Crusade: The Complete Series (1999)

I had seen most of the episodes for this tragically short lived sequel series to Babylon 5, during its original cable run on TNT. What I hadn’t seen was the last five episodes, which in fact where the first five episodes. Five episodes into production the TNT brass stepped in and began an effort to exert more control over the series. The good part of this was an infusion of increased funds into the show, the bad part was that the increased corporate medaling would lead to a dispute with the creative people, ending in the programs cancellation. This is why watching those 'true' first five episodes was so reveling, it gave me a chance to see what this series could have been had JMS had the complete creative control he deserved.

First off the show would have gotten right into the action, they didn’t film a traditional pilot/ ‘the crew gets together episode’, this was ordered by the network later. Instead we got episodes which hinted at arc, but at this point where mostly stand alone’s, good short stories (despite my roommates protests to the contrary). The ‘X-Files’ episode was just fun, and if you watched that 90's sci-fi staple at all, the satiracle commentary on the conceits of the show are particularly amusing. What impressed me most of this first batch however was the episode about the ‘Taliban-like’ state and its crack down on the arts and culture of an entire race. This episode was slow, it was moody, it went in a couple of different directions, it was not the kind of stuff your used to in television, even sci-fi television. It was a moving little thing that laughed at the rules of pacing and structure and I quite liked it, it’s a shame we didn’t more like that (though I’d put the later ‘Bishop in the Bubble’ episode in that category). All in all this is a series that I’d have loved to see followed through on, and with the new ‘Lost Tales’ direct to DVD series, maybe we’ll find out more about the Excalibur crew in the future. Four out of Five.