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lurkers-guide


								<!-- TITLE In the Kingdom of the Blind -->


								<h2><a name="OV">Overview</a></h2>


								<blockquote><cite>

								Byron's telepaths present the Interstellar Alliance with an ultimatum.

								Londo and his bodyguard visit Centauri Prime.

								</cite>


								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/Name?Downes,+Robin+Atkin">Robin Atkin Downes</a> as Byron.

								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/Name?London,+Damian">Damian London</a> as Regent.

								<a href="http://us.imdb.com/Name?Ogilvy,+Ian">Ian Ogilvy</a> as Lord Jano.

								</blockquote>


								<pre><a href="/lurk/p5/intro.html">P5 Rating</a>: <a href="/lurk/p5/097">8.54</a>


								Production number: 509

								Original air date: March 18, 1998

								<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00019071C/thelurkersguidet">DVD release date</a>: April 13, 2004


								Written by J. Michael Straczynski

								Directed by David Eagle

								</pre>


								<p>

								<hr size=3>


								<h2><a name="BP">Plot Points</a></h2>

								<ul>


								   <li>@@@890331630 Someone is secretly using Centauri war cruisers to stage

									random attacks on the cargo vessels of all the Alliance worlds.  The

									Alliance is aware of the attacks, but doesn't yet know of the Centauri

									connection.


								   <li>@@@890331630 The Centauri Regent continues to be controlled by his

									Keeper

									(<a href="073.html">"Epiphanies."</a>)

									He has started drinking heavily, something he never did in the past,

									and, like Captain Jack

									(<a href="076.html">"Racing Mars"</a>)

									occasionally lets slip that something is wrong, even getting as far

									as asking a palace guard to kill him.


								   <li>@@@890331630 The Keeper, in turn, appears to be under the control of

									as-yet-unidentified aliens lurking in the shadows on Centauri Prime.

									The aliens, according to the Regent, believe they have a lot in

									common with Londo, and in fact have already thwarted one attempt to

									assassinate Londo.  They appear to be telekinetic (though whether by

									psi or technological means is unclear.)


								   <li>@@@890331630 Byron has attempted to blackmail the Alliance into giving

									his people a homeworld by using his people to scan the minds of all

									the ambassadors, allegedly gathering a stockpile of sensitive

									information.  His threat to make all the information public has

									backfired and erupted into violence at least once.  Now the Alliance,

									including Sheridan, is clamoring for Byron's arrest, and most of his

									people (including Lyta) have sealed themselves into a small section of

									Brown Sector in an attempt to hold out as long as they can and give

									cooler heads time to prevail.  A militant faction of telepaths has left

									the group and promises to take a more active approach, sabotaging

									station operations if necessary until the Alliance capitulates.


								</ul>


								<h2><a name="UQ">Unanswered Questions</a></h2>

								<ul>


								   <li>@@@890331630 Is the Regent dead?


								   <li>@@@890331630 Who were the aliens?  (See

									<a href="#AN.aliens">Analysis</a>)


								</ul>


								<h2><a name="AN">Analysis</a></h2>

								<ul>


								   <li>@@@890332320 <a name="AN.aliens">The aliens were almost certainly</a>

									allies of the Shadows.  They're also almost certainly behind the

									attacks on Alliance ships, which bear some resemblance to the Shadows'

									tactics: random strikes of no seeming military value, designed

									apparently to demoralize the Alliance and cause conflicts within its

									ranks.  They also appear to have the ability to turn invisible,

									a signature Shadow technological trick.


									<p>

									Are the aliens related to the Drakh, or are they a totally different

									Shadow ally?  If the latter, how many ally races did the Shadows have?


								<p>

								   <li>@@@890332320 Are the aliens telepathic as well as telekinetic?

									Ironheart implied that only telepaths can be telekinetic

									(<a href="006.html">"Mind War."</a>)

									But of course that might only apply to Vorlon-induced telepathy.

									As Byron told his people, on some worlds telepaths evolved naturally,

									and those worlds might have evolved telekinesis.  It's also possible

									that the aliens stopped the knife from hitting Londo via some

									technological means, rather than via psi power.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@890333825 Lord Vole might have also been behind the previous attempt

									on Londo's life

									(<a href="094.html">"Strange Relations."</a>)


								<p>

								   <li>@@@890332320 The militant faction of telepaths is much more likely

									than Byron's faction to hold Garibaldi hostage

									(<a href="088.html">"The Deconstruction of Falling Stars."</a>)

									They aren't opposed to the use of violence to get what they want,

									and they're loose on the station; Byron's people will, by his own

									admission, eventually be reached and arrested unless the Alliance

									decides otherwise in the meantime.


								<p>

								   <li>@@@890332320 Sheridan still sits behind the "Earth Alliance" placard

									at Council meetings.  Is he the Earth Alliance representative?  If

									not, who is, and why wasn't that person present at the council?

									Given that Sheridan is still held in contempt by some people back

									on Earth, it seems like an unacceptable conflict of interest for him

									to represent both Earth and the Alliance as a whole.


								</ul>


								<h2><a name="NO">Notes</a></h2>

								<ul>


								   <li>@@@878893197 The title is probably a reference to a line by Gerard

									Erasmus: "In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king."

									The one-eyed Keeper on the Regent seems the most likely king in

									this case -- certainly it appears to be in control.  G'Kar is

									another possibility, of course.


								   <li>@@@890332320 Continuity glitch: Byron and Lyta spoke as if their

									first lovemaking

									(<a href="095.html">"Secrets of the Soul"</a>)

									had occurred the night before.  But that would mean Rebo and Zooty's

									arrival, and the Day of the Dead, took no time at all.  The

									discrepancy, of course, is simply due to

									<a href="096.html">"The Day of the Dead"</a>

									being moved from its original intended air date.


								</ul>


								<h2><a name="JS">jms speaks</a></h2>

								<ul>


								   <li>@@@893013539 <em>Revealing that the Centauri were behind the attacks

									spoiled the surprise.</em><br>

									Y'know, maybe you should wait to see how this pans out before you say

									it's a problem.  I *wanted* the audience to know the Centauri are behind

									this, for reasons that will become clearer in the episodes that follow.


									<p>

									Again, with this show, it ain't the who or the how, it's the *why*.


								</ul>