Official B5 Magazine #8 & 9

Day One Monday 11 May, 1998

    "For a swan song, it's a good one," says Bruce Boxleitner, standing in line for food midway through the first day of shooting A Call to Arms, the Babylon 5 television movie that is the lead-in to the upcoming, spin-off series, The Babylon Project: Crusade. For all intents and purposes, the story, directed by Mike Vejar, will be Bruce's farewell performance in the universe that has been his home these past for or so years. With that in mind, it's a very good thing (if no surprise) that he's right, and A Call to Arms is J. Michael Straczynski at his best, writing the Captain-turned-President at his best. After five years as leader of the Interstellar Alliance, John Sheridan is back in the saddle, sitting in command of a new, top-of-the-line ship. Summoned by the techno-mage Galen, he assembles an unlikely band of heroes and sets out to foil a Drakh onslaught on the Earth.   Today, they are filming the scene in which Sheridan is magically transported to his meeting with Galen, a slick bit of wizardry in which a backdrop of computer panels is rolled away to reveal a gathering of techno-mages squatting round a fire. Real plots of sod and grass were laid down in the stage the week before, which took over the weekend, to form a lush, green swath by Monday. The effect caused Bruce to joke that he knew they'd do some location shooting before long. "It's remarkable," commented newcomer Peter Woodward, who gives life to the future's equivalent of Merlin. "The only thing it lacked was dog turds."

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Day Fourteen Friday 29 May 1998

    Today is a special day. First, it sees the unveiling of crusade's  new shuttle, the Archimedes, a dazzling improvement over its predecessor. The new shuttle is built to rock on springs. The effect will be used to simulate turbulence, as opposed to the traditional method of shaking the camera. Air hoses have been added behind the seats so something will sway in the shot in addition to the actors. It's an impressive affair with a very military transport air about it, and it's going to look great on film.
    Secondly, today is the final one for Boxleitner. After he's shot in the Archimedes he will leave the universe he's made his own for the last time. Ed Wasser (who fans will remember as Morden,) his wife Melissa Gilbert, and two very interesting spacemen have come to see him off.
    Rick Linnehan, NASA Mission Specialist, and Jim Pawelczyk, payload specialist, have just returned to Earth after orbiting our small blue orb on the Space Shuttle Columbia. yet these two real life astronauts still appreciate the imagined adventures of the television variety.
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    Meanwhile, from the shuttle set, Bruce calls out for his wife. "Anna Sheridan! Anna Sheridan!" Someone tells Melissa his is hollering for her.
    "That's not me," she returns. Then her husband's final moment comes, and it's announced, "That was the last shot of our Captain and President." Boxleitner stands to say a few words, but it's several minutes before the heartfelt, thunderous applause dies down enough so that he can speak.
    "It's kind of strange," he begins. "I know I've been saying this the last couple of days, but I'm like the last of the old Babylonians to walk out the door. And it's a sad day for me. I really love doing this show, and I'm going to miss all of you. And it's really weird, you know. It really is. But I want to say something. I want to wish you all good luck in the coming Crusade, and I hope it goes another five, and I hope it has the success that the first four or five years did. We may well see each other again in the same universe. But anyway, I love you all, and it's been great, and I'm certainly glad I got to come back and do this picture. I just got to say bye."