Babylon 5: The Defeat of the Blackstar - Spacedock Short 

Q&A - APRIL 14th PATRONS POST QUESTIONS HERE: www.patreon.com/posts/8730922 NON-PATRONS POST AT ANY OF THE BELOW: (#spacedockq&a) FACEBOOK: facebook.com/officialspacedock/?ref=br_rs TWITTER: twitter.com/SpacedockHQ REDDIT: www.reddit.com/r/officialspacedock/

Minbari: "We were only engaged in a brutal war of cold-blooded extinction of your entire species because you killed just one guy we really liked, how DARE you fight back in an effective manner!" That never ceased to tick me off in that series.

A despicable act of cowardice?! They were coming back to finish off a disabled cruiser that was transmitting a distress signal!

Delenn: This is Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari. Babylon 5 is under our protection. Withdraw or be destroyed! Earth Force Officer: Negative! We have authority here. Do not force us to engage your ship. Delenn: Why not? Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari Fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else! Great scene...

John "Nuk'em" Sheridan 1. The Minbari 2. Thridspace Aliens 3. Vorlon and Shadows That man knew how to throw a bomb

Funny that the Minbari called it a despicable act of cowardice, even though they did exactly the same thing to them just hours before.

Sheridan: "I'll apologize for destroying the Blackstar when the Minbari government apologizes for trying to destroy the human race!"

"The humans, I think, knew they were doomed, but where another race would surrender to despair, the humans fought back with even greater strength. They made the Minbari fight for every inch of space. In my life, I have never seen anything like it. They would weep, they would pray, they would say good-bye to their loved ones, and then throw themselves, without fear or hesitation, at the very face of death itself, never surrendering... "No one who saw them fighting against the inevitable could help but be moved to tears by their courage, their stubborn nobility. When they ran out of ships, they used guns. When they ran out of guns, they used knives, and sticks, and bare hands. They were magnificent. I only hope that when it is my time, I may die with half as much dignity as I saw in their eyes at the end. They did this for two years! They never ran out of courage. But in the end, they ran out of time." RIP in Peace Mollari

I Fully support Sheridan Position for NEVER apologizing for his tactics. War is not Pretty and the Minbari War was VERY one sided. Sheridan not only used their tactics against them but took out the Flagship of a force VERY close to earth. Moral in the war was at an all time low and the Earth Forces needed a victory. I think what stuck in the Minbari's Craw was the fact that a Lowly human was able to kick then in the balls and kick hard enough to make them take note.

When the Minbari Warrior Caste does it it's a legitimate tactic. When Earthforce does it it's a cowardly war crime. Because that's how things work. Apparently.

It seems to me that the Warrior Caste are just indignant that a Human outsmarted them. JMS might have been trying to show that for all the Minbari's age and wisdom, they are still capable of acting like children.

I have one point of contention. Ground forces. Note that even a dozen years later, Earth “only” controlled 14 star systems, but the war lasted 3 years. After seeing how easily the Minbari dispatched Earth forces in space, are we to assume it took a full 10 weeks on average to subdue each star system for no reason at all? My contention is Earth’s ground forces put up a heck of a fight. Note in Londo’s description, it got all the way down to hand to hand combat. We see both a Minbari and an Earth soldier using their bare hands, but the Minbari has a knife. This does suggest the ground conflict was much more contested. Note how one Gropo bragged to Delenn about killing lots of Minbari in the war. Note how confident Garibaldi’s company was in their superior perimeter. It failed, but note the confidence, deep into the war. In the entire series, we saw a Minbari gun twice, or perhaps it was 3 times, each time a pistol. They use fighting pikes sometimes, as do the Rangers. We’ve never seen a Minbari rifle, grenade, machine gun, tank, artillery, missile/rocket, etc. Let’s look a little closer at Londo’s description. “When they ran out of guns, they used knives, and bare hands...” My interpretation is that with the space forces destroyed, the Earth ground forces were cut off from supplies. This caused them to “run out” of materials and ammo, and the Minbari had to wear them down. This is why the war took so long. They destroyed our space forces in a few minutes, but then it took weeks to wear down our ground forces in each system.

Not to mention the Minbari did the exact same thing with their "wounded vessel". Warrior caste obviously doesn't like it when the shoe is on the other foot.

"We lost many of our best warriors because of you!" I'm really surprised Sheridan didn't just burst out laughing at that statement.

Also, the Minbari Warrior Class's outrage over Sheridan's alleged "act of cowardice" shows their hipocrisy. Luring the enemy into a trap was precisely what _they_ were doing as well.

As a Babylon 5 fan... Thank you.

If I recall correctly didn't the Minbari Warrior Caste pretty much wage a war of total extinction upon the human race? And, they only bypassed civilian targets while planning to wipe them all out after destroying all military targets? Also, they had no moral qualms about shooting life-pods and finishing off wounded ships trying to surrender. They literally took no prisoners. So yeah... I wouldn't apologize either for sneakily ambushing one of their ships that DID come back to finish off a wounded and assumed destroyed vessel broadcasting an SOS. Screw em!!

And he would reuse the same basic tactic to get the full attention of the Shadows and Vorlons during the Shadow war. I miss B5, might have to rewatch the series again soon. :D

"It is the only victory we had in the whole damn war....... And I will not apologize for it."

Sheridan was asked to apologize? Wow I don't recall that. If pressed, I wonder what his apology would be? Perhaps he channeled his inner G'Kar, "I'm terribly sorry the Minbari Warrior Caste ran out of small children to butcher!" Or this: "I apologize. I'm sorry. I'm sorry your people thought the death of one man warranted the extinction of an entire race. I'm sorry we had the gall to fight back in ways you didn't expect. I'm sorry your Black Star's Captain was so arrogant and careless as not to recognize the trap he was walking into. And I'm sorry I waited as long as I did before I blew them straight to hell! After all, it's the thought that counts!"

Mimbari Warriors: CHEAT!!! HAXORS!!! YOU CHEATED!!! HOW DARE YOU WIN!!! WE ARE SUPPOSED TO WIN!!! YOU CHEATED!!! HAX!!! FUCKIN' HAX!!!

As much as I respect the Minbari, I'd have told any who asked for an apology on that incident to "shove it". Then turn right back around and talk about our alliance against the shadows. lol

It’s always fun to see how the asteroid belt is always depicted as such a crowded dangerous space in sci-fi

"See you in hell." BOOOOOOM!!! I love how the soldiers/pilots back on Earth celebrated. That good feeling of a first victory against an unstoppable enemy. It boosted my morale too.

Oh how I wish that they make another series for that universe. Perhaps a series about Babylon 4 during the First Shadow War, and how Sinclair share the recipe of Swedish meat ball to all the races.

Mimbari use a fighter to appear like theyr'e wounded and helpless to be bait to an ambush. This is fine. Membari obliterate entire batlegroup with their jump to realspace, not battle, just the jump in. THIS IS FINE. Commanding officer of one of these ships knows that any attempt to call for help will have membari utterly and absolutely curbstomp him even though his ship is not a threat. So lays mines so when he does signla for help if the membari do come back he blows them up. THIS IS APPARENTLY NOT FINE. ...hypocritical boneheads.

"How dare you ambush our ship after we ambushed you and were getting ready to murder helpless sailors." Gotta love hypocrites

"See you in Hell...." - John Sheriden.

YES! More Babylon 5 content! Thank you, Spacedock!

You'd think the Warrior Class would've seen him as a great tactician. Guess it goes to show just how shitty the Warrior Class really is.

Wait, the Minbari use a Fighter to lure in a Flottilla and destroy it with their jumpwake but consider it dishonorable to destroy a warship with nukes in single combat?

"The Earth-Minbari War was perhaps the most one-sided conflict in galactic history." - Nah, I'd say Centauri plus Shadows against Narn was more one-sided. It was also won a good bit faster.

If I'm not big enough to hit you above the belt, You better watch you nuts!"

Amazing video I love Babylon 5 still watch the show once a year even now such great Sci-fi

and this is why John Sheridan is my favorite sci-fi captain

Damnit... Guess I'm rewatching Babylon 5 now.

OMFG thank you for posting!

Love the Babylon 5 Videos, keep them coming! Especially anything to do with Sheridan! :D

One of the best vids so far dude. Keep it up!

Outstanding!!!!!!

this was well done. keep making more of these space battle breakdowns!

"A request he never oblieged." And then he became the Interstellar Alliance President. Ask him now.

Battle In The Mutara Nebula Star trek II would be a good video with two ships evenly matched

Great Vid. Thanks for doing more Bab5

Please do more Babylon 5 videos :) There are so few willing to/knowledgeable enough to do so that it's so refreshing to actually find your B5 discussions.

Amazing video!!! I love videos with combat tactics analysis. It's good to see youtubers creating content on Babylon 5. Could you do more videos about Babylon 5 ships? Or about battles like the Battle of the Line or about Strelas'tha Incident. The Strelas'tha Inciden was the first time that an Earthforce warship (Warlock destroyer) won a direct open space engagement against a Minbari ship (Sharlin Warcruiser).

wasn't a war it was a massacre, the Minbari were intent on exterminating all of humanity till the battle of earth when they surrendered

"The only human to ever defeat a Mimbari ship is behind us. You are in front of us" love this speech from Deleen 😁

Superb analysis & graphics. Another victory!

Thanks mate, Sherridan is one of my favorite, right next to Admiral Thrawn

In combat there are no promises, no apologies, and no "do overs."

Another Babylon 5 video!! Yesss!!!

The battle of Babylon 5 at the start of the Earth Alliance Civil War

One day, a character from another franchise, her name was Kara Trace, said a thought about Sheridan move: This is a war!, not a duel at dawn. Here you can approach the enemy from behind and hit him on the head properly.

Incredible moment in the Bab5 Universe for sure

You should do the Battle of The Line at some point.

You forgot to mention that there were also 2 mimbari escorts destroyed along with the blackstar, in the episode that mentioned this sheridan said that his mines took out the blackstsr and two of its supporting ships, so you have missed that little bit

This is why John Sheridan is a certified bad ass

In the Beginning, Earth got it's ass kicked, but in the process cultivating it's greatest ass-kicker.

Black Star: "Somebody set us up the bomb." Sheridan: "You have no chance to survive make your time."

I would told the mimbari. "Your lucky it was just one ship. I was hoping for a whole fleet"

your bab5 content is amazing - well-done

And yet Captain Sheridan didn't make your top list of commanders...

A breakdown of Babylon 5's liberation of Proxima 3 would be interesting, given Sheridan's tactics of drawing the occupation fleet apart and boxing them in by use of White Stars as bait, followed by an ambush via the jumpgate. An especially poignant detail would be how the Pollux was destroyed: the head-on collision forced the destroyer's forward tactical module to impact and seize up the rotating habitat assembly, the resulting torque throwing the entire ship out of control. The sudden loss of centrifugal gravity effect and the twisting of the entire ship prevented the crew from reaching the escape pods, despite Sheridan's subtle pleas for them to do so.

The Membari where hypocrites.

please make more of these awesome vidios

Awesome Babylon 5 video SpaceDock !

The only issue I have with this version is that in the actual show Sheridan said multiple cruisers were destroyed. I get in the movie they had to cut costs and only show one ship hit.

never apologize for fighting an enemy determined to wipe you out.

I love this channel and all the ships and battles u bring would love to see u do the ships of Centauri narn and drazi

This is actually surprisingly similar to how the Insurrection dissabled a couple UNSC Cruisers at one point. Except they used the asteroids themselves as the weapon, converting the nickle-iron mass into a jet of molten slag that easily obliterated titanium-a when it hit.

Very good video. Great battle tactics from Captain John Sheridan. The best battle I think on Babylon 5 is battle of Proximal 3. Thant's one battle worth looking at.

I like your vids so much

That is how heroes of war are born and their names will be known by both their allies and their enemies and this one's name is Starkiller.

Being the huge nerd I am, love your channel. You should do a video about the Borg vs the Zerg from Starcraft.

Wow, reminds me of Halo. What Admiral Cole went through when he was a lieutenant on the UNSC Las Vegas.

Would love to see some Space Battleship Yamato 2199/ Starblazers coverage. If you have access to the show of course.

This is still a really good show even if it was made in the early 90s

You killed our ship that was trying to kill you. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Also of note: this is one of the earlier uses of "telefragging" to destroy an enemy in SF stories. ;) It does make me wonder why they don't invent some sort of "jump attack ship" that attacks specifically with jump engines. Get as close as they can to where the target is, open a gate, send a probe out to figure how far off they are, close the gate, move a bit, open again.... It may take a few attempts, but any stationary target (like, say, a giant space station) would eventually get hit and destroyed.

The Black Star wasn't alone when it was destroyed. It's actually stated in the show that The Black Star AND "a few smaller support vessels" were destroyed in the two blasts.

Sometimes the Minbari Warrior caste were such whiners. Captain Sheridan outthought them. He used their arrogance and bloodthirstiness to lure them into a trap and the trap worked. Their whining shows they know this, are embarrassed by it and aren't willing to face it. That said, I hope when it's my time I hope it's with the courage and effect of Nerroon. He's proof of General Sir John Hackett's observation that, "The whole essence of being a soldier is not to slay but to be slain. You offer yourself to be slain rather than set yourself up as a slayer." Nerroon gave up his life to save his people from the members of his own caste.

Unapologetically Pragmatic. Be like Sheridan

That was a great movie, with wonderfull OST. I wonder, if JMS would do any more movie, will they be more like In the Beginning, or sadly not. Thanks for the short.

He never apologised...hah! Good for you Starkiller! :)

I'd love to see more battles like these, from any sci fi you'd like. Some possibilities are Operation M from Yamato 2199, or the destruction of the Donnager in the Expanse (or, my personal favorite, the Battle of Io). Keep up the great work regardless!

more like this! more B5!

The Centauri also demanded an apology from Sheridan when he destroyed one of their cruisers And likewise, he told them to shove it

big fan of B5 and this tactic is awesome he did what he had to do to take out the minbari ship and save as many of his crew as he could i have all 5 seasons of B5

There are 3 ships I would be interested in seeing breakdowns for 1. My Favorite Martian's UFO, 2. An examination of the Futuristic ship of Enterprise: Season 2, Episode 16, " Future Tense " & 3. The Repair ship from Enterprise; Season 2, episode 2, " Dead Stop ".

Only 1 addition, Sheridan used this tactic to kill 3 cruisers and the Black Star.

The warrior cast calls it an act of cowardice but it was a very similar tactic to what they used a few hours earlier.

u should do a video about ships from fractured space

Point of error; There were three other cruisers with the Dralafi, as Sheridan said in the first episode of the second season.

Earth Force should have employed this tactic more often.

I always found it interesting that the Mimbari were not above luring their enemy into an ambush but when the same tactic was used against them, they cried Foul.

I guess we can't talk about how a distress call would bring the Minbari to a site?

That's why l like Captain Sheridan, he always had a way to defeat a superior enemy and proved it many times, especially when on a single whitestar he found a way to defeat a shadow vessel and did twice! No wonder the Minbari hated him, because they were scared of the guy!

An interesting series of videos you have here. But I have a suggestion. I love Babylon 5, but if you want really massive space battles that are fought like Napoleonic style wars there is Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Yes the fleets line up in formation, but skirmish groups are deployed to hit the flanks and other angles of attack. But maybe it's too complex when the fleet number around 10,000 ships per side, it becomes more like infantry formations once they get that huge.

Hey Spacedock! Would you consider doing a video on the Sharlin War Cruisers from Babylon 5? Thanks!