The Best Deaths for Ships in Sci-Fi

[takemeout_totheblack]

Talyn.....
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TocBiVkP ... re=related[/youtube]
.....Starburst.

Although I would have liked for the crazy little tyke to have lasted long enough to grow up a bit and toast a few Scarran Dreadnoughts, but I guess destroying one of the most formidable warships in the galaxy while still an infant and unarmed is still pretty damn awesome.

Edit: for coherence and spelling

[Norade]

I'd have to say that the destruction of both the first and second Death Stars stand among them. Unlike other ships you don't want them to live so it might lessen the impact of them dying, but Luke's shot down the exhaust port, or the escape from the exploding DSII certainly stand out in my mind.

[takemeout_totheblack]

huh. Why didn't the vid take? Arg....

[Marcus Aurelius]

Talyn.....

.....Starburst.

Although I would have liked for the crazy little tyke to have lasted long enough to grow up a bit and toast a few Scarran Dreadnoughts, but I guess destroying one of the most formidable warships in the galaxy while still an infant and unarmed is still pretty damn awesome.

Edit: for coherence and spelling

Fixed the video for you. Hint: the video embedding only works with the plain URL of the video you get when you click the "Share" button in Youtube.

[SylasGaunt]

The destruction of the Resolute from Exo-Squad. It's shot to hell and most of the crew have abandoned ship but the admiral who lead the fleet into the clusterfuck that got it torn up refuses rescue and instead single-handedly pilots it into the middle of the Neo-Sapien fleet before blowing it up right in their faces.

[AMT]

The original Enterprise, I guess.

I also think the defeat of the Executor in Return of the Jedi was pretty impressive.

The Executor? Really? One of the Empire's big guns, taken out by a fighter? It went out like a chump.

EDIT: Taken out by accident by a crashing fighter, not like DS I which was a concentrated effort requiring lots of planning before hand and the sacrifice of brave pilots.

[Norade]

The original Enterprise, I guess.

I also think the defeat of the Executor in Return of the Jedi was pretty impressive.

The Executor? Really? One of the Empire's big guns, taken out by a fighter? It went out like a chump.

EDIT: Taken out by accident by a crashing fighter, not like DS I which was a concentrated effort requiring lots of planning before hand and the sacrifice of brave pilots.

Ignoring that it also had an entire fleet firing at it...

[TOSDOC]

The real laugh with Executor is that the thing that finished it off was head-on collision with a fucking friendly!

Yeah, you would've thought Jerjerrod could have moved the station a bit to the left for them and gotten out of the way. Man, his people sure were incompetent from beginning to end.

[Fluffy]

I'm going with nBSG Pegasus. As others have mentioned, it seemed rather dumb to sacrifice your larger, more powerful, newer ship to keep the crusty old "bucket". Although I suppose that's why they sent it with the fleet in the first place.

As far as Farscape ship destruction goes, I nominate that rogue Leviathan that D'argo totally disintegrated with a single shot from his shuttle. That was some serious "ancient-technology-wank"

[Stofsk]

I'm going with nBSG Pegasus. As others have mentioned, it seemed rather dumb to sacrifice your larger, more powerful, newer ship to keep the crusty old "bucket". Although I suppose that's why they sent it with the fleet in the first place.

The laugh though is that if fucking Lee hadn't been a chickenshit over it they could have jumped in with two Battlestars with two flights of vipers and probably would have saved both as well as the Fleet.

Stupid Lee. God I hate him.

[Themightytom]

The original white star plowing in Zahadum was pretty an awesome death.

I would have counted the battlestar Pegasus as best, if the circumstances hadn't been so retarded.

The alternate universe NX-01 from "Twilight", mostly because when they took out the bridge I'm pretty sure I saw Tucker's body floating away.

Enterprise D from Yesterdays Enterprise given extra credit for Picard vaulting over the... whatever that thing is in the middle of the bridge to take over Tactical.

and if fan vids count the Enterprise 1701 went out pretty badass in "Of Gods and Men"
http://startrekofgodsandmen.com/main/

[Enigma]

What about the Defiant?

[Themightytom]

Or the Reliant!

or the Kelvin!

Admittedly both were awesome via character consequences. Ricardo Montelbaulm quoting Shakespeare and Spock's temporary death were the only reasons I cared about the Reliant, though as a side effect it created a planet. (If not an entire solar system, I'm not sure what they were showing.

The Kelvin had an epic defiance about itself when it plowed into the Narada, though it is arguable as to whether Nero would have done anything but wait for Spock, had his ship not been crippled.

[Bounty]

USS Kelvin as mentioned above. It's a huge tearjerker, but damn what a tearjerker. Kirk running around trying to keep her weapons going long enough to make sure the last evac shuttles got away, and then when the last of her systems fail, that final charge into Narada's maw as chunks of the ship break off... great music, too.

[Sam Or I]

What about the oBSG Pegasus?

And from 2010, the Odysess. An AI ship sacrificing itself as a booster.

[Batman]

And from 2010, the Odysess. An AI ship sacrificing itself as a booster.

I take it we're not talking about the movie of that name then. Because if we are, that ship was called 'Discovery'.

[Sam Or I]

My bad. I got the title and the ship name mixed up. (plus I am on an iPod so the typos are doubled.)

[Themightytom]

What about the oBSG Pegasus?

And from 2010, the Odysess. An AI ship sacrificing itself as a booster.

Well the obsg Pegasus didn't neccesarily blow up, they left it deliebrately vague and muttered plenty of things like "The ol' war daggit probably survived" etc etc. in fact Iblis suggested they would see Cain again, and i don't think he actually lied during the entire two aprt War of The Gods.

Come to think of it, at least according to the book 2010 Hal doesn't "die" he somehow joins david bowman in the giant domino.

[Lord Relvenous]

USS Kelvin as mentioned above. It's a huge tearjerker, but damn what a tearjerker. Kirk running around trying to keep her weapons going long enough to make sure the last evac shuttles got away, and then when the last of her systems fail, that final charge into Narada's maw as chunks of the ship break off... great music, too.

Don't forget the birthing of his child. Yeah, that had a lot of women misty eyed or crying in the theater I watched it in.

I agree that the Lusankya had a pretty awesome death. Then again, those two books (Rebel Dream and Rebel Stand) were concentrated awesome, so that's to be expected. I think part of it is that in a series full of New Republic stupidity and YV wanking, it was nice to get a book about a victory, even a Pyhrric victory. It was refreshing to have heroes that didn't feel like they were as thick as concrete, and the planning and culmination of the Lusankya's death (as well as the fighter pilots fighting to deliver her) was pretty well done. Nice to see a Super Star Destroyer fight hard, kick ass, survive everything thrown its way, then go out in a big "Fuck you!". Just great.

[The Romulan Republic]

Jerjerrod didn't do anything wrong. I can't really blame Piett either, seeing how he was a corpse at the time and was previously caught between two bad places with idiotic orders before hand.

But this thread is asking about the best blazes of glory in the OP. Is it a blaze of glory to be killed in such an embarrassing way? They didn't send their debris out to kill off two more enemy ships as they drove onward into certain doom. They didn't turn death into a fighting chance to live.

Hell, the captain didn't even say something badass as he went down or make a selfless sacrifice to save his crew. They just lost control (from relatively minor damage, losing the bridge isn't much for a ship that size) and hit their buddy. No heroism, no glory. Sure, they were the villains, but still, calling it a best death is pretty outrageous.

I chose it, in large part at least, because its demise looked cool. Obviously it wasn't heroic. My sincere apologies if that makes my choice off-topic.

And yeah, I'll agree with the others who said the Kelvin.

Edit: I will, however, question AMT's claim that the Executor was taken out in an accidental collision (even if in this context it is something of a nitpick). I was under the impression that the pilot deliberately hit the Executor.

[Vendetta]

Depends on which continuity you follow...it was destroyed in Macek's kludge-fest, and in Macross II, but was still in use in Macross Plus and Macross Frontier. That means that within the original timeline, it survives until at least 2059, but in Robotech was destroyed in 2014, and in Macross II was destroyed in 2092.

Since the only continuity that actually matters a damn is Macross (and Macross II is an alternate universe not in canon with the rest of the series), none of those things actually happen, and the SDF-1 takes everything the series throws at it.

Maybe they should have studied it harder, then Northampton class destroyers wouldn't go off like firecrackers when someone looks at them funny.

[Themightytom]

Well its hard to tell from the movie. he was defintiely yelling "AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
in more of a panicked "Oh Shi-" kind of way than a war cry.
This is a good topic for a Lucas endorsed mini story featuring that particular A-Wing and the fourteen or so previous pilots who owned it as well as the final pilot's rise from humble beginnings to epic ace fighter pilot who nearly stopped the death star from being built. I mean after we all we saw boba Fett's life story, and a novel revealing the millenium Falcon's story to be somewhat akin to that of herbie the lovebug... so why not.

[Skylon]

Little technicality, as its a space station, but, screw it, I'll say it....Babylon 5.

The remaining cast takes one final look, prophecy is fulfilled as one final transport leaves. The station's eternal rotation ceases. Then, B5 is scuttled in a blast that travels from the reactor at the rear of the station, rending the hull as it travels the length of the station until B5 is consumed by its funeral pyre.

There are lots of little details too such as the support pylons seen only on the interior of the station's core being blasted out during the explosion, the forward portion of the station dipping downward when there is nothing left behind it to support it, and evidence of debris hitting Epsilon 3's atmosphere.

Oh, and Christopher Franke's music was appropriately heart breaking. I teared up when I first watched it honestly. The Ent-Nil's destruction was a punch to the face shock. nBSG's death was somewhat respectful. B5's was just a tear-jerker.

[CaptJodan]

Little technicality, as its a space station, but, screw it, I'll say it....Babylon 5.

The remaining cast takes one final look, prophecy is fulfilled as one final transport leaves. The station's eternal rotation ceases. Then, B5 is scuttled in a blast that travels from the reactor at the rear of the station, rending the hull as it travels the length of the station until B5 is consumed by its funeral pyre.

There are lots of little details too such as the support pylons seen only on the interior of the station's core being blasted out during the explosion, the forward portion of the station dipping downward when there is nothing left behind it to support it, and evidence of debris hitting Epsilon 3's atmosphere.

Oh, and Christopher Franke's music was appropriately heart breaking. I teared up when I first watched it honestly. The Ent-Nil's destruction was a punch to the face shock. nBSG's death was somewhat respectful. B5's was just a tear-jerker.

However, for me, B5's death wasn't heroic in any sense to the thread's purpose, really. It didn't go down fighting. It died because it was...somehow a hazard to space and someone might crash into a 5 mile station, as opposed to the hazards coming from the debris from a 5 mile station scattered throughout part of the system and in orbit of Epsilon 3.

It was, however, one of the best deaths in recent sci-fi for dramatic or thematic effect, and a real sad thing. But it still died for a stupid reason, and it wasn't in battle fighting the good fight.

On the B5 front, I've always had a soft spot for the death of an unnamed White Star that hit the Pollux and took it out. It was a short, non-hero-ship death, but it was still a pretty exciting sequence with some pretty great camera angles on the impact.

[Enigma]

<snip>

However, for me, B5's death wasn't heroic in any sense to the thread's purpose, really. It didn't go down fighting. It died because it was...somehow a hazard to space and someone might crash into a 5 mile station, as opposed to the hazards coming from the debris from a 5 mile station scattered throughout part of the system and in orbit of Epsilon 3.

It was, however, one of the best deaths in recent sci-fi for dramatic or thematic effect, and a real sad thing. But it still died for a stupid reason, and it wasn't in battle fighting the good fight.

On the B5 front, I've always had a soft spot for the death of an unnamed White Star that hit the Pollux and took it out. It was a short, non-hero-ship death, but it was still a pretty exciting sequence with some pretty great camera angles on the impact.

It was more than that. B5 was no longer necessary and they also decided to destroy it because they didn't want it to fall into the wrong hands. B5 would have made a great propaganda tool for those against the Interstellar Alliance.