Crusade

This series was absolutely doomed from the beginning. Not only was it following on the coattails of Babylon 5 (appearing AFTER the original had run its course), but TNT moved this follow-up series so many times, most of its small audience was lost and assumed the show had been canceled (which it soon was).

The show had a bizarre premise. An alien atavistic race wanted to destroy the earth once and for all and sent a plague into our atmosphere. All life was doomed to die within a few years and there appeared to be no hope--except for a few ships that were off world and were madly searching for ANYONE or ANYTHING that could help us cure this plague.

Excellent acting and writing really mean nothing if there's no commitment from the TV execs, so this series quickly tanked. In fact, J. Michael Straczynski, the brains behind the series and writer of most of the episodes, left in disgust because of how Turner Networks handled this. It is available on DVD but don't expect the quality of the original series--it had some excellent moments and a lot of promise but quickly withered due to neglect.

After some slow and rather uneventful episodes, this show later showed some promise and developed into an interesting Science Fiction series.

Of course, it is lacking the sophisticated story arc of Babylon 5, but many episodes are fun! It is nice to watch them and you want to know what happens next. In my eyes, it is Star trek Voyager done better.

The characters are of different quality: The Captain with his mysterious Boom Tube as an advisor gets better every episode, and Technomage Galen is simply wonderful. Archeologist Eilerson does not fail to convince as an arrogant scientist. The other characters are far less interesting.

Even so, I am rather sad that TNT decided to cancel the show without ever waiting for spectators approval. Some of the 13 episodes were excellent, and I do sincerely hope that they will be able to continue someday in the future.

I've read a lot of the comments, and I see an overwhelming trend here: people don't know what they're talking about. Crusade is NOT a bad show. It is an excellent show, and a worthy addition to the B5 universe. It was originally scheduled to air after the movie "A Call To Arms", and the pilot episode was to be "Racing The Night". They had 5 episodes ready and were about to film more when TNT paused production. They wanted serious changes to the show: new uniforms, more violence, more sex. They forced JMS to write a new pilot, "War Zone" with ridiculous requirements, such as a fistfight in the opening.

He later refused to add more sex and a 'sexual explorer', so TNT canceled the show after 13 episodes were filmed. The show was canceled before it even aired. It was not canceled because it was bad, but because TNT made it bad. They did eventually air it, but totally out of order. If you ignore "War Zone" and watch the other 12, it's a great show. The show clearly has an arc, and it was about to begin when the show was canceled. Hopefully the SCI-FI channel will pick it up in the future and continue this great series.

"Crusade" is a spin-off "Babylon 5" composed of thirteen episodes but without conclusion of the lead plot.

The plot is based on a virus released on Earth by the aliens Drakh that will decimate the global population in five years. Captain Matthew Gideon is assigned to command the starship Excalibur and search for the cure exploring the galaxy. Along his journey, he lives adventures with his crew in the outer space.

The lead characters are reasonable: Captain Matthew Gideon (Gary Cole) is the best and most interesting one. Lt. John Matheson (Daniel Dae Kim) is a telepath not allowed to use his abilities that are pointless. Max Eilerson (David Allen Brooks) is an annoying character. Galen (Peter Woodward) and Dureena Nafeel (Carrie Dobro) are promising and should be better developed. Dr. Sarah Chambers (Marjean Holden) is expressionless in an important role.

The special effects are poor, even for a 1998 TV Series, but it was worthwhile watching the DVD Box. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available.

To those of you who only saw it when broadcast on TNT, the broadcast "opener" was not in fact the true opening episode. The series is now being rebroadcast in the order in which it was intended by Sci-Fi Channel, and after only a week it remains far more satisfying than it was two years ago. The story detailed on all the chatrooms at the time. Basically, B5 was bought for TNT by the people who bought re-broadcast rights, but supervision for Crusade was taken over by people who supervised original series and evidently didn't like it -- they were into westerns. They wanted a new character added, a female who 'explored' other species sexually. They were responsible for the change in uniforms, and they demanded a new opener, one which gave away too much. JMS went as far as he could, then told them to stuff it. They took 13 episodes, no more, and at the time the Sci Fi channel had committed its financial future to Farscape. I liked Farscape -- now I love it -- but I LOVE Crusade. Watch the series as it is broadcast here, and write Sci-Fi asking if they can't get new episodes. Marjean Holden may be trapped in Beastmaster, but I suspect the other actors would jump at the chance to play such complex characters.