Crusade

[Contraban]

After episode 13, Did the rest even air anywhere? i cant find them anywhere if they did.


??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????


If it didnt air, what happend?

[Generator]

The series was cancelled after 13 episodes as a result of creative differenes between Straczynski and TNT.

[Steve_the_Wraith]

The series was cancelled after 13 episodes as a result of creative differenes between Straczynski and TNT.

Exactly, Straczynski wanted the show to be a epic science fiction show, firmly rooted in strong themes (like season's 1-4 of B5)

TNT wanted action, adventure, exsplosions and gunfights. They got into alot of arguements about the direction of the series until they couldn't put up with eachother nymore

[Whitestar]

Well, Straczynski did mentioned several years ago that he would somehow resolved the Crusade storyline and now with the upcoming direct-to-DVD release of Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, that could very well be the case, considering that the story takes place years after the events of Crusade. We already know that the Excalibur crew found a cure to the Drakh plague, but we don't know HOW they did it. Perhaps we will find out what happened to Captain Gideon and his crew probably either through Lochley or Galen as both characters will play a major role in The Lost Tales. Or better yet, it may be possible to see whole new adventures of Captain Gideon and his crew during the post-Crusade era through a series of more direct-to-DVD releases, providing how well The Lost Tales does marketwise.

[Sci-Fi]

MJS said TNT wanted more sex in the show, not that B5 didn't have it's fair share, but MJS said it didn't fit in with what he planned and/or wouldn't be believable if it happened too fast. MJS did say that in season 2, they would have found the cure and moved the show to exploring the outer rim and finding left behind technology.

Might have been interesting not only to battle the Shadows abandoned allies, but to cross paths with the telepaths (rogue and psi corps) and their new home world(s).

Personally, I liked the cast and the general premise, but the cure thing was a bit lacking (too one-dimensional of a concept) and can see why MJS wanted to find the cure so early so the show could move on to something more cerebral. Those that bought the early DVD sets of Crusade were entertained by an uncensored commentary by JMS about the show.

[Wordsmit2]

I'm not a Crusade authority, but I believe there's some inaccuracy here:

MJS said TNT wanted more sex in the show, not that B5 didn't have it's fair share, but MJS said it didn't fit in with what he planned and/or wouldn't be believable if it happened too fast.

This is actually documented online. The whole furor of the leaked memo, people's reactions, everything. Hunt around for the websites that were running before Crusade aired. I found one through del.icio.us by just browsing through sites tagged "babylon5".

In sum: TNT and Straczynski got along pretty well for a while. TNT even injected more money into the show after about the fifth episode. However, at some point they got cold feet and some bright spark figured the best way to save face was to make it seem like Straczynski was impossible to work with. An internal memo was circulated with, erm, suggestions of outrageous demands that would likely stymie him. However, one of their employees was so astonished by the memo that he or she leaked it to one of the more reputable fan websites.

This was the infamous memo that among other things suggested adding a "sexual explorer" to the show. The fans went ballistic, half of them horrified by the memo, the other half insisting that something that insane couldn't possibly be real. It didn't help that it was leaked on April 1. Straczynski did his own investigation and found out it was indeed real, so he wasn't ambushed after all.

To make a long story short, TNT cancelled Crusade before it aired and ended up taking all the blame. Although people have pretty much forgotten *why* TNT's powers that be are reputed to be perverts and idiots, TNT will probably always be tainted. The Sci-Fi Channel considered picking up Crusade, but decided they couldn't scrape together the money soon enough.

A parallel with Stargate SG-1: When TNT cancelled Crusade, the Sci-Fi Channel couldn't pick it up because Crusade was under contract. However, that contract expired in July of that year and at that point SFC was free to pick up Crusade.

It is very interesting that this option wasn't mentioned for Stargate SG-1.

Those that bought the early DVD sets of Crusade were entertained by an uncensored commentary by JMS about the show.

Not quite. As far as I know it is actually that the early issue are the only sets that *have* a Straczynski commentary. His agreement with Warner Bros was that he would do a commentary for "Racing the Night" if it was uncut. However, when the discs came out, a voice track snippet from one of the "making of" shorts had been pasted over the part where he detailed TNT's demands. Straczynski cried breach of contract and demanded that the DVDs be pulled and his commentary removed. WB compromised by doing a second print run without the Straczynski commentary.

For the record, I have a set with commentary, and it does still have mention of a couple of TNT's ordered changes. While mind-boggling, they're not especially noteworthy. Straczyniski also says some nice things about his experience with TNT, so apparently he was trying for fair and balanced.

What's memorable about the commentary is he specifies in several places what was going to happen next in the show and the themes he planned to develop. However, most of that can be gleaned from online articles, so fans don't have to be too heartbroken that the commentary isn't available.