Top Ten Star Trek Movie Moments

Written by Adam A. Donaldson Friday, 08 May 2009 10:07

Before seeing J.J. Abrams re-imaged – or whatever – Star Trek, I thought it’d be fun to look back at the 10 movies preceding it and pick out some of the best

moments. And in the interest of being egalitarian in all things, like a good Starfleet officer should, I picked a moment from each film to spotlight. Love ‘em or leave ‘em, Star Trek’s been a part of pop culture history for over 40 years, 30 of those making movies. And in that fine tradition I dedicate this list.

1) “Voyager 6” – Star Trek: The Motion Picture

In the climax of the first film, Kirk and gang penetrate the heart of V’Ger a powerful energy field run by a giant-sized, sentient machine. The brain of this machine is the 20th century space probe Voyager 6, which encountered a planet of living machines who super-evolved the comparatively Cro-Magnon satellite. So there it was, the all-encompassing villain at the heart of the film, a piece of outdated space junk with a new battery and a tonne of new memory. One of the persistent themes in Star Trek is how even well intended action can come back and bit you on the butt, and V’Ger was a pretty good and simple example of that.

2) “KKHHHHAAAAAAAAAANN!!!!!” – Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Parodied on Seinfeld and Family Guy among others, this seminal moment in what’s arguable the best of all Trek films is a refrain of both defiance and frustration. Not to mention insanely, and easily, quotable.

3) “Because you wish it.” – Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Klingons were always hit and miss in terms of threat levels, but it took the guy best known for playing Reverend Jim on the sitcom Taxi to really make these baddies click. In typical fashion, Lloyd as Commander Kruge has the drop on the Enterprise crew and orders his underline Motz to beam the prisoners aboard his Bird of Play. When Kirk suggests that he should beam up the unconscious Spock as well, Kruge refused just because it was Kirk’s request. Not only is that cold, it’s just plain rude.

4) “What is this, The Dark Ages?” – Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Of course, nearly all the Enterprise crew’s interaction with 20th century Earth provided big laughs, but perhaps none more so than Dr. McCoy and his reaction to the “medievalism” of 20th century medicine. He gives a woman on dialysis a pill that completely heals her kidney infection before saving Chekov from funduscopic examination because “drilling holes in his head is not the answer.” Crotchety and superior as always, Bones’ frazzled wits were put their harshest test yet in then modern day San Francisco.

5) “What does God need with a starship?” – Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

This is how tough Kirk is: he, Spock, McCoy and Spock’s probably-crazy half-brother Sybok go down to this planet in the middle of the galaxy to literally meet God. This “God” is impressed by the lengths these guys went to in finding Him and ask them how and Sybok says that they came in a starship. Then “God” commands them to bring him the ship to act as a “chariot” to “carry his wisdom” to all corners of the galaxy, to which Kirk asks: “What does God need with a starship?” But “God” ignores him and Kirk repeats the question. This time “God” pays attention and says, “Who is this creature?” But Kirk doesn’t take any of that and hits back, “Don’t you know, aren’t you God?” Sure, the powerful alien wasn’t really God, but only two other heroes in popular fiction have the stones to verbally slap a being with god-like powers across the face: Batman and Jack Bauer. Yes, Kirk’s in their league

6) “I’ve so wanted to meet you, Captain” – Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

For years, the careers of William Shatner and Christopher Plummer have run somewhat parallel: both Montreal natives who rose up through that city’s theatre scene before movie to Stratford and then Hollywood. Fitting then that for the final film featuring the original crew that Plummer, as the Shakespeare-spouting

Klingon General Chang, come face-to-face with his old protégé Shatner. “I have... so wanted to meet you, Captain,” purrs Chang on their first meeting. To which Kirk replies, “I'm not sure how to take that.” Looking into Chang’s eyes, one of them covered by an eye-patched screwed into his head, you know that the game’s a foot.

7) “Oh…. $#!t” – Star Trek Generations

Not typically known for its profanity-stricken dialogue, this line from Generations was the rare exception. It gets uttered by the newly emotional android Data during the film’s effects centrepiece: the saucer crash. Because when you’re hurdling towards a planet’s surface at velocities greater than the speed of sound, in the separated saucer section with engines out, what else are you going to say?

8) “A line must be drawn here!” – Star Trek: First Contact

One of Star Trek’s great assets is that it can draw from literary source material and give some added heft to the sci-fi trappings of the franchise. In the case of First Contact, Captain Picard’s single-minded quest to rid himself of the Borg menace and their threat to 21st century Earth leads him to acts of reckless

abandon. Only when his obsession is compared to that of Capt. Ahab’s for the white whale does his anger abate. Not only is a great analogy, but the storyline helped infuse Picard with an emotion and motivation not normally ascribed to upstanding Starfleet officers: hate and revenge.

9) “How many people does it take, Admiral, before it becomes wrong?” – Star Trek: Insurrection

Although the film tried to focus on the two things that The Next Generation wasn’t exactly known for – action and comedy – Insurrection did get one thing right by posing a difficult moral quandary at the heart of the story. The alien Ba’ku have found the secret to eternal youth thanks to a unique radiation from their planet’s rings, a Starfleet admiral assists a race called the Son’a in harvesting this power at the expense of secretly removing the Ba’ku from their home. The questions offered lie at the moral and ethical heart of Star Trek philosophy, the Prime Directive, but that kind of heavy lifting was scaled back because it got in the way of jokes about Klingon pimples and Data being an emergency flotation device.

10) “Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse.” – Star Trek Nemesis

Oddly prophetic words from Commander Riker given that this was both the final Next Gen film and the start of the longest cinematic Trek drought in the franchise’s history. It’s also emblematic of the fact that really nothing stands out about this film except for the return of Wesley Crusher, which ended up on the cutting room floor anyway. But this tired, Wrath of Khan rerun doesn’t distinguish itself well, and given that fact, J.J. Abrams has no where to go but up.