Crusade - The Complete Series buy bestselling dvd movies, videos find reviews, ratings, prices
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Features
• AC-3
• Box set
• Closed-captioned
• Color
• Dolby
• DVD-Video
• Subtitled
• NTSC
• Another Thrilling Reach Into Tomorrow From The Creator of Babylon 5! 2267 A.
In Theaters : 09 June, 1999
DVD Release : 07 December, 2004 |
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Crusade - The Complete Series description
The first and only spin-off of Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski's short-lived sci-fi series Crusade had its roots in the B5 television movie A Call to Arms, in which Earth was battling a Drakh invasion at the end of the Shadow Wars. When Crusade begins, the Drakh have released a deadly virus that threatens to wipe out all 10 billion humans living on Earth unless a cure can be found in five years. To take on this monumental task, Captain Matthew Gideon (Gary Cole) is assigned command of the state-of-the-art Destroyer-class ship Excalibur. His crew includes telepath John Matheson (Daniel Dae Kim); pompous but brilliant archaeologist-linguist Max Eilerson (David Allen Brooks); Dureena, a member of the Thieves' Guild and the last surviving member of her species (Carrie Dobro); medical officer Sarah Chambers (Marjean Holden); and technomage Galen (Peter Woodward). While Babylon 5 had five years to develop into a powerful saga, Crusade had its plug pulled after a mere 13 episodes (which were reordered for TNT's broadcast), and the series never really got its footing. Galen often took center stage, then disappeared for several episodes. Matheson was underutilized (other than to provide fans with clues about what happened in the Psi-Wars after B5 ended), and tough-guy Gideon bounced back and forth between his desire to save the human race and his own moral code. There were some good action scenes and intriguing concepts (developed in conjunction with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory). Special effects sometimes were impressive and sometimes showed budget constraints, and we never really saw the power and scope of the mile-and-a-half-long ship, other than the cool bullet cars used to traverse its length. But it did have its moments. If B5 was the spiritual companion to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with its space-station setting and long story arc, Crusade was more like a traditional Star Trek setting, with mostly stand-alone episodes involving first contact with various species (even if, due to the nature of the Excalibur's quest, such species were usually extinct). And there were occasional tantalizing hints of a broader conspiracy that might have allowed the series to soar. Regardless, B5 fans will welcome even a brief opportunity to revisit this universe, especially when the Excalibur visits the station in "The Rules of the Game." John Sheridan's ex-wife Captain Elizabeth Lochley (Tracy Scoggins) even earned a spot in the opening credits for her appearance in a few episodes. --David Horiuchi |
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Crusade - The Complete Series Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
3 1/2 stars - I'm fond of it, but it falls short of B5
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Babylon 5 had a sort of grandeur to it, in the sweep of the story, the relationships between the characters, the social issues that were skewered or commented on, and the galactic peril that developed as its main story arc. It was hoped that Crusade could succeed Babylon 5 for another five successful years, carrying on the history of humans after the Shadow War and the formation of the planetary Alliance.
Crusade was, so to speak, murdered in its crib. It never got much of a chance to grow. It never had all the strengths of its predecessor, and it suffered a few weaknesses as well.
Briefly, what I liked about the series: Galen, the enigmatic techno-mage, who was probably the best actor and got the best speeches. Dureena, the alien thief whose sass was entertaining and whose courage got the Crusade team out of a pickle or two. As the series progressed the crew were starting to develop a sense of family and camaraderie, like the Babylon 5 team. The Excalibur was a pretty ship, and quite a few interior sets were built to show different parts of the craft.
Weaknessess: The special effects of ships in orbit and in battle were good. The special effects of planetary landscapes looked cheap. The musical score wasn't as weighty or as appropriate as the music for Babylon 5. Gary Cole's Captain Gideon is a more flawed and somewhat less heroic figure, compared to B5's Cap'n Sheridan. In a way that makes him more interesting, but he also seems to have a dangerously headstrong or capricious streak. (To say nothing of his questionable tactic of getting advice from an alien machine called an "apocalypse box" that has a tendency to give false information.) The lack of a great story arc to tie the episodes together was somewhat of a weakness. Whereas B5 dealt with interplanetary conflicts between whole races, and the war between two super-powerful ancient alien powers, Crusade's plots were narrowly focused on one spacecraft and its mission to find a cure for a planetary plague. The scale is somehow smaller.
After watching all 13 episodes, I find myself overlooking a lot of the ways that it fell short. I'm quite fond of it, and will watch it again from time to time. But it falls short of the standard set by Firefly, or even B5. |
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