• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Best starship death

Which had the best death

  • USS Enterprise NCC-1701 (ST:III)

    Votes: 54 51.9%
  • USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D (ST: Generations)

    Votes: 9 8.7%
  • USS Defiant (DS9)

    Votes: 8 7.7%
  • USS Prometheus (X-303)

    Votes: 3 2.9%
  • The Whitestar (Babylon 5)

    Votes: 3 2.9%
  • Other

    Votes: 27 26.0%

  • Total voters
    104
I gotta go with the Talyn one myself. I grew up with Star Trek the original series but, by the time of the events of ST:III, the Enterprise was a shell of her former self anyway and I honestly was not all that surprised by it. The Talyn....Starburst thing was completely unexpected. Up until he actually did it I still felt Crais would not do it or they would find another way. Then seeing the look on Aeryn's face, knowing she was the one who had named him and she had named him in memory of her father. The look on Chiana's face, as she was the midwife basically, and then knowing that Moya would be heartbroken as she was his mother, and in turn Pilot was kinda like a father. It brought me to tears, which none of the others did.

I'm gonna have to YouTube this, I've only ever seen a couple of Farscapes and didn't like it.
 
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.

Shatner talks about the behind the scenes on the Enterprise's destruction in one of his books part of it put down to the different experiences betwen Roddenberry and Harve Bennet.

Roddenberry was a Bomber pilot and air crew would be attacked their aircraft and there was sense of loss when the plane went. Bennett was a chopper pilot in Korea and chopper pilots were basically - the bird's broke get a new one.

So when it came time to blow up the Enterpise Bennett's reaction (well according to Shatner was roughly) they could just get a new starship, almost like Crusher's 'Do you think they'll build another one?" line in First Contact.
 
Inteesting. I didn't know any of that, Marc. Thanks for bringing it up, because it does add a new dimension to the discussion of the 1701's death. And the reactions to it.
 
Best
1NASA's Galileo probe crashing into Jupiter
2Enterprise in ST:III
3Talyn Farscape
4The DeathStar goes dead - Starwars ep 4
5Death of the Hammerheads SAAB

Worst

Alien virus in ID4

Pegasus in new Battlestar, Fat binge eating emo boy and Dualla get over their daddy issues and crash the best ship in the fleet :scream:
http://forums.scifi.com/index.php?showtopic=2250208&st=240
Marks the point where the series slowly jumps the shark with emo drama and suicide bomber BS
Pointless to waste the Pegasus. It was the superior ship. Why jump in and commit suicide?
Once again Ron Moore, Eick and Co fuck up what could have been a great tv series
Adolf_Emo_Hitler_by_FallingMonkey.jpg


Icarus-2 in Sunshine, a movie with great potential but a crappy friday the 13th style ending
 
Last edited:
It is a powerful, moving sequence to be certain. The slowed pace of action, the crackling static as they hear Hiroshi's last words, the musical score - it all melds together in one of B5's most memorable scenes. Perhaps the key element though is that it is Earth Force ship vs Earth Force ship. That's the tragedy of the whole episode.
Agreed. The Churchill is powerful because of its symbolism, up to this point there was a slim chance of peace, but once it happens there is no way out of Human civil war and the course of the show is set.

Talyns a good choice because its a noble self-sacifrice, we've come to know his character well, its unexpected and also technically he's still a child.

The Defiants decent departure is lessened by its almost immediate replacement.

I'm going to cheat here though and say that my favourite starship death isn't actually a starship, but a space station -B5. She deserved to go out in blaze of glory at her height, but instead is destroyed by its own crew as she has become unneeded, unimportant and unwanted. It always seemed a very real end, if a little ignoble

totally agree with you there
 
The Cygnus in The Black Hole. Pretty badass with her getting chewed up by incoming meteors, losing a power plant, and slowly succumbing to a black hole.

The Event Horizon. Though technically not destroyed, the final fate of the ship is pretty wicked.
 
While yes, if you look at it from a purely tactical standpoint, keeping Pegasus made more sense, it makes sense to sacrifice it from a thematic standpoint and that is what really matters. Quite frankly the show is not called Battlestar Pegasus. And Pegasus being sacrificed ties into one of the most prevelant themes in media: redemption. Pegasus was a ship with a dark past, and with that last heroic act it came full circle to atone for the dark deeds done on it. And it's just a jaw-dropping scene.
 
The Cygnus in The Black Hole. Pretty badass with her getting chewed up by incoming meteors, losing a power plant, and slowly succumbing to a black hole.
Not sure if this counts as one of the best starship deaths or simply as one of the weirdest. Never has there been a kids movie with a more totally head-stratching ending.
 
I have to agree that Talyn's death was really poignant, as was the death of the Whitestar.

"Talyn. Starburst!"


'Jump! Jump now!'

*John jumps*

*Anna looks up*

The Whitestar smashes through.

Anna screams

Explosion!
 
The Liberator in Blake's 7 - not so much for the ship itself as for Zen's (the onboard computer) death with it

The Enterprise in STIII

Pegasus in nuBSG

USS Sulaco, which was a stupid setup (where did that egg come from?) but was very well put together, integrated with the opening credits.
 
The Enterpise-D because I couldn't believe it I expected them to push the reset button at the end of the film. In DS9 the loss of the Defiant was very shocking. The death of the Liberator from Blak'es 7 was very well done since the ship was practically alive it died a slow death not something you see very often.
 
The Prometheus, seemed almost invincible then some upstart Ori defense satellite controlled by some zealot politician shot her down and the Captain going down with the ship was powerful too.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top