14. Fight! Fight! Fight! (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, 1991)
Trek VI’s scenes set within the Klingon prison planet of Rura Penthe are a Mos Eisley Cantina-level alien fest rarely seen in the original movies. The special effects teams go nuts with the various roaring/chittering/hissing beasties.
Plus the fight scene lets William Shatner – or at least his stunt double – go to town fighting a hulking alien brute paid to off him.
Sadly, the fight ends with a super-cheesy flourish as Kirk strikes his opponent in what he thinks is his knee, but ends up delivering a shot to the nuts. Ouch!
Trek Trivia: Director Nicholas Meyer and the other writers just can’t hold back on those literary allusions...
'Rura Penthe' is a reference to Jules Verne's 20000 Leagues Under the Sea - it's the name of the slave labour camp that inspired Captain Nemo's rage against society.
13. Assimilate This! (Star Trek: First Contact, 1996)
One for the fans who like a triumphant, fist-pumping moment of sheer payback.
After battling the Borg for what seems like ages in a cool sequence that sees our heroes magnetic-walking on the hull of the ship, Picard and crew are finally able to thwart the techno-villains’ plans to turn the ship’s deflector dish into a communications array.
With the dish floating serenely away into space, Worf (Michael Dorn) aims his phaser rifle at the structure and, in a display of less-than-Trek-usual glee, blasts it into fragments.
Trek Trivia: Space epic crossover ahoy! The deflector dish is labelled AE35, the name of a component of the satellite dish in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Next: Battle For Peace, David's Death
Comments
mattburgess
May 4th 2009, 16:33
Star Trek Generations, and the Enterprise-D is moments from being destroyed by a vastly inferior klingon warbird. But thanks to a nifty little trick by Data, they force the warbird to drop its own shields, and in one brilliant, heart stopping, breath taking moment, Commander Riker gives the order: "Fire!" A single, fateful photon torpedo later, and the warbird is a complete wreck. Brilliant! (Never mind the fact that Riker has previously asked for a spread of torpedos)
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jhr01
May 5th 2009, 21:42
6. “This Far. No Further!” (Star Trek Generations, 1994) The scene involving Patrick Steward and Alfie Woodward's Lily Sloane is from First Contact, not Star Trek's Generations! Shame on you Total Film!!!!
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jwhite
May 7th 2009, 21:26
Argh! My bad. I'm turning in my phaser and heading to the Agony Booth for a sesh. Error fixed!
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Juliette
May 8th 2009, 19:53
Brilliant article, thanks! Though I think Spock's death has to be No 1 for me, and I also have a soft spot for Chekov's 'Now would be a good time!' in Star Trek IV
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stewart
May 10th 2009, 18:08
A really good article, thanks! Personally I thought your number 3 was probably the number 1 - Kirk destroying that which he coveted above all else - and of course the exchange between Kirk & Bones that followed. I felt that Star Trek III was the best of the lot - despite the critics harangueing it no end, and largely because of the scenes from that filn that you included in this article!
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