Story: Racing the Night
Written By: J. Michael Straczynski
Season: Crusade
This is the episode Straczynski thought was the best to be the start of the show? Maybe he isn’t so wise after all. Beyond an element early on about Gideon being introduced to the Excalibur via flashback or dream, this is a bad way to start the show. TNT wanted episodes with a bit more explanation as to the plot and the characters, JMS wanted to just jump in and assume everyone would catch up. And because he didn’t want to do it TNT’s way, when he made the episodes the way they wanted, he made them sloppy because Straczynski is kind of a child. Doesn’t get his way (however wrongheaded his way actually is), he puts in lackluster work. The episodes that actually give an explanation as to what is going on, are average and lame, and the episode he actually wanted to start off with feels like you are missing major character and series plot elements.
This episode is about Excalibur discovering another planet that had been stricken by the same plague as Earth, only their way of dealing with it is to kill and experiment on anyone who comes across their planet, hoping to find a cure that way. IT is a decent idea that feels like it’s missing major elements because this show was poorly planned out and produced, because the cooperation between TNT and Straczynski was nil.
It seems that was hurting this series, is that it was rushed…TNT initially wanted to make a little more money off of Babylon 5, which they had picked up for it’s final season. Maybe one year and a couple TV movies wasn’t what they were hoping for when they nabbed it. So they ordered the spin-off, and Straczynski was ready to do it and instead of taking time to develop an actual series they both rushed in, and neither was on the same page as to what they wanted from it.
I don’t think Straczynski was right in that this is how the series should begin, but TNT lost faith in the show pretty quickly when they realized that the demographics for B5 and Crusade were not watching the rest of their programming, and those watching the rest of their programming weren’t watching B5…it stopped seeing the point in pumping money into something that didn’t help their overall brand, and their meddling only made Straczynski bitter.
This episode is okay, but it sort of highlights many of the inherent flaws Crusade had in it’s series plan.
NEXT TIME: X-Files Parody
Written By: J. Michael Straczynski
Season: Crusade
This is the episode Straczynski thought was the best to be the start of the show? Maybe he isn’t so wise after all. Beyond an element early on about Gideon being introduced to the Excalibur via flashback or dream, this is a bad way to start the show. TNT wanted episodes with a bit more explanation as to the plot and the characters, JMS wanted to just jump in and assume everyone would catch up. And because he didn’t want to do it TNT’s way, when he made the episodes the way they wanted, he made them sloppy because Straczynski is kind of a child. Doesn’t get his way (however wrongheaded his way actually is), he puts in lackluster work. The episodes that actually give an explanation as to what is going on, are average and lame, and the episode he actually wanted to start off with feels like you are missing major character and series plot elements.
It seems that was hurting this series, is that it was rushed…TNT initially wanted to make a little more money off of Babylon 5, which they had picked up for it’s final season. Maybe one year and a couple TV movies wasn’t what they were hoping for when they nabbed it. So they ordered the spin-off, and Straczynski was ready to do it and instead of taking time to develop an actual series they both rushed in, and neither was on the same page as to what they wanted from it.
I don’t think Straczynski was right in that this is how the series should begin, but TNT lost faith in the show pretty quickly when they realized that the demographics for B5 and Crusade were not watching the rest of their programming, and those watching the rest of their programming weren’t watching B5…it stopped seeing the point in pumping money into something that didn’t help their overall brand, and their meddling only made Straczynski bitter.
This episode is okay, but it sort of highlights many of the inherent flaws Crusade had in it’s series plan.
NEXT TIME: X-Files Parody
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