Crusade, Babylon 5 spin-off?

[Green Knight]

TNT finally cancelled the show, citing 'poor ratings' as the reason.

Which is a bald-faced lie on their part, as they had already halted production on the series before they had even aired a single episode.

A more thourough screw-job of a tv show concept, I can't imagine than what TNT did to Crusade. It's truly breathtaking all the crap JMS had to put up with. What a shame. It's especially disappointing, since I REALLY liked Gary Cole as Captain Gideon. What a waste.

 

[KenM]

I liked some of the other characters as well. The theif, and the technomage looked like they were going to have great story arcs. I also liked the annoying arceoligest/ languge expert, he grew on me.

 

[Jhamin]

The series was being written by the same guy who wrote and produced B5. He has said that he had lots of plot we hadn't even seen a glimmer of yet.

IF you go back and watch the first season of Babylon 5 after knowing where it was all going, then watch the first 12 episodes of Crusade, you can imagine what a potentially great series it might have been had it not died young.

 

[Ranger REG]

The series was screwed over from the start. TNT was the channel backing the show, and right away they wanted to make changes that the creator (JMS) did not like.

Heh. I watched B5 when it was a syndicated TV series, aired back-to-back with a syndicated DS9 in Hawaii. Never having been a subscriber to cable, I was pissed when JMS accepted the offer by TNT and moved his show to cable. I guess what happened after is karma.

 

[LightPhoenix]

The series was being written by the same guy who wrote and produced B5. He has said that he had lots of plot we hadn't even seen a glimmer of yet.

IF you go back and watch the first season of Babylon 5 after knowing where it was all going, then watch the first 12 episodes of Crusade, you can imagine what a potentially great series it might have been had it not died young.

Indeed. I had the chance to read the last two episodes of the first season of Crusade while they were on the net (JMS put them up himself). They would have drastically changed the direction the show went in.

Because they're not up any more , I'll summarize the basic plot, along with another tidbit JMS has said.

Spoiler

Basically, the Excalibur heads back to Mars (I think) for a conference. On route, Gideon basically tells off Galen for being so secretive and unhelpful, and Galen leaves. Gideon finds out that Earth has been tinkering with Shadow technology left over from the war, and that they got it from a technomage. The technomages stole technology from the Shadows and their minions. Gideon goes to tell Lockley what happened. Galen had come back to Mars to apologize to Gideon, and shouts out a warning to Gideon, but is too late. In a crowded area Gideon is shot in the back, seemingly killed.

The crew would have found the cure to the plague by the end of the second season or more likely into the third. The focus of the show would have been more on the agents of the shadow and how they're mucking up Earth, from what I understand.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Heh. I watched B5 when it was a syndicated TV series, aired back-to-back with a syndicated DS9 in Hawaii. Never having been a subscriber to cable, I was pissed when JMS accepted the offer by TNT and moved his show to cable. I guess what happened after is karma.

It was either take up TNT's offer, or no season five. Karma my left... yeah.

 

[LightPhoenix]

*sniff*

My first double post ever!

 

[Green Knight]

I read those scripts online a while back, too. They also had a really great one with Bester making an appearance, and a surprise cameo at the end of that ep. Good stuff. But yeah, the originally planned finale with Gideon finding out what happened to the Cerberus was damned good.

I liked some of the other characters as well. The theif, and the technomage looked like they were going to have great story arcs. I also liked the annoying arceoligest/ languge expert, he grew on me.

Max was a hoot, no doubt about it. I also loved Galen's character. Hell, I liked the entire cast (Including Lochley, though she was in about 3 episodes). The only character I didn't like was the doctor.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall that all the elder civilizations united against the Shadow (another elder civilization), but only as a pretext to have all the elder civilizations leave the galaxy to the younger races?

If so, what are the Shadow so upset about? They didn't lose the war, it was a default. Or were they upset before the big 'deus ex'?

 

[LightPhoenix]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall that all the elder civilizations united against the Shadow (another elder civilization), but only as a pretext to have all the elder civilizations leave the galaxy to the younger races?

If so, what are the Shadow so upset about? They didn't lose the war, it was a default. Or were they upset before the big 'deus ex'?

You mean in B5? The Shadows and Vorlons stayed behind to watch over the younger races.

If you mean in Crusade, there are no Shadows, but their minions weren't necessarily elder races. The Drakh are, to the best of my knowledge, a younger race, just like the Minbari and Humans. They're still left behind, and they may have been a bit upset over a perceived loss.