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B5 rises again! (Well, not exactly...)
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Lee: [QB] I recently sat down and watched all the [i]Crusade[/i] eps again. I'm still totally ambivalent about the whole thing. So I tried to work out what I liked and didn't like - after all, many shows' pilots are judged that way, and evolve accordingly into the show proper - and after four years, eps 1 through 13 of [i]Crusade[/i] could only ever be a guide to whatever new show came along, you couldn't carry directly on with the show as it was. THE IDEA - The show's plot, the concept, that is. Fine so far as it goes, especially since JMS repeatedly told us that things were going to change over the 5 years of the projected run, and it would be a very different show at the end. So you can't really say what was going to happen. There were indications that the [i]Excalibur[/i] and her crew would become fugitives from EarthGov, which to me smacks a little too much of B5 s3 and s4. And presumably the Apocalypse Box would have played a part in things to come. If there's one thing I'd change. . . I don't think it should have been a totally EarthForce mission. There should have been Rangers involved. Whether on a Ranger ship, or with some of the crew Rangers, I'll deal with in the following sections. THE SHIP - I've never been convinced by the [i]Excalibur[/i]. I disliked the Fighter launching method, and that landing bay with the force fields. Those stupid transit tubes. Even the corridors seemed wrong (although they're wide just like on Minbari ships, which may be the point). Both variants of the uniforms were wrong: the grey ones did look like bellhop costumes; the black ones were just wrong, they should have been proper EarthForce uniforms. As for the design. . . not EarthForcey enough. Something with more traditional EF ship features might have been better, mixed with Minbari elements. That said, we got exactly that with the [i]Valen[/i] in [i]B5:LOTR[/i] and that was just plain awful. CAPTAIN MATTHEW GIDEON - Gary Cole was great, or as good as he could be with JMS' agonising dialogue (lines like the one about the perfect example of a complete idiot - good idea, poorly executed). Problem is, he's not an EarthForce captain, who were for the most part useless twits; granted we only ever saw one other Explorer-ship captain. . . He should have been a Ranger. LT. JOHN MATHESON - I'm a big Daniel Dae Kim fan, he should be doing a lot better than playing a barely-recurring character in [i]Enterprise[/i]. And he's perfect here. If Gideon had been a Ranger instead, Matheson could have been the most senior EarthForce officer on the expedition: it'd have ben interesting to see what developed. More could have been made of his being a telepath. GALEN - Ugh, ugh, ugh. Could still work, but serious recasting is needed. Peter Woodward obviously inherited his father's lack of acting ability. DUREENA NAFEEL - Likewise. At least recast, if they didn't lose the character altogether. Lyta Alexander might have worked in this character's place, if she hadn't been unceremoniously killed offscreen during the Telepath War. Hang on, wasn't there a "Na'Feel" in [i]B5:LOTR[/i]? MAX EILERSON - Another brilliant character, well played. Cynical, unconventional, likes weird alien porn. I liked the fact that while working for IPX and therefore not totally trustworthy, he managed to not trust his employers either. DR. SARAH CHAMBERS - I'm undecided here. I'd sooner have Dr. Franklin any day, but Marjean Holden wasn't too bad, I guess. She just needed time to develop. CAPTAIN ELIZABETH LOCKLEY - Tracy Scoggins suffered in B5 s5 for not being Claudia Christian. Here she might have been able to redress the difference. . . But I get the impression they hadn't quite worked out what the point of her being there was. So, there. Redesign the [i]Excalibur[/i], make the crew a mix of Rangers and EarthForce, get a different Technomage. Rinse and repeat. 8) [/QB][/QUOTE]
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