he'll never reboot it.
@@mistere1984 where did you get that from?
@@AlexJones-ue1ll Twitter. JMS said the rights to the show are tied up with WB and they don't want to do anything with it. And as long as they have them, nobody else can do it. JMS does control the movie rights, but that's it. And B5 works better as a TV show.
@@mistere1984 thanks for clearing that up. From first reading your post i got the impression he didnt want to do a reboot. I know he hasnt been keen on that for a while, but I remember an interview in which he didnt scoff in disgust about it and was more considering it as something worth doing, at some point.
@@AlexJones-ue1ll well I'm kinda on the fence about a reboot. B5 is so perfectly written, I wouldn't feel comfortable if they did like what happened with Battlestar Galactica. If anything, I would prefer an updated version with HD visuals and enhanced CGI. Same live action stuff though.
Yes I loved Crusade and it didn't suck. I liked that it opened up the Babylon universe for us to go see it and see essentially what I've believe all along what the Galaxy truly is, a graveyard of old and ancient civilizations that killed themselves, destroyed in combat and/or moved on. You see what humans are dealing with along with the young races is finding artifacts and worlds that are left from when the older civilizations left and are no more. We don't understand the technology, we don't know anything about the worlds but we try to figure it out.
I remember the ending of one episode (I don't remember the thesis of it but I think it was either the one where the planet was empty and it turned out that nanobots had infected the crew and having them attack each other and Gallen had to go down with a nano shield to try to destroy the controlling device) where Gallen confronted the captain about how did he know this and that and the captain (Actor Gary Cole) said it was a lucky guess or something and blew him off walking away and Gallen looked at him that he knew that he was hiding something from him. Later he was in his cabin the captain and he was having the talk with the doomsday box trying to figure out what to do next.
I think if they didn't destroy this show from the get go and went 5 seasons they could have ended it well and we would have seen what happened in regards to the doomsday box and the captain. In my opinion, I think the captain never let the box get the upper hand or believe it had the upper hand on him. Remember in a flashback with the alien in the globe, he got that box from what many of his captains and higher rankings did in their past time. Gambling for money or information or access and once the guy who had the box lost to Cole he was happy and went out in the night and got hit in the road by a skimmer and he was quoted saying that he was free now.
That box would have been the key to everything, it probably knew where and/or how to fix the plague from day one, but it had it's own agenda and I think the captain knew that this think was dangerous and was playing it on the long con.
Also many of you don't know this because of your age (maybe a few would if they are over 40). But Gary Cole who played the captain was in a CBS series back in 1996 called American Gothic. It was a good show and lasted only a season but he played a sheriff with weird powers that terrorized people that messed up the "tranquility" of his town and also dig to deeply into what he did that gave him those powers. You can buy the season on amazon prime video, I got it myself.
Good episode man, is there any info of the background music you used? Sounds atmospheric I love it!
@Lady Wanderer ah I played that game for a long while, no wonder it sounded sort of familiar :) Many thanks 👍
See, not all spin off's arent bad, just like CAPRICA CAPRICA CAPRICA, its no legend of rangers.....
I'll confess to like both LotRangers and Caprica.
Caprica was fantastic. They were so restricted as prequels go, and I thought they nailed it.
@@make.and.believe It's unfortunate (and nobody's fault, to be clear) they were forced to shorten all their plans at the end of the series to give it closure, when the network pulled the plug. It was awesome while it lasted. And had what I still think was the best intro montage of any tv series, showing exactly how each character related to the rest of the cast.
Agree with what you say in the video, but I have to add that the X-files parody episode was unforgivably bad.
I really enjoyed this show and still years later am bummed it ended so soon!
Thank you for this. Thank you oh-so very much.
@ 2:56, are those Mobile Infantry troopers (Starship Troopers) running around in the back and foreground?
Oh yes! I would love to see your take on the entire Leijiverse! Grew up on Statblazers and loved the reverence 2199 gave to the original series.
Another thing, Bester was going to return (on the run from defunct PsiCorps) and have some intense arguments with a certain crew member. Walter K had already memorized his script and was very disappointed when it wasn't filmed. Ahhh well.
starship troopers roughnecks! Woooo! getting up at 07:15 to watch that on sky one was my childhood.
Do a video on that! please :)
I always had a theory that the Technomages were powered by a powerful superintelligent AI (perhaps a remnant tech of the Vorlons/Shadows or even an unknown third player from their time they don't like to talk about) that required new information to update its models and insights. It's what gives them their foresight and use of techmagic but at the same time it relies on the Technomages to travel the stars to learn and provide input to their AI (or else). Makes for a powerful secret that must be kept and could provide for an interesting arc in the show's later seasons.
WhatI know about Crusade, for whom it might concern:
1) The drakkh plague was supposed to be solved bythe end of first season.I don't know what would come after that.
2) There were a few scripts of unaired episodes in the Internet, years ago. They were GOOD. They also explained much of the series's mythology, including what happened to the EAS Cerberus. I liked specially the sequence in which the Excalibur was running to detect a shadow-like vessel before burning out her hyperdrive.
3) Speculation: Crusade was strongly inspired by the Starblazers series (Yamato). A captain Gideon commanding a powerful ship, armed with a spinal gun, racing the clock to save Earth? Very familiar.
4) Speculation (with spoilers -from the Fall of the Technomages: book trilogy) The box Gideon kept locked in his wardrobe was, I think, a vorlon computer. It looked like a vorlon artifact, talked like a vorlon, disliked Galen (a Shadows creature), and was just as misleading as one of them. It also put Gideon being guided by a vorlon artifact in one hand and a Shadow (rebelled) shock trooper from the other. Very symmetrical.
It is a true homage to Space Battleship Yamato.
I wish they'd put some of the other books to screen. Jeanne Cavelos' The Passing of the Technomages was fantastic, as were Peter David's Legions of Fire.
I remember JMS giving a presentation of the Crusade production nightmare (Aussiecon 3, 1999). TnT execs called him in several times giving increasingly nutty ideas and demands to make the series appeal to their core viewership (JMS = "The average American viewer isn't exactly the sharpest knife in the draw") = "Lets change the uniforms (after production had started) into something slicker!" There should be a cute dog on the ship!" ... but the one that sticks in my mind was a demand for an episode focusing on wrestlers (we could bring in some WWE personalities as crossover guest stars).
Good breakdown of Crusade. You're right about the music & Galen was the man. He would pop in drop a cryptic line and vanish..."Expect me when you see me" classic. This show was ended too soon like Firefly.
I think the music issues with crusade was part of the network sabotage.
William from the B5 That Never Was.
Such a great vid. Some major facts: Gary Cole was reportedly very unhappy working in the series and reportedly was very hard to work with. TNT aired the eps out of order, killing any chance at good ratings. JMS stated that the 5 year death bell premise was NOT the main arc. Like B5, we probably would not have known what the series was actually about until the start of season 2. There were a lot of secrets coming our way. Unfortunately we will never get to know.
Babylon 5 and Crusade were casualties of being made in the wrong era. They would have flourished in today’s streaming environment. The mirrors of Crusade to the animated series Starblazers are many. In that series, earth was again dying with a time limit, one ship has to venture out to find a cure, the main ship had the same main gun which, just like the Excalibur, drained the ships energy.
A lot more really old but cool info on B5 and Crusade lore here
webcs.com/b5/crusade.html
Thanks for the wonderful vid.
A good way to tell the shooting order is that the black uniforms were from the fist episodes filmed and meant to be first shown. In re shoots for what became the first eps shown they changed the uniforms and some of the sets and they added one scene in the middle episodes ware they mention new uniforms
Crusade is a good candidate for a Netflix/Amazon reimagining.
I love background music
Loved it! Loved B5 and Crusade - both tremendously well written. I've been hoping all these years gone by that B5 and/or Crusade would be revived. Other than The Blacklist, and before that Boston Legal there's nothing to watch. (for me at least). Even though so many have passed away who were on B5, there are still threads of characters that can be woven back into the wonderful tapestry that was B5. JMS if you're reading this, please try your utmost to re-create B5 with a wide story arc that reaches into Crusade. Your fan base is still 'out there', and thanks you in advance for your consideration.
never did get to see more than a couple of episodes of this. it was on at strange times.
It's been years since I last watched Crusade, so thank you for the video. Now I need to hunt it down and watch it all over again. I can't watch the actor who played Galen in his later roles without hoping he'll pull out some bizarre tech.
Great video as always :D but thought I'd left Star Trek Online open as I could hear the music *facepalm*
Brilliant commentary