Top Trek Moments

There have been five TV series and eleven films … not to mention books, games and hundreds of merchandise spin offs … So, as another movie, Star Trek: Into Darkness, boldly goes this week, FilmJuice Features Editor, Paula Hammond, shares some of her favourite Trek moments. Agree? Disagree? Don’t be shy … share your top Trek moments with us.

Pon Farr
Vulcans may seem like a cold, emotionless lot but during the mating fever known as Pon Farr, they’re libel to get a little crazy … as James T Kirk found in the classic series episode Amok Time. Returning to Vulcan to get married, Spock’s bride to be, T’Pring, invokes the right of koon-ut-kal-if-fee, which requires Spock and her lover Stonn to fight for her. However, instead of Stonn, T’Pring picks Kirk to be her champion. Cue a classic piece of Trek history.

The Death Of Spock (Main Picture)
Allegedly Leonard Nimoy only agreed to appear in The Wrath Of Khan movie because the film’s producers promised him a dramatic death scene. Originally Spock was to die in the opening reel but eventually the scene was moved to the final moments of the movie. As comic book guy might have said “Best sci-fi death ever?”

Locutus Of Borg
We’d all become so used to starship captains being invincible that nothing could have been more shocking than when Captain Jean-Luc Picard was assimilated into the unstoppable cybernetic collective known as the Borg. The episode (The Best Of Both Worlds) where Picard appears as Locutus of Borg was all the more shocking as it appeared as the finale to the third-season, making fans wait all Summer to see if Patrick Stewart had been written out forever.

Sulu Goes Ape
After beaming down to the dying planet Psi 2000, in the episode The Naked Time, the Away Team is confused to find that all six of the scientists they came to find have died in odd circumstances. They soon discover that the water on the planet affects people in a similar way to alcohol, but not before Sulu has torn off his shirt and started challenging people to sword fights.

T’Pol And Tucker Get Friendly
Got a flagging franchise? Then why not try a little titillation … which is exactly what the Trek prequel, Enterprise, did in the episode Broken Bow when Chief Engineer Tucker oils up a naked T’Pol in the … hem … decontamination chamber. No we couldn’t see any reason for it either but it didn’t do the ratings any harm.

Nuclear Wessels
If one thing’s guaranteed to send Walter Koenig into a hissy fit it’s being asked to say ‘Nuclear Wessels’. The phrase comes from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home when Koenig’s character, Chekhov, stops to ask for directions to a nearby naval base. He’s been living with it ever since.

Trials And Tribble-ations
Could anything be finer than this fabulously fun Star Trek Deep Space Nine episode, which has the crew travel back in time to find themselves aboard Kirk’s Enterprise? The homage used nineteen scenes of original footage taken from The Trouble With Tribbles and digitally inserted the DS9 actors into the events of the episode.

Kahn
As a film, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, may have been a little lacklustre but it did bring back one of the show’s most charismatic villains – the genetically engineered Khan Noonien Singh. Khan first appeared in the 1967 episode, Space Seed, but Khan’s big screen debut was arguably actor Ricardo Montalbán’s finest moment.

Sisko Punching Q
Q – a meddler with god-like powers – isn’t so much a villain as a royal pain in the butt. Portrayed by John de Lancie, the character appears in The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, often to the intense annoyance of all those around him. So many fans punched the air when DS9 Commander, Sisko, punched him in the face, especially when Q complained petulantly: “You hit me! Picard never hit me!”

The Enterprise Gets Trashed
Who doesn’t love an SFX spectacle of epic proportions? And you can’t get more epic than when the Enterprise crash lands in Generations. Watch and enjoy.