Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers: "To Live and Die by Starlight"

It is 19 January 2002, and time for the first (and only) episode of Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers.

Human Ranger David Martell (Dylan Neal) orders a retreat during a pitched space battle, breaking a cardinal rule of the Rangers - to never retreat in the face of the enemy. Rather than get exiled from the order entirely, he is assigned the command of a decrepit and potentially haunted starship and give escort duty for a group of ambassadors on their way to a conference. The convoy is attacked, putting the lives of all the ambassadors in Martell's hands and revealing a new alien menace that threatens the entire galaxy.

Babylon 5 ran for five years 110 episodes. Its follow-up, Crusade, lasted only one season of 13 episodes. J. Michael Straczynski's third attempt for a Babylon 5 series lasted just under 90 minutes. I feel there is a law of diminishing returns to this franchise. The Legend of the Rangers was a 2002 TV movie produced as a pilot to an intended ongoing series for the Sci-Fi Channel, but of course no such series ultimately eventuated. Having watched its sole episode, I am not entirely surprised.

Crusade: "Each Night I Dream of Home"

It is 1 September 1999, and time for the final episode of Crusade.

The Excalibur is ordered to return to Earth to participate in a vital experiment, run by former Babylon 5 medical officer Dr Stephen Franklin (Richard Biggs). On the way they pick up current Babylon 5 commanding officer Dr Elizabeth Lochley (Tracy Scoggins). They are then attacked by a group of Drakh vessels, intent on preventing the experiment from taking place.

Crusade comes to its ignoble end, not with a bang or a whimper but with an hour of profound and slightly muddled mediocrity. Things happen, characters have conversations, the over-arching plot of the series is advanced, but it all feels too weakly developed to have any kind of effect. It almost feels like the whole of Crusade in miniature: the ideas are too derivative to grab the viewer's attention, the characters are lacklustre and stereotypical, and too much of the dialogue is poorly written and uninteresting.

Crusade: "Visitors from Down the Street"

It is 25 August 1999, and time for another episode of Crusade.

The Excalibur picks up a damaged alien escape pod. Inside they find two aliens dressed in late 20th century human suits. They seem to believe their planet has been visited numerous times by humans - despite the two races having never met before - and accuse Captain Gideon (Gary Cole) of participating in a decades-long conspiracy to subjugate and manipulate their world, with the assistance of their own government.

I have always been ambivalent about Babylon 5: I gave it a good shot when it was first broadcast, but a growing number of irritants in the series - mainly the dialogue and acting - eventually drove me away partway through. I completed a beginning-to-end viewing of the series on this blog, and while I came to appreciate the series a lot more the second time around it remains a regularly mediocre show. I had never seen its spin-off Crusade at all, but having finished Babylon 5 itself it did not seem too onerous a task to watch the small number of sequel TV movies and Crusade just to cover the entire franchise from beginning to end. That attempt just got really onerous. I am not sure if "Visitors from Down the Street" is the worst episode of the franchise ever, but it is certainly floating down at the bottom of the barrel.

Crusade: "The Needs of Earth"

It is 18 August 1999, and time for another episode of Crusade.

Based on intelligence gained from the Rangers, Gideon (Gary Cole) sets off to rescue an alien dissident who is on the run with his planet's most critical data. Once he finds the alien, his second challenge is to keep him safe when the alien's government comes looking for him.

"The Needs of Earth" is probably the strongest episode of Crusade so far. Due to the interference by TNT in the series' running order and content, it was scheduled here as the 11th of 13 episodes. It was actually intended to be much earlier into the run, and that's really obvious in the final episode. It would have bolstered the season's earlier episodes considerably, and while I doubt that it would have been enough to keep the audience watching it would likely have led more science fiction fans to warm to the series' potential.

Crusade: "The Memory of War"

It is 11 August 1999 and time for another episode of Crusade.

Despite Galen (Peter Woodward) warning them not to investigate, the crew of the Excalibur head down to a long-dead planet in search of evidence of the Drakh plague. They are unsuccessful, and instead find the planet ravaged by a nanotech virus that turns each member of the crew into a homicidal maniac.

"The Memory of War" is a difficult episode to write about, not because it is bad - and it is - but because it is unexpectedly and remarkably boring. It is the sort of episode that sits there: its basic ideas are sound but unimaginative, the cast are talented but under-used, the script is a little tedious but far from the worst writing in the series so far. It is simply generic and dull, and wastes the viewer's time.

Crusade: "Racing the Night"

It's 4 August 1999, and time for another episode of Crusade.

An Excalibur crew member is killed while surveying a long-dead planet, leading Gideon (Gary Cole) and his crew to discover that the planet is not as dead as they had been led to believe. Its inhabitants may hold the cure to the Drakh plague - if only Gideon could find them.

A bit of production history is needed to better explain "Racing the Night". After the first few episodes of Crusade had been shot, broadcaster TNT demanded some changes and retooling of the series in return for a modest budget increase. They also wound up taking those early episodes - which TNT executives did not particularly like - and shifted them back to the second half of the series. The result was that there's a lot of Crusade that simply doesn't make a lot of sense, because characters occasionally refer to things that have not happened yet, or their interpersonal relationships shift from hot to cold and back on an episode-by-episode basis. "Racing the Night" was shot with the expectation that it would be the second episode broadcast, but instead it was presented as ninth.

Crusade: "Appearances and Other Deceits"

It's 28 July 1999, and time for another episode of Crusade.

While a pair of Earth government propagandists fuss over how to make the Excalibur more appealing to the general public, the ship stumbles upon a derelict alien spacecraft. Its entire crew is dead, save for one alien held in cryogenic stasis. When the alien is brought back to Excalibur to be revived, a dangerous unearthly force is released onto the ship - placing the entire crew in grave peril.

A few quibbles aside, "Appearances and Other Deceits" is possibly Crusade's first genuinely great episode. It has a fast pace, and its narrative is based around a smart and intriguing concept. It remains imperfect due to one guest character in particular, but if you can put him to one side the remainder is a clever, tense and broadly enjoyable hour of science fiction television.

Crusade: "The Rules of the Game"

It's 21 July 1999, and time for another episode of Crusade.

Gideon (Gary Cole) needs permission to land on the planet Lorka 7, in the hopes that a long-dead civilization there may provide a cure to the Drakh plague. This brings the Excalibur to Babylon 5, where he attempts to negotiate with the suspicious Lorkans who now live on the planet. While on the station Eilerson (David Allen Brooks) meets his ex-wife, and learns she is heavily in debt to a local loan shark.

"The Rules of the Game" is a messy and underwhelming episode, one that appears to rehash old and well-worn Babylon 5 plot elements without anything particularly new or innovative to justify it. It is typical of what seems to be the Crusade formula: reheated leftovers from an earlier and better series, produced with what strikes me as a surprising lack of enthusiasm. I don't get the sense that anybody is enjoying making this show: not the cast, not the production team, and certainly not the writer. J. Michael Straczynski is absolutely writing on automatic here.

Crusade: "Ruling from the Tomb"

It is 14 July 1999, and time for another episode of Crusade.

Dr Chalmers (Marjean Holden) has been invited to address a Mars-based medical conference aimed at uniting human scientists in the fight against the Drakh plague. While Gideon (Gary Cole) fights with Captain Elizabeth Lochley (Tracy Scoggins) over security arrangements, a religious cult aims to disrupt the conference - and hopefully let the human race die out instead.

After five episodes in the opening titles but in the episode, Tracy Scoggins finally makes her Crusade debut as Babylon 5 commanding officer Elizabeth Lochley. It takes a bit of a contortion in terms of storytelling for her to arrive - former B5 medical chief Stephen Franklin recommended her for the job - but she is a welcome presence. Despite being woefully underused in Babylon 5's last year, Lochley managed to be a pretty strong character and Scoggins plays her well. Her appearance here, and romantic overtures between her and Gideon, work very well.

Crusade: "Patterns of the Soul"

It's 7 July 1999, and time for another episode of Crusade.

The Excalibur is diverted to a human colony on Theta 49, where the population may have become infected with the Drakh plague while fleeing Earth. While exploring the planet Dureena makes an unexpected discovery - a long-lost community of her own species.

Here's the thing about Crusade: it is almost impossible to feel fully engaged by it. It has a cast of characters, and it has a setting, and those characters move through that setting having adventures. Things happen, and those things affect the characters, and the bottom line is that I struggle to care. The episodes that have worked so far have done so just barely. They have been reasonably engaging diversions, but they have not added up to anything that has made me enthused about seeing the next episode. Five episodes in and I am struggling to remember the characters' names.

Crusade: "The Path of Sorrows"

It is 30 June 1999, and time for another episode of Crusade.

While exploring an alien tomb, the crew of the Excalibur stumble upon a strange meditating alien encased in a transparent sphere. After discovering the creature bears unique psychic powers, Gideon (Gary Cole), Matheson (Daniel Dae Kim) and Galen (Peter Woodward) each experience a flashback to a pivotal moment in each of their pasts - and a confession that each feels compelled to make.

This is actually a rather odd episode. Its unusual style and tone makes me like it quite a bit more than the previous three episodes of Crusade. I am still not convinced this is a good television series in general, but at least with episodes like "The Path of Sorrows" it is visibly trying to be.

Crusade: "The Well of Forever"

It's 23 June 1999, and time for another episode of Crusade.

As the Excalibur progresses on its mission to find a cure for the Drakh plague, Galen (Peter Woodward) suggests investigating the mythical Well of Forever. Captain Gideon (Gary Cole) agrees, only to find the Excalibur is no longer under his control. Meanwhile Lt Matheson (Daniel Dae Kim) is scheduled to be scanned by a government representative, as part of Earth's post-PsiCorp governance of telepaths.

I did not hate "The Well of Forever". By no means did I fall head over heels in love with it, but it did not annoy me too often and it occasionally managed to even do something interesting. It certainly uses its regular cast more evenly than the previous two episodes - although there is still a bizarrely strong focus on Galen - and is a huge step in quality from the relatively dire "The Long Road". The only lingering concern I have is this: did I enjoy this episode because it was independently enjoyable, or did I enjoy it simply because it was not as bad as "The Long Road"?

Crusade: "The Long Road"

It is 16 June 1999, and time for another episode of Crusade.

When the Earth Alliance finds a mineral deposit that may delay the effects of the Drakh plague, they immediately begin strip-mining an isolated colony planet. The local population, who have taken to a low technology life-style, rebel against the destruction of their home and take a group of Earthforce personnel hostage. Earthforce, however, is more concerned about the dragon - conjured up by a technomage (Edward Woodward) who has taken to living on the planet.

This is a dreadful piece of television. There is not a qualifier, or an excuse, or some vague explanation of 'oh but the network did this', or 'they were trying to do that'. It is just generally awful. The script by J. Michael Stracyznski is as superficial and trite as his work work back during Babylon 5's first season, and Mike Vejar's direction - usually pretty reliable - is weak and uninspired. It all looks astonishingly cheap, as if those involved had never met a television production budget before and simply figured a believable computer-generated dragon would be possible. I suspect guest star Edward Woodward - father of series regular Peter Woodward - knew he was in a bad episode, since he spends the hour over-acting and treating the entire thing as a bit of a farce. He was right: it is a farce. With episodes like this there is no longer a question of how Crusade got cancelled so much as how it managed to last thirteen episodes before it was.

Crusade: "War Zone"

It's 6 June 1999, and time for the first episode of Crusade.

The Earth has been struck by a deadly alien plague. While not designed to affect humans, the plague will continue to rapidly evolve. Within five years all human life on Earth will be dead. To search for a cure, Captain Matthew Gideon (Gary Cole) is given command of the state-of-the-art starship Excalibur and dispatched to find a cure at any cost. Before his mission can begin however, he must follow a distress signal that may lead to a crashed spacecraft full of Drakh - the species who unleashed the virus.

After TNT purchased the broadcast rights to a fifth and final season of Babylon 5, they soon commissioned a spin-off series. Set five years after Babylon 5, the series would be set not on a space station but a roving starship. Its crew could have a variety of science fiction adventures while searching for a cure to save the human race. Sadly the series that creator/producer J. Michael Straczynski wanted to make and the series TNT executives wanted him to make were starkly different. The relationship between producer and broadcaster deteriorated. Interference in the creative process compromised the series badly in Straczynski's eyes. Internal research undertaken by TNT found that Babylon 5 fans did not watch other TNT content, and viewers of that content did not watch Babylon 5. All in all it became apparent the series was a very poor fit for the station, and it wound up being cancelled before a single episode made it to air. The original order for 13 episodes was fulfilled, but despite attempts to re-sell the show to other stations (notably the Sci-Fi Channel) Crusade was over before it began.

Babylon 5: "A Call to Arms"

It's 3 January 1999, and time for another Babylon 5 made-for-television movie.

Just over a month after Babylon 5 aired its final regular episode, it returned to TNT with one more TV movie. Written by J. Michael Straczynski and directed by series regular Mike Vejar, the film returns to the Babylon 5 universe five years after Sheridan left the station for Minbar. To be honest "A Call to Arms" is less of a self-contained film and more of a slightly askew pilot episode. While it only features a handful of characters from the sequel series Crusade, it sets up its entire back story and creative direction.

While President Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) is inspecting the Interstellar Alliance's new battlecruisers - the Victory and the Excalibur - he receives a strange message in a dream from the technomage Galen (Peter Woodward). It leads him back to Babylon 5 and into contact with Earthforce Captain Anderson (Tony Todd) and alien thief Dureena Nafeel (Carrie Dobro). Together they embark on a mission to stop the villainous Drakh, former servants of the Shadows, from destroying all life on planet Earth.

Babylon 5: "The River of Souls"

It's 17 November 1998, and time for another Babylon 5 TV movie.

Archaeologist Robert Bryson (future Emmy and SAG nominee Ian McShane) comes to Babylon 5 with a stolen alien artefact. While the artefact begins to exert a strange psychic power over Bryson, he is followed by a powerful Soul Hunter (future six-time Emmy nominee Martin Sheen) who is desperate to retrieve it at all costs.

"The River of Souls" is an interesting made-for-television film for two reasons. Firstly, it is the first Babylon 5 storyline - outside of the series finale - to be set beyond the original five-year timeline. Secondly it is genuinely odd to see two major and widely acclaimed dramatic actors - Ian McShane and Martin Sheen - performing in a series that is considerably below the quality standards to which both men are now accustomed.

Babylon 5: "Thirdspace"

It's 19 July 1998, and time for more Babylon 5; in this case the second of TNT's made-for-television films, Thirdspace.

While returning to Babylon 5 Commander Ivanova (Claudia Christian) and her squadron discover an enormous alien object drifting in hyperspace. They bring it to the station, where initial tests show it to be more than a million years old. While a pair of scientists investigate and research the object, people on the station begin to fall under its power. Some dream of a mysterious alien city, others begin to lose their minds. Before long everyone is in mortal peril if Captain Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) cannot destroy the object, and the gateway to 'thirdspace' within it.

Shot immediately following the conclusion of Season 4, and narratively wedged somewhere in the middle of it, "Thirdspace" sees Babylon 5 re-tooled as a Hollywood action film. It boasts punch-ups and martial arts fights, big visual spectacles, one of the series' biggest-ever space battles, and more CGI in 90 minutes that was squeezed into all 22 episodes of Season 1. It is big, loud and rather stupid, but it's also rather silly fun.

Babylon 5: "In the Beginning"

It's 4 January 1998, and time for a Babylon 5 made-for-television film: In the Beginning.

Picking up the rights to Babylon 5 for just one season must have been a difficult choice for TNT. Why spend the money making and promoting a new series for your channel only to end it after just 22 episodes? I strongly suspect this why TNT also moved forward with a series of TV movies. They could exploit higher production budgets, be packaged individually for home video release, and extend the property a little further than just the single season. It made a lot of financial sense. Had they been more successful there's a good chance that TNT could have made a lot more of them in subsequent years. Sadly this did not prove to be the case, and in the end they only produced four.

While it was the second TV movie to be shot, In the Beginning was the first to be aired. It premiered in January 1998, just before TNT's launch of the fifth season. It recounts the events of the Earth-Minbari War that dominated the back story of Babylon 5, and showed the participation of several of the series' key characters: Sheridan, Delenn, Franklin, Londo and G'Kar.

Babylon 5: Season 5 in Review

Where does one begin?

The short version: Babylon 5 was initially conceived and promoted as a five-season series with a serialised storyline. It was to have a beginning, a middle and an end; essentially a novel made for television. Halfway through making Season 4 it became clear that PTEN, the cable network that originally commissioned Babylon 5 was not going to survive into 1998. Without a new network immediately willing to pick the series up for one more season it appeared that Babylon 5 would conclude at the end of its fourth year. As a result, series creator and writer J. Michael Straczynski made some edits to the plot of Season 4. A storyline about the Minbari civil war was truncated fiercely, and the intended first four episodes of Season 5 moved back into the end of Season 4. Those changes would at least conclude the liberation of Earth from its corrupt government and give the series a broad sense of closure.

A last minute reprieve came via TNT, which commissioned a fifth and final season quite late in the day. The series finale "Sleeping in Light" was put aside for a year, a hasty replacement recorded and slotted in its place, and Season 5 was left to kick-start a series that had for all intents and purposes already wound down to conclude.

So how does Season 5 fare under those circumstances? Not too well, to be honest.

Babylon 5: "Sleeping in Light"

Just over four years ago I stumbled upon a copy of Babylon 5's original made-for-television film, "The Gathering", and decided to watch it again. I had seen it when it was originally released and quite liked it, and had gone on to watch the subsequent television series. The first time around I found the series a fairly frustrating thing, with every decent episode or performance matched by one that seemed pretty substandard or even actively awful. When the series chose to end a multi-season story arc in its fourth season with the protagonist shouting at the enemy to "get the hell out of our galaxy" I quit watching the series altogether.

After rewatching "The Gathering" I tracked down a copy of Season 1 and rewatched that. I reviewed each episode as I went. From there I moved on to the second season, then the third, and eventually through to the fourth and beyond the point where I quit the first time around. Now I have watched the final episode, "Sleeping in Light". I may be almost two decades late, but I have finally completed Babylon 5.

So, for the last time on this blog: it's 25 November 1998, and time for another episode of Babylon 5.