Crusade DVDs in IGN DVD roundup. Harsh words?

IGN FilmForce Weekend Shopping Guide 12/17/04: The Return of the King, Seinfeld, Family Guy, and more.

With the aborted 13-episode run of Crusade (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$59.95 SRP), J. Michael Straczynski managed to completely decimate any of the goodwill he had build up over the course of the 5-year run of his mostly stellar Babylon 5. Where B5 was nuanced, well-written, and well-cast, Crusade was a bastardized mish-mash of lackluster writing, poor realization, and unfortunate casting. Hey, but now you can judge for yourself with the release of the complete run, which also features a few audio commentaries and a pair of behind-the-scenes documentaries (sadly, JMS does not admit the true origins of the concept in any of them).

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Assuming that they actually WATCHED the thing -- I think they didn't -- this is exactly why cutting out the TNT-Atlanta story from the commentary is a bad thing. If you hadn't been paying attention online, you'd never know what really happened. It's hardly the casting or the "realization" (meaning production values?) that killed the show.

Second: What "true origins" are they talking about?

Second: What "true origins" are they talking about?

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I don't know, but it may have something to do with the fact that some of the people associated with IGN have previously stated that they have insider info suggesting that it was originally intended that Crusade would include more holdovers from the cast of B5, including Boxleitner as Sheridan.

It would make sense for Sheridan to be the character that hired Gideon rather than an unknown senator.

... managed to completely decimate any of the goodwill he had build up over the course of ...

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Am I the only person who has trouble taking any review seriously if that reviewer doesn't bother to double-check his writing? I am assuming English is his first language, and that this is a commentary that is meant to be widely read.

Under these circumstances, am I the only one who expects proper English to be used? I don't write for a living myself, but I would think someone writing a review would be a bit more careful. And yet, it seems that a large number of online reviews are written to the literary standards of a 3rd-grader.

It's not as much a review as it is a preview of DVDs to come. I think they didn't watch all of those DVD sets.

Eye halve a spelling chequer;
It came with my pea sea.
It plane lee marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye em wrong oar write;
It shows mi strait a weigh.

Adz soon adze a mist ache as maid,
It nose bee fore two lawn,
And eye can put the era rite;
Its rare lea Eva Ron.

Eye have run this pome threw it,
I em shore your please two no.
Its let her purr fuck awl the weigh,
My chequer tolled mi sew.
-- Sauce Unkown

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(Actually based on a poem by John Brophy, National Union of Journalists, Ireland.)

Thinking about it now, could they be hinting to a perception that it's a Star Trek clone?

Yeah, how DO you " completely [kill one in ten]?"

IGN FilmForce Weekend Shopping Guide 12/17/04: The Return of the King, Seinfeld, Family Guy, and more.

With the aborted 13-episode run of Crusade (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$59.95 SRP), J. Michael Straczynski managed to completely decimate any of the goodwill he had build up over the course of the 5-year run of his mostly stellar Babylon 5. Where B5 was nuanced, well-written, and well-cast, Crusade was a bastardized mish-mash of lackluster writing, poor realization, and unfortunate casting. Hey, but now you can judge for yourself with the release of the complete run, which also features a few audio commentaries and a pair of behind-the-scenes documentaries (sadly, JMS does not admit the true origins of the concept in any of them).

Click to expand...

Assuming that they actually WATCHED the thing -- I think they didn't -- this is exactly why cutting out the TNT-Atlanta story from the commentary is a bad thing. If you hadn't been paying attention online, you'd never know what really happened. It's hardly the casting or the "realization" (meaning production values?) that killed the show.

Second: What "true origins" are they talking about?

Click to expand...

Heh. After reading that article, I just had to email the jerk and ream him a new one. :devil:

Look I am no fan of Crusade, cause there were some strange things in that series that NEVER made sense. But as for JMS, before that moron who wrote the article starts to lash out at JMS, he should notice that in the 13 episodes of Crusade, he was not alone in writing the stories... While I love all B5 ideas, I am sure something went terribly wrong. You don't have to pay attention to story or characters alone to spot that. You can see the entire build up of the show.

And the music got on my nerves to the point I often fast-forwarded to skip the into of the series...

It had a good idea, but with 13 episodes, I think this show deserved more, simply because it was more... But someone killed it before it could get the msg out...

We all know that B5 survived the harshest battles in TV history, this is no exception except it lost...

Again, while I am not a fan of Crusade, I will buy it on DVD, just to see it again and listen to the commentaries...

I wish everyone a Marry Christmas and a Happy New Year here at the B5 forum!!! May we see the light shine once more on our beloved B5 Universe...

Second: What "true origins" are they talking about?

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Likely another reference to Starblazers.

Frankly, other than the music (which I started out hating and grew to love) the most irritating thing about Crusade was that it didn't seem to know what it was. Given the jerking around of the concept by TNT, that is no surprise!

The only eps that really "clanged" for me were Visitors from Down the Street which sacrificed every semblence of common sense in favor of an "amusing" storyline that appealed only to X-Filers (of whom I was one), and The Long Road which had such painfully bad supporting acting (the barkeep and his daughter plus the peasents practically with pitchforks) that not even the presence of the only Woddward better than Peter could save it.

And even then, Visitors... was better than any Tribble episode and ..Long... better than any Voyager episode, so that's not all that bad.

Frankly, other than the music (which I started out hating and grew to love)

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After awhile, I found the main title theme quite catchy.

the most irritating thing about Crusade was that it didn't seem to know what it was. Given the jerking around of the concept by TNT, that is no surprise!

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As Mr. Ames said: "This is a highly political situation back home. We've had to make certain compromises to get this show on the road." (Hint, hint.)

The only eps that really "clanged" for me were Visitors from Down the Street which sacrificed every semblence of common sense in favor of an "amusing" storyline that appealed only to X-Filers (of whom I was one),

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And it went waaaay over the edge with the rubber fishing worm/cheap Halloween mask tendrils of the alien prosthetics. Farscape did that much better (with D'Argo, and his latex tendrils.). However, if you closed your eyes and listened to the "Visitors..." dialogue, the writing was pretty damned good. Lots of great quotes, there.

...and The Long Road which had such painfully bad supporting acting (the barkeep and his daughter

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Seemed OK to me. <shrug> Seemed believable as a barkeep and his daughter, on a low tech planet. Captured a good, rural, distaste-for-city-folk attitude.

plus the peasents practically with pitchforks) that not even the presence of the only Woodward better than Peter could save it.

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Seemed overly wordy, too talky, with not enough plot to fill an entire episode.

And even then, Visitors... was better than any Tribble episode and ..Long... better than any Voyager episode, so that's not all that bad.

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I hold B5 & Crusade to higher standards than Trek. Reason? JMS can usually pull it off.

If you review something you don`t like the result will be negative - no surprise there.

It`s easy to trash Crusade because its not B5.
It was never meant to be B5.

I can understand jms in this. After pointing out that B5 was a 5 year show as strongly as he has, you can`t make Crusade as B5 year 6 to 10.

So a fresh start, another show with another arc, more independent episodes. As he says on the DVD you have more of a buildup like a D&D quest, with a barbarian, a mage, a thief, a dwarf and an elf, well not all of this, so we have a sivilized barbarian, the mage yes, the thief, a healer, a telepath and a brainiac.

We have the differences of opinion, people having secrets, we have the clash of interest between corporations, goverment and the military.

And having read the unfilmed scripts and plotlines for the other first year episodes the best was yet to come, as in B5 after 13 episodes.

If you look at other scifi shows Stargate has a very similar buildup av Crusade. There is an arc, but it moves forward very slowly, and you can see most episodes within a season in random order without missing the point.

So, watch Crusade with an open mind, and you may be taken in by the show. I too hated the music in Call to Arms but it grew on me, and now I have "adjusted" and find the music good, different yes, but good.