This is addresed to the Babylon 5 fans among us. I just finished working my way through season 5 of Babylon 5. It was not worth it, IMHO. The person who loaned me B5 also has a series of 4 Babylon 5 movies, a 2-video something called LEgend of the Rangers, and a few episodes of something called Crusade. Is it worth my time to watch any of these?
The first two movies are definitely worth it. Other than that, it’s your call.
Well, I always liked Crusade, myself. Even the “X-Files” parody episode. And even with all the changes that TNT was forcing them to make to try and attract a bigger demographic, I think they were able to pull through pretty well.
Crusade was an attempt to create a Babylon 5 spin-off series. It takes place 5 years after the main events of Babylon 5, but still 15 years before the final episode of Babylon 5 season 5 (“Sleeping in Light”).
There were 13 episodes of Crusade produced, before artistic differences with Turner’s studio forced J. Michael Straczynski to take his ball and go home. In my not-so-humble opinion, Crusade simply did not live up to the standard set by Babylon 5. Especially when it came to the theme music.
Legend of the Rangers was a pilot episode for yet another Babylon 5 spin-off series. I believe it was set 5 years after Crusade (which would put it 10 years before “Sleeping in Light”). It was, in my opinion, better than Crusade, but still not up to the caliber of, say, Babylon 5’s third season. To the best of my knowledge, the hoped-for Legend of the Rangers TV series never got off the ground.
IIRC Legend of the Rangers was supposed to be a pilot for a new series; I haven’t heard anything lately about the status of the series so I suspect it’s a dead project. I rather liked the movie, but then I’ve always been a sucker for stories about misfits and rebels who take an unorthodox approach to problem solving.
Add another vote for Crusader, too.
I’ve been watching Crusade again recently on the SciFi channel, and I’m rather sorry it didn’t get more of a chance. I was just starting to like some of the characters. I think that it was still trying to find its way when they cut it, and it could have developed into something pretty good if they had found the right direction to take it in. Compare it to the early first season of B5, or the first season of Star Trek:TNG–both of which were awful, yet those shows turned out okay once they got going.
The worst problem I saw in the series was that there was really no suspense in the over-arcing hunting-for-a-cure-for-the-plague plotline. We know all along that a cure will be found. For example, Dr. Franklin shows up in one episode, and he has the plague. But we know he’s going to be fine; we saw him sitting on Garibaldi’s sofa on Mars 20 years in the future in B5’s final episode.
Okay, I’ve rambled enough. Generally, I can recommend Crusade. There are some silly episodes, but also some good ones. And the X-Files parody, while silly, is a hoot.
Arg. That was my biggest guff with the time-jumping plot. It completely killed the suspense of what would happen to most of the main characters.
At this point, having seen everything, if I could go back in time and ignore basically everything after season 4 I would.
Hi, my name is Duck, and I loved the Crusade music.
In fact I own the CD and listen to it often.
You actually liked the music in Crusade? What are you, some kind of mutant freak? 
Apparently.
The music was horribly maligned. After Franke’s straightforward orchestral soundtrack, Evan Chen’s passive, eastern-fusion work caught people off guard.
But I think it fit perfectly. I loved the theme song. I wish Crusade had lasted longer, I would’ve loved to see how the music progressed.
My vote: Skip it.
Didn’t care for it much, I thought it had some potential but it ended up a trainwreck.
This really made me smile: JMS fans shocked when ‘Jeremiah’ Fails to get cancelled
Heh heh heh.
Crusade and Legend were horrible. Simply horrible. Cardboard characters, silly lines, predictable plots, bad CGI. JMS must have be focusing more on his comic book writing gig then the series, because they were terrible. Actually most of Season 5 sucked as well. Stick with Season 1-4.
Jeremiah should have been cancelled. I watched a few episodes when it was after Stargate SG1 on Showtime. Pure dreck.
:mad:
Maybe if Crusade had been selling soy-based herbal supplements guaranteed to increase your connectedness with the Astral Plane, or something.
You have to see the first movie. It was very good. Don’t waste your time with the rest of it.
I hated Season 5–JMS really wasted some great opportunities there. The second half was so much better than the first–you could just weep at the time wasted. I did.
I could make the same argument for half of the episodes from Season One. (I mean, have you seen “TKO”? Yeesh!)