BPP Crusade 101 – War Zone

The Babylon Project Podcast

Here we go! Having finished the original series and the movies, we’ve made our way to the spin-off series “Crusade”. For the fans of the B5 time line, the events in this series take place in 2267, just five years after the original series ended, and a year after the events in the movie “A Call to Arms”. This episode originally aired on June 9, 1999, and was the first of only 13 episodes that made their way to television. There were apparently a full 22 episodes planned, but the series was canceled early. It appears there was some intent for another five-year story, similar to Babylon 5, but after seeing this episode, it was the opinion of your hosts that it may have been more wishful thinking than a well-planned and five year arc. We also agreed that while this is clearly a follow-on series in the B5 universe and timeline, it’s definitely not Babylon 5. (Not a criticism; just an observation.) As a result, this episode felt much more like the first episode of a new series than perhaps it could have as a deliberate follow-on to the original storyline.

The show opens with a nice and concise recap of the events that brought us to the start of this series. Earth is quarantined after being contaminated by the Drakh virus we saw released at the end of A Call to Arms, and humanity as we know it has an estimated five years or so to find a cure, or die. With loose plans afoot to start the search for a cure, Captain Gideon, with his ship and crew have been ordered back to Earth. As the show begins, we see his crew attempting to mutiny (BOOM!) to prevent going back, apparently considering in a panic that the only reason they’re returning is to go back to the surface and be exposed.

Things quiet down and Gideon meets with his leadership to receive his new assignment: he will become the captain of the Excalibur, now designated as a research and exploration vessel, with the mission to find a cure. He is given a new crew, chosen for him, but quickly establishes that he won’t take the mission without his First Officer from his old ship, and also the addition of Dureena the thief. The new cast/crew is established.

Elsewhere, we see an Earth Force destroyer chasing down a Drakh vessel they believe was one of the ships that attacked Earth and released the virus. Following some more BOOM, the Drakh ship ends up crashing on Ceti 4. Ensuring the word gets back through a jerry-rigged beacon, we see handsome, daring men in flight jackets, with chiseled jaws and voices that at times sound almost like they’re from a movie from the 1940s or 50s rather than a TV show made in the 1990s and set in the 2200s. (A bit much? Maybe.) We also hear about the continuing tensions created by the power of giant companies vs. governments, and specifically IPX (from our previous reviews). The Excalibur still needs to complete testing / trials but now, due to the urgency of finding the cure, we see the ship and crew being tugged from mission to mission. We also see the return of Galen (the Technomage). While you can make the connections yourself to the ultimate mission of the ship, initially it seems we keep seeing Excalibur taking care of business that isn’t quite a direct line toward solving the problem. It wasn’t clear to us if this was a rapid attempt to create a sense of urgency, a way to quickly introduce us to the new crew as they work through a series of issues, or just a choppy start to the new storyline. In the end, we all agreed that as with any new series, we should give it several episodes to find its groove.

Excalibur races to Ceti 4, and we also see that the Drakh have help on the way too. The result is we get some more BOOM, perhaps as a reason to show there the Excalibur either had a few weapons we didn’t get to see before, or possibly some quick upgrades that were made to its secondary guns. The main gun (which we see fired) still drains the ship of power though, resulting in a minute of vulnerability as the necessary power levels are restored.

As the episode ends, Galen is waiting for Captain Gideon, and Gideon asks him for help. We also hear some familiar questions from Galen, and Captain Gideon’s answers:

What do you want? To find a cure for the Drakh plague.
Where are you going? Anywhere I have to.
Who do you serve, and who do you trust? I don’t know.

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Just remember… No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There’s always a boom tomorrow!

https://babylonprojectpodcast.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/bpp-crusade-01.mp3