CRUSADE: 20th Anniversary panel at DragonCon 2019, with Peter David, John Hudgens and Van Allen Plexico
WHO DO YOU SERVE, AND WHO DO YOU TRUST?
I took these notes during my most recent re-watch of CRUSADE, last month prior to DragonCon. On the panel I didn't get to go into most of what is here, so I thought I'd present it for folks to read on their own. I also audio recorded the panel and will post it on the White Rocket Podcast in the days to come.
We have to state up front that poor ratings did not kill this series. It was canceled before a single episode had aired.
My newly revised list of the 5 best episodes of Crusade, having just rewatched the entire series:
Racing the Night
The Needs of Earth
The Memory of War
Appearances and Other Deceits
The Well of Forever
My notes on all 13 episodes plus unproduced scripts and the "A Call to Arms" introductory TV-movie:
A CALL TO ARMS
The music is especially terrible here. In theory it might’ve been a good idea to bring in Evan Chen in place of Christopher Franke, but here he put together nothing catchy at all. The score here is worse than what he does for the series later. It actively distracts from what we’re seeing on the screen.
I like the mixture of a few members of the cast of each show. And, as would be the case with the entire series, Peter Woodward is riveting. You can’t look away from him. He’s better than everything else about this.
The Technomages are one of the best things about Babylon 5 and it’s great to have a show that tries to use them more fully.
Casting Crusade:
JMS wanted Michael York for Gideon. TNT wanted Gary Cole. I think TNT was right.
I chose this order to rewatch because it’s the order they originally aired. And it makes no sense in terms of the uniforms to watch the order of production.
The music is better in the series proper. Less seemingly random noises and at least a hint of a tune in there somewhere.
I’ve always gotten the feeling TNT told JMS to make this show like the X-Files. Thus the “Who do you trust?” stuff and the outright X-Files episode later. It comes across as him being obsessed with that show, but now I wonder if it was more of him sticking it to the network executives. “You want the X-Files? I’ll give you the X-Files!” Ha
The series is at its best when each (or most) of the main cast have something interesting to do/to contribute to the storyline. It is at its worst when just 2-3 characters go down to a planet to engage in what I think of as “Stargate activities.”
WAR ZONE
JMS bags on this episode and its reputation is pretty low. He didn’t want to make it; it was forced on him by TNT. But I don’t care what the circumstances were, because in my opinion it’s one of the better episodes once you get past the stupid fistfight at the beginning to satisfy the TNT wrestling fans. And in fact it’s the only episode where we really see the Drakh up close. It also has some good character bits for most of the cast. Maybe if the show had continued for multiple seasons, we would’ve gotten all this backstory organically over time. But because we only got 13 episodes, I’m glad one of them actually introduced everyone and explained their relationships and how they came to be on the team and on the Excalibur.
THE LONG ROAD
This episode and the next two come along way too soon in this episode ordering.
And it’s extremely slow and remarkably dull—it adds up to much less than the sum of its parts.
Peter Woodward ‘s dad, Edward, the Equalizer, chews the scenery and upstages his son, which is quite a feat.
The term “the long road” pops up a lot in Technomage lore, but JMS never made it very clear what it meant, beyond the journey a Technomage takes in his or her lifetime.
The EA is back to being shady again.
We really only see Gideon and Galen in this episode.
The golden dragon in CGI has not aged well.
I think this may be my least-favorite episode now.
THE WELL OF FOREVER
Fairly slow overall but some powerful parts. The idea of the Well is excellent.
An important episode if you love the Technomages and Galen and his backstory (Isabelle). Good stuff with Matheson and the telepath situation.
Fiona Avery wrote it.
Another episode probably should have come later, after we had gotten to know the characters a little better. Several of them speak to each other as if they are very well acquainted now, and yet this was only the third episode aired.
Where did Galen get the magic rock that showed the way there?
THE PATH OF SORROWS
The framing device (alien in a bubble) is interesting in some ways and bad in others. But it mainly serves to give us lots of good flashbacks about the main characters, similar to the Firefly episode “Out of Gas.”
We see the Cerberus and the Shadow ship.
And how Gideon got the Apocalypse Box—even though this is the first time we see it at all. (In the Crusade bible it says if Galen knew Gideon had it, he’d chuck it out the nearest airlock immediately.)
Galen crumpling up the paper with GALEN LOVE and throwing it down as he walks away at the end is heart breaking.
To this point we have hardly seen anything of Dr Chambers, Max Eilerson, Captain Lochley, Trace… and just a little bit of Dureena.
It’s Gideon, Galen, and Matheson so far. The weird order of airing the episodes is taking its toll.
PATTERNS OF THE SOUL
At last, Dr Chambers has something to do.
But not a very exciting episode.
Dureena finds a lost tribe of her people from Xander Prime.
EarthForce is up to more shady business. You can definitely tell where JMS is going with some of that.
They use an anti-virus shield that they don’t develop until a later-airing episode.
No Galen this episode, and it suffers without him.
RULING FROM THE TOMB
Captain Elizabeth Lochley finally appears on a series that has her in the main titles credits.
Conference on Mars.
Peter David wrote it and at least it has some snappy dialogue and funny moments, including with Lochley/Gideon and Dureena/Max.
Hilarious conversation over dinner (Lochley/Gideon).
The Joan of Arc business, tho…..
THE RULES OF THE GAME
And now we turn right around and have the crew aboard Babylon 5. Just one episode after Lochley invites Gideon to come by sometime.
Still no Galen….
Still no Apocalypse Box, other than in Path of Sorrows.
In one scene we see the boom microphone. Whoops!
If Max’s ex doesn’t have 100,000 credits to pay her debt, how can she afford a first class big suite on B5?
Gideon and Lochley defeat two aliens and then take a shower together. Well okay then.
Mr. Kitty.
G & L go off together to get a bite to eat before G leaves. (All they do together in this series, with the exception of gun battles and showering together, is eating!)
In the next shot, we see the Excalibur flying away. I’m shocked it wasn’t shown going into a jump gate, metaphorically.
APPEARANCES AND OTHER DECEITS
Production number 113. So the last one, numerically, produced.
Thought of as a gimmick episode, but actually one of the better stories.
One of the things that annoys me about this episode is that the show did originally start out with the bad gray uniforms and bridge interior color schemes, and it *was* a good idea to change to the black uniforms and spruce up the interiors— but this episode makes it seem like it was the other way around. And that’s a “deceit!”
Good stuff here of Max actually working to understand a new alien language, rather than the usual (in SF) magical translators.
John Vickery’s accent is American when he’s Mr Welles and British/Neroon when he’s possessed. (He appeared in this same role in "The Fall of Night" at the end of Babylon 5 season 2, as a leader of the Night's Watch.)
RACING THE NIGHT
Originally meant to be the first episode we would see.
Arguably these early-produced episodes make best use of most of the ensemble cast.
Dureena wants Galen to teach her.
More talk about the “Road.” Galen tells Dureena she can’t properly choose fire or water until she reaches the end of the road.
This plot elements of this episode feel very Larry Niven, with the automated systems and relics of ships captured from past visitors.
After the EA finally cure the Drahk plague on Earth, did they ever take the cure back to Kulan’s world? (They had suffered from the same fate.)
We finally see the Apocalypse Box hidden in Gideon’s quarters aboard the ship. Originally therefore we would have seen it at the very start. (It’s like a Vorlon-in-the-Box.)
THE MEMORY OF WAR
Two great episodes in a row.
The ensemble mostly all got a few good things to do again.
The Apocalypse Box again. And it doesn’t like Galen.
Genius Loci. Also the name of one of JMS's short stories in the B5 magazine.
Dureena retrieves Galen’s staff—and do we see a hint of romance there when she gives it to him?
Dr Chambers creates the temporary virus shield inhaler. (For those who don’t mind breathing liquid Teflon. Um. Agh.)
THE NEEDS OF EARTH
Production number 101. The first episode produced. Aired nearly at the end.
Another sneaky good episode.
This is the one with the alien Nachok Var and the high-compression data crystals of his world’s arts. JMS is often at his best when he's not-so-subtly criticizing the kind of behavior the alien world is up to, destroying art in the name of religion.
Who’s your little Pak’ma’ra?
Very good moments for Dureena, Dr Chambers and Matheson (& a little from Max) as well as Gideon.
I especially liked the part at the end where Matheson argues with himself about knowing what the aliens were really going to do and not saying anything. I didn't fully appreciate that twist before now.
Again, the best episodes involve multiple cast members getting to do stuff.
VISITORS FROM DOWN THE STREET
Production number 103! This was going to be one of the very first episodes aired? Far out.
X-Files. JMS’s obsession or sticking it to TNT?
I have a hard time getting excited about this one, but I never really watched X-Files, so a lot of it is lost on me.
Only Gideon and Matheson appear, from the main cast.
Nice twist at the end: "The truth is out.... of fashion."
I love Gideon’s attitude throughout. And at the end. “Screw em.”
EACH NIGHT I DREAM OF HOME
Senator Redway is Lance Legalt, the main BorellianNomen from original Battlestar Galactica.
Lochley makes her 3rd appearance out of 13 in a show she has main billing for.
Where is Galen??
Dr Stephen Franklin makes a surprise appearance! Oh, how we miss you, Rick Biggs.
I can’t tell if this is supposed to be the first time Lochley meets Gideon or not. He says “first date” but they act very familiar. In another episode they are formally introduced.
The Drakh again!
The chemistry between Gideon and Matheson is so good.
They describe the conflict here as “Our first major battle with the Drakh.” Because War Zone was filmed later. The reordering and reordering of episodes causes yet another conflict.
It’s fitting that the last scene of the series in this order takes place outside Babylon 5, and the last words are, “Life goes on.“ “Indeed it does."
Unproduced Episodes:
114 TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH
The Excalibur encounters the Shadow vessel that destroyed the Cerberus.
115 VALUE JUDGMENTS
The Bester episode written by JMS's assistant, Fiona Avery.
119 WAR STORY
120 THE WALLS OF HELL
121 UNTITLED DUREENA TRILOGY PT 3
122 END OF THE LINE
Oh man, if only we could have seen this one. Gideon is shot by the Earth Alliance before he can reveal secret information about their connections to Shadow tech. Would Gideon have died, or been saved by Technomage technology, or....??
----Van Allen Plexico is the only 3-time Pulp Novel of the Year winner (Pulp Factory Awards in Chicago). He's been a B5 super-fan since the first airing of The Gathering in 1993. Find his books, podcasts, comics and more here: www.plexico.net
WHO DO YOU SERVE, AND WHO DO YOU TRUST?
I took these notes during my most recent re-watch of CRUSADE, last month prior to DragonCon. On the panel I didn't get to go into most of what is here, so I thought I'd present it for folks to read on their own. I also audio recorded the panel and will post it on the White Rocket Podcast in the days to come.
We have to state up front that poor ratings did not kill this series. It was canceled before a single episode had aired.
My newly revised list of the 5 best episodes of Crusade, having just rewatched the entire series:
Racing the Night
The Needs of Earth
The Memory of War
Appearances and Other Deceits
The Well of Forever
My notes on all 13 episodes plus unproduced scripts and the "A Call to Arms" introductory TV-movie:
A CALL TO ARMS
The music is especially terrible here. In theory it might’ve been a good idea to bring in Evan Chen in place of Christopher Franke, but here he put together nothing catchy at all. The score here is worse than what he does for the series later. It actively distracts from what we’re seeing on the screen.
I like the mixture of a few members of the cast of each show. And, as would be the case with the entire series, Peter Woodward is riveting. You can’t look away from him. He’s better than everything else about this.
The Technomages are one of the best things about Babylon 5 and it’s great to have a show that tries to use them more fully.
Casting Crusade:
JMS wanted Michael York for Gideon. TNT wanted Gary Cole. I think TNT was right.
I chose this order to rewatch because it’s the order they originally aired. And it makes no sense in terms of the uniforms to watch the order of production.
The music is better in the series proper. Less seemingly random noises and at least a hint of a tune in there somewhere.
I’ve always gotten the feeling TNT told JMS to make this show like the X-Files. Thus the “Who do you trust?” stuff and the outright X-Files episode later. It comes across as him being obsessed with that show, but now I wonder if it was more of him sticking it to the network executives. “You want the X-Files? I’ll give you the X-Files!” Ha
The series is at its best when each (or most) of the main cast have something interesting to do/to contribute to the storyline. It is at its worst when just 2-3 characters go down to a planet to engage in what I think of as “Stargate activities.”
WAR ZONE
JMS bags on this episode and its reputation is pretty low. He didn’t want to make it; it was forced on him by TNT. But I don’t care what the circumstances were, because in my opinion it’s one of the better episodes once you get past the stupid fistfight at the beginning to satisfy the TNT wrestling fans. And in fact it’s the only episode where we really see the Drakh up close. It also has some good character bits for most of the cast. Maybe if the show had continued for multiple seasons, we would’ve gotten all this backstory organically over time. But because we only got 13 episodes, I’m glad one of them actually introduced everyone and explained their relationships and how they came to be on the team and on the Excalibur.
THE LONG ROAD
This episode and the next two come along way too soon in this episode ordering.
And it’s extremely slow and remarkably dull—it adds up to much less than the sum of its parts.
Peter Woodward ‘s dad, Edward, the Equalizer, chews the scenery and upstages his son, which is quite a feat.
The term “the long road” pops up a lot in Technomage lore, but JMS never made it very clear what it meant, beyond the journey a Technomage takes in his or her lifetime.
The EA is back to being shady again.
We really only see Gideon and Galen in this episode.
The golden dragon in CGI has not aged well.
I think this may be my least-favorite episode now.
THE WELL OF FOREVER
Fairly slow overall but some powerful parts. The idea of the Well is excellent.
An important episode if you love the Technomages and Galen and his backstory (Isabelle). Good stuff with Matheson and the telepath situation.
Fiona Avery wrote it.
Another episode probably should have come later, after we had gotten to know the characters a little better. Several of them speak to each other as if they are very well acquainted now, and yet this was only the third episode aired.
Where did Galen get the magic rock that showed the way there?
THE PATH OF SORROWS
The framing device (alien in a bubble) is interesting in some ways and bad in others. But it mainly serves to give us lots of good flashbacks about the main characters, similar to the Firefly episode “Out of Gas.”
We see the Cerberus and the Shadow ship.
And how Gideon got the Apocalypse Box—even though this is the first time we see it at all. (In the Crusade bible it says if Galen knew Gideon had it, he’d chuck it out the nearest airlock immediately.)
Galen crumpling up the paper with GALEN LOVE and throwing it down as he walks away at the end is heart breaking.
To this point we have hardly seen anything of Dr Chambers, Max Eilerson, Captain Lochley, Trace… and just a little bit of Dureena.
It’s Gideon, Galen, and Matheson so far. The weird order of airing the episodes is taking its toll.
PATTERNS OF THE SOUL
At last, Dr Chambers has something to do.
But not a very exciting episode.
Dureena finds a lost tribe of her people from Xander Prime.
EarthForce is up to more shady business. You can definitely tell where JMS is going with some of that.
They use an anti-virus shield that they don’t develop until a later-airing episode.
No Galen this episode, and it suffers without him.
RULING FROM THE TOMB
Captain Elizabeth Lochley finally appears on a series that has her in the main titles credits.
Conference on Mars.
Peter David wrote it and at least it has some snappy dialogue and funny moments, including with Lochley/Gideon and Dureena/Max.
Hilarious conversation over dinner (Lochley/Gideon).
The Joan of Arc business, tho…..
THE RULES OF THE GAME
And now we turn right around and have the crew aboard Babylon 5. Just one episode after Lochley invites Gideon to come by sometime.
Still no Galen….
Still no Apocalypse Box, other than in Path of Sorrows.
In one scene we see the boom microphone. Whoops!
If Max’s ex doesn’t have 100,000 credits to pay her debt, how can she afford a first class big suite on B5?
Gideon and Lochley defeat two aliens and then take a shower together. Well okay then.
Mr. Kitty.
G & L go off together to get a bite to eat before G leaves. (All they do together in this series, with the exception of gun battles and showering together, is eating!)
In the next shot, we see the Excalibur flying away. I’m shocked it wasn’t shown going into a jump gate, metaphorically.
APPEARANCES AND OTHER DECEITS
Production number 113. So the last one, numerically, produced.
Thought of as a gimmick episode, but actually one of the better stories.
One of the things that annoys me about this episode is that the show did originally start out with the bad gray uniforms and bridge interior color schemes, and it *was* a good idea to change to the black uniforms and spruce up the interiors— but this episode makes it seem like it was the other way around. And that’s a “deceit!”
Good stuff here of Max actually working to understand a new alien language, rather than the usual (in SF) magical translators.
John Vickery’s accent is American when he’s Mr Welles and British/Neroon when he’s possessed. (He appeared in this same role in "The Fall of Night" at the end of Babylon 5 season 2, as a leader of the Night's Watch.)
RACING THE NIGHT
Originally meant to be the first episode we would see.
Arguably these early-produced episodes make best use of most of the ensemble cast.
Dureena wants Galen to teach her.
More talk about the “Road.” Galen tells Dureena she can’t properly choose fire or water until she reaches the end of the road.
This plot elements of this episode feel very Larry Niven, with the automated systems and relics of ships captured from past visitors.
After the EA finally cure the Drahk plague on Earth, did they ever take the cure back to Kulan’s world? (They had suffered from the same fate.)
We finally see the Apocalypse Box hidden in Gideon’s quarters aboard the ship. Originally therefore we would have seen it at the very start. (It’s like a Vorlon-in-the-Box.)
THE MEMORY OF WAR
Two great episodes in a row.
The ensemble mostly all got a few good things to do again.
The Apocalypse Box again. And it doesn’t like Galen.
Genius Loci. Also the name of one of JMS's short stories in the B5 magazine.
Dureena retrieves Galen’s staff—and do we see a hint of romance there when she gives it to him?
Dr Chambers creates the temporary virus shield inhaler. (For those who don’t mind breathing liquid Teflon. Um. Agh.)
THE NEEDS OF EARTH
Production number 101. The first episode produced. Aired nearly at the end.
Another sneaky good episode.
This is the one with the alien Nachok Var and the high-compression data crystals of his world’s arts. JMS is often at his best when he's not-so-subtly criticizing the kind of behavior the alien world is up to, destroying art in the name of religion.
Who’s your little Pak’ma’ra?
Very good moments for Dureena, Dr Chambers and Matheson (& a little from Max) as well as Gideon.
I especially liked the part at the end where Matheson argues with himself about knowing what the aliens were really going to do and not saying anything. I didn't fully appreciate that twist before now.
Again, the best episodes involve multiple cast members getting to do stuff.
VISITORS FROM DOWN THE STREET
Production number 103! This was going to be one of the very first episodes aired? Far out.
X-Files. JMS’s obsession or sticking it to TNT?
I have a hard time getting excited about this one, but I never really watched X-Files, so a lot of it is lost on me.
Only Gideon and Matheson appear, from the main cast.
Nice twist at the end: "The truth is out.... of fashion."
I love Gideon’s attitude throughout. And at the end. “Screw em.”
EACH NIGHT I DREAM OF HOME
Senator Redway is Lance Legalt, the main BorellianNomen from original Battlestar Galactica.
Lochley makes her 3rd appearance out of 13 in a show she has main billing for.
Where is Galen??
Dr Stephen Franklin makes a surprise appearance! Oh, how we miss you, Rick Biggs.
I can’t tell if this is supposed to be the first time Lochley meets Gideon or not. He says “first date” but they act very familiar. In another episode they are formally introduced.
The Drakh again!
The chemistry between Gideon and Matheson is so good.
They describe the conflict here as “Our first major battle with the Drakh.” Because War Zone was filmed later. The reordering and reordering of episodes causes yet another conflict.
It’s fitting that the last scene of the series in this order takes place outside Babylon 5, and the last words are, “Life goes on.“ “Indeed it does."
Unproduced Episodes:
114 TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH
The Excalibur encounters the Shadow vessel that destroyed the Cerberus.
115 VALUE JUDGMENTS
The Bester episode written by JMS's assistant, Fiona Avery.
119 WAR STORY
120 THE WALLS OF HELL
121 UNTITLED DUREENA TRILOGY PT 3
122 END OF THE LINE
Oh man, if only we could have seen this one. Gideon is shot by the Earth Alliance before he can reveal secret information about their connections to Shadow tech. Would Gideon have died, or been saved by Technomage technology, or....??
----Van Allen Plexico is the only 3-time Pulp Novel of the Year winner (Pulp Factory Awards in Chicago). He's been a B5 super-fan since the first airing of The Gathering in 1993. Find his books, podcasts, comics and more here: www.plexico.net
1 comment:
Oh, what could have been... I really wish Crusade had been given a chance.
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