A few years ago, I used to visit a message board with some regularity. A challenge was posed: List your top ten moments in Star Trek (rather than episodes or movies as a whole, just moments). I started a blog post for Nerd Lunch and it's sat in my drafts section for years.
Robert asked me to do a Favorite Scene Friday in honor of Star Trek and with 50 years of history, I was having trouble zeroing in on just one favorite scene. So I thought I'd blow the dust off this old post that was intended for Nerd Lunch and list out my top ten moments (essentially top ten scenes) from all of Star Trek. These are listed chronologically rather than in order of preference. I've provided clips when I can.
1. In "Space Seed" when Khan calls Kirk out at dinner. "You let your second in command attack while you sit and watch for weakness." Unfortunately I couldn't find that clip, but here's one that's pretty awesome of Khan waking up.
2. In "City on the Edge of Forever" when Kirk has to make the choice to keep McCoy from saving Edith Keeler, it was a powerful scene and well played by all involved.
3. I could probably pick ten moments from Star Trek II alone, but I'll go with the sequence where the Enterprise escapes from the Mutara Nebula. I love that Khan dies believing he took Kirk and crew with him, the tension from everyone, and the defiant refusal to give up from Kirk.
4. The destruction of the Enterprise in Star Trek III. With the loss of Spock in the background and David Marcus having just been killed, the emotions leading up to the destruction of the Enterprise led to a mighty powerful scene.
5. In Star Trek IV when Spock announces "Gracie is pregnant," and then Gillian Taylor slammed on the brakes. I can't explain why, but I laugh every time I watch that scene.
6. The end of Next Generation's "Best of Both Worlds: Part 1" when Riker gives the order to fire on the Borg ship that had Picard aboard. It was the beginning of a long summer hiatus wait for a then 12-year-old boy. I still love the score to that episode, too.
7. In Next Generation's "Relics" when Scotty walks onto the holodek running the original bridge program, I was floored when I saw that. And I was even more impressed to read the back story about that since that scene almost didn't happen. I couldn't find a decent clip of the scene, but here's a bonus feature video showing a little behind-the-scenes of it.
8. Similarly, Deep Space Nine's "Trials and Tribble-ations" held many awesome moments, but seeing the classic Enterprise on screen again was truly magical.
9. In Deep Space Nine's "By Inferno's Light" after the Jem'Hadar and Worf have been fighting for an extended period of time, Worf gets up after a nasty beating then the Jem'Hadar says, "I yield. I cannot defeat this Klingon. All I can do is kill him. And that no longer holds my interest." (No clip on YouTube readily available.)
10. The ending of Deep Space Nine's "In the Pale Moonlight." Throughout the episode, Sisko has laid out in a personal log entry one of the most difficult decisions he's had to make. And something about that very last line where he deletes the log entry just resonates perfectly with me. This is Star Trek's greatest single episode ever in my opinion as it perfectly illustrates the moral dilemmas that make Trek so thought-provoking.
Which of these scenes is your personal favorite?
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