From space battles to lines of dialogue to character beats, we've tried our best to come up with the greatest sequences from the first 10 Trek movies. Not including, of course, the new film -- we'll wait until after that one comes out to fully discuss the new Star Trek.
So read on for our Top 10 Star Trek Movie Moments -- and then be sure to comment below and let us know what your favorites are…
10. The Captains Meet
Movie: Generations
Participants: Kirk, Picard
It was the moment that inspired a thousand pieces of fan-fiction, all of them bad. It was the day the two captains finally met -- Captain Kirk and Captain Picard, face to face. Could the universe as we know it bear the dramatic impact of such a colossal connection?
In a word, yes. Sure, 1994's Star Trek: Generations may not have been the film we had all hoped it would be -- overall it feels a bit too TV-like, really. And when Kirk and Picard did finally band together after all those years of speculation of how such a meeting would happen, the circumstances, plot, and outcome of said gathering was perhaps anticlimactic. But still… the sheer excitement of seeing these two legendary Starfleet captains together onscreen surely merits a mention on this list.
They are so different, both the characters and the actors who play them, and yet they coalesce so well when they're onscreen together… even when the material they were given wasn't as good as it should be. But as Kirk tells Picard, this was the least he could do for the captain of the Enterprise. And for us, too.
9. The Final Farewell
Movie: The Undiscovered Country
Participants: The Enterprise-A command crew
With 1991's The Undiscovered Country, the final voyage of the original crew of the Enterprise had come to an end. And the crew went out on a great note of new adventure which look towards the future while also basking in the nostalgia of the moment -- it was time to move on, and everyone, viewer, actor, and character, knew it.
After saving the day one final time by securing the new peace between the Federation and the Klingons that essentially guarantees that the Next Generation timeline will happen as we know it should, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Chekov, and Uhura (Sulu had already bid adieu from his own ship, the Excelsior) all stand on the bridge in a very theatrical send-off moment as they essentially smile at the viewer -- and the viewer smiles back, presumably while wiping the tears from his or her eyes.
It is an overdone and melodramatic finale? Yes, sure it is. But this is Star Trek, after all. As the Enterprise literally flies off into the sunset, Kirk offers up a last captain's log, and then the actors all sign off as their autographs appear on screen… No, we're not crying… We just got something in our eye…
8. Battle of the Borg
Movie: First Contact
Participants: The Borg, most of Starfleet, a Borg-ified Florida
We'd seen battles with the Borg before on the Next Generation TV series, but once Captain Picard and his crew made the leap to the movies, the ultimate fanwank dream was to see these villainous cybernetic boogeyman invade Earth on the big screen. Star Trek: First Contact made that dream a reality in 1996.
The film opens with an intense dream sequence that starts as an extreme close-up of Picard's eye and then pulls out to reveal that he is in a hive on a humongous Borg ship. Picard awakens suddenly on the Enterprise, but then director Jonathan Frakes does an American Werewolf in London on us as Borg tech erupts out of Picard's face and we realize that the good captain is still asleep!
The real fun comes shortly thereafter, though, when it turns out that Picard's unfortunate psionic connection to the Borg must've been causing those nightmares because the metal men from Hell are attacking Earth at this very moment. After a bit of self-doubt, Picard orders that the Enterprise rush to the battle, where all manner of pyrotechnic Trek action is happening, including the appearance of Worf and the Defiant, special guest stars from Deep Space Nine! Picard uses his Borg-centric know-how to destroy their ship, but a probe escapes just in time to travel back into Earth's past. As the Enterprise follows this probe into its time vortex, we can see the Earth below transforming into an assimilated version of itself -- the damage the Borg will do in the past is manifesting itself in the present. And this is all just in the first 20 minutes of the movie, the best of the Next Generation team's cinematic adventures.
7. Kirk Hearts Khan
Movie: The Wrath of Khan
Participants: Kirk, Khan, the space above the planetoid Regula
It's an iconic moment, and one of the best: In 1982's Wrath of Khan, after the titular villain abandons Admiral Kirk and company on the dead planetoid Regula, Kirk screams for Khan in a fit of scenery-chewing rage in a way that only the singular William Shatner could, evoking anger, fear, and laughs all at once.
Khan promises that he will leave Kirk "as you left me -- as you left [my wife] -- marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet. Buried alive." Kirk's face contorts and shakes while his words incredibly seem to reach beyond the deep, thick crust of Regula and project out into space itself: "Khaan! Khaaaannnnn!!!!!"
This is the legendary stuff that Kirk is made of, and quite frankly, after re-watching this scene for this article, we're still not sure how any actor other than Shatner is going to be able to play the character convincingly.
6. Kirk's Death (The First Time)
Movie: Generations
Participants: Kirk, Scotty, Chekov, Captain Harriman
Everyone remembers Kirk's unfortunately designed demise from the "bridge" film, Star Trek: Generations, but prior to the legend's less than legendary rolling down a mountain in search of a universal remote control, the good captain had in fact already died a much better death.
We're talking, of course, about the opening segment from the film, which is set in Kirk's time period when he, Scotty, and Chekov are touring the new Enterprise-B as guests. The voyage is just meant as a quick test run, but the ship runs into a cosmic energy ribbon which causes some darned old gravimetric distortions that could rip the new Enterprise apart. Don't you just hate that?
Kirk and his old crewmates quickly take control of the situation when the inexperienced new Enterprise crew falters, and while they're successful in saving the day, it comes at a heavy price: A large section of the ship's hull is vaporized, as is Kirk seemingly along with it. The sequence closes rather solemnly with Scotty, Chekov, and Captain Harriman standing behind the safety of a force field as they stare out into the abyss of space, pondering the loss of their friend, the celebrated Kirk… And then the filmmakers go ahead and screw it all up by bringing Kirk back for no good reason in the final act of the film. But this… this should've been the way that Captain Kirk went out. In a blaze of majestic and sad glory. He always knew he'd die alone, right?
5. I Need My Pain!
Movie: The Final Frontier
Participants: Kirk, Spock, McCoy
Yes, The Final Frontier made this list. Sure, it's easy to diss on Shatner's directorial contribution to the series, but in the final analysis one must acknowledge that the movie had a couple of nice moments. The best, perhaps, is this scene, which reminds us of what makes the triumvirate of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy tick.
As Spock's cult-leader brother Sybok attempts to convert each officer to his cause -- the search for God, actually -- he unveils difficult aspects of their pasts and encourages them to move past the pain. We see Spock's birth, and his father's disdain for him because of his half-human blood. We learn of McCoy's father, who when on his deathbed begged his son to euthanize him. And then there's Kirk…
But Kirk, being Kirk, doesn't want to overcome his pain. He knows what his weaknesses are. "I need my pain!" he yells. Because that's what makes him Kirk.
4. Let Them Die!
Movie: The Undiscovered Country
Participants: Kirk, Spock
When Wrath of Khan director Nicholas Meyer returned to the Trek fold for the original crew's swan song, The Undiscovered Country, he picked up on several of the themes which had informed his earlier film. One of the most interesting, however, was actually an element that we first started to get a feel from in The Search for Spock: Kirk's prejudice towards and hatred of the Klingons.
It's a very un-Roddenberry perspective. After all, in the Trek creator's view, the citizens of the Federation are supposed to be so advanced as to be past such petty feelings. But that notion, while admirable, doesn't always make for the most dramatic of storytelling. Which is why this scene is so effective, when Kirk learns that not only has he been assigned to lead a peace delegation to the Klingons, but that it was his friend Spock who had spearheaded the very notion of the mission.
Kirk and Spock have it out after a meeting of bigwigs at Starfleet Command, where Kirk's raw emotion bursts to the surface. "They're animals," Kirk protests. Spock replies that they are dying. "Let them die," Kirk whispers, teeth clenched. It's powerful stuff… and, of course, only Nixon could go to China.
3. The Mutara Nebula
Movie: The Wrath of Khan
Participants: The Enterprise, the Reliant
The temptation is there to just include 10 moments from The Wrath of Khan on this list, but we're resisting that. Still, how can we not mention what is possibly the greatest space battle in any Trek movie -- the battle of the Mutara Nebula?!
It's essentially submarine warfare for Kirk and Khan as they face off in this galactic dead zone that is pretty to look out, but dangerous to hang around in. The interference in the nebula is such that both ships -- Kirk's Enterprise and Khan's Reliant -- are operating with disabled shields and little or no tactical systems. And that's exactly what Kirk has in mind, since his vessel is severely damaged to begin with. "Sauce for the goose, Mr. Saavik," explains Spock to his protege. "The odds will be even."
Well, not really even, since Kirk's vast experience as a starship commander proves to be too much for even Khan's superior intellect. After a game of three-dimensional cat and mouse warfare between the two ships, Kirk blows the Reliant -- and Khan -- to pieces. His genetically engineered goose, you might say, was cooked.
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