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Babylon 5 season 2 introduced an
exciting new character I'm not talking
about stuffy old Captain Sheridan I meet
someone younger someone cooler meet
Lieutenant Warren keer the Hot Shot
fighter pilot keer got star billing as a
Bonafide cast member but something
wasn't quite right let me tell you the
story of The Babylon 5 character nobody
wanted the rest of you writers start
thinking up a name for this funky pilot
got to know something along the lines of
say Warren keer you more proactive
so Warren keer you okay with everybody
yeah getting so a man could even enjoy a
letter from home anymore in the back end
of season 2 episode 1 we meet keer for
the first time as a mimari ship menaces
the station Red Alert all quarters keer
heads out ready for action all fighters
hold position sir what are you doing but
then the Command Staff solved the
problem so he doesn't have to do
anything later on we get proof that keer
is a real character look he's going for
drinks with iovan and Franklin see he's
part of the friend circle now sure keer
only got 90 seconds of screen time and
we don't really know much about it other
than that he's got a cute girlfriend
back home who's never going to be
mentioned again confirm and's a fine
pilot but the stage is set for him to be
fleshed out in the episodes to come roll
on episode 2 there he is in the credits
again but he's not in the episode where
is keer keer is in the opening credit
for all 22 episodes of season 2 but he
only actually appears in six of them
which is fine it's not a lot but plenty
of B5 cast members don't appear in every
episode quality over quantity here's
keer in episode 14 negative Babylon
control I don't see
a that's nearly his whole appearance
he's on screen for about 30 seconds here
he is again in episode
18 I repeat this is Zeta Squadron
dispatch from Babylon 5 to investigate
your situation this time he gets about
50 seconds it's a strangely
disrespectful use of what's meant to be
a main character a featured extra could
have filled both these spots so I guess
if I'm being honest he's really only in
four
episodes in episode number four he
actually gets something to do a captain
visiting the station tells a story about
strange sightings in hyperspace a tale
that fascinates
young hey and look he's outs socialized
with the others again totally legit
later keer is sent off on a rescue
mission and wouldn't you know it his
Squadron runs into the mystery ship his
commanding officer is killed jealous and
keer has to use his wits and
resourcefulness to guide his stranded
comrades to safety request permission to
Doc permission
granted welcome home good stuff an
actual B story sadly we don't see keer
again for another six episodes he's back
again in episode number 10
the station is playing host to an
infantry division the Gros here too CER
gets a nice little bee story although
strangely he never actually interacts
with any of the other main characters
now it'd be grossly unfair to put a
stopwatch the amount of screen time Kev
gets but if we were to I reckon it' come
to about 18 minutes 18 minutes in a 22
episode season kev's final appearance is
in the season finale someone in the
locker room literally comes up and
reminds him about the mystery ship he
saw in Hy space 18 episodes ago maybe
it's the ghost what ghost now he's
suddenly obsessed he wants to find that
ship and prove what happen after
following a couple of leads he heads off
into hyperspace finds the ship and gets
Za nice knowing you keer so why was the
spotlight on this guy as a main cast
member he doesn't do anything that
really matters and the stuff he does do
could easily been handled by a one-off
guest star or even a featured extra at
the time showrunner J Michael stasinski
or JMS pushed back on fans who pointed
out that keer was useless writing in
1996 he said nor was keffer's character
useless through him we got to see the
star Fury pilots and learn more about
them we got our first close look at the
Shadows we met the gropos and the
primary instant that began to unravel
the whole thing Ker's gun camera footage
came about but really that video could
have been taken by anyone I didn't buy
it so I reached out to the man himself
on Twitter worth a shot right and he
responded the actor was a very pleasant
fellow but because the character was
forced upon me by the network my
season-long plans for this particular
Fly Boy always had this as an end point
later a helpful person led me to the
director's commentary from episode 22
where JMS really lets it all out the
character of Warren keer never really
worked out that well for me uh it was
our last Network note was can you give
us a guy who was a hot shot Top Gun kind
of pilot and my first thought was I'll
kill him eventually I will kill him
because I hate that kind of character uh
and I hate having characters told to me
the network essentially wanted a hand
solo a charismatic Top Gun type to woo
the younger audience they never asked
jmss for much so he appeased them on
this one by doing the bare minimum
possible so he's proactive huh oh God
yes we're talking about a totally
outrageous Paradigm he could show the
execs that the new characters in the
credits could point to some keer stuff
in a couple of early episodes then he
puts him on the Shelf until he's ready
to kill him off I feel kind of for the
actor who probably thought he was
getting a proper gig on the show JMS
even lied to him and said he wasn't
being killed off in the final episode we
didn't tell him we were killing him by
the way we said he was wounded uh and we
figured to get a good performance out of
him that way uh and then after we had
the shot we just melted his face off I
get the jmss never wanted this character
but they could have done a little more
with him after seeing the mystery ship
we could have spent some time following
him on a believable descent into
Obsession and Madness they could have
built up actual relationships with the
other characters and then put those
under strain as he defies orders takes
risks and gets into trouble searching
for leads on his ghost ship in the end
none of the other characters ever
mentioned keer again after his last
episode it's like he was never really
there was keer a missed opportunity or
was jmss right to treat him with
complete disdain let me know in the
comments that's all for this one I'll be
seeing you

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Irene Clarkson <[email protected]> wrote:

Babylon 5 season 2 introduced an
exciting new character I'm not talking
about stuffy old Captain Sheridan I meet

Are you fucking insane? That's an unreadable mess with no periods to
break up sentences.

. . .

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