Scifi Summer Con in Atlanta; Crusade content

[modernmajorgeneral]

Any fans in Georgia out there? If so, I'm hosting a panel at the Scifi Summer con in June that will include a generous amount of Crusade content. The panel is entitled "One Seaon Wonders" and will explore one season series that I liked. Crusade will be the centerpiece of it. Since the Crusade DVD was a bit light on the details of the TNT debacle, could anybody give me a more detailed account of what happened? It would certainly enhance my presentation.

[Jan]

Since the Crusade DVD was a bit light on the details of the TNT debacle, could anybody give me a more detailed account of what happened? It would certainly enhance my presentation.

From the transcript of JMS's Q&A at Hawthorne comic con (see the archives under May 8 for the entire thing):

Question: Is there anything of your current projects that you can talk about? (huge laughter)

JMS: Well... the comics. The books (shared universe-Distant Worlds and the Quote Book) um...(Jan: DVDs.)

Oh! Yes, DVDs. Well, we've finished up the commentaries for the set of movies that are coming out. And we're working currently on the Crusade DVDs. The hiccup we have hit on the Crusade DVDs...And by the way, they're selling great. I've heard that they've netted - netted, mind you, over 70 million dollars just from the first three and a half seasons. (applause) When they said, do you want to do the Crusade commentaries, assuming of course that we get the rest of them (something), I said "Absolutely." (they said) What do you want to talk about?" JMS: "I want to say what happened." (they stutter) "What do you mean?" JMS: "The TRUTH!" I want to put the truth out there. We are now on our fourth (something) of Legal Affairs. "He wants to do what??" "The TRUTH!" I have another conference call scheduled on Thursday with Legal Affairs. We're running out of time for the DVDs. I said, "Look if I can't get the truth out, then I don't want to support the DVDs."

Audience: I can see some big-ass disclaimers over that one.

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. (Audience: We'll take care of that) On the DVDs. You all heard the tenor of the notes? (agreement, requests for JMS to tell some anyway) That's all right. Other questions... Yes, sir.

Also, in case you didn't know...JMS *did* record the story and it was deleted. He was...displeased, to say the least. Future pressings of the DVDs won't have any JMS commentary because the deal was that they use it unedited or not at all.

HTH,
Jan

[modernmajorgeneral]

Thanks, Jan. By the way, how many unproduced scripts were there for Crusade that were completed? I remember seeing an outline for the remaining episode titles for te first season somewhere, but I can't remember the URL. Anybody know where it is?

[Jan]

Three, that I know of for sure. "Value Judgments" by Fiona Avery and the two-part season finale whose title escapes me. There was supposed to be one other Fiona script but nobody seems to have seen any copies.

There are synopses of them someplace but I don't have the URL handy either. There are also bootleg copies floating around but people need to discuss that in PMs, if at all.

Jan

[OmahaStar]

Three, that I know of for sure. "Value Judgments" by Fiona Avery and the two-part season finale whose title escapes me. There was supposed to be one other Fiona script but nobody seems to have seen any copies.

There are synopses of them someplace but I don't have the URL handy either. There are also bootleg copies floating around but people need to discuss that in PMs, if at all.

Jan

Quotes from those lost episodes ...

linky

Just a minor nit ... it wasn't a 2-part finale ... "To the Ends of the Earth" would have been the next episode filmed, #14 .. "Value Judgements" would have been after that (either 15 or 16, I forget which) ... "End of the Line" would have been a direct sequel to "Earth", and would be #22.

[Jan]

Oops. Thanks Omaha. That's what I get for posting without checking.

Jan

[modernmajorgeneral]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In a word, fascinating. I find the banter about cold tea at the end of the series more than a little ironic. It reminds me of Sylvester McCoy's dreadful last lines in his last Doctor Who episode.

[AaronB]

Ah, words to live by:
Galen - "If we survive, then we did the right thing. If we donÆt - well, at least we wonÆt have to put up with anyone saying Æwe told you soÆ."

[OmahaStar]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In a word, fascinating. I find the banter about cold tea at the end of the series more than a little ironic. It reminds me of Sylvester McCoy's dreadful last lines in his last Doctor Who episode.

Value Judgements wasn't at the end, it would have been more towards the middle ... And trust me when I say that scene would have been *filled* with tension ... I've got that script, and it is probably one of the best scripts written for Crusade.

I know, from reading only a few snippets of dialoge that it may seem strange/stupid, but it's an excellent script.

[modernmajorgeneral]

Now if I could only find that website. It mentioned some episode titles with no scripts attached, even some tightly plotted three episode arcs...

[SpanishFan]

Try this:

http://www.geocities.com/g_eagle5/Unfilmedscripts.html

There is a mistake, though. "The End of The Line" (the season finale) and the third part of the "sword arc" are two different episodes (both by JMS).

There's also information here:
http://boards.theforce.net/The_Amphi...13569/p11/?268
http://users.chartertn.net/xrae/crusade1.htm

[modernmajorgeneral]

Many thanks to Spanishfan!! This was exactly the site I was looking for

[Dr Maturin]

Also see this thread:

http://jmsnews.com/forums/showthread...ght=Judgements

[modernmajorgeneral]

More thanks to Z'ha'dum dweller. By the way I capitalized the h & d because I am a capitalist.

[Dr Maturin]

More thanks to Z'ha'dum dweller. By the way I capitalized the h & d because I am a capitalist.

I'm somewhat lost. I think I have an inkling of what you mean, but a very small one.

EDIT: What a dumbass I am. I think I have moved to the point in my life where I look for too deep of a meaning in a joke or movie or whatever and fail to see the actual meaning.

The inkling I spoke of earlier was that of Japanese capitalizing their entire first or last names when they are honored (or some such) and Japan is a capitalistic power.