Crusade, the Babylon 5 spinoff that aired thirteen episodes on TNT in 1999, is one of science fiction television’s great unfinished stories. J. Michael Straczynski had a five-year plan. He had characters, mythology, and a narrative arc that would have taken Captain Matthew Gideon and the crew of the Excalibur from plague-ridden Earth to the far reaches of the galaxy and back.
TNT cancelled it before it found its footing.
What followed was years of fan campaigns, convention panels, and Straczynski’s occasional glimpses into what might have been. Three unproduced scripts survived that were never filmed, representing the direction the show was heading. Over three articles, we’re examining each one and what it reveals about the larger story Straczynski was trying to tell.
This is part one. For the next three weeks, we will be analyzing the three unproduced scripts that were turned in before the show got canceled.
