Warren Keffer

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Warren Keffer
Babylon 5 character

Affiliated with	Babylon 5's Zeta Squadron, Earth Alliance
Race	Human
Home planet	Earth
First appearance	Points of Departure
Last appearance	The Fall of Night
Portrayed by	Robert Rusler

Warren Keffer, played by Robert Rusler, is a fictional character from the television science fiction drama Babylon 5. He appeared in the opening credits in the second season of the show.

Keffer was a Starfury pilot in Babylon 5's Zeta squadron and a minor character in the early parts of the series who was important enough for intermittent appearances and a small sub-story, but not very significant in the general plot. He has not appeared or been referenced outside of season two.

His squadron was the station's elite one during the time of President Luis Santiago's visit and piloted the new starfuries he brought with him. (The event took place during "Survivors" but mentioned in "Points of Departure".)

Keffer was one of the pilots ordered to hold position against advancing Minbari fighters during the incident with the Trigati. The rogue Minbari were trying to start a conflict by provoking Capt. John Sheridan, known to them as "Star Killer", into attacking. Keffer and the other pilots let the advancing fighters pass without incident.

Keffer later participated in the rescue of an Explorer class starship lost in hyperspace. A friend of Sheridan's was captain of the Explorer ship and he committed Babylon 5's Zeta squadron to a rescue attempt ("A Distant Star"). The squadron made themselves into a chain, relaying hyperspace beacon information through the chain and pressing deep into hyperspace. The chain was broken when a hitherto unknown Shadow battlecrab jumped into hyperspace. The Shadow ship destroyed the Zeta leader and left Keffer spinning in hyperspace. He used the angle of the Shadow ship's path to determine the location of the hyperspace beacon. and fired his cannons in the direction of the beacon. Keffer was thought lost, until he followed another Shadow vessel to the jumpgate and escaped hyperspace. After the incident Keffer was promoted to Zeta squadron leader and developed an obsession with the Shadow vessels he'd seen.

Keffer continued to search for the vessel in hyperspace, taking out his starfury when off duty.

Later Keffer was forced to share his quarters with two "gropos" (ground-pounders) who were using Babylon 5 as a base for an attack mission ("Gropos"). Keffer became friends with the gropos, including the massive veteran PFC Large. After the gropo mission, a report told Keffer that all the soldiers he'd met, friends and enemies, were dead.

Keffer continued to search for the Shadow vessel, now called "the ghost" by other pilots, until the captain learned of his unauthorized flights and ordered them stopped. Though he obeyed Keffer later heard from a pilot from another squadron who had seen the ghost, a ship with a black shimmering hull, "big as death and twice as ugly", that screams in your mind when it passes. According to the pilot he detected a unique neutrino trail when he saw the Shadows. Keffer then set his Starfury sensors to detect this trail.

After the surrender of Narn to the Centauri, a Narn warship appeared in Babylon 5 space ("The Fall of Night") and Zeta squadron was ordered to escort the vessel through the jumpgate. As they moved through hyperspace, Keffer detected the neutrino trail and broke off to investigate. Finding the Shadow ship, he took video with his gun camera. The Shadow vessel then turned on the Starfury. Keffer loaded the recording into a buoy and launched it into space just before the Shadows fired their beam weapon, killing Keffer and destroying his Starfury.

The buoy was later discovered and the information given to ISN. They broadcast the images, revealing the Shadows' existence publicly for the first time. The images become a point of controversy on Earth, leading to a Ministry of Peace investigation and eventually their use to cause public fear of an alien threat to the planet.

J Michael Straczynski has said that the character of Keffer was introduced solely because the television network wanted a "hotshot Top Gun kind of pilot" character to attract more viewers, and he never intended for Keffer to survive.^[1]