Best Beginnings

[dub]

Even if you don't like an episode or film, you can love certain scenes. That's certainly true for me, anyway. Including both Trek television (episodes not just pilots) and film, what are some of your favorite beginning scenes.

• TWOK - loved the classic Kobayashi Maru scene. Who is this beautiful Vulcan? Wait, her eyebrows are not like other Vulcans I've seen. She said "damn" and seemed upset, oh okay she must not be a Vulcan. Then everyone "dies." Then Kirk walks in with the floodlights and fog machines on full behind him. "Lights." Great, great scene!
• Generations - I found the bottle haunting, intriguing and mesmerizing. Dennis McCarthy's soundtrack for that bit was also all of that. This was a track I listened to over and over again when I got the soundtrack, right up until the bottle smashes against the Enterprise B! Speakers blasting!
• Trek 2009 - Those crazy camera angles, effects (yes I loved the lens flares), the first familiar sounds of a starfleet bridge, "you're captain now, Mr. Kirk," the birth of Kirk, the death of George, the escape pods moving away, that music and the title screen! Awesome stuff.

I'm sure there are plenty of TV episodes that belong on my list too, but it would be more fun to hear your thoughts!

 

[DS9forever]

Seeing Sisko for the first time in "Emissary". Probably the best introduction of the main characters.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

The Emissary and ST2009: both set off on a note of personal loss and family tragedy, but each would exploit those emotions differently.

 

[Smellmet]

Agree with all 3 choices, but would like to add the beginning of STID into the mix, a pretty crazy few minutes topped off with the superb shot of the sand drawing and volcanic ash merging into the Enterprise and the stars - excellent.

The Undiscovered Country - wasn't the biggest fan of some of Cliff Eidelman's score in this, apart from the opening theme which managed to be both grand and dark at the same time and the mother of all explosions (for it's time at least) is one heck of a way to open a movie and get your attention.

First Contact - Massive pullback inside the Borg flowing nicely from the introduction of the Enterprise E into a massive fleet battle, what's not to like?

Final Frontier - for all this films problems, and there are many as I rank it comfortably the worst Trek movie, the opening scene was very well done with great cinematography, and Goldsmiths classic score is always a winner here.

Nemesis - despite it's detractors one of my favorite Trek films and I still really enjoy the Romulan senate opener, again, Goldsmiths score bolsters an already great scene.

Come to think of it, most Trek films seem to like big openings...

 

[Green Shirt]

The beginning of TNGs Cause and Effect was an attention grabber.

 

[Smellmet]

To be fair, a lot of the series pre-credits sequences were attention grabbers, but I can't remember the names of a lot of them

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

TV Series:

• "Yesterday's Enterprise" - I remember vividly the tension in Tasha's voice as she read the serial number of the mysterious ship emerging from the temporal rift.
• "Face of the Enemy" - Deanna as a Romulan! One of TNG's finest episodes!
• "All Good Things..." - I remember watching this and thinking Oh, shit... when Picard emerged from the turbo-lift.
• "By Inferno's Light" - It's been almost seventeen years. Dukat's betrayal still raises my blood pressure.

Films:

• The Motion Picture: My first Star Trek experience. I remember being awed by the Klingon battle cruisers and feeling disappointed when they weren't in the rest of the film. But then I saw the Enterprise...
• The Wrath of Khan: I remember thinking the Kobayashi Maru scenario involved real ships rather than a training simulator and was shocked when the main viewer pulled back to reveal Kirk amidst the shadows and flood lights.
• The Undiscovered Country: The explosion of Praxis immediately grabbed my nine-year-old self's attention, as did the next scene with Sulu commanding Excelsior.

--Sran

 

[Push The Button]

The teaser for "The Corbomite Maneuver" is one of my favorites, and oddly enough Kirk isn't even in it.

 

[FormerLurker]

It can easily be said that over any other Trek, The Undiscovered Country starts off with a bang.

 

[GNDN]

Nemesis - despite it's detractors one of my favorite Trek films and I still really enjoy the Romulan senate opener, again, Goldsmiths score bolsters an already great scene.

Come to think of it, most Trek films seem to like big openings...

Gotta say, I went into Nemesis not knowing anything about the 'film'. I was in a down-swing as far as Trek fandom, hadn't been excited by Insurrection, but was open minded enough to look forward to a Trek film. The Senate opening screamed Classic Trek to me, too bad the rest of the tale was so tired. Can't think of a better description, but the beginning did grab me in the moment.

 

[Smellmet]

Same here the bit when the Romulans turned to stone I found quite shocking for a Trek film, at that point I thought 'great we're going to get something with a bit of edge to it like TWOK' - and aside from some silly niggles I thought the film delivered, for me at least.

 

[Smellmet]

TV Series:

• "Yesterday's Enterprise" - I remember vividly the tension in Tasha's voice as she read the serial number of the mysterious ship emerging from the temporal rift.
• "Face of the Enemy" - Deanna as a Romulan! One of TNG's finest episodes!
• "All Good Things..." - I remember watching this and thinking Oh, shit... when Picard emerged from the turbo-lift.
• "By Inferno's Light" - It's been almost seventeen years. Dukat's betrayal still raises my blood pressure.

Films:

• The Motion Picture: My first Star Trek experience. I remember being awed by the Klingon battle cruisers and feeling disappointed when they weren't in the rest of the film. But then I saw the Enterprise...
  

--Sran

Forgot about the TMP, what a great scene that was - yet again Goldsmith's score elevates the scene no end