Going Down with the Ship: Difference between revisions
m
clean up
m (revise quote template spacing) |
m (clean up) |
||
Line 15:
Originally came about because of maritime salvage laws - if the ship was abandoned by all the crew but didn't sink, anyone who got on board could claim the ship and contents as salvage. So a senior officer had to remain until it was clear that the ship really was going to sink (or at least be the last to leave) to prevent embarrassing losses of cargo and/or repairable ships.
In many cases, the captain goes down with the ship because he would [[Dirty Coward|face major disgrace if he didn't]]
Because, of course, [[Space Is an Ocean]] this also applies to starship captains. Even though [[2-D Space|there's no (literal) "down" for them to go]]...
Line 49:
== Live Action TV ==
* The ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' sketch [http://www.montypython.net/scripts/ww1.php "World War 1"] has a ship captain announcing "women and children first!", then we see that the captain and crew are all dressed as women and children... and other costumes, which forces the captain to change the announcement to "women, children, Red Indians, spacemen, and a sort of idealized version of complete Renaissance Men first!"
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' invokes this trope a few times in S3. I'm not sure whether this falls squarely under this trope since no immediate crisis is
* In the [[Pilot Movie]] of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' a [[Flash Back]] shows us Lt. Commander Sisko and crew abandoning ship during the battle of Wolf 359; Sisko is the last to board an escape shuttle (the captain had been killed; Sisko as first officer was now in command). He had to be dragged aboard, not because he felt he should go down with the ship but because his wife was killed and he was in despair.
** Happens to Sisko again with the ''U.S.S. Defiant'' as it's being blasted to scrap. He's the last one on the bridge after calling for the crew to abandon ship, and probably the last one off before the Dominion finish the job.
Line 55:
{{quote|'''Decker:''' They called me, they begged me for help! Four hundred of them! I couldn't...I just couldn't...}}
* In ''[[Firefly]]'' when Serenity is crippled Mal sends the rest of the crew off in the shuttles and stays on board. He claims this is because someone might hear their distress signal, but Inara at least assumes that he's doing this. In the end the crew, who had little better chances of survival in the shuttles in any case, come back to join him.
* [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]] in the ''[[Babylon 5]]'' episode ''Babylon Squared''. The last remaining crew members of {{spoiler|Babylon 4}} are being evacuated before the it gets drawn back into a [[Negative Space Wedgie]]. As it is [[Collapsing Lair|unclear]] if {{spoiler|Babylon 4}} will survive the transition, Commander Sinclair compares it to [[Space Is an Ocean|a great old ship sinking]]. Garibaldi [[Averted Trope|reminds his commander]] that he is emphatically ''not'' [[The Captain]] there and he is ''not''
** Shortly before that, in the same episode, the man who ''is'' in command there had just taken off to get to the shuttles himself, but only after [[The Men First|seeing the rest of his crew off]] and imploring Sinclair and Garibaldi to get going rather than {{spoiler|staying behind to try and save Zathras, who had appeared shortly before all of their problems began.}}
* In ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', in "The Last Man", an alternate reality Carter rams a Wraith Hiveship with the Phoenix, a much smaller 304 Battlecruiser. The Phoenix not only destroys the Hiveship, but two more are destroyed when they get caught in the blast of the first. It is unknown whether Carter meant to go down with the ship, or whether she intended to beam down to the planet below but couldn't because the transporters were knocked out.
Line 72:
* ''[[Dale Brown]]''s Sky Masters, the Chinese Admiral fails to invade Mindanao, and his ship gets struck by the Americans satellite. With his ship sinking he decides to sink with the ship and shoot himself, because even if he lives, he'll get court martialed, and executed by his superiors.
* Played very straight by Captain Jack Aubrey of the ''[[Master and Commander]]'' saga. In the book "Desolation Island", the HMS Leopard springs a very large leak and is in danger of sinking. Captain Aubrey lets the men bring out the boats and gives his First Lieutenant dispatches for the authorities, while he himself prepares to go down with the ship. The situation eventually improves, thankfully.
* A twist in [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]' [[John Carter of Mars|Martian]] novels: traditionally, a (flying) ship caught in a hopeless battle can't surrender until ''the captain'' abandons
* In ''Tomorrow War'' (the first book of the series) by Alexander Zorich, the protagonist [[Space Cadet]] volunteered into fleet sent to the joint operation with another faction against some tough aliens who dropped into human space while [[
{{quote|An important detail: all life shuttles were in place.
It's unlikely that three, even if very strong, explosions destroyed all the crew of a battleship to the last man. Remembering the Concordian mores, it was easier to believe that space navy men remained at their stations and continued the battle to the end. To the last sip of air, to the last spasm of stiffening muscles.
Interesting, did they kill [[
== Music ==
| |||