Crusade: People: Galen

Galen is the vagabond techno-mage and all around git who helps out the crew of the Excalibur from time to time. Galen is the vagabond techno-mage and all around git who helps out the crew of the Excalibur from time to time. He’s a man with a lot of emotional baggage, and he’s trying to find a place in a universe which doesn’t have much of a place for him.

If you were to see Galen in a pub, it’d be one of those family restaurants/bar. He’d be the clown/magician that walks around to the tables and performs little tricks for the customers. He’d make a lot of balloon animals for the kids, but they wouldn’t be of normal animals like dogs and giraffes. It’s be exotic stuff like fish, elephants and dragons.

Before I go any further I should point out that I have no problem with actor Peter Woodward, his acting ability, the way his character is written or portrayed. I think it’s all done very well. But I still think Galan is a self righteous git. Additionally I think that since he’s a Technomage, that it takes something away from the realism of the B5/Crusade universe.

Galen was trained as a technomage. And like the others of his kind he is a loner and thinks way to highly of himself. He’s not an excellent technomage, but he’s not a bad one either. He did however attract the attention of both of those kinds.

He fell in love, or “something more then that” as he describes it, with an paragon of Technomages named Isabelle. And she too loved him. But the two of them must’ve pissed off a few other Technomage somehow, since some of them killed her and tried to kill him too. Despite her last words to him, Galen turned his life toward seeking revenge for her death. And because of it, we now have the bastard Galen we see today.

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Galen felt somewhat betrayed by the Order of Technomages, and often defied there orders to keep neutral. He has gone out of his way of several occasions to help others. Something he learned from Isabelle. one such time is when he rescued Gideon. Another more noticeable occasion is when he warned several people of the Drakh attack on Earth. This preventing its nuclear destruction. The council didn’t like how he overtly helped the humans, and banished him from the Order. They believed that his non-neutrality would eventually cause the exposure and destruction of the Technomages.

Gideon now spends his time helping out the Excalibur on their quest to find a cure for the Drakh plague. He doesn’t always feel comfortable around other people, and others don’t feel comfortable around him because of his powers and condescending attitude, so he’ll take off for a while to do his own thing. So far Galen has proven useful to the cause of finding a cure for the plague.

When Galen gives you his word, he’ll keep it. Unless he gave his word to someone else first. In “The Well of Forever” he tricks Gideon and later commanders the Excalibur so that he could drop of the ashes of his departed Isabelle at the Well of Forever. He doesn’t regret his actions, no matter how much he betrayed Gideon’s trust. However Galen promised to never do anything like that again. So far so good…

Galen is masterfully played by Peter Woodward

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The Crusade biographies are © 2004 Ryan Bechtel.
Not for reproduction without the authors express permission

The BABYLON 5 names, characters and everything else associated with the series are the property of J. Michael Straczynski, TNT and Warner Brothers, a division of Time Warner Entertainment Company. All rights reserved.

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