John Copeland Movies

Captain Sheridan launches his final strike against the forces of President Clark. His biggest remaining obstacle is a huge fleet of Earth warships, converging near Mars. Meanwhile, Marcus makes a crucial decision that will have long-ranging effects on Ivanova --- and an immediate impact on his own life. Written by J. Michael Straczynski, "Endgame" was first telecast in the United States during the week of October 13, 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This two-part pilot episode for Babylon 5 was originally telecast as a single two-hour TV movie on February 22, 1993 (the "official" release date of March 8 refers to the film's Chicago TV premiere). Like the subsequent series, "The Gathering" takes place in the 23rd century, and was set on Babylon 5, a space station hovering in neutral territory which is used as a center of trade and diplomacy for a wide variety of friendly and hostile planets. As the space station becomes fully operational, the crew must deal with the attempting poisoning of Vorlan ambassador Kosh Naranek, for which B5 commander Jeffrey Sinclair is being held responsible. Complicating matters is the refusal of the Vorlans to allow any medical treatment for their ambassador. Written by series producer-creator J. Michael Straczynski, "The Gathering" features several actors who were supposed to have played recurring characters, but for various reasons were written out of the weekly version: Tamlyn Tomita as Lt. Cmdr. Laurel Takamisha, Blaire Baron as Caroline Sykes, Johnny Sekka as Dr. Benjamin Kyle and Patricia Tallman as Lyta Alexander. The pilot won an Emmy Award for special effects, and a Hugo nomation for "Best Dramatic Presentation" -- this in spite of almost universal damnation from mainstream TV critics. On January 4, 1998, the TNT cable network offered a re-edited version of "The Gathering", with a new musical score by Christopher Frake (replacing the one composed by Stewart Copeland), a handful of new computer-generated special effects, a number of judicious cuts, and several previously excised sequences, including a lengthy hostage-crisis subplot. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

2267 A.D. The battle is won, the war may be lost. After fending off the fierce attack of Drakh combatants, Earth faces an unseen yet even greater foe - a microbial, biogenetic plague that will destroy all life on the planet in five years if a cure isn't found. Crusade follows the race against time to find that cure - an urgent and hazardous quest that sends an Earthforce expedition across the reaches of space to explore technologies more advanced than Earth's. Leading this high-stakes archeological mission is a starship of the new Interstellar Alliance, the Excalibur, and its crew drawn from the Alliance's elite troubleshooting corps, the Rangers. With 7 billion lives at stake, action and courage against insurmountable odds must prevail in this Crusade.

One of the earliest weekly dramatic series on cable's Disney Channel, the weekly, hour-long Five Mile Creek was a US-Australian coproduction, debuting on Australia's Seven Network less than a month before its American premiere on November 4, 1983. Created by American novelist Louis L'Amour as part of his anthology The Cherokee Trail, the series was set during the Australian Gold Rush of the 1860s. Louise Caire Clark headed the cast as Maggie Scott, a San Francisco native who came to Australia to start a new life for herself and her daughter Hannah (Priscilla Weems)--and to search for her prospector husband Adam (who was killed off halfway through Season One). Arriving in the rugged stopover community of Five Mile Creek, some 40 miles north of Sydney, Maggie cast her lot with Kate Wallace (Liz Burch), who'd become sole owner of the stagecoach station-diner-hotel The Haven after her brother Eddie ran out on her. Both Maggie and Kate offered assistance to the Australian Express, a fledgling stagecoach service established by the elusive Charles Withers (Peter Carroll) and co-owned by Texas expatriate Con Madigan (Jay Kerr) and headstrong "Gentleman Jack" Taylor (Rod Mullinar), both of whom doubled as drivers. Also lending a helping hand to the stage service was Maggie's handyman Paddy Malone (Michael Caton), a philosophical Irishman with a shady past. Rounding out the main cast was youthful Sam Sawyer (Martin Lewis), whom Maggie and Kate rescued from pursuing a life of crime, and whom Kate eventually adopted. In the tradition of Little House on the Prairie, Five Mile Creek depicted a diverse group of pioneers who'd all gathered together in the same tight-knit community to renew their lives, leave past troubles behind, and follow their dreams. Also, the series followed the standard western-show formula of complicating the main characters' lives with crooked businessmen (who hoped to put the stage line out of business), murderous claim jumpers, bandits and desperados (here known as "bushrangers"), a lack of decent medical facilities, and the usual ravages of bad weather and worse luck. Standing in for the usual Indian tribes were the local Aborigines, for whom Maggie established a school. The series' producers prided themselves on the authenticity, noting that some 500 hours' research went into preparing the scripts, and pointing out the realistic costumes and props. At the outset of the third and final season the entire community of Five Mile Creek was forced to pull up stakes and embark upon a treacherous journey across the Great Divide, ultimately resettling in the town of Emu Plains. Priscilla Weems left the series when Hannah Scott was bundled off to boarding school; new additions to the cast included Shannon Presby as naïve cowboy Matt Buckland, and an 18-year-old Nicole Kidman as Annie, the hoydenish daughter of a grizzled miner. In all, 39 episodes of File Mile Creek were filmed between 1983 and 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The made-for-television western The Sacketts combines the plotlines from two seperate Louis L'Amour novels, The Daybreakers and The Sacketts. In this film, the three Tennessee-raised Sackett brothers migrate to the West following the conclusion of the Civil War. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi