Goodbye Crusade, Part One:
"... And Babylon 5? Babylon 5 Endured."
--- last notes of Season 4, as spoken by Delenn
So here it is, February 26, 1999. Two more days until March. I was really looking forward to March. Trailer B. Futurama. Instrument. But do you know what I was looking forward to most ? The Babylon Project: Crusade.
A little over an hour and a half ago, Glenn Oliver of Ain't It Cool News posted JMS's public statement of Crusade's cancellation. He said that the Sci Fi Channel was wonderful, but they were not able to pick the show up because there was simply not enough money in their budget. So the thirteen-completed episodes (out of the planned twenty-two for season one) will be aired on TNT, as originally planned. IF ratings are high enough, there is a POSSIBILITY of being picked up for a second
season. But right now, the actors have been let go from their contracts and production of the show has ceased. Even JMS himself has started working on a concept for another television show for a major network.
And we're left hanging.
Oh, we'll eventually see the thirteen episodes. I know we here at DFFQI will pour over every scrap of their film a hundred-thousand times. TNT won't promote Crusade. It probably won't be on until this summer, even then at some weird, incredibly inaccessible time (wedged between wrestling and a western, no doubt). There will never
be a second season, though. How can there be, when there wasn't even a full first season?
And we're left hanging.
How can one tell from the first thirteen episodes what the story was REALLY going to be about? Think about the first season of Babylon 5. The seed for the Earth Civil War was planted in "Chrysalis" (the last episode of the first season), but that's only recognizable in hindsight. There were whispers of the Shadow War, most notably in "Chrysalis". But it was nothing that even hinted at the grandness of everything. And what about Valen? How was one to EVER even begin to suspect that Captain Jeffrey Sinclair was to travel on Babylon 4 and become this Great Minbari Prophet? How was anyone to ever know what REALLY happened in those twenty-hours during the Battle Of The Line where he just "blacked out"? And in Season One, nothing was ever said of John Sheridan! John Sheridan, arguably the series' main character (if Babylon 5 even had a main character other than the station). John Sheridan, Starkiller. John Sheridan, the only thing to ever come back from Z'Ha'Dum alive. John Sheridan, who forced the Vorlons and the Shadows and all the rest of the First Ones to "get the hell out
of our galaxy!".
John Sheridan, the man that liberated Earth and Mars and Proxima 3. John Sheridan, the man that formed the InsterStellar Alliance and helped bring-about the Third Age! He was never in Season One. Nor was Marcus Cole, arguably one of the greatest characters in the history of Science Fiction! Nor was the White Star, arguably one of the greatest vessels in the history of Science Fiction!
And we're left hanging.
We won't know what Crusade was really going to be like. Oh, I'm sure JMS will tell us at some point what the REAL story was going to be (a plague can only take you so far, you know). But it won't be the same as experiencing it. It will take a minute to read the synopsis of what was supposed to have been five-years of story-telling.
And we're left hanging.
One of the many wonderful opportunities that presented themselves with the now- dead hope of Crusade finding a home at the Sci-Fi Channel was that Crusade would premier March 19 (the date SFC intends on launching it's new era of programming), as opposed to the June 2 premier date that TNT stuck them with way back in December of 1998. Now, it'll probably be even later than that (mid-July, anyone?). So all we have are the occasional pictures, and the two episodes that Glenn Coaxial at AICN reviewed rough-cuts of.
And we're left hanging...
There are only a few bits of information about the show's characters, but those few bits are tantalizing ones. Like how Excalibur commander Captain Matthew Gideon (Gary Cole) has been described as a dark character with more than a few skeletons in his closet. And how he reportedly is the owner of a mysterious box that tells him...things. And Max Eilerson, the lead archaeologist, about whom Peter or John (sorry, my memory's not that great) remarked, "wow, Indiana Jones in space!". And what about Galen, who was introduced in A Call To Arms ? How are the technomages involved in this? And what the hell is Dureena's problem, anyway? And when will Elizabeth
Lochley die?
And we're left hanging.
The two questions posed throughout Babylon 5's arc were "Who are you?" and "What do you want?". The Vorlon question and the Shadow question. Viewers weren't even alerted to the questions' meaning until mid-way through Season Four, and everything still wasn't totally clear after that. In a recent interview, JMS revealed the two questions to be posed throughout Crusade: Whom do you serve? Who do you trust?
And we're left hanging.
---
Mike Keegan
2.26.1999