Crusades only 1 series? Why?

[AnlaShok]

Hi,
Sorry new here, so I would like to know why Crusades was only done 1 season? I heard 5 seasons were planned originaly...true?

Thanks

Anlashok

 

[vacantlook]

First, it's technically Crusade -- no S/not plural.

As for the ultimate reason behind why Crusade was cancelled, here's what jms said at a convention.

JMS: I want the real truth to come out. Including the fact...I ran into some guys who worked for TNT about two years after Crusade went down. And they said, "Did you ever hear the rest of the story?" JMS: "What rest of the story?" TNT guys: "We found out, we did a research survey, a five year long study of our ratings. This was just after Crusade got going. And, we found out that the audience for B5 came for B5, then left afterward. And the TNT regular viewers didn't stick around for B5 and went away and came back. B5 wasn't adding to our viewer base." So...they decided to pull the plug on Crusade for that reason and use the money to buy another show. But they couldn't say that because they'd be in breach of contract with Warner Bros. So their job was to make it impossible for us so they could then say, "We aren't getting the show we want, our notes aren't being dealt with, therefore we aren't responsible, we're canceling the show, this is your nut Warner Bros., you take care of it." That is why all the notes became so egregious. If I had given them everything they wanted, they still would have pulled the plug. They just wanted out. Yeah, I want that information out there....

 

[AnlaShok]

Hey Vacantlook, thanks, yeah, dont know why I put "s" on Crusade.
I only fairly recently got into B5 and related. I got all the B5 series plus the films and got Crusade only this week. I enjoy it as well. Thanks for the info. Shame really...Crusade could have developped into something pretty interesting I think...
Are they any books available with the other Crusade stories at all?

Thanks

AnlaShok

 

[vacantlook]

No books that I know of. There were three unproduced scripts that were published somewhere -- where exactly I don't know.

Aside from the five season of B5, the telefilms set, and Crusade on DVD there's also The Legend of the Rangers and the more recently releasted The Lost Tales on DVD. I don't know if you counted them as being part of the films when you listed what all you had, but I thought I'd mention them just in case. There's also several novels that are more or less canon: The Passing of the Techno-Mages trilogy, The Legions of Fire trilogy (aka the Centauri trilogy), a trilogy dealing with the PsiCorps, The Shadow Within, and To Dream In The City Of Sorrows. Some of them are still easily purchasable, but others are difficult to come by.

 

[Jan]

No books that I know of. There were three unproduced scripts that were published somewhere -- where exactly I don't know.

No, no Crusade books. Originally the unproduced Crusade scripts were available on a site called Bookface.com but that site went 'beyond the rim' long ago. There are some good synopses of them here

Welcome to the wonderful world of B5!

Jan

 

[Cell]

I don't think there will be any new Crusade fiction either, whether in TV, movie, comic, or novel form. JMS said something along these lines last year I believe. Personally I find this very distressing as Gideon and his crew do really deserve a proper send-off in some way and their story needs to be finished in a fictional form as opposed to being told how it would go down in interview or script book form.

 

[Jan]

I don't think there will be any new Crusade fiction either, whether in TV, movie, comic, or novel form. JMS said something along these lines last year I believe.

Yes, it's a question that JMS is often asked at conventions but the answer is that he doesn't have any plans for more Crusade in print form. As for more in TV form, it's not something he can decide to do without major backing and he doesn't seem inclined to go knocking on doors to sell the idea because to his mind the story he burned to tell was Babylon 5. Anything after was lagniappe, something extra.

Jan

 

[Cell]

Well, that his prerogative, but I don't agree with him. Once he agreed to continue the story and expand upon it he changed it from ever being the self contained 5 year arc that he originally intended. Now it is something much more and needs to be treated as such.

 

[Jan]

Well, that his prerogative, but I don't agree with him. Once he agreed to continue the story and expand upon it he changed it from ever being the self contained 5 year arc that he originally intended. Now it is something much more and needs to be treated as such.

Oh, I'd love to see more, too, believe me. The problem is that even if he wanted to do more Crusade really really badly...he can't. He doesn't own it, WB does. They require a hefty licensing fee to allow anything in the B5 universe and, in the case of print, JMS would have to find a publisher, be it comic or novel. He's said that if somebody wants to approach WB, he's willing to talk.

Jan

 

[AnlaShok]

Thanks for your replies and info! I will search for some of these B5 novels, cheers!