Best starship death

[Alpha_Geek]

Tough question.

As far as personal impact, my gut wrenched seeing good old 1701 (No bloody "A"!) breaking apart and streaking across the upper atmosphere to her death. I guess the reasons were twofold. First, that ship, more than any other, carried my imagination to places previously unconsidered to a kid, even a kid like me that grew up watching moonshots on TV and lucky enough to see one Saturn V lift with my own eyes.

Second, she was robbed of a good fight, already battle damaged and then waylayed by a chickenshit little Klingon ship that barely outclassed a couple of shuttlecraft. While that may have been a good day to die, Enterprise did not die a terribly good death. It was needed for the story as written, of course, but...


My other choice? Pegasus died a good death. While the needs of the few, or even the one can sometimes outweigh the needs of the many, Pegasus insured the survival of humanity in her death. She went down as a warship should, fighting tooth and nail till the very end.

AG

 

[DarthPipes]

The Executor Super Star Destroyer had a pretty awesome death in ROTJ.

 

[Neroon]

"My god, Bones, what have I done?"
"What you had to do, what you always do, turn death into a fighting chance to live."

Admiral Kirk & co. self-destructing the Enterprise in Star Trek III is the most dramatic & well done of any space ship destruction I've ever seen.

Which is precisely why in a recent avatar contest I posted this as an entry:

To me, nothing else comes close. This was the ship I grew up with, the ship against which all others were and are measured. The only ship I ever saw as a viable character, until Farscape (with Moya) and Firefly (with Serenity) came along. Kirk and the 1701 had an almost symbiotic relationship, so for him to send her to her death was ... tough. Very tough

Although, to tell the truth, since I grew up on The Next Generation, the destruction of the Enterprise-D in Star Trek: Generations had far more emotional impact on me.

See, for me... that was a very "meh" kind of event, because the 1701-D was never a character in the way that the 1701 always seemed to be. There was no emotional attachment to the 1701-D by any of the characters. Not by Picard, Riker, or even Geordi its chief engineer. Consequently, I myself never felt any attachment at all to the ship. and I did watch the entire series faithfully, from Day one and beyond, over and over until much later.

 

[TheBrew]

The Executor

 

[Skywalker]

Meh, for me, the Enterprise on TOS and the Enterprise from TMP on were totally different ships.

 

[Neroon]

Meh, for me, the Enterprise on TOS and the Enterprise from TMP on were totally different ships.

They may have looked different, but they were still the same NCC-1701. Otherwise Kirk - as well as the others - would not have had the reaction he did

 

[Cicero]

"My god, Bones, what have I done?"
"What you had to do, what you always do, turn death into a fighting chance to live."

Admiral Kirk & co. self-destructing the Enterprise in Star Trek III is the most dramatic & well done of any space ship destruction I've ever seen.

Which is precisely why in a recent avatar contest I posted this as an entry:

To me, nothing else comes close. This was the ship I grew up with, the ship against which all others were and are measured. The only ship I ever saw as a viable character, until Farscape (with Moya) and Firefly (with Serenity) came along. Kirk and the 1701 had an almost symbiotic relationship, so for him to send her to her death was ... tough. Very tough

Although, to tell the truth, since I grew up on The Next Generation, the destruction of the Enterprise-D in Star Trek: Generations had far more emotional impact on me.

See, for me... that was a very "meh" kind of event, because the 1701-D was never a character in the way that the 1701 always seemed to be. There was no emotional attachment to the 1701-D by any of the characters. Not by Picard, Riker, or even Geordi its chief engineer. Consequently, I myself never felt any attachment at all to the ship. and I did watch the entire series faithfully, from Day one and beyond, over and over until much later.

Having not even been born when Star Trek III came out, I've not found the destruction of the original Enterprise particularly moving. It may be that the film itself wasn't very engaging or exciting, that the Enterprise didn't seem much like the original ship anymore, that I'd already seen Star Trek IV and the new ship, or that the scene itself doesn't hold up without significant investment. I don't know.

I did find the destruction of the D (and the implied loss of the C, the destruction of the Defiant, and Voyager's three (only one reset) ends) much more moving and memorable. I think it helped that none of them was particularly reverential; they just happened (especially the Defiant's sudden loss in The Changing Face of Evil (moments after I'd tuned in) and Voyager's first (and permanent) destruction).

Actually, I think the best ship destructions I've seen on Star Trek were both of the Enterprise-D: the opening moments of Cause and Effect and the ship's brief destruction in Timescape's shattered timeframe. The first was impossible seeming and unexpected, and the second showed just how close to the edge was the frozen situation.

 

[The Evil Dead]

I enjoyed the Enterprise D's crash landing... I just thought it was technically the most stunning of any starship's destruction we have seen yet.

I also like the Pegasus' destruction in the 3rd season of Battlestar Galactica.

 

[Skywalker]

Meh, for me, the Enterprise on TOS and the Enterprise from TMP on were totally different ships.

They may have looked different, but they were still the same NCC-1701. Otherwise Kirk - as well as the others - would not have had the reaction he did

Maybe if I'd grown up with TOS I'd feel differently, but as far as I'm concerned, for all intents and purposes the TMP Enterprise was the real NCC-1701-A.

 

[FalTorPan]

That's interesting, since the TMP Enterprise and the NCC-1701-A are literally two different ships.

 

[Orac Zen]

Other: The Liberator, in Blakes 7's "Terminal". "I have failed you...I am sorry" is a line that makes me bawl every time I hear it.

"Talyn...starburst" is the only other one that even approaches it.

 

[Skywalker]

That's interesting, since the TMP Enterprise and the NCC-1701-A are literally two different ships.

I was speaking figuratively.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Well crap. I'm about halfway through season 3 of Farscape right now and came across some spoilers. Oh well. Can't yell at people for posting spoilers from a show that ended years ago. I hope knowing that Talyn dies won't ruin the moment for me.

My vote has to go to Pegasus. That was seriously just an epic moment. Honestly that whole episode was amazing. My jaw just dropped when they "dropped the bucket" and stayed there until I picked it up long enough to scream out a cheer when Pegasus showed up to save the day. And wow, what a way to go. Saving the remains of humanity, taking out one basestar, ramming a second, and then destroying a third with its remains. Pegasus was a ship with a dark past with insane commanders and terrible practices, but in that one final awe inspiring moment it found redemption.

 

[BigFoot]

"Talyn...starburst!"

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

The Executor's death was a brilliantly crafted masterpiece of art. It showed the arrogance, the waste of material, and the death of an Empire. It also showed the courage, the resolution and the fortitude that the Rebellion had. A simple and poignant death.

 

[Roshi]

The NCC-1701 in TSFS.

 

[MyCylon]

The destruction of the Pegasus on nuBSG was incredible, as others have mentioned. Another one that occurred to me is the end of the USS Odyssey in DS9's S2 finale. Boy, was I shocked and amazed when a Jem'Hadar ship took down a ship as powerful and just like the Enterprise D.

 

[theenglish]

Count me in with the Farscape fans. Talyn's death wins out, even over STIII, mainly because thanks to the trailers I already knew the fate of the Enterprise before going into that movie.

 

[Neroon]

The problem with teh 1701-D's destruction - technically brilliant for sure - was that it didn't seem to bother its own crew at all. Picard, Riker... just nonchalantly write it off. Couple that with the fact that it was a rather hokey means for destruction in the first place. An old, out of commission Klingon BoP? Where was the sacrifice?

Yes, I grew up with Star Trek and so place higher emotional content with it. BUT I also stayed with Trek all the way through TNG, investing as much time as anyone in it. And the destruction in "Generations" just was a technical achievement, but not an emotional one.

For the sheer gut-punch death scene, "Talyn... Starburst!" was the only recent one that had any effect on me, to rival that of the 1701.

 

[Bast]

One I haven't seen mentioned is the Churchill on B5. I found that one to be as moving as some others already mentioned here.