What do you mean that there were 18 episodes filmed?!?!

I was looking through old issues of various Scifi mags today when I was cleaning and I came across the August 2000 issues of Scifi magazine. In the article "The Lost Crusade" (starting on page 62) the following is written: "While 18 episodes were filmed, it seems as though just 13 will be shown . . ."


I wonder if the five extra episodes were edited and mixed. Does anyone know anything about this?

------------------
Ivanova is always right. I will listen to Ivanova. I will not ignore Ivanova's recommendations. Ivanova is God. And if this ever happens again, Ivanova will personally rip your lungs out.

Simple, the article is wrong. JMS has been talking about the show and its fate for 2 1/2 years now. I'm sure if there were five extra epsiodes lying around, he'd have mentioned them. And Sci-Fi would have aired them if at all possible. There were no filmed episodes that did not go through the full post-production process. Production was shut-down in January or February of 1999, but JMS and others at Babylonian continued working on the series until April or May, getting all the filmed episodes ready to air.

Two possibilities suggests themselves:

1) The writer confused the five unfilmed scripts with completed episodes.

2) The writer misunderstood something he heard about TNT trying to deny funding to complete post-production on five episodes (the "JMS" episodes, the first five filmed.) Not realizing that this had been resolved, and that they were already included in the total of 13 episodes, he or she added them back in and came up with 18.

Regards,

Joe

------------------
Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net

I've only read "To the Ends of the Earth", "The End of the Line", and the one with Bester in it.

What were the other unfilmed scripts about? Are they available anywhere?

------------------
What are those Earth creatures called? Feathers, long bill, webbed feet .. go 'quack'?"

"Cats."

"Cats. I'm being nibbled to death by cats."

Not really mate, the other episodes written were by neither JMS or Fiona Avery.

My memory is poor but to the ends of the earth was part of a three parter, that included an episode by former script editor Larry Di Tillio. It was mentioned in the official B5 magazine in the last update before crusade was canned, and included the episode titles and details for value judgements, the end of the line, and to the ends of the earth.

It had to do with Dureena and a sword, i think. i could look out my mags but i can' be bothered, lol.

------------------
Londo: "When I said my quarters were cold, I did not mean "Oh, I think it is a little chilly in here. Perhaps I'll throw a blanket on the bed." No! I said it was COLD! As in, "Oh look - my left arm has snapped off like an icicle and shattered on the floor!"

End of the Line and Ends of the Earth, I don't recall the exact wording of the titles, were both completed scripts by JMS involving

<table bgcolor=black><tr><td bgcolor=black><font size=1 color=white>Spoiler:</font></td></tr><tr><td><font size=2 color=black>Earth, Shadow tech, and the ship that shot down the Cerberus. </font></td></tr></table>

Value Judgements was a completed Fiona Avery script about Bester.

There were script ideas about Durena and a sword and a couple other things, a possible trilogy, that had not been made into completed scripts.

The completed scripts were available for reading before but aren't now.

------------------
Bus
"The pink ones keep ya from screamin'." Grandpa

No, there were two other completed scripts, the Larry Ditillo story mentioned and one by another writer. I was corrected on this point myself not long ago, by someone in a position to know. These were not offered for reading on Bookface.com, and have not been offered for sale at conventions that I'm aware of. Therefore they never "escaped into the wild" the way the JMS and Avery scripts did, and were never posted on the 'net or passed around via e-mail.

Even if they hadn't gone past the outline stage, if they were included in a title list that would still bring to the total number of "episodes" to 18, and account for the magazine writer's erroneous assumption that there were completed, but unaired, shows.

Regards,

Joe

------------------
Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net

The two scripts that were never released to the public were discussed in this thread:
http://www.b5lr.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000031.html

Look through the posts from May 10-14. People seemed to be offering conflicting information on what stories were planned for the rest of the Crusade Season 1. I think the agreed upon points are that there was to be a 3-parter that dealt with Dureena being captured by the Thieves' Guild, which would probably involve her getting the sword. The middle part would be written by Larry Ditillo, and would concern Gideon, Matheson, and the Apocalypse Box. There was also to be an episode titled "Tried and True" by Fiona Avery, but it's unclear whether this was to be part of the 3-parter or not.

It's also unclear which of these stories ever made it to the form of a completed script. The first two parts of the 3-parter maybe?


------------------

OK, I wasn't sure how complete they were.

------------------
Bus
"The pink ones keep ya from screamin'." Grandpa

I heard from someone (Derian, I think) that Peter Woodward also penned some scripts. They also were never released...*sighs* I hope Crusade is eventually brought back. Unlike another one-season show that comes to mind (anyone familiar with the HL spinoff Raven?), Crusade SHOULD have made it.

------------------
Ivanova is always right. I will listen to Ivanova. I will not ignore Ivanova's recommendations. Ivanova is God. And if this ever happens again, Ivanova will personally rip your lungs out.

Were the Woodward scripts fairly certain to become eps or did he not get a chance to present them. Basically when did he write them?

------------------
Bus
"The pink ones keep ya from screamin'." Grandpa