Favourite original FX shots...

[Warped9]

This isn't meant to re-ignite the ongoing debate of original fx vs TOS-R fx. But are there original fx shots you think still rule and have not been improved upon?

One of my favourites is actually a simple one: the Enterprise comes out of the distance and the veiwer's pov flies straight into the lower part of the nav deflector housing. I still think that looks awesome.

Another is also very simple: not seeing an actual beam as Scotty is cutting open a bulkhead with a phaser in "The Naked Time." I still think that looks so cool.

 

[XCV330]

the Balok puppet creeped me the hell out as a kid and still does.

 

[BK613]

The sequence where the Enterprise is trying to break away from Balok's pilot vessel, with the ship slewing slowly right and left like a skier on a rope.

The 'pivot at warp 2' shot from Elaan of Troyius (used elsewhere as well but that's label I think of it as.)

And I'm with @Warped9 about the no-beam is better for The Naked Time.

 

[Vger23]

So many....but the ones that really stand out:

1. The Enterprise trying to split the incoming asteroid with phasers in "The Paradise Syndrome"
2. The Enterprise firing on the timeship from orbit in "The Alternative Factor"
3. The Tholian ships using their tractor web system in "The Tholian Web"
4. The Enterprise approaching the ominous Galactic Barrier in "Where No Man..."
5. The Fesarius dwarfing the Enterprise in "Corbomite Maneuver"

 

[Warped9]

One thing I have long liked is the fact they DIDN’T light up the inboard sides of the warp nacelles as they would in practically every post TOS ship design. It always seemed more realistic to me to not have the trick lighting. In the real world energies are rarely visible, but rather the effect of those energies are what we actually see.
⁠
In fairness the nacelle lighting on the TMP refit was far more subtle than what would come later in TNG onward.

 

[Noname Given]

The side profile shot of the 1701 coming alongside the S.S. Botany Bay in TOS S1 - "Space Seed".

The Klingon D7 ship's Disruptors firing effects in TOS S3 - "Elaan Of Troyius"

 

[Ssosmcin]

The nova at the end of "All Our Yesterdays" is perfect. That jumps to mind immediately.

 

[shapeshifter]

The nova at the end of "All Our Yesterdays" is perfect.

My favorite as well. The idea of that planet being engulfed was breath-taking for me as a kid, jaw dropping!

 

[Methuselah Flint]

The original shot that opens Let That Be Your Last Battlefield after the opening credits, with the opening title cards.

The nova, as other have said.

Flint's planets and the background shiny planet.

Opening shot of Lights of Zetar

The igniting of the fuel and the subsequent viewscreen shot in G7.

 

[fireproof78]

The plasma weapon in Balance of Terror. Feels so threatening.

 

[BK613]

The transition through Mr. Atoz's time portal was pretty cool.

 

[Redfern]

The plasma weapon in Balance of Terror. Feels so threatening.

That scene demonstrates how, music, pacing and reaction shots can add to the drama because the effect itself was a double exposure of a bucket containing water and evaporating dry ice film from overhead. Please, that's not to belittle the optical. It was actually a very clever setup, possessing an organic feel drawn animation might not have achieved. But everything together makes it one of the more memorable sequences from the series.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Scenes like this from Requiem For Methuselah, where 2 planets are shown in the Enterprise flyby.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

• This shot has extra sharpness because it didn't need a star field, so it's one film generation closer to the negative:
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x18hd/theimmunitysyndromehd0445.jpg

• Getting in this close on the less-seen underside was awesome when all we had was reruns on TV. It was mouth-watering for the Enterprise-loving fan:
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x18hd/thelightsofzetarhd0002.jpg
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x18hd/thelightsofzetarhd0009.jpg

• This is the all-time glamour shot, such great beauty— yet an angle so elusive that they didn't even discover it until the second year:
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x18hd/theimmunitysyndromehd0001.jpg
She's still got it:
https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/smithsonian-model-june16/ent-smithsonian-june-2016-08.jpg

 

[M'Sharak]

This isn't meant to re-ignite the ongoing debate of original fx vs TOS-R fx.

One thing I have long liked is the fact they DIDN’T light up the inboard sides of the warp nacelles as they would in practically every post TOS ship design. It always seemed more realistic to me to not have the trick lighting. In the real world energies are rarely visible, but rather the effect of those energies are what we actually see.
⁠
In fairness the nacelle lighting on the TMP refit was far more subtle than what would come later in TNG onward.

The first-sentence claim in your opening post might have been more convincing to the uninitiated if you'd managed to get at least a little farther into the thread than Post #5 before essentially torpedoing it.

I will agree with @XCV330 that the Balok puppet effect was wonderfully done, and to that add the early-episode Horta attack sequences from "Devil in the Dark". Both quite simple and yet very effective effects.

 

[Warped9]

Whatever.

 

[gratone]

It's not necessarily my favorite FX shot, but for me one of the original FX that stands up best to its remastered counterpart is the wide-field phaser sweep from "Wink of an Eye." I find the added hand movements hokey. And I think the original concept--setting the phasers to fire a wide beam and keeping them steady--makes more sense than trying to cover an area by randomly firing narrower beams.

 

[MAGolding]

...Flint's planets and the background shiny planet....
.

Exactly what do you mean by "Flint's planets and the background shiny planet"?

 

[Methuselah Flint]

Exactly what do you mean by "Flint's planets and the background shiny planet"?

Typo. Flint's planet not planets. And the silver planet behind his in the opening orbit shot. Most episodes didn't have other bodies in the background, but RFM did.

 

[Methuselah Flint]

Scenes like this from Requiem For Methuselah, where 2 planets are shown in the Enterprise flyby.

My very thoughts!