Babylon 5 Whitestars encounter the Drakh for the first time. Skindancing
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- Опубликовано: 26 ноя 2021
- Epic space battle, Whitestars skirmish with the Drakh.
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Here's an extended cut that I made of this sequence,
• Babylon 5 Skin Dancing... 
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![Space Battle [Babylon 5: An Ancient Ally]](/img/1.gif)
Delenn's line from earlier in the series "If you value your lives, be somewhere else," gets a lot of love. But her line from this episode, "End this," is pretty good too.
I did a quick cut to highlight her badass lines. She had 3 in this scene alone imo. Who said we're leaving... Be faster... and of course End This.
ruclips.net/video/4gxZDm8PLyg/видео.html
This episode is the one that got me into Babylon 5
That line tho' shows the toll that all the preceding years have taken on her; if I remember rightly 'End this' marks wiping out the Drakh completely; the Delenn of In The Beginning could never have condoned genocide yet here she says it without even blinking. Helluva series.
@@garry358 Depends which part of "In the Beginning". When she and the Council learned the truth about humanity, no. But up to that point she was quite on board with genocide against the people of Earth.
@@The_Lucent_Archangel If you suddenly learned the Hornets in the woodpile had the same 'heart and soul' as you, you'd probably change your feelings about them 'on a dime' too.
One of the very first shows I remember where they didn't treat space physics as if it was the same as in an atmosphere. The way that momentum matters more than speed and the ships come from every angle.
Though in this scene, they flew around a lot like they were in atmosphere.
you can destroy a Whitestar.... but you'll pay for it... oh you'll pay
3:05 Love that Whitestar strafing run!
3:18 "You cannot pass!"
If I remember correctly, Delenn and the other ships went to meet the Drakh but did not know they were the bad guys. One of them came on Delenn's ship and when he heard her name he went back to his ship and soon after they attacked the Whitestars destroying one and driving off the rest. Delenn then proceeded to get mad and went back to the where the ships were and started "taking names." She did not even ask if they valued their lives or not. (yeah, she was pissed) Also had a nice little line at the end where they got in front of the mothership and blocked their path so they could not leave and she said, "end this." With a look on her face that said she could have bit the ship in two. Might be her second most bad ass line of the entire series.
very well written summary of this segment 👍. I made an extended cut a while back you might be interested in with a few more CGI shots and Delenn's lines added back in.
ruclips.net/video/hf2_RvYGKCY/видео.html
Lennier is the first to guess.
Irrelevant question, they obviously didn't value their lives, they fired on the Minbari.
Lennier was so good in this episode and previous ones, it was such a shame what they wrote for his character. I can't believe he would have acted that way for one, and then second not atoned for it, being a member of the Religious Caste. That he could have felt a calling to be Warrior Caste, similar to how Neroon felt at the end his calling was to be Religious Caste could have been a better story arc.
Delenn exemplifies why the Minbari represent the element of water. They may look calm and soothing, but beneath the surface lies a deep ocean that can swallow and destroy you
Not to mention can unleash dangerous tsunamis that can sweep over and kill you when said ocean is disturbed by anything.
also their ships look like fish
@@Feasco 🤣
B5 was my fav sci-fi show of the 90s. The story was amazing. It should have spanned all 5 seasons instead of rushing to wrap it in season 4 due to fears of being cancelled.
That was the reality of showbiz. At least JMS was able to still create the greatest storytelling in sci-fi television history. These effects were even made by the home computer the Amiga. Imagine if the company did not go out of business and the Amiga continued to evolve, how much further ahead special effects on the home computer would be. The Amiga was multimedia before multimedia was even a thing.
I think the general consensus is that denouement (which is what the 5th season was about) is not that good writing, and isn't something people want to read; they'd rather use their imagination. It's "Then what happened?" Well, there's chapter after chapter in Return of the King to wrap things up and have peril for the Hobbits when they have to deal with the Ruffians. One says, "Sam, if you've been protecting Frodo this long, why leave him now when it's dangerous?!" or something like that. In that case it's good.
But trying to wrap up Babylon 5 and put them on a trajectory towards the Telepath War (which the TV movies skipped) and how Londo's Centauri (under control of the Drakh) went after Sheridan and Delenn's son to get even with them (which also didn't get its own TV movie) didn't work too well. They did Lennier wrong for one in Season 5.
White Stars came back out PISSED. Love how the White Star turns around with the debris flying towards it at the end. Those ships had personality.
one of my favorite designs! Even if they look a bit like plucked chickens...
It just hit me how the Drahk ships emitter have a George Pal-like Martian war machine look to them.
I love Delenn! She was always ready to give a helping hand and not scared to call any body on anything. If someone angered her, you were going to pay a high price. She could not tolerate bullies or injustice.
While I don't hate her, I don't love her either, she after all declared holy war to exterminate/genocide humanity like we would a bug! So yeah, she is too easily riled up, they lost what? At best 100 people when the Earthforce expedition opened fired (which they provoked with their open gunports!) and they killed millions probably - civilians, too especially during the Battle of the Line! So yeah, she IMHO has a lot to atone for and IMHO she never does really, most others on the show suffer catastrophic (personal!) losses (like Londo and Adira, G'Kar his homeworld and his Uncle G'Sten, Sherridan and his wife etc. etc.) and Delenn? No, not really! The Minbari Civil War is relatively short compared to the Human Civil War!
@@dreamingflurry2729 actually the war was between warriors. No civilians were killed since the minbari have a thing about only attacking warriors first since they operate as a caste system. But yea.. 250k vs a few hundred is a bit much. And most of the losses were on the ground which a lot of the times were pyrrhic victories for both sides.
In truth, many warriors, while upset about they being the ones to surrender, were happy it was over. Humanity proved that once up against the wall we only fight harder which was admired and seen as the pinnacle of a warrior.
Yeah like when she called for genociding the human race because dukath died...
@@marckrieger3277 Earthforce attacked the Minbari first.
"Who said we were leaving?" - Delenn
Reminds me of what Garibaldi said about the Membari, they dont like to lose
Word to the wise, when Delenn is angry, if you value your lives, Be Somewhere Else......Sadly the Darkh learned this lesson the Hard Way
So did humanity sadly, given it was her anger that initiated the war, despite her later regret.
@@explorer47422 Agreed, which again just shows how terrifying Delenn's fury is
The only thing this video needs is when the White Star is blocking the jump gate, just need Delenn voice over saying "End This".....great clip.
People allways talking about how good the starfurrys were but really the strongest figther of the younger races were the one of the drakh, destroying a whitestar with just two shots is wild.
"End This"
Such good cinamotography
I never understood why the Shadows didn't throw the Drakh into the mix during the Shadow War. It wasn't like they weren't a capable fighting force.
I think the threat of cancellation during season 3 forced some story lines to be skipped. Then after the season 4 renewal they had a chance to bring them in... or they just needed more baddies😁
@@nuzzyfutzz Thinking about it they most closely resemble Vorlons ships than shadow ships.
So I'm not sure they really did plan to bring them in earlier in the show. May be to work along side the Centeuri in disrupting the young ones war fighting capabilities.
look like they relies on jump gates. For a ship that size not to jump out on it own is bad.
@@warp103 Yes, however their fighters were more than capable of dealing with anything other than a Sharlin class heavy cruiser or a squadron of White Stars. So all they would have to do is park themselves off of a jump gate and pick off anyone that came along.
@@patrickstivers7387 till someone jumps in the system from jump engines and killed them like earth Force , minbari narn etc...... Just think when they came at earth with a Full fleet{with a planet killer} and got destroyed.
The President Clark fascist Earthforce ships ran away when Delenn's fleet arrived and told them to be elsewhere. The Drakh did not comply.
The Drakh had no clue what they were getting into. Clark and cronies still had the Battle of the Line fresh in their minds. They made Clark such a great weasel!
@@nuzzyfutzz Well, the Drakh just got educated and spanked by the Minbari. Then the Drakh tried to invade Earth and got curbside half beaten up by Humans, Minbari, and everyone else at the same time, same space party. 🥳
The Drakh were servants of the Shadows. I don't think much scares them.
I was in college during much of Babylon 5's airtime on TV so I only managed to watch some episodes, not a whole season, during holidays. I've seen the Whitestars' introduction but I don't remember them running away from other races. I assumed they were powerful hero ships critical in the fight against the Shadows.
Really hope the Babylon 5 reboot goes all out and doesn't get cheap like Star Trek Picard
Oh dear god please no. End of Picard season 1 still breaks my heart. Hopefully season 2 can redeem it... how bad will this comment age? 😂
As long as they take their time! That slow story arc reveal from the first series is still what makes it so epic, even with the dated CG.
Why reboot perfection?
@@nuzzyfutzz Patrick stewart plays a picard in the future? He looks a bit long in the tooth
@@kerosoldier Precisely!
Don’t get your hopes up, they always try to out woke each other these days.
I never actually sat down and watched this show. I saw it a few times when it was on. But this is one of the few scenes I remember.
I defiantly recommend picking it up. Great story, characters, and action!
I think the big weakness of the Whitstars was their lack a point defense. All of their weapons were forward mounted which meant if someone got behind them they had limited options.
To be fair, did you see how quick that ship did an about face? I don't think they are terribly concerned if a *ship* is behind them. Missiles and torpedos would be a different matter.
the Whitestars are basically Cruisers with the maneuverability of a fighter, the firepower of a Battlecruiser/Battleship and more durability then ships of their size class should have so honestly i don't think a PD system would be worth the potential loss to their firepower not to mention their size would mean the PDs have to either be few in number or much smaller and weaker
How much use would PD be when nearly all weapons are energy weapons?
Point defenses are only valuable if the ship is unable to move around and evade swiftly.
As someone noted the White Star is a ship that is as maneuverable as a fighter, the size of a cruser, with the firepower and defensive capability of battleship/battle cruser.
She can out run you, out turn you, out survive you and out fire you. The white star is that one ship that punches way above her weight class and that has a lot to do with Vorlon tech just being a thousand years ahead of every race in the third era.
The Victory Class destroyers and Valen Class crusers had point defense weapons but also had cruser like movement.
Season 4 is when B5 moved it’s effects in house under Netter Digital. Consequently, there are more effects shots, like in this episode - but they don’t quite have the design style or choreography that Ron Thornton brought to the table - like in Season 3’s ‘Shadow Dancing’ for example…. Just my 2 cents. Still love this clip though!😎
What great insight! I never knew they went in-house post season 3. Impressive for that time and tech! Shame they couldn't keep Ron on, Shadow Dancing is one of my favorites as well.
I did notice how much tighter the narrative of CGI shots are from season 4 on through the movies. Very A to B to C. I guess a great example of when a director has direct communication with the FX team. That must have been a sweet work flow (or horrible for the animators 🤣)
@@nuzzyfutzz Yeah, sure to have it’s production and cost advantages. What with Season 4 containing 2 seasons worth of ‘big’ episodes it was likely that this was the only way to make that work. Still people noticed at the time that the effects weren’t quite so well staged. Take the shots of Mars from season 3 (SeveredDreams) and compare than with Mars in season 4. Everything is a little flatter somehow…
Ron Thornton had a way of lighting things and keeping camera moves realistic, I thought. Look at the camera and staging in S4 & s5. It’s noticeably more wooshy!!! And the ships feel smaller, less weighty - though maybe as a result of the increasing scale of the battles… Still, it’s probably less noticeable now that the effects are dated overall.
This is a subject very close to my heart, as you can probably tell!!!😂
Having said all that: ‘Endgame’ still contains some great FX shots, particularly in the battle over Earth.
@@Tomurow I'm trying to clip it! It's rough, that entire sequence through the final charge of the Agamemnon is so epic I don't want to cut anything!
The Battle of Proxima 3 is where the "B5 choreography" is at its best imo.
Unfortunately I don't have Babylon 5 season 5 on DVD dics yet, but I have season 1 to 4 on DVD discs and they are all original DVD discs not copied stuff. I bought these 4 seasons in a shop, which was in my hometown Aalesund before and that was 4-5 years ago.
Info
The series antiquarian shop is a shop where you can buy, exchange and sell LPs, music, films, books and magazines. That was the name of the shop my hometown Aalesund had before the owner closted the doors to his shop which happend in 2020. Before that happend the shop have been in Aalesund since 2009. But the owner who had this series antiquarian shop in Aaleaund for 10-11 years have also shop and premises in Oslo which is bigger then the shop which was in my hometown before.
I only have 2-3 Babylon 5 movies on VHS tapes, which is in the beginning, Thirdspace and The river of souls.
Whitestars have eons of doctrine.
Whitestars are the Defiants of the B5 universe
Whitestars vs. Defiants....
No, the Defiant is the Whitestar of the DS9 verse. Just one of many things shamelessly copied from B5.
well that was easy.. one ship wipes out the huge Drakh when it decides to fire its weapons
After many other shots disabled it's shielding, you can see the shots before that being deflected / absorbed.
It was the same with the whitestar that died, took 2 shots with no damage before the third got through the shields.
The Whitestar had probably diverted all power to weapons. It was stopped and not using engines it looked like. With jump engines diverted to weapons, a whitestar can take out a moderate sized shadow vessel on it's own with that beam.
In the episode when they skimmed along the top of the hull the goal was to take out the shield control in the centre. Then the Whitestars simply played with the prey. Allowing it to get close to the jump gate and safety and then kill it before it reached there.
If they had not destroyed one, they might not have angered the other whitestars enough for them to come back to destroy the carrier.
very strong possibility!
@@nuzzyfutzz delen was rather angry after that, and they subsequently resolved the problem
For an advanced race like the Drakh, their capital ships feels really underpowered. Their fighters are fine, but you would expect a ship of that size to be filled to the brim with weaponry, or at least with anti-ship defenses.
They have...and quite some potent weaponry. It's all covered in the rules around the Babylon 5 Wars game.
I'm pretty sure that's why "skin dancing"... it's loaded out, but obviously didn't expect anything of that threat level be able to abuse their firing arcs like that.
@@houstonhelicoptertours1006 That's interesting. If you wish, could you give an example what kind of weaponry their ships have?
@@damien4197 That makes sense. I hadn't looked at it that way. So the White Stars used the size of the Drakh ship to their advantage? What kind of Drakh ship do they show in this clip? I read somewhere they have destroyers, carriers and motherships?
I felt the same way about the main Drakh ships. To destroy a Shadow vessel a White Star had to stay still and fire its main beam weapon constantly at full power for quite a while before the ship was destroyed. With the Drakh they were able to keep on the move and use any of their weapons to destroy them. Given that the Shadows gave their tech to Clark and the Technomages, you would think they would have shared it with their allies and made their ships tougher.
You should have put in the scene of Delenn commanding the Whitestars to return and obliterate the enemy! Her looks could kill too. (Maybe redo it?)
I did make a version highlighting Delenn's lines in this sequence. See link
ruclips.net/video/4gxZDm8PLyg/видео.html
@@nuzzyfutzz Awesome!!
Man! That’s hilarious I’m currently searching RUclips specially for that scene with Delenn
@@kenwalker7550 Here's an extended cut I made some time ago that has Delenn's lines along with being higher res that my previous link. ruclips.net/video/hf2_RvYGKCY/видео.html
Drakh ships look more like Vorlon technology descendant rather than Shadows one
That's a great point. The bio skin does look very similar to the Vorlon. I wonder if the Drakh ships are "alive".
Wouldn't it be grand if they were some form of Vorlon, or some long forgotten tribe of Vorlon that broke away millions of years ago. Only to be corrupted by the shadow and forced to be their servants.
@@nuzzyfutzz that`s possible. Or maybe they were just Vorlons that didn`t ascend in time haha
Huh. I don't think I ever really made that observation. For me, it's more telling that they're based on Shadow tech because their beam weapon color is blue, like the Shadowtech Omega-Class Destroyers from Earth that fought the White Stars. The Drahk ships definitely felt more arthropodic (with a hint of reptile, perhaps?) in design as compared the the more squidlike Vorlon vessels, but their motherships could probably have fit in as Vorlon ships with relatively minor reskin work. There's definitely an interesting mix of visual design language at play, and that's neat!
I always thought thge Drakh were much more interesting than the Shadows.
Well, if the Millennium Falcon can fly like a fighter, why not whitestars?
👍👍👍👍👍
Next time play it with her dialog. Great scene
Here's an extended cut I made with Delenn's lines added back in
ruclips.net/video/hf2_RvYGKCY/видео.html
I've been looking for this skin dancing clip for ever but unfortunately it also reminds me of why the new season 5 effects jar for me so much. It's like they put everything on rails and made it super shiny and just... I don't know. The explosions are almost too excited. Am I making sense?!
Makes perfect sense. Knowing they went inhouse with their CGI season 4, I now get the sense the production team being kind of kids in a candy store.
There is a definite jump in direction/cinematography when TNT picked the show up from WB. It happens both in SFX and in camera shots on set.
@@Xechran I've been meaning to look at who the directors were actually but I certainly think as you say perhaps more experience and maybe budget just allowed them to start playing with things more...
Considering the White Star's are about the size of the original NCC-O701, the inertia dampers use more energy than the engines.
Geez! MJS! Redo the graphics. The series was fine!
I think the whitestars are out numbered .. They were getting their ads kicked then come back and one Whitestar destroys the mothership .. Not very believable
They cut out the best part with Delann
I made a cut with her and Lenniers lines. Sorry had to chop it up a bit so as not to get a strike.
ruclips.net/video/4gxZDm8PLyg/видео.html
Gotta love Minbari Neutron Lasers (the beam weapon).
I never liked the look of the Whitestars, nothing about the design has the feel of any other Minbari ship, but they do pack a punch.
🥺 I miss playing Babylon 5 Wars. I wish Agents of Gaming had fought harder to keep the license. But I gather Warner Bros. was way too greedy.
They do look like plucked chickens don't they! 😂
Reason why I like the whitestars is more nostalgia (the design really doesn't makes sense). B5 led you along for 2ish seasons with the protagonist horribly underpowered compared to the dark forces the show was hinting at.
I was often left thinking back then, how the heck are they going to win this? Answer: Minbari, err I mean Whitestars!
Considering it's primarily Vorlon tech and is supposed to be a secret, it makes sense it doesn't look all that Minbari
It's a hybrid Vorlon-Minbari vessel with the ideology of humanity behind it (since humans became rangers as well)
Basically it's a small ship with bio regeneration hull tissue, stealth tech, and the human belief that you can't have too much firepower on a small ship frame
@@myonline1985 It's a Minbari designef ship prior to the Earth- Minbari War to bridge the gap between the Sharlins and Fighters, it wasn't accepted and eventually elements of it's design became the Whitestar with Vorlons tech use In stead of Minbari crystalline Armour technology. Just imagine what a pure Minbari version could do to Earth Alliance ships if it was accepted...
@@nuzzyfutzz Iirc Delenn said that the look of the whitestar was purposely designed to not look like a minbari ship so that once they appeared they would be a mystery to both alliance and shadows and able to operate more freely.
finally, i saw whitestar run away
but only to return with a vengeance...
Babylon 5 - Silent Hill?
What?
I miss the whole show. Tried to watch it later, but I was so lost as what the show is about so I watched some things else
The dexterity of the White Star has always seemed overstated, especially in relation to ships of similar length (475.6m from sources) from other science fiction franchises. Perhaps their systems really do allow them extraordinary maneuverability. I think it as likely, though, that there is a bit of poetic license at work.
Perhaps, but they incorporated not only Minbari tech but also Vorlon, the most advanced in the galaxy. And they were following new design priorities, emphasizing speed and maneuverability. If the show repeatedly shows that's what they can do, then that's what they can do. ;-)
@@danieldickson8591 Yep- You did not want to Encounter the same White star with the same type of weapons- each encounter your weapons becomes less effective against it's Adaptive Armour...Look what Excalibur has-,80% diffusion of energy weapons against it...
"IF" you have technology that can create and manipulate gravity, then yes you could pull off all those insane stunts. because the Gravity inside the ship would negate the inertia that would other wise kill you doing such high speed maneuvers. all that you would need after that is good enough Thrusters to rapidly turn the ship.
@@HighmageDerin the ship uses gravimetric drives a combined gravity magnetic drive system that allows the ship too turn in any direction whilst maintaining a zero inertial load on the ship itself, it's similar to the way a warp drive works, only strictly sublight, you create a bubble of gravity warped spacetime and it means the ship does not experience the forces of it's turns, the outside of the bubble does, so the ship never experiences more than the 1g of the internal space warp and can orient the bubbles direction anyway it likes allowing for rapid it would turn the crew to jam turns , of course there is an input lag for collisions and enemy weapons fire so the crew can be thrown around by those (Mostly for dramatic TV purposes, but at least the consoles don't instantly explode and aren't stuffed with rocks like in star trek!)
B5 deserves a reboot with cutting edge special effects. Not garbage 90s video game graphics. And for gods sake please use a real symphony for the sound track. No cheesy keyboard music.
You literally could not get better cgi at that time. Or at least for reasonable budget and within reasonable tkmeframe. It was something not seen before
@@jurybery Yes. It was outstanding at the time especially given the technology of the decade.
kinda inane remark, but to each their own
Dumb... no idea what I'm seeing, I know what the ships are, I watched the OS religiously but this is all cut up and is just scenes cut together hat don't flow at all...
I'm sorry you feel that way, this clip is intended to highlight and perserve the early CGI work this wonderful show trailblazed.
I did create an extended version of this scene with Delenn's lines added back in. That might help remind you of the context behind the action
ruclips.net/video/hf2_RvYGKCY/видео.html
Cutting out the dialog which is very very good in this series really doesnt make me want to watch your videos as you aare cutting some of the best parts.....
I made an extended cut that includes Delenn's and Lennier's line. The original intent of this clip was just to highlight the sweet early CGI action
ruclips.net/video/hf2_RvYGKCY/видео.html
Amazing how much of this is just so WRONG, unless my understanding of space is wrong
Series 5 was shite!!!