Crusade: What the Hell Happened? Volume 1

Crusade: What the Hell Happened? #1

by J. Michael Straczynski

Inside WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED? Volume One's 402 pages, you willJ. Michael Straczynski's introduction, revealing--* The first part of what the hell really did happen to CRUSADE, in Straczynskian detail, chronicling what he describes as the "birth, short life and long painful death" of the series.* How he nearly wandered down Rod Serling's "velvet alley."* Why A CALL TO ARMS might be called a "back door pilot."* How he named the EXCALIBUR to get back at the studio executives.* How he chose the final design for the EXCALIBUR and how that decision recalled a famous STAR TREK anecdote.* Revealed for the first the beloved B5 actor JMS wanted to play Galen...and how the network made that impossible.* How he planned to "sneak" BABYLON 5 cast members into CRUSADE.* Which bit of casting JMS considered akin to "looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack."* How BABYLON 5 was dismantled in front of the cast and crew, bit by bit.* What unusual feature was built into the EXCALIBUR set to facilitate production of the series.* Which of JMS's favorite actors once again failed to sit in the captain's chair due to the studio's peculiar notions of future nationalism.* For the first the secret about CRUSADE that JMS has held for 10 years.* Who John Matheson was named after.* JMS's amusing rationalization for casting Marjean Holden as Dr. Chambers after she appeared as another character in A CALL TO ARMS.* The "whacky way" the network decided that Tracy Scoggins should be featured in CRUSADE.* The actor TNT didn't want...after he was cast.* The context in which JMS referred to the series as 90210.* How writing more planetary scenes in the last year of BABYLON 5 helped to prepare for CRUSADE.* The decision he made for A CALL TO ARMS that carried into CRUSADE and that he now considers a mistake.* How he originally wrote "Racing the Night"...and how network notes "filed off the edges and knocked off the corners."* Why he reasoned that placating and cooperating with the network in the beginning would serve him in the end.* What still bugs JMS in "Racing the Night," every time he sees it.ALL THAT* Heretofore only seen by a privileged few, two promotional scripts (written early in BABYLON 5's fourth season) and designed to sell** A seven-page script featuring Sheridan in which the cast of characters is mostly drawn from Babylon 5 but also includes a woman named Shereena and the mysterious Mr. Jones.** The second promo script is eight pages and features Zathras critiquing the pitch for CRUSADE.* Two early treatments titled THE BABYLON CRUSADE, which feature different names for characters who did appear (Captain Singleton) and some who didn't (Mathras, not a typo). A highlight of the later treatment is the one-paragraph descriptions of plots for thirteen episodes, only one of which was filmed ("Visitors From Down the Street"). You'll find out what episode ideas were never explored.* THE EVE OF DESTRUCTION, a premise for the film that would become A CALL TO ARMS that featured roles for Londo and G'Kar as well as a revised treatment where Galen was an active participant in the battle against the Drakh.* The first draft of A CALL TO ARMS, featuring different dialogue throughout and Samuel Drake’s deleted motivation for betraying Earth to the Drakh.* The first draft of "Racing the Night," featuring a very different motivation for the alien antagonist, which results in a very different second half of the script.* To highlight all the differences, also included are two analyses tracing the evolution of A CALL TO ARMS and "Racing the Night" from first draft to finished product, highlighting all the changes made throughout the process. Think of it as Joe Cuts on steroids with no detail considered too small, which also includes a "script to screen" inventory of the differences between the scripts and the finished episodes.* 76 pieces of previously uncollected art by visual effects art director Tim Earls, concept artist Luc Mayrand and costume designer Randy Gardell from A CALL TO ARMS and "Racing the Night" featuring --** Interiors and exteriors of the EXCALIBUR (including the unused engine room and captain's office)** Variations on the map room** Ten variations on the skimmer** Different takes on the Shadow death cloud** Alien ships** Planetary landscapes (including Daltron 7)** Kulan's World** Makeup designs** Costumes** Props** A CALL TO ARMS storyboards* Also included are six pages of drawings devoted to the evolution of the EXCALIBUR design from mid-way through the filming of BABYLON 5's fourth season to the production of A CALL TO ARMS over a year later. You'll see how the design radically varied from designs influenced by Minbari aesthetics to concepts akin to American P-38 fighters from World War II.

Genres: Babylon 5, Reference, Science Fiction

402 pages, Paperback

First published August 25, 2010

About the author

Joseph Michael Straczynski is an American filmmaker and comic book writer. He is the founder of Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Studio JMS and is best known as the creator of the science fiction television series Babylon 5 (1993–1998) and its spinoff Crusade (1999), as well as the series Jeremiah (2002–2004) and Sense8 (2015–2018). He is the executor of the estate of Harlan Ellison.
Straczynski wrote the psychological drama film Changeling (2008) and was co-writer on the martial arts thriller Ninja Assassin (2009), was one of the key writers for (and had a cameo in) Marvel's Thor (2011), as well as the horror film Underworld: Awakening (2012), and the apocalyptic horror film World War Z (2013). From 2001 to 2007, Straczynski wrote Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man, followed by runs on Thor and Fantastic Four. He is the author of the Superman: Earth One trilogy of graphic novels, and he has written Superman, Wonder Woman, and Before Watchmen for DC Comics. Straczynski is the creator and writer of several original comic book series such as Rising Stars, Midnight Nation, Dream Police, and Ten Grand through Joe's Comics.
A prolific writer across a variety of media and former journalist, Straczynski is the author of the autobiography Becoming Superman (2019) for HarperVoyager, the novel Together We Will Go (2021) for Simon & Schuster, and Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer (2021) for Benbella Books. In 2020 he was named Head of the Creative Council for the comics publishing company Artists, Writers and Artisans.
Straczynski is a long-time participant in Usenet and other early computer networks, interacting with fans through various online forums (including GEnie, CompuServe, and America Online) since 1984. He is credited as being the first TV producer to directly engage with fans on the Internet and to allow viewer viewpoints to influence the look and feel of his show. Two prominent areas where he had a presence were GEnie and the newsgroup rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated.

Reviews

[Michelle Tackabery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Illuminating, but ultimately frustrating. JMS walked into the TNT agreement knowing it was not going to work, but there is nothing here that shows him taking responsibility for the many mistakes that were made with the series(alien of the week, too much CGI, stiff dialogue, characters forced to represent whole character groups on their own (the corporate guy, the doctor, the soldier, the teep), and addressing the new series to attract new fans instead of trusting the B5 fans that already existed).

While I agree that Crusade got shafted in a large part because TNT did not know what they were doing with their very first series, I don't know if the series could have survived with what was planned. Perhaps, but my feeling after reading this compilation was that it was not going to make it no matter what fortune it may have been granted. Having read many of the excellent books that came out of the universe (especially the trilogies about Galen, Vir and Bester/Garibaldi after B5), I can only wish now that JMS had not taken the TNT bait, given it a few years and then have a series that told those stories,

[Royden Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

First read this when it came out, decided to re-read it now that the remaining volumes had come out. I am saddened that the series never got to be what it could have been, as well as that we will never learn where it would have gone but am glad for what we did get.

[Chris Aylott · Rating 4 out of 5]

The inside story of TNT's interference is entertaining, but what I'm really enjoying is the production drawings and version comparisons of the scripts. This has me wanting to watch Crusade again for the first time since it originally aired.

[Peter De Kinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly an account of the dealings of JMS leading up to the start of Crusade, added with an overview of the writes/rewrites of the Call to Arms movie.