BABYLON 5: A CALL TO ARMS (1999)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *sociological*

The last of the BABYLON 5 movies (not counting a spinoff, LEGEND OF THE RANGERS) was itself primarily a lead-in to a spinoff series, CRUSADE, which lasted but one season. To maximize CRUSADE's potential, writer J. Michael Straczinksi-- ceding the director's chair to someone else, one Michael Vejar-- didn't content himself with another "long filler-episode," but attempted to link the new series to the most momentous conflicts of the ongoing series.

I don't remember what happened to the Garibaldi character (Jerry Doyle) in that series between this film and the previous RIVER OF SOULS, but now he's associated with developing a fleet of space destroyers for Earth defense purposes. Elizabeth Lockley still commands Babylon 5, and its former captain John Sheridan is now President of Earth. In order to get Sheridan back out on the field of action, he joins with Garibaldi to oversee the resting of one of the new ships. 

To foreshadow a new menace, an early introduced character, a "technomage" named Galen (Peter Woodward), sends premonitory dreams of destruction to Sheridan, so that he'll know that his visit isn't going to be confined to breaking bottles over ships' noses. Galen becomes a featured character in CRUSADE, as does a new visitor to the station, a tough-girl thief named Dureena (Carrie Dobro). Dureena doesn't really play a big role in the main story, aside from lending a fresh viewpoint at a crucial moment, so Galen must have been a helluva prophet to know how she'd become vital to Earth's defenses.

None of the movies ever directly involve the epic "War of the Shadows," but CALL does introduce a new menace that was an ally of that earlier foe: a species called the Drakh. These new players are never seen on camera here, but only by their offensive action: a "death cloud" that infects Planet Earth's inhabitants with a slow-acting nanovirus. Said virus had to be slow-acting, because the new CRUSADE series will focus on finding a cure for the virus. 

Despite a strong performance by Boxleitner, Straczinski's script is one of his dullest and the new enemies are perfunctory villains. I have not watched CRUSADE since its initial broadcast, but I remember it as nothing special. My final verdict on the movies is that none of them are better than adequate, and that anyone who wanted to see BABYLON 5 at its best had better buckle down and plow into the episodes, which are the only time the franchise enjoyed any outstanding moments.