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he place is the universe introduced by Straczynksi's previous television series, Babylon 5. The time is several years into John Sheridan's tenure as president of the Interplanetary Alliance, and shortly after the TV movie "A Call To Arms." Earth has been infected by a slow-motion plague created by the Shadows and nurtured by their erstwhile servants, the Drakh. Unless a cure is found, every man, woman and child on the planet will be dead within five years.
Capt. Matthew Gideon (Cole) has been assigned command of the Excalibur, a prototype starship combining human and Minbari technology. Its five-year mission, unlike others we could name, has a life-or-death deadline: to search unexplored areas of space for a cure to the Drakh infection.
Gideon's crew includes Lt. John Matheson (Daniel Dae Kim), a telepath operating under strict restrictions in the aftermath of the (brewing throughout Babylon 5 but as yet undramatized) war with the telepath organization known as Psi-Corps; Dr. Sarah Chambers (Marjean Holden), a physician dedicated to gathering the Excalibur's findings into a workable cure; and Max Eilerson (Brooks), an arrogant, self-centered but grudgingly likable corporation man drafted as the mission's linguist and archaeologist.
His allies include Dureena Nefeel (Dobro), a talented thief whose race was all but wiped out by a previous Drakh plague; Galen (Woodward), a technomage who comes and goes according to his own unknowable priorities; and Capt. Elizabeth Lochley (Tracy Scoggins), still commander of Babylon 5, whose growing flirtation with Gideon provides a couple of excuses for our easily distracted hero to spend his free time aboard the embattled space station of Straczynski's previous series.
A journey sadly cut short
As evident a number of times in recent months, "complete series" available on several-disc DVD sets denote series that were, for whatever reason, canceled well before their time.
As much as Crusade deserved to run its full course, the suspense unresolved by its unjust early cancellation is softened by a number of factors. First, thanks to pre-existing Babylon 5 stories set after the five-year arc of this show, we knew going in that Earth's population is eventually saved; the focus was on the adventures Gideon and crew get to experience during their quest. And, second, as the show never survived its shakedown cruise, the completed episodes are all, by and large, standalone stories that don't depend on deep investment in an ongoing arc. There are hints of deeper themes developing, but within the 13 episodes they remain just hints. No subplots progress far enough to sink hooks into viewers' skin. The missed opportunities are a shame, but they remain, largely, unfelt.
The characters are well drawn, with Galen, Dureena and Eilerson the most interesting; all are magnetic as written and as portrayed by their respective actors, and it would have been fun to see where Straczynski and company intended to go with them. The 13 episodes include a number of substantial high points, if sometimes only in excerpt. (All the following, but one, are by Straczynski.) "The Long Road" is rendered special by the casting of the venerable Edward Woodward (Peter's father) as the technomage Alwyn. The Woodwards have such a ball acting with each other that their duet raises the otherwise modest episode to the level of series highlight. "The Rules of the Game" is set on Babylon 5 and features a memorable subplot humanizing the arrogant, selfish Eilerson. "The Memory of War," a don't-go-down-on-that-planet parable, ends with an extended silent scene between Galen and Dureena that would have been entirely ruined by the presence of dialogue: maybe the best moment of the series. In "The Needs of Earth," Excalibur rescues a fugitive bearing vital information from his planet, but the information is not what Gideon expects, and it gives the story a surprising real-world resonance. Babylon 5 fans will also appreciate the appearance of the late Richard Biggs, in the final episode, "Each Night I Dream of Home."
In the silliest episode, "Visitors from Down the Street," Excalibur rescues a pair of aliens who speak perfect English, dress in suits and ties, and in both personality and rhetoric bear a suspicious resemblance to a certain pair of alien-hunting FBI agents from a much longer-running series. There's another primally silly moment in Fiona Avery's "The Well of Forever," in which the Excalibur encounters huge, barely sentient space jellyfish known as the Fen, one of whom responds to its presence by doing something a disgusted Gideon refers to as "getting fresh with my ship."
Unfortunately, that latter episode is also a display of one of the show's biggest flaws (at least within this truncated run): its on-again, off-again sense of urgency. Galen takes the Excalibur off course on an extended, risky mission that turns out to be a glorified personal errand—granted, one that is deeply personal to him, but one that steals precious time from the mission to save billions of lives. Gideon is upset, but mostly because his command has been circumvented, not because the Excalibur can't afford to spend days indulging the personal mania of an individual. The flirtation between Gideon and Lochley also feels off: He talks about looking forward to his next leave so he can take her out to dinner again, but it's hard to believe that a ship with that many lives riding on its mission would be getting all that many leaves. Or that members of its crew, let alone its command, would be looking forward to them.
Too, not enough is made of the fact that, for all the Drakh Plague's potential body count, the humanity of this fictional universe is not really in any immediate danger of extinction. There are any number of off-world colonies, space stations and the like, some (like Mars) already independent. Rescuing Earth, still the center of humanity's power and likely its greatest population center, is naturally a priority, but mankind's eggs are no longer all in one basket, and the show never really addresses that, though it certainly had little chance to.
The set includes one episode commentary by cast members Woodward and Dobro, plus director Janet Greek and writer Fiona Avery, and another by Straczynski. (It would have been special to hear Woodward's commentary on the episode where he appeared opposite his father, but alas, it's a criminally missed opportunity.) The documentaries include "Forging Excalibur," a fun look at the creative process that went behind the design of the spaceship.
For an actor of genuine presence, talent and versatility, Gary Cole (currently an unpromising presidential candidate on The West Wing) has headlined far too many quality TV series that went belly-up before their time. Midnight Caller and American Gothic also deserved much better than they got. —Adam-Troy
Also in this issue: Alone in the Dark and Macbeth DVD
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