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Crusade (1999)

 
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Pow
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 1:02 pm    Post subject: Crusade (1999) Reply with quote



Crusade was created by J.Michael Straczynski as a spin-off of his successful Babylon 5.

The show premiered on the TNT network on June 9, 1999 and ran for 13 episodes until September 1, 1999.

Synopsis} Crusade takes place in the year 2267, five years after the events of Babylon 5. The alien race called the Drakh, former allies of the Shadows, are furious over the defeat of the Shadows.

In an act of savage revenge, the Drakh has released a deadly nanovirus plague into the Earth's atmosphere. This virus will destroy any & all life on the planet within five years..

The Earth is now quarantined. No one may leave or land on the planet at all.

The newly constructed star ship the Excalibur is commissioned by the IA (Interstellar Alliance) to seek out anything at all that could help provide a cure.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 3:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Well, heck, after all my talk about liking shows about starships (like Star Trek) and disliking shows about space stations (such as DeepSpace 9 and Babylon 5), I'd be the worst kind of hypocrite if I didn't give this 13-episode series a try.

Frankly, this is my idea of a starship! Wow!! Shocked






This YouTube video of the opening is impressive.

_____________ Crusade (1999) TV Series Intro


__________

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Krel
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I thought we already had a thread on the show. Must have been on the old board.

I liked this show, but it is one of those that was shown out of order. One of the reasons it died was some disagreement over the rights, and the episodes that were filmed before TNT acquired the show.

A spoiler that isn't in the show because of it's premature death. By the end of the season, they were suppose to find the cure for the plague. But it reveals a greater danger that would have been the true crusade.

The Captain, played by Gary Cole had a secret Apocalypse Box, a mysterious, dangerous item that gives him information that may or not be useful or true. Gary Cole also voiced the Apocalypse Box.

They had new PPG pistols on the show. The prop maker made them with a partially skeletonized frame, thinking that prop replicators couldn't reproduce it with resin castings. He greatly underestimated prop replicators. Laughing

PPG, left side.


PPg, right Side.


PPG accessories, which attach to the pistol using a camera hot shoe. Left, tracker unit. Right top, TASER dart launcher. Right bottom, flashlight.



David.
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2021 5:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Phased Plasma Gun (PPG)

PPGs are produced as both rifles and pistols.

They are powered by a removable energy cap and fire superheated energized helium gas in a magnetic containment field known as plasma.

A PPG can be used to stun or kill and, at full power, can burn right through the body and most objects.

There are three PPG settings:
1. This will produce a solid impact without significant burning.

2. This burst will produce surface damage.

3. This setting will burn into a body, causing damage to skin and muscle and, if used continuously, severe damage to internal tissue and bones.

Magazine pods hold twelve rounds.

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PostPosted: Thu Oct 07, 2021 7:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What we didn't get to see on Crusade.

Crusade was cancelled by TNT after just 13 episodes. There were at least four scripts written that were never produced.

"The End of the Line" was to have been the season finale.

In it, we would have learned that Captain Gideon discovers the origin of the hybrid-Shadow vessel encountered earlier in the series. It was the covert creation of the Earth Force that combined human & Shadow technology.

Also revealed: Techno-Mages were agents of the Shadows who rebelled against them, but still use Shadow technology.

Galen was sent by the Techno-Mages to join the Excalibur crew in order to seek out leftover Shadow technology. This would have strained Galen & Captain Gideon's friendship.

Captain Gideon would have used the Excalibur & his mysterious Apocalypse Box to seek out the hybrid-Shadow vessel. This would have put him at odds with his crew who were intent on their primary mission of locating anything that could cure, or help, the Drakh plague infesting the entire Earth.

In the unfilmed episode "Value Judgement," the Excalibur would have encountered psychic Alfred Bester (Walter Koenig) from Babylon 5.

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PostPosted: Sat Oct 09, 2021 10:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

TNT commissioned research on their audience. They told JMS that their regular audience of TNT were not watchers of either Babylon 5 or Crusade. The B5 & Crusade viewers were generally not regular followers of other TNT programming.

TNT began to send JMS notes regarding Crusade and changes they wanted, there was a great deal of network interference in general with the production of the show.

JMS always believed that this was the networks sneaky way of attempting to get out of their contract by allowing them to argue that JMS had failed to deliver the series they wanted.They realized after the research that they were not getting the audience for Crusade from their usual audience, so TNT wanted to kill the show off.

JMS was so frustrated by TNT over everything that he tried to remove his name from the writer credits. He registered "Eiben Scrood" with the Writers Guild of America.

The WGA caved in from pressure exerted by Warner Brothers and refused to allow the pseudonym.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 10, 2021 2:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Thanks for all the research and fine writing you're doing, Mike. We appreciate it, and we're enjoying the comments. Very Happy

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PostPosted: Sun Oct 10, 2021 7:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You're welcome, Bud, glad you are enjoying it. I love learning about the behind-the-scenes details about television shows we are fans of.
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 11, 2021 2:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Another story on just how lowdown dirty and ruthless a network can play...unfortunately.

After TNT cancelled Crusade, the Sci-Fi Channel was interested in buying the show and continuing it. The execs at TNT were terrified that Crusade might do very well on the Sci-Fi Channel and show them up for fools.

In addition to Crusade, the Sci-Fi Channel also wants to purchase the reruns of Babylon 5.

TNT says that it'll sell Crusade & B5 at three times what it would normally cost knowing that the S-F Channel cannot possibly afford to do this.This also squashed the deal with Crusade. TNT did this deliberately for fear that Crusade would do well and they'd look the poorer for selling it.

And the fans end up losing due to lousy network politics.
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Krel
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 11, 2021 3:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank's Pow, I'd forgotten that. One of the things that killed the show is that TNT refused to sell the rerun rights to the episodes they'd shown. Sci-fi wasn't going to buy a show when they couldn't show the first episodes.

Well, they're going to remake B5, if it's a sucess maybe they'll remake "Crusade".

David.
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 12:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

JMS never did reveal what the cure for the Drakh plague would have been. He did hint that it would have been a "monkey's paw" type of cure, i.e., The cure might be worse than the disease.

JMS, along with the cast, hated the gray & red uniforms that the network insisted upon. He planned on writing a script where the uniforms were going to be "accidentally destroyed in a laundry malfunction" in the second-to-last script of season one.

The voice of the mysterious Apocalypse Box was that of Gary Cole after it was electronically distorted.

Many theories were offered about the Apocalypse Box's origin but none were revealed.

JMS complained that TNT had no real vision for Crusade and that he had to work with a paltry budget.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 04, 2021 2:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
JMS, along with the cast, hated the gray & red uniforms that the network insisted upon. He planned on writing a script where the uniforms were going to be "accidentally destroyed in a laundry malfunction" in the second-to-last script of season one

Damn, I HATE when that happens! Those tragic laundry malfunctions are a real buzz kill!

My daughter — All Sci-Fi member Ticket2theMoon — reluctantly confessed to me that she'd accidentally washed her ASF T-shirt with a red clothing item, and it tinted the shirt pink! But it was stained in blotches, not evenly distributed, so it spoiled the shirt . . . Sad

She was very grateful when I magnanimously forgave her (about month later), but I still cut her out my will! Evil or Very Mad

PS: Just kidding about that last part.
Laughing
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