So name a subtle moment in any ST that you thought was well done.

Subtle? "Balance of Terror". Kirk notices Stiles glaring at Spock so he circles the helm and when he's right in front of Stiles he sharply raps his fingers on the console and wordlessly gets Stiles back to his job.

 

Great minds think alike.

 

Nicely said.

You know, it's funny how you understand things as a kid.

I always used to think that Spock meant he had to check before the inspection and before Kirk, meaning Kirk's arrival on the Enterprise.

And that Kirk replied, "Oh!" not "Home."

I always wondered why Kirk reacted that way.

Totally changes scene.

 

That's nice.

For another Eden moment, but a completely different one, I like the last line of "The Way To Eden." The last few lines:

I take Kirk's "we reach" as having a threefold meaning. First, he's come around to being less of a Herbert, and admitting it. Second, he's agreeing with Spock that he wishes Irina will find or make Eden herself. But third, and here's what I think is the neatest part, Kirk is making a play on words to say, "We try, Mister Spock": the human condition is a struggle to achieve, and we only succeed by reaching for something better.

 

There's a moment in TOS: This Side of Paradise, where Sulu and Kelowitz are inspecting the grounds and barns. Sulu sits on a railing, with one of the plants in near foreground. Then we cut to Kelowitz finding no animals in the barn. Back to Sulu, and now the plant has been rotated 90 degrees toward him, but he jumps down and joins Kelowitz before it can spritz him.

 

I like it in TWOK when they're about to send the order to Reliant's computer system to drop her shields and Kirk tells Sulu to lock phasers and await his command.

Sulu doesn't move his head or eyes at all, bearly moves his hands to establish the lock and softly mutters "phasers locked" so as not to betray anything to Khan, and even though he says it very quiet and subdued there's an edge in his words where you can almost him thinking "Boy Khan you're about to get one hell of a shock and I am going to enjoy it immensely when I press the fire button."

 

In "The Conscience of the King," when Kirk is reviewing the the file on Kodos, there's a moment when he is transported back, and his mask falls away, and that moment says worlds about the character.

 

The shoulder shrug and the looks the two guys gave each other when Pike left the bridge and headed to his quarters in The Cage. It took many viewings before I ever noticed this.

 

The Deadly Years - McCoy has developed a cure, and Kirk volunteers to be first to get the serum. Dr. Wallace is told to administer the shot, which could cure Kirk, or kill him. Sarah Marshall does a wonderful little take where she quickly looks at everyone else in the room, with a helpless expression, as if she wishes someone else would take the responsibility, then goes ahead and does it.

 

The followup scene is also good- Khan's reaction to learning that the shields are dropping. The camera switches to his point of view as he frantically looks around the console for the override- you get the feeling that he is, for that moment, overwhelmed by the complex technology it takes to control a modern starship...

 

Shatner harps on about it a lot in his Movie Memories book, but it's true that the scene in 'Generations' where he side-steps his horse over to Patrick Stewart's is a wonderfully done, subtle moment that really punctuates where those two characters are in the story at that moment.

 

Yeah, I love that.

I always took it as Khan realizing that they're about to get blasted to smithereens.

I also like the moment in that same scene where Joachim tells them that they must withdraw. Initially, Khan yells and screams "NO!!!" but then his intellect supersedes his rage as he realizes Joachim is right as Joachim tells him that the Enterprise is not going anywhere.

Just watch Montalban (how can you not) the whole scene. Amazing actor.

 

Yeah that overwhelmed expression on Khan's face was excellent. The quick back and forth shot they did of the front control station like Khan is looking at it and thinking "Where the hell is the button I need to press to reraise that shields in all of this shit" was also perfect.

Seriously it's those little things that make a good movie great. I watched that scene over and over again because you want to freeze those shots because they happen so quickly. I did the same thing when the Enterprise gets hit by Reliant and they show a quick shot of the control panel that had roll and pitch indicators to show how the ship was reacting to being hit.

 

I always liked the look on Rand's face in TSFS as a battered Enterprise pulls up in space dock. Like a mother who's just witnessed her previously cleanly clothed kids come back into the house covered in mud.

Great thread this.

 

A lot of these are "good" moments but hardly "subtle".

 

I totally love the absolute, total smugness on Kirk's face in ST II when he goes "Khan...I'm LAUGHING at the 'superior intellect'. "

 

The Millennium Falcon attacking the Borg Cube was subtle but hardly good!

 

A hard moment is good to find.

Or something like that.

 

Yeah, even as big a fan as I am of Star Wars, I can't say that that Easter egg added anything to FC. Gosh, I sound like a killjoy!

 

Great subtle and funny moment in First Contact.
Jean-Luc Picard: Don't worry, Number One. We'll still have you to Betazed with plenty of time to spare.
William Riker: Thank you, sir.
Jean-Luc Picard: [to Worf] Where we will all honor the Betazoid tradition [regarding nude marriages]. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be in the gym.