Why Was Crusade Cancelled and Can It Be Revived?

The 1999 Babylon 5 spin-off series Crusade was cut short due to network tinkering, but an opportunity exists to resolve the show’s major story arc.

What Is It?

In this sequel series to Babylon 5, Earth is infected with a biological weapon (by former allies of the Shadows) that will wipe out all life on the planet at the end of five years. The starship Excalibur is sent on a mission to find a cure.

Aired: TNT, 1999, 1 Season Totaling 13 Episodes

Starring: Gary Cole, Tracy Scoggins, Daniel Dae Kim, Peter Woodward, Marjean Holden, Carrie Dobro

Created By: J. Michael Straczynski

Why Was It Cancelled?

This attempt by J. Michael Straczynski’s to expand on the B5 universe found itself in trouble before it even hit the air. TNT had given the greenlight to Crusade at the same time it agreed to pick up Season 5 of B5, but almost from the beginning, JMS found himself at odds with his new network. TNT research showed that the viewers tuning in for Babylon 5 were not sticking around for the other programs the cable channel had on its schedule. So they demanded changes to Crusade, which had just started up production. But JMS was reluctant to move the show in the direction they preferred. He claimed at one point that they wanted to turn the series into Wrestling meets Baywatch, and he resisted their tampering.

He even made the claim that he had cancelled the show, and not TNT, but no matter how it went down, it seems that the network was not willing to move forward past their initial thirteen-episode commitment. Warner Bros, who owns the B5 franchise, entered into negotiations with the Sci Fi Channel (as it was known then) to pick up the spin-off series, but that network had already allocated their production budget (with a little show called Farscape likely taking a good chunk), and they could not afford to add it to their lineup. Thus, this continuation of the B5 saga was truncated by network tampering before it ever really got started.

Can It Be Revived?

JMS previously said at Wonder Con in 2008 that Crusade was “finished” and that nothing more would be done with that series, but it is possible he may rethink that. A complete reboot of this spin-off seems unlikely, and it would not be feasible to reassemble the cast for a live-action revival over twenty years after the show went off the air considering they only had five years to save the Earth. But should the animated movie Babylon 5: The Road Home prove successful, perhaps Crusade could be revisited in a similar format. An ongoing series would probably not be an option, but at least one or two movies could be produced to provide some resolution to the truncated storyline. JMS could bring in characters from B5 to make it more of a crossover if there is a concern that a Crusade-centric film would not draw enough interest. But the possibility of an animated revival certainly presents itself as an opportunity to wrap up a rather major story arc in the B5 universe that remains unfinished. If fans of this series were to make some noise, perhaps a movie or two could happen.

Where Can You Watch It?

The entire season was released on DVD and you can purchase it on VOD from sellers like Amazon.com.  The film that sets up the series, A Call to Arms, is also available to purchase VOD. The parent series is only just now getting a Blu-ray release, so maybe Crusade will get the same at some point as well. The show is not currently available for streaming on any of the major services.

Did you watch Crusade and would you support fan efforts for a revival?

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