Most Painfully brilliant moments in SF...

The scene in the Inner Light when Picard realizes what's been happening to him and sees his dead "friends" again. Then again as the episode ends with him holding that flute...

B5 S1 The Commander's Speech about how one day the sun will go out-when he hits that line about all the things that will be forgotten "Marilyn Monroe" crops up. Right there I knew I would follow the show to the end.

The finale of Quantum Leap, when Sam is on the porch talking to "God" and he realizes who's in control of his fate.

 

I love the ending of Quantum Leap. It's probably the most satisfyingly heartbreaking ending to a show that I've seen. As much as you want to see Sam get back home, you know that it's exactly the right way to end it.

I'll also add to the chorus of approval for the Londo character arc from Babylon 5. It's simply the most compelling and complete character arc I've seen depicted on television. Though of course it's utterly reliant on G'Kar's character arc which acts as a perfect compliment to Londo's.

 

Geez - and you people call yourself Star Trek fans...

 

I was too eager to reply and didn't read Midnight's full post. Thats what I get for posting while at work

When he started talking of an awesome Londo scene involving a window my mind immediately went to the scene where he is looking out of the only window in the Imperial Palace that isn't boarded up and sees Cantauri Prime burning.

 

Death very often has no meaning, its a brutal part of life that Whedon has never shyed away from in his works.

 

Yeah, I thought of that-but the Inner Light is still the only non movie Trek that brings a tear to my eye.

 

Are you talking about towards the end of ItB, when he's describing the Earth-Minbari War to the children, just before the Battle of The Line?

If so, oh yes... DEFINITELY a great scene/montage, and Christopher Franke's beautiful music that's set to it is just heart-rending.

Damn you, now I have to watch ItB again...

Cheers,
-CM-

 

"If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour... you're gonna see some serious shit."

 

The Japanese version of Space Battleship Yamato, The Comet Empire, when the sergeant of the space marines stays to blow the engine to hell.

 

The ending of Brazil (the one that was cut from the US theatrical version). Awesome movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLynM-GI_Mk

 

This isn't entirely true; it applies only to the first version that was released in the US.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_(film)#Releases:

 

Tens of thousands of people starve to death every single day. Its real, brutal and a meaningless death that doesn't have to happen.

Doesn't mean I want to watch a TV show about it.

Just because something is a brutal part of life doesn't mean it makes good TV.

I know what the reasons and rationalizations for Wash dying are, I simply disagree with them.

 

Yes, that is exactly the sequence of which I speak. Don't feel bad, I had to go watch it again myself after I posted that.

 

The Inner Light is indeed lovely, and a favorite of mine as well, but I think of it more as poignantly moving than painfully brilliant. Say what you will about Shatner's acting, his pain in that scene is palpable.

 

I think the much beloved DS9 episode "The Visitor" also fits the thread's description.

We see a young boy lose his only remaining parent early in his life, a man he loved, and then dedicate his entire life to bring him back.

He sacrificed a promising life.. a huge talent wasted, a love vanished all for the remote chance to bring his father back and the only way to do that is to kill himself to break the bond. The extent of the love on display here is almost painful when you think about what he could have had if he learned to let go.. something Benjamin Sisko would have wanted because it meant that despite losing both parents at an early age he would still have a happy and fulfilling life and that's all he ever wanted for his son.

It's what makes it one of the best Trek episodes ever.

 

These might strike some of you as cheesy but I think Will smith sells both off them:

1) In I, Robot, when Spooner tells the story of Sarah and how the NS-4 didn't save her.
2) In I am Legend, when Neville was telling the story about Bob Marley (I think)

 

The happy-ending version was broadcast on TV, TG couldn't stop that... I know because I saw it and nearly had a coronary.

...and this would be my pick [the real ending] for the topic. Should have thought of it before.

 

Shatner? I'd like to see that version....

 

The only time I saw Brazil on TV was on cable, either HBO or Cinemax, and in the late 1980's, in America, but it had the real ending. I'm guessing it was the 132 minute version, since it opened with the flying scene?

 

Probably... The adulterated one was the broadcast tv premiere IIIC...