So what was the most powerful last scene in any ST?

A few that haven't been mentioned yet (I think): the end of "Tears of the Prophets", with Sisko sitting alone outside his father's restaurant on Earth. Also, the closing moments of "Changing Face of Evil", Damar's speech and everyone's reactions to it.

 

I did some rethink on this and you make a good point. There's more than one takeaway here. Janeway's stubborness transcends species, or kingdom (or domain), and even existence itself. It's (and by extension, she is) a force of nature, even of Being. That's kinda cool. Maybe we would eventually see the Janeway, and the Janeway Continuum.

 

I'm torn between two scenes here. First, there's the one from "Requiem for Methuselah":

Spock whispers the last word with a gentleness that leaves me wiping my eyes. Of course he's capable of love, whether McCoy realizes it or not.

The other scene is from "The Sons of Mogh," after Kurn receives his new identity:

Powerful, powerful stuff.

 

I'd say that DS9's "A Call to Arms" was probably the single finest moment in Trek. We'd never seen anything like it up to that point...even in the movies. The whole episode was well done. But the final cuts between Dukat on the station seeing Sisko's "message" then the calm silent look on Sisko's face before we cut to the jaw dropping shot of the Defiant and Rotarin flying into the largest fleet of ships ever depicted in Trek was just a giant "fuck yeah!" Moment.

Back on the old Scifi Channel, they used to have a scifi talk show. I remember that that was the episode where they raved about DS9 and declared it the best scifi show on the air at the time.

 

So many good options.

All Good Things: Picard plays poker with everyone for the first time.
In The Pale Moonlight: I can live with it. ...I CAN live with it...

 

Sisko's final defensive leg crossing following those words...

powrful--and subtle

 

^I also like the subtle way he plays off that glass of booze.

 

Personally I've always liked the end of In Theory where after breaking up with D'Sora he just deletes the subroutine and sits there stroking his cat completely oblivious to all the emotions that anyone else would have in his place.

 

"Captain's Log, Stardate 7759.1. The Reliant has been ordered to Sigma Draconis VI. Given the experience of the previous ship and crew that visited this world, I must admit I'm not terribly optimistic about our chances of a successful mission, nor do I expect to uncover the answer to an question of paramount importance: Brain and brain! What is brain?"

I'm surprised no one has posted this.

--Sran

 

Oh no you did not just do that, Sran...

 

Ohhhhh...that is a GOOD one. Really helped point out how Data's thing wasn't just more and faster than ours, but really different and in some ways simply alien., and how entering into any kind of emotional relationship with him (pre-chip) was a big risk to one's own psyche--and even post-chip Data would still retain all a computer/AI's perfect control over memory and could potentially still run roughshod over the ladies (and the lads no doubt; an immortal would probably end up trying everything). Loved it (the ending, the ep left me squirming in sympathetic embarrassment too much, even though intellectually I knew it was foolish to feel that on Data's behalf, which it was; maybe this was a meta/fourth wall piece of scripting).



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Spock's Liver

A planet of chronic alien alcoholics whose spots on their heads are so bad everyone thinks they have bad TNG foreheads, removes Spock's liver and install it in the one device capable of saving them, the Detoxicator. Later, after Bones restores the liver after remembering that yes, he is in fact a doctor and grafting it back into DialySpock, Kirk talks it to death.



Spock's Elbow

Aliens from the planet Wimbledon steal Spock's right elbow. It turns out they live below ground and are called the WTA, with their hereditary enemies the ATP living above ground in the cold.

 

GREAT SCOTTY!!!!!

 

Reiterating some:

TUC ending, AGT ending, Pale moonlight ending.

And I'll add.

"Pre-emptive strike" Riker tries to brief Picard as he sits silent. I remember that one vividly.

"lower decks" as well as worf sits down with the junior officers to mourn their friends passing.

And "honor among Thieves" Where O'brien has Bilby's cat with him back on DS9.

 

Threshold, where Janeway reveals her Cougar nature

 

I'd go with this. I was a blubbering mess at the end of that episode

Spock's funeral was the most heartbreaking scene overall but it was not a final scene.

 

[Garak's shop]

(Sisko storms in and hits Garak, sending him flying.)

SISKO: Get up! You killed him?

GARAK: That's right.

SISKO: That's what you planned to do all along, isn't it? You knew the data rod wouldn't hold up to scrutiny. You just wanted to get him on the station so you could plant a bomb on his shuttle.

GARAK: It wasn't quite that simple. I did have hopes that the rod would somehow pass inspection, but I suspected that Tolar may not have been up to the task.

SISKO: And what about Tolar? Did you kill him too?

GARAK: Think of them both as tragic victims of war.

(Sisko punches Garak again.)

GARAK: If you can allow your anger to subside for a moment, you'll see that they did not die in vain. The Romulans will enter the war!

SISKO: There's no guarantee of that!

GARAK: Oh, but I think that there is! You see, when the Tal Shiar finishes examining the wreckage of Vreenak's shuttle, they'll find the burnt remnants of a Cardassian optolythic data rod which somehow miraculously survived the explosion. After painstaking forensic examination, they'll discover that the rod contains a recording of a high level Dominion meeting at which the invasion of Romulus was being planned.

SISKO: And then they'll discover that it is a fraud!

GARAK: No, I don't think they will, because any imperfections in the forgery will appear to be a result of the explosion. So, with a seemingly legitimate rod in one hand and a dead senator in the other, I ask you, Captain, what conclusion would you draw?

SISKO: That Vreenak obtained the rod on Soukara and that the Dominion killed him to prevent him from returning to Romulus with it.

GARAK: Precisely! And the more the Dominion protests their innocence, the more the Romulans will believe they're guilty because it's exactly what the Romulans would have done in their place.! That's why you came to me, isn't it, Captain? Because you knew I could do those things that you weren't capable of doing. Well, it worked. And you'll get what you want, a war between the Romulans and the Dominion. And if your conscience is bothering you, you should soothe it with the knowledge that you may have just saved the entire Alpha Quadrant and all it cost was the life of one Romulan senator, one criminal, and the self-respect of one Starfleet officer..... I don't know about you, but I'd call that a bargain.

[Sisko's quarters]

SISKO: At oh eight hundred hours, station time, the Romulan Empire formally declared war against the Dominion. They have already struck fifteen bases along the Cardassian border. So, this is a huge victory for the good guys. This may even be the turning point of the entire war. There's even a 'Welcome to the Fight' party tonight in the wardroom.

So I lied, I cheated, I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But most damning thing of all, I think I can live with it. And if I had to do it all over again, I would. Garak was right about one thing. A guilty conscience is a small price to pay for the safety of the Alpha Quadrant, so I will learn to live with it. Because I can live with it. I can live with it.

Computer, erase that entire personal log.

 

That is a great episode!

 

the most poignant moments of TNG are those of loss. Tasha Yar at her funeral when she talks to data, her little holo disk for data, the episode the ship went nuts and everyone had sex with each other and tar broke datas virginity.
The episode where picard has to send his girlfriend to a certain death in order to make sure a deflector grid saves a colony from a solar flare.
when B8 starts accessessing datas memories at the end of nemesis.
there are so many moments that are powerful. Some of the best are the episodes with data and Wesley in the first 3 seasons.

 

I've read some posts on this board that seem to indicate that the final episode of Enterprise was not well liked. But right at the end when they have the "Space, the final frontier....." speech by all 3 Enterprise captains (Picard, Kirk, Archer), it was a good scene because it tied the franchise together. I would have liked if there had been some way to have included Sisko and Janeway as well but you can't have everything.