2022/12/01

A Call to Arms is the 5^th Babylon 5 movie (including the Pilot The Gathering) and is more or less a pilot for the new TV show Crusade at that time. I think it is my 2^nd favorite Babylon 5 movie after In The Beginning. Character Galen is introduced who would reprise his role in Crusade and Dureena Nafeel (Carrie Dobro) also. Marjean holden has a small role on A Call to Arms as an Earthforce Navigator but you probably also know that she becomes the ships doctor on Crusade as Dr. Sarah Chambers. The 4^th one we also see in Crusade is Captain Lochley (Tracy Scoggings) who of course is still the captain of Babylon 5 in that period. Some notable other guest stars in A Call to Arms: Tony Todd as Captain Leaonard Anderson; Wayne Alexander as a Drakh; Scott MacDonald as First Officer to Captain Leonard Anderson.

The story starts when Sheridan and Garibaldi are checking out the progress of the new prototype ships that currently are docked at a secret place because Sheridan does not want reveal these ships yet. Unfortunately Drake, the one in charge of the project locally, is a bit of a perfectionist and therefore the ships aren’t ready yet. The ships are called the Victory & Excalibur. They don’t know they are being monitored. While there and being disappointed because the ships aren’t ready to fly, Sheridan gets, supposedly, a message from Delenn but the message is scrambled and Sheridan acts irrationally after that.

Sheridan wants to go back to Babylon 5 which Garibaldi finds irrational also and he contacts Lochley beforehand. Meanwhile Sheridan is drawing faces of people he’d seen in a dream. In a following dream Galen and Sheridan talk, Galen apologizes for the subterfuge with the message, he is also the one was following them. He tells Sheridan he has to act! Lochley and Garibaldi think Sheridan may be under the influence of an outside force. Meanwhile he finds one he drew, Dureena Nafeel, but she blames Sheridan for the destruction of her world by the Shadows. She believes Sheridan wasn’t willing to help but he tells her he was not able to even if he knew because they were outgunned by the Shadows.

Leonard Anderson, a starship captain arrives at Babylon 5 asking the president if he, by any chance, was looking for him. Sheridan also drew him. Sheridan commandeers both the Victory and the Excalibur while Drake is heavily protesting. Sheridan tells Drake not to receive any message from now on except from him alone. Garibaldi is trying to connect with Drake but he has gotten new orders from the president. They go to Daltron 7 where they all (Sheridan, Dureena and Anderson) dreamt of, where they met Galen, a Technomage. In Nafeel’s dream Galen tells her to be careful to pick the right target because she will only have one shot.

On Daltron 7 they find the third person Sheridan had drawn, a Drazi, who is dead. He came there when the Drakh tested the planet killer, they are planning to do it again above Earth, as a revenge because of the Shadow War, because humans from Earth played a major role. The Drazi carries a crystal explaining everything. No one knew where to look but Dureena, she knew they have flap under their arms where they can smuggle certain things, mainly because it is also their genitals! Than both ships encounter a large group of smaller ships, they are the Drakh. The Drakh have never before seen these designs of ships before and asks to make themselves known but then they get a message from outside the system and suddenly they start to attack. There seems to be a spy who let them know who they are. Both ships escape by jumping into hyperspace because these smaller ships are with many but aren’t able to form a jump point into hyperspace on their own.

Drake appears to be the traitor, when Garibaldi takes him with him on the White Star, Drake tries to take control, reveals that he hates Earth for how they treated Mars all these years. So when he was contacted by the Drakh, Drake saw it as an opportunity to strike back at Earth. Of course Garibaldi and his Minbari crew overpower Drake easily.

Sheridan contacts Lochley and asks her to contact Earth, to convince them to have ships standing by defending Earth, she thinks Sheridan is still acting crazy and thinks it will get her court martialed but she proceeds because she trusts Sheridan and indeed when the planet killer arrives as also Sheridan and Anderson, Earth ships are lining up to defend earth. But the General commanding the fleet, Yuri Mikhailovich Denisov, is still not sure if this is some kind of prank or something. Sheridan tells General Yuri Denisov to leave the smaller ships to Earth’s defends grid and help punch a hole into the defense of the planet killer.

Dureena and Sheridan have different opinion about which target to choose but as she explains why she thinks this, why she is convinced, thinking back to her dream, Sheridan thinks she is right. However they miss the target which results in Anderson going with ramming speed to try and take out the target because he made a promise to his daughter for keeping the monsters away. He destroys his ship but also the planet killer. As revenge, the leftover Drakh ships release a virus above Earth!

Because the virus was not aimed at our physiology, because the Drakh did not have enough time to perfect the virus to wipe out humankind, it will approximately take 5 years before the virus starts killing all humans on Earth! Earth is effectively guaranteed as of that point! It is established that there was only one planet killer, so it will take a while, if ever before the Drakh can do this again.

Soundtrack, Official Monthly Magazine & Pocket Books:

I have no doubt that every Babylon 5 fan knows that there have been multiple soundtracks on the market for a lot of B5 episodes. Most of them are still available. A number of B5 movies have also been blessed with a soundtrack! In the Beginning, Thirdspace, The River of Souls and The lost Tales. Most of, if not all, are still available although you might have to pay a steep price for it. I hear you thinking: What about A Call to Arms? Well unfortunately (or not), the soundtrack has never been released on CD, as you most likely know is that the music of the following movies In the Beginning, Thirdspace, The River of Souls and The lost Tales was produced by Christopher Franke. For some reason JMS decided with Crusade to change the sound of the show, by producer Evan H. Chen. And because A Call to Arms was more a less a pilot for Crusade, Even H. Chen also produced the music for that movie. Most fans aren’t thrilled with this choice and in my opinion, it is not in the same league as the music produced by Christopher Franke. So perhaps this is one the reason why there never has been a soundtrack released for A Call to Arms.

Back in the good old days, late 90’s, each month we were blessed with a monthly B5 magazine. In relation to these movies, there are some extensive specials of these movies in the B5 magazine, two parts for each movie, (usually) spread out over two issues. Issue 2 (*restart issue) September 1998 – In the Beginning. Issues 4 & 5 October / November 1998 – Thirdspace. Issues 5 & 6 November 1998 / December 1998 – The River of Souls. Issue 6 December 1998 – The Gathering, incl. 2.0 new version.  Issue 8 & 9 February 1999 / March 1999 – A Call To Arms. The specials are very extensive, interesting to revisit this if you have the magazines but haven’t checked them out in a long while. And perhaps for new fans interesting to know that these magazines exist and that there are very interesting movie specials to be read in the old fashioned way! Below you see the front covers of the magazines in question so it is easier to find it.

*The first 9 volumes were released from/for the UK, from July 1998 (Restart Issue #1) they were also released on the North American market, hence restart issue.

If we are talking about soundtracks and monthly magazines, we also have to talk about the Babylon 5 pocket books. There have been lots of B5 pocket books released in the 90’s and early 2000’s. I’ve read a lot of them, probably not all but I’ve read my share. You guessed it, there also have been pocket book releases of the movies, not all the movies but for In The beginning, Thirdspace and A Call to Arms there have been pocket book releases, which I also all read. As far as I know, The River of Souls, although it was probably planned to be released, it actually has never been released, anyway I have never been able to find it. Is there anyone who was able to purchase it? According to the so-called temporary cover it was written by Yvonne Navarro.

Final Word:

A Call to Arms is my 2^nd favorite movie, it was a nice set-up to Crusade, introduces interesting characters like Dureena and Galen. It also shows us two gorgeous new ships, the Victory and the Excalibur. Such a shame this movie, which was supposed to be a vehicle for Crusade, ultimately lost its purpose when Crusade got cancelled before it even got a chance. Still it is an exciting movie which sets some exciting things in motion but unfortunately it was not allowed to flourish further in Crusade.