Dr Zoidbeard wrote:
NervousPete wrote:
Still probably the best space battle in the history of the medium. I'd rate 'em:
1: Return of the Jedi
2: Babylon 5: Severed Dreams
3: A New Hope
4: BSG pilot battle.
5: Klendathu (Which we can ill afford.)
You sir, are a man of taste and discretion, especially for the B5 selection.
This could and probably should be it's own thread, but I'd also add in a few more fine choices
B5: Shadow Dancing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAsk3ay3e98The Galactica jumping into the Atmosphere of New Caprica -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toc-TdUu7mgThe Battle of Wolf 359 because they only showed the aftermath which gave me goose bumps.
I'm now officially hijacking this thread to nerd out about the Babylon 5 space battles. Say what you will about the show, it really knew how to craft a great big battle. A lot of it was in the epic slow burn build up with skirmishes and intriguing before escalating to full out war, and when they took the gloves off, it was amazing. I remember first being impressed by the Hyperion and Babylon 5 versus random bunch-of-assholes aliens trying to lay claim to the planet the station was orbiting. You got to see interceptor fire taking out incoming plasma bolts! Point defence systems! Then there was the slice-and-dice one-hit-kill energy beam that we came to know and love with the shadows. In Season 1 we got raider skirmishes, a chilling presidential assassination, but it was in season 2 where we finally got to see some awesome. The Coming of Shadows attack on the narn colony. The narn further getting whaled on by the shadow fleet and then that amazing shot of Molari's haunted reflection as the Centauri ships use mass drivers on the narn homeworld. Then sweet revenge in the season finale as the station takes down a Centauri battleship. (And how I loved that continuing sense of, "Wow, they're really pulling the triggers on this," as the Centauri let loose a volley at the station.) Season 3 came along and there were those two glorious aforementioned fights which were pretty much perfect.
You see, it really got pacing right. You always knew what was going on. The ship design was beyond cool. You had all these different classes of ships that did stuff. Fighters taking down escorts, escorts using AA fire to intercept bombers. Cruisers harrasing battleships, battleships slugging it out with boomy bam-bam-bam weapons. (Sound effects were top notch too, when you hear the Earth army open fire on the Senate off screen you can really imagine that a tank had just launched a volley of quick-fire plasma bolts at the building, smashing in walls.) In fact, Bablyon 5 weapons always looked cool firing. The Vree had that machine gun rain-of-lasers style thing that chewed up fighters. The Earth ships used a sort of semi-auto carbine type firing and for old and powerful races, beams - all the way. Yup, I'd rate the shows battles over the Star Wars prequels, which are just nonsensical busy-work.
Unfortunately there was a dip in quality in the battles from season 4 onward. Although there were tons more ships per scene the battles weren't as well constructed, and the new ship design was pretty terrible. Fortunately there was enough of the old around to still make everything look splendid. But happily Season 4 did still have the awesome Proxima III battle, which was a mix of trying to persuade over loyalist Earth destroyers to the rebel side, and then having a real knock-down slug-fest over the ones who didn't.
Also, Sheridan's solution to everything is: "How about if we nuke them?" which is cute.
FTW Zoidberg, New Caprica was almost in there instead of Klendathu. I thought about Shadow Dancing, but it doesn't go on for long enough - it leaves you really wanting more.
Register
Calendar
FAQ
Search
