I was thinking: at the end of the first episode of the third year, we see Morden first entertain the suggestion of a planet-wide scare following the release of video footage of a Shadow ship.
This video originated from Keffer’s investigations in a Babylon 5 Starfury. Although the crew ordered Keffer to stop his investigations, it obviously wasn’t enough. Do you think there could have been a way for Sheridan etc. to have been harsh enough on Keffer to have prevented him from taking this video footage? And if so, what do you think would have been the effect on Morden etc.'s plans for Earth?
If they stopped Keffer, then it would of been someone else who videoed the space craft, anyways, it was just opportunism for Morden to suggest that, he took advantage of a situation. Even if Keffer or anyone else tracked a shadow ship Earth was well on its way to becoming a Police State regardless. A good example would be Clark giving Psi-corps more powers.
In any event, Keffer’s footage had little effect. The conspiracy’s first concern was with whether anyone had been alerted that the Shadows were active again. Thanks to the B5 crew playing dumb, they thought no one knew. Morden’s suggestion was more of a contingency plan.
What really blew the lid off was (1) The leakage of the footage of Clark’s role in the death of President Santiago, and (2) The rampage of the berserk Shadow vessel that the conspiracy tried to operate. #1 made the conspiracy decide they needed to accelerate their plans, and #2 gave them a handy excuse.
An interesting question is, if events hadn’t been forced, how would the “race” between the conspiracy and the counter-conspiracy have ended up?
Well, both sides were all about keeping their armies a secret because neither thought they were ready. Delenn stated this flat-out for the Army of Light, and the War Without End storyline illustrated that this was the case for the Shadows too.
The Shadows started attacking openly somewhere toward the end of 2260, pretty close to the time the White Star Fleet was completed.
So … taking this back to Earth, can we then assume that, if martial law was always the plan down the road, that it would have been only a few months away, when either side had revealed the full extent of its strength?
I agree- martial law was always going to come. If a crisis couldn’t be found, one would be made. The interesting question to me is whether open war really served the Shadows goal. It seemed they did better behind the scenes and in the minor brush fire wars. Open war forced the Vorlons to move openly too. Although helping with the White Star Fleet was kind of cheating too.
You don’t start a conspiracy like that unless your ducks are in a row. Once Santiago was assassinated, everything was in place, and Clark (and more importantly, the people behind him — the shadows and the Psi Corps) were ready. There was nothing that a small station at the end of the galaxy could do, and any information they could release only would have made it a bit more bloody (and gotten Babylon 5 blown out of space).
“The avalanche has started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.”
