note, cribbed from a post of mine on another message board about three years ago…
Spacebattles are fun! Explosions, spaceships, lasers and missiles! Rayguns and radars and scanners and asteroids! I’ve been a sci-fi nut pretty much from the moment I could read, and I love watching a decent battles in space. Below, I’ve listed what I consider the greatest three spacebattles put on screen, based on my criteria of emotion, choreography, impact, and personal bias .
…what are your thoughts? What is your favourite battle in space? Most importantly, how wrong am I?
Star Wars ANH-battle of Yarvin 4
What made this battle so great? Well, she was my first. The battle against all odds, the “out of this world” (for the time) special effects, the sacrifices and bravery of the bit players (Wedge saying “sorry” as he pulled out of the trench made him my favourite SW character ever), Han Solo’s return, and the climatic explosion of the Death Star, bought tears to my seven year old eyes, and introduced me to the fantastic worlds of Sci Fi. The asteroid battle in TESB was almost as good, but I found the battles in later Star Wars incarnations to be too “busy”, and lacking in the emotion that made this battle so great…
Star Trek Two, the Wrath of Kahn- initial ambush, and the Battle of Mutara Nebula
Never have the vast expanses of space been made to feel so small. Brilliant tactical manoevering, submarine like tactics, explosions that felt real, and models that really felt like they were millions of miles out in space. Real sacrifices made. Kirk wins the battles, thinks he’s cheated death again, but learns otherwise… Outstanding.
Babylon 5 series three-Severed Dreams
Like a fool, I thought that B5 was just a cheap Star Trek ripoff. So I didn’t join in the fun until Series 2, when I found out that “Scarecrow” was going to be the new Captain. And what a treat I was in for. The Spacebattle in Severed Dreams was awesome because it did something that the movies can’t do, and that is build up momentum each and every week, building to an inevitable climax. I was on the edge of my seat as the episode began (I had avoided all spoilers!!!) and when Sheridan said to the Earth Force Captian “you must realize that these orders are illegal!” I sat there, waiting for the cop out- “yeah your right, we’ll turn around now” climax-instead the shooting began. I didn’t blink throughout the entire first half of the battle, not believing what I was seeing! And then the ads came on! And then Delenn, oh dear…must control heart…great cinematics, and a great climax to fifty hours of build-up…
Honourable Mentions… Battlestar Galactica (The original movie) -always a favourite of mine, the scene where Apollo and his brother are ambushed was very cool…
The Last Starfighter-every boys dream come true-and the beginings of CGI on the bigscreen:
Battle Beyond the Stars-in itself not a great movie, but fun to see how many times the footage could be reused in other movies. Long live Nell!!!
For sheer impact of the uncertainty of space battle, even though the FX were cheesy by our standards, I nominate the Star Trek episode “Balance of Terror.”
Original Star Trek Episode wherein Capt. Kirk & the Gorn must battle hand-to-hand using only natural resources of the planetoid as weapons. The Gorn is a monsturous Reptilian Warrior bent on destroying Kirk swiftly and mecilously. Filmed at Vasquez Rocks in Southern California, this Episode is awesome!
But is it really awsome enough to count as being in space between spaceships? I mean, Shatner got pretty big towards the end of the seasons but that’s just mean!
One of the classics is the Original Enterprises’ first contact with the Romulans and the ensuing battle of wits between Kirk and Sarek… er… I mean the Romulan captain.
My top two are still the Battle of Endor and the fight in the Mutara Nebula from STII. The Mimbari rescuing B5 from Clark’s navy was pretty awesome, too. I just got the first season of the new Battlestar Galactica on DVD. Haven’t watched the last disc, yet, but the strike against the Cylon fuel depot in “Hand of God” was pretty f’in’ cool. It did borrow heavily from the trench run in Star Wars, but put enough of a spin on it to make it fresh again.
A lot of good ones here. Although my nomination isn’t as good as some mentioned, I think it deserves to be on the list.
The battle in Star Trek: Nemesis
A battle that lasts half an hour is good, and a battle with a ship ramming another ship is also good. Put the two together…
I’ve been thinking of starting a thread on the trend in movies for all the action scenes to get more frenzied and elaborate, to the point that you can’t even tell what’s going on. It’s like those swarms of gnats that fly around; and nobody gives a flying fig about one gnat. A movie like The Hunt for Red October has a really tense battle sequence between just two submarines, because you can tell who’s doing what, who’s manouvering, who’s being clever and who isn’t. I blame video games.
The best is still Star Wars - Episode IV. You know who the good guys are, and what they have to do; and you can tell how and why things are happening.
And a tip of the cap to the end of Star Trek II, the Wrath of Khan. One-on-one between two guys who are good, not just an endless parade of incompetent cannon fodder. But the thing that’s always bugged me about the battles in Star Trek is that at sometime in the next hundred years humanity will abandon long-range weapons and go back to the raking broadside. Sixty years ago, the big gun on a battleship could shoot something like 30 miles, not to mention aircraft carriers and cruise missiles. In Trek, they don’t shoot at each other until they’re about two-ship-lengths apart. And in recent movies, they’ve been showing off their new FX toys by swooping these big capital ships around like they’re fighters.
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