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

(I couldn't find a way to bring this really 'on topic' right now; sorry)

>Spoilers to the first episode to Crusade:
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>	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.

No, it wasn't that bad. I'm sure drawing out the ship-to-ship battle at
the
end could have been drawn out a *lot* longer, but then we've seen JMS
use
this type of strategy before as far back as Season 3. It works well
enough.

>	The new characters; Giddeon, Matheson, Chambers, et al. didn't
seem to
>have nearly enough character development that they should.   

Well, to be fair, this *is* the first ep - we're just getting to know
these
characters. This is the 'laying the groundwork' ep (with some
reservations;
see the included JMS post below). You know it takes time for characters
to
develop. Patience, grasshopper.

>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.

Did you *really* expect mention of the Shadows and the war and B5? Well,
okay,
maybe a tip or nod about B5, but the others? (do you discuss Nazis
and/or
the Battle of, oh, Midway in everyday life?) No reason to mention them
in
any manner whatsoever. This takes place, remember, *years* after the
Shadow
War, years after the Earth civil war. I don't talk about the Vietnam or
Korean
wars in my everyday conversations (heck, I can go long months without
mentioning or thinking about them ;-).

I'm sure we'll hear about B5 soon enough (Lochley's character, I saw, is
supposed to be a main character). Even so, B5 isn't the *only* thing
that's
a happenin' spot in the B5 universe. There's a LOT of other things going
on
that DON'T involve B5.

As for the other races, they weren't mentioned because...they didn't
contribute
anything to this story? There really wasn't any reason to mention them
at this
time. Heck, even during the regular B5 episodes you didn't see or hear
about
any certain race *every* episode, did you? I mean, how many times did
you hear
about the Vree, or the Drazi, in any given episode? Heck, man, you
didn't even
hear about the Shadows every episode. The infection of Earth was
necessary to
give the viewers information as to *why* this team was being put
together and
doing what they will be doing.

>	Where are the Rangers?	Aren't they supposed to be in this?

Ask JMS, man.

>	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.

See appended JMS note below.

>	I hope it gets better...

See appended JMS note below.

>	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?

I dunno if they would have had time to upgrade the Excalibur any. It's
been
too long since I've watched A Call To Arms, so I can't say with any
authority
that we've seen (if only from long-distance) defensive fire like the
pulse
cannon gatling guns from these ships. And I'm not going to get any time
to
check it out, either, over the next week.  :-/

Mk
----
[appended JMS post]

From: jmsatb5@aol.com (Jms at B5)
Subject: jms on first eps
Date: 9 Jun 1999 21:18:23 -0600

Just for the record: I think the first one -- the only one written
directly at
TNT's behest -- is probably the weakest one, certainly the one I find
least
interesting.  It's lumbered with buckets of exposition, explaining
things that
don't need explaining, too many fights, too many explosions, too much
swaggering around, all stuff the net wanted. 

Then we go back to the show we wanted to make...Path of Sorrows is
terrific,
Well of Forever is a solid character story, The Long Road is just pure
fun
(that's pretty much reverse broadcast order, btw)...there's one or two
in the
bunch that are a bit slower than I'd like, but those are the exception
rather
than the rule.	

Just to get my own feelings on this out there.	

 jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
"What's that on our sensors?"
"It's an, um, cloud, of starships."
"Cloud?"
"I know it's not a strictly correct military term, but I count
 eighty thousand three hundred and twenty two ships. I've told them
 that we're surrendering."

				   "Excession", by Iain M Banks