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.Skylon wrote: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.
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.
The have exposed bridges because 'why not', when the ship will quickly expode anyway once the shields go down.
