Cancelled Before It Began: Babylon 5 – The Legend of the Rangers

johnnyjay

4 years ago

The Legends of the Rangers had its faults, but it also had plenty of potential to develop into a strong continuation of the B5 universe.

What Is It?

This television movie acted as a new chapter in the Babylon 5 story that was designed to launch an ongoing series. It takes place at the end of the Shadow War (which concluded in Season 4 of B5) as the Rangers work together with the Interstellar Alliance to keep the peace among the worlds impacted by the war. Ranger David Martell is given command of the old and damaged Minbari ship Liandra (considered by many to be cursed) as a disciplinary action for his failure to follow orders. He and his ragtag crew are then sent on a mission to escort another Minbari ship carrying diplomats to a secret location. When they arrive at their destination, they come in contact and do battle with an ancient alien force known as The Hand, and they come to realize that it presents a grave threat to a galaxy still recovering from a devastating war.

Aired: The Sci Fi Channel, January 19, 2002

Starring: Dylan Neal, Andreas Katsulas, Alex Zahara, Myriam Sirois, Dean Marshall, Warren Takeuchi

Created By: J. Michael Straczynski

Why Didn’t It Fly?

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When this pilot aired, Babylon 5 was only a few years removed from its acclaimed five-year run, and the original series presented many opportunities to expand the universe in new directions. Crusade had sadly been cancelled after only one season, but J. Michael Straczynski decided to take another shot at continuing the B5 story and presented The Legend of the Rangers to The Sci Fi Channel. And this one certainly seemed like a good fit for the network that was already airing Farscape and Stargate: SG-1 at that time and would soon launch the Battlestar: Galactica reboot. But for reasons unknown, the network execs did little to give The Legends of the Rangers much of a chance. They aired it on a Sunday evening against the NFL playoffs, and the ratings were not very good for the pilot. The network then decided to pass on the series and ended the second attempt by JMS to continue the story of Babylon 5 beyond the original series.

Would the Series Have Worked?

Yes. Sure, the pilot had some warts and some of the characters and concepts needed to be ironed out better. But go back and look at the rather clunky launch of B5 with “The Gathering” and compare that to the much superior series that followed. The Legends of the Rangers offered plenty of potential to expand on the B5 universe and to explore the legacy of the Rangers themselves. It appeared that JMS was setting up G’Kar as a recurring character in the new series, and other regulars from the show would have likely made appearances as well (and perhaps we would have learned the fate of Lennier at some point). This show had its own five-year arc planned and it could have also delved into storylines previously introduced in B5 while possibly merging in part of the Crusade story-arc down the line to give that show some sort of resolution (the pilot takes place prior to the events of that series). But sadly, The Sci Fi Channel decided not to greenlight the show, cutting off what could have been another great space-based entry for that network (though they did at least give us Stargate: Atlantis two years later). JMS would make one more attempt to extend the B5 franchise with The Lost Tales which was planned as a direct-to-DVD anthology. But only one installment of that was released.

Where Can You Watch It?

The movie was released on DVD, though that has since gone out of print. You can still find it for sale at a reasonable price. It was not included in the DVD collection of the B5 movies, though you can buy it VOD for only $1.99 at places like Amazon.com. HBO Max currently has the original series available for streaming, though I don’t know if that includes The Legends of the Rangers.