Imagine if this episode had been the premiere of Crusade. Imagine if TNT had come to their senses and not interfered with the brilliant, original vision of J. Michael Straczynski. While this episode isn't one of the most innovative things I've seen, it shows more of Crusade's potential. In a way, it's like an entire new series.

Racing The Night is the Crusade episode I've wanted to see from the get-go. While the previous episodes have been mainly excellent, this is the Crusade I'd heard about. This is the series I wanted to see. Racing The Night is the episode that brings back all the memories of when Crusade was first being filmed and we got small snippets of information that made my mouth water. Enhanced CGI, new alien cities, a kick-ass new ship. We've never really seen all of these in the show... until now.

As an introductory episode, you do hit the ground running, but anyone with an IQ in the two digit range could figure out what was going on. Of course, since the dolts at TNT decided to get involved much of this episode is contradictory to the replacement first episode. However, this is by far the superior of the two.

Of course, as in any first episode, there are kinks to be worked out, and considering the situation that Crusade has been put in, this episode stands out pretty well. It has some nice CGI (and some rather amatuerish CGI, and I should know what amatuerish CGI looks like... :), some moments of humor, and a plot that kept things moving and had a strong "sci-fi" element to it. All in all, despite some minor flaws, I feel happy that I at least got what I've been waiting for: intelligent science fiction.