Re:Crusade....BIG TIME SPOILERS BELOW!

At 8:43 PM -0700 6/9/99, Mark A. Siefert wrote:
>Spoilers to the first episode to Crusade:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>	Oh!  I don't think that it was bad.  It has a lot of potential. 
It
>just seemed... well... short, abbrevaited, cut down to fight a 1 hour
>slot minus commerical breaks.
>
>
>
>	The new characters; Giddeon, Matheson, Chambers, et al. didn't
>seem to
>have nearly enough character development that they should.   We have no
>mention of the Shadows, the war, B5, nor any of the other races
>(Minbari, Narn, Centuari, etc.).  All we had was a quick mention of the
>infection of Earth, followed by a quicky space battle.
>
>	Where are the Rangers?	Aren't they supposed to be in this?
>
>	I sense TNT's meddeling in this....  I'm sure all remember the
the
>dreaded memo where TNT outlined where they wanted this series to go.
>(Remove ALL B5 references, more violence, mindless T&A, the "sex
>officer.")  This wasn't even supposed to be the true first episode,
this
>is just something they made JMS whip up to fill in the danes.
>
>	I hope it gets better...
>
>	Anyway. On to the techincal aspects of the Excaliber.  They
>seemed to
>upgun the Victory class a bit.  They added arrays of pluse cannon
>gatteling guns as well as some kind of heavy pluse cannon in the
>turrets.  We now know that the Victory can carry maybe 3 or 4 squadrons
>of Thunderbolts.  Of wise, the neutron lasers and the BFG are still
>present.
>
>	Anyone want to add to this?

oooh yeah. I liked it too. With the music, and I like Chen's
soundtrack, the overall effect, especially in the climatic scenes, was
downright creepy. And nicely atmospheric, and stylish. Not to mention
different. The visuals were very good, and I have a lot of tolerance
for the first, tentative few, episodes of a series. They *all* go
through this, I've come to expect it (so I can be pleasantly surprised).

On postive notes, there were a few things I truly appreciated. First of
all, they appear to be carrying maybe a company of marines. With
dropships and ground support elements. Whoever planned the security
detachments for the Enterprise was negligent. The troops should come in
handy. The big fighter action around the Excalibur was very nice, I
like the more panoramic battle scenes. Adding more point defence makes
a lot of sense, maybe they playetsted the ship ?

Of course, a heavy AA armament ties in with the very clear parallels
with Star Blazers (the Yamato had a similar upgrade). Think about it,
heavy spinal mount with power restrictions, mission to save earth, cool
theme song (well, not for Crusade). Then there's the Golden Fleece et
al...

Next !

Michael Carter Llaneza
Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1991-1950
Devolution is very real to me.
Whenever I hear the "Odd Couple" theme, I get this image of Dennis
Rodman borrowing Marge Schott's toothbrush.
http://www.flash.net/~maserati/