Crusade Remake

[Whitestar]

Recently, my girlfriend got me Crusade on DVD, which completes my B5 DVD collection. After viewing it, I must admit that it wasn't very good and that's a shame because it showed so much promised. Afterall, it was created by the great sci-fi mastro J. Michael Straczynski. Like B5, he planned a 5 year story arc with a definite beginning, middle, and an end. The show had excellent writers and actors, the possibilities were enormous. So, what went wrong? Well, simply put, the TNT executives had different ideas on how the show should be presented.

For instance, in the "Racing The Night" commentary by Straczynski, he stated that in his vision, "Racing The Night" was originally supposed to be the very first episode of the show, not "War Zone". However, TNT wanted the first episode to have more action and violence than Straczynski originally intended because they felt it would have attracted more viewers, especially the wrestling fans, which is not surprising considering that the network is known for airing such programs. Also, the TNT executives wanted an explicit introduction for the benefit of viewers because they felt it would have made the viewing more watchable, essentially spoon-feeding its audience.

Plus, TNT research indicted that the B5 audience did not watch other TNT programming, likewise, TNT's main audience didn't watch the show, resulting in the network's management. Straczynski thinks the networks "interference" with the production was an attempt to get out of their contract by stating that he failed to deliver the series they wanted. As a result, the series was cancelled before airing its 13 run and was officially labeled as a "limited series" in the promos. Although TNT broadcasted the 13 episodes, there were at least six more scripted of which were never produced:

• Value Judgments, by Fiona Avery
• Tried and True, by Fiona Avery
• To The Ends Of The Earth, by J. Michael Straczynski
• Untitled "Apocalypse Box" episode, by J. Michael Straczynski
• "Sword Trilogy"
  1. War Story, by Richard Mueller
  2. The Walls of Hell, by Larry DiTillio
  3. Part 3 (untitled), by J. Michael Straczynski
• The End of the Line (season finale), by J. Michael Straczynski

In addition, the season finale, "The End of the Line" would have concluded with Gideon being shot, his life hanging in the balance. Straczynski also stated in the commentary that if a season two was commissoned, the Excalibur crew would have eventually found a cure to the Drakh plague within a year and a half. An interesting note here is that Straczynski goes on to say that the story you begin writing is not the one you end up with, all the great writers will tell you the same thing. That is, finding the cure to the Drakh plague was not really what the show was about, it only served as an initial starting point of the storyline, the larger story would have involved Earth getting its hands on leftover Shadow technology and using it for some purpose, hence, a huge conspiracy taking place and they were going out of their way to cover this up. The crew of the Excalibur would have discovered this conspiracy during their exploration of finding a cure, but what they found would have blackball them back home and as a result, they would have become renegades on their own ship. Therefore, the nature of the show would have changed dramatically after year two.

Unfortunately, this show was shot down long before it got a chance to soar. In one interview, Straczynski mentioned that in probably about 20 years or so, someone will come along and remake B5 for the big screen, but I don't think that will happen because the show is a timeless classic, its great the way it is, despite having its flaws and warts. But if anything deserves to be remade its Crusade. I'm predicting that this will happen in about two or three decades from now.

What does everybody else thinks?

Whitestar






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[Winters_Sorrow]

Well I haven't watched all the Crusade episodes (only saw a few on the sci-fi channel) but I didn't think the acting was up to the standard of Babylon 5.

Of course, it's difficult to replace such actors as Peter Jurasik, Stephen Furst, Mira Furlan & Andreas Katsulas (ok, I know he was in a few of the episodes I saw, but I actually didn't like that - it felt like Worf in DS9 - just wrong somehow).

I also think it suffered as it was a bit too similar to Andromeda & Farscape (and even Enterprise) in format. Disparate crew on spaceship become renegades/outcasts.

Having said that I did like a few of the characters - the Drazi ranger cracked me up (I can't remember his name - Tank, or something?) and it probably would have grown on me had I seen more and as the story developed.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I've never seen any of the Crusade episodes, but I felt no spin-off would have a strong platform to work with, considering how Babylon 5 rose to great heights in Season 3, only to limp it's way through Season 5 to a fudged finish.

Maybe the cancellation and limted play makes Crusade a better prospect for a remake movie - it would be very difficult to do anything similar with Babylon 5, though, because it's so established.

What I really can't understand, though, is Crusade being pitched at a network which - by all accounts - was entirely unsuitable for its viewing anyway??

 

[ast]

I've never seen any of the Crusade episodes, but I felt no spin-off would have a strong platform to work with, considering how Babylon 5 rose to great heights in Season 3, only to limp it's way through Season 5 to a fudged finish.

Maybe the cancellation and limted play makes Crusade a better prospect for a remake movie - it would be very difficult to do anything similar with Babylon 5, though, because it's so established.

What I really can't understand, though, is Crusade being pitched at a network which - by all accounts - was entirely unsuitable for its viewing anyway??

TNT bailed JMS out after WB dropped B5 after season 4. It messed the B5 story arcs up too, hence the sudden conclusion of the Earth war and rushed story arc of season 5. After the movies paved the way for Crusade, why not let the saviour of B5 make them??

But from what I read in magazines like SFX, TNT ordered set rebuilds and script rewrites, I think it was just stall tactics by TNT to dump it.

Is it any wonder the fans never really got behind it?

Also, if WB had seen B5 through to its conclusion, would the movies have been made? or Crusade even considered??

 

[Carolyn Hill]

Huh. I thought the actors in Crusade were quite good and worked well as an ensemble. I was interested in their problems and wanted to know where it was all heading. I guess I'm in the minority, here. (And, yes, I was an avid B5 fan.)

 

[ast]

I was an avid B5 fan and i haven't seen any Crusade episodes so i can't comment on the series at all

 

[Paradox 99]

As a big fan of B5, I also loved Crusade - was gutted when it was axed, but not as gutted as I would have been if it was going to continue along the lines that the funders wanted. I think they were going for a "sexy gladiotors in space" kind of thing. JMS didn't want that, so I'm relieved he stopped it when he did.