What just "works" for you?

[Redshirts_Widow]

Longtime lurker decides on a first post, here goes...

I was watching STVI last night and the scene where the Enterprise drops out of warp and screams towards Khitomer at impulse stuck in my head. The shot stays pretty static as the Ent becomes smaller and smaller into the distance suming up beautifully the vast distance still to cover with an adversary stalking them.

Now i don't know why this resonated with me, it is not anywhere near my favourite part of the movie, yet it just seemed to "click". This shot that lasts less than five seconds just "worked". And my enjoyment of the film increased as a result.

Another example: STV is one of my least favourite of the franchise, however i love the score as Shatner <ahem> is climbing the mountain as the credits are rolling over. It just "works" for me.

So i offer the following question:-

What scenes just "work" for you? You can hate the movie, the scene and the characters in it but has it been shot, scored or acted in a way to make it resonate with you?

I welcome your thoughts

 

[Eddie Roth]

Well, for many people, one of these moments would be the introduction of the new Enterprise in TMP, even though they were not so pleased with the resr of the film.

I personally love TMP in total, so this is just one of the best moments in a great film. But I guess for many folks, it is what you describe.

 

[Basill]

Redshirts_Widow said:
Now i don't know why this resonated with me, it is not anywhere near my favourite part of the movie, yet it just seemed to "click". This shot that lasts less than five seconds just "worked". And my enjoyment of the film increased as a result.

Wow. You sound like some sort of glass-half-full, cherry picker...


Welcome!

Sounds just like me.

But seriously, I have a very similar philosophy that allows me to appreciate some of those things most critics have already dismissed.

The Search For Spock was my first big Trek feature on the big screen. I was familiar with the series and had already seen TMP on TV and thought is was ok. I totally missed TWOK. Had a friend that was going on and on about it when it came out, but because it wasn't Star Wars related I didn't want anything to do with it. But a couple of years later and just a little bit older, I was able to see TSFS at the theatre, and it is the movie that turned my love for Star Trek on full flame.

One "clicker" for me in that film was the arrival of the Grissom at Genesis... the ominous music as the Klingons plot suddenly swells to the familiar Trek theme, as the Grissom roars past and then begins to roll slighty as it prepares to enter standard orbit. I ate it up. Though the movie is received by many as a non-favorite, it was my front door to the whole Trek universe, and caused me to review my underestimated copy of TMP, recorded off ABC's Sunday Night Movie. And when TWOK finally premiered on the same network a few years later, I was delighted.

I have since realized, that I like what I like when I like it, and I tend to look at all things this way. To this day, I can't pick favorites because of it.

P.S. I totally love that shot in TUC too!

 

[sbk1234]

So far, I agree with what everyone has written, so I won't repeat them.

In TFF, the "brainwashing scene," when Spock is born and Sarek barely looks at his son and simply states: "So Human," and dismisses the baby so easily. Then Spock's expression of hurt and pain is just heart wrenching to me.

Another moment in TFF was the opening teaser, when Sybok did his "conversion thing" with the bald guy in the desert with the holes. With the music and everything, this sold me on the charisma and dynamics of Sybok as a character.

In TWOK, when David confronts Kirk after the funeral. That whole scene, with Kirk trying to avoid him, and then realizing that he's never really faced the Kobayashi Maru: That was the type of genuine heart that I felt TMP was missing.

 

[cardinal biggles]

That shot in TFF of the Enterprise in front of the moon, and its reflection in the shuttlecraft windshield was nicely done.

If you read the section in Shatner's making-of book about the difficulties they had pulling that off, you really start to understand that Bran Ferren was a total bumblefuck amateur whose greatest accomplishment was hoodwinking Shatner, Bennett, and Ralph Winter into giving him the job.

 

[SmoothieX]

The prefix code scene in TWOK, and the Stealing the Enterprise scene in TSFS.

I can watch those 2 scenes all day and not get bored.

 

[sbk1234]

The destruction of the Enterprise in TSFS. Starting with the destruct codes, and continuing all the way until McCoy sums it all up with telling Kirk how he always turns death into a fighting chance to live.


First Contact, the briefing room scene with Picard and Lily. Patrick Stewart at his best. :thumbsup:

 

[Messianni]

- The final scene in TUC as they find out they're going to be decommissioned. The entire thing, at times, still makes me tingle a little. After having watched the Rifftrax for it, however, I can only think of Kevin Murphy going "umm... you're going into... the sun..."

- The first beauty shot of the Enterprise in TMP, obviously.

- The Mutara Nebula battle in TWOK.

- Some of the flybys of the E-E in Insurrection and Nemesis. They may not have been the greatest of the films, but it certainly gave some some good views of the E-E.

- First Contact with the eventual meeting between Humans and Vulcans, with the Enterprise crew looking on.

 

[SmoothieX]

^ The breaking of the warp barrier in FC works for me. I like when Cochrane says, 'it's so small' as he looks at the Earth.

 

[Messianni]

SmoothieX said:
^ The breaking of the warp barrier in FC works for me. I like when Cochrane says, 'it's so small' as he looks at the Earth.

Oh yeah, add that to the list too. Cromwell did a great job in that scene.

 

[FOX2PRO]

The argo chase in Nemesis. Pretty much the only part of the movie I enjoyed.

 

[Basill]

TMP: Spock's arrival on the shuttle, the music especially; from the moment McCoy walks away with his poker face and the music cues, to the moment Uhura gasps and Kirk turns around with amazement on his face. That's Goose Pimple 101.

 

[Trekker4747]

That shot in TFF of the Enterprise in front of the moon, and its reflection in the shuttlecraft windshield was nicely done.

Agreed. That's probably the only, single, worthwhile shot in the movie.

The breaking of the Warp Barrier scenes in FC are really great too, including Cochrane reacting to seeing the -E's shadow covering up his console and then turning to see her. Only wish it was the -D he saw probably would've been a whole lot more impressive.

The tour around the Nil-Refit in TMP is great SFX porn and works fantasticly too.

Of course I can easily ruin it forever for you:

Spoiler: Here's how

After this Riker says, "it's about to get a whole lot bigger." If you take this in a "taling about Riker's penis" sort of way you'll never watch or think about that scene and not laugh.

 

[Messianni]

Like this?

(Taken from Flux Capacitor's post in the "Photoshop This!" thread in Gen. Trek)

 

[Redshirts_Widow]

Basill said:
TMP: Spock's arrival on the shuttle, the music especially; from the moment McCoy walks away with his poker face and the music cues, to the moment Uhura gasps and Kirk turns around with amazement on his face. That's Goose Pimple 101.

Iteresting. The impact of that scene was diminished by Phil Farrand's comments in one of his Nitpicker's Guides in which he suggested that the whole Vulcan shuttle approach to the Ent was a blatant ripp-off of the opening FX of SW:ANH.

To this day i hum the Star Wars theme as the shuttle passes overhead.

Oh and regarding some of the above posters I've always been jealous of those fans who got to see the opening beauty shots of the Ent Refit in TMP actually in a theatre/cinema. Gits!

And to the above mentioned scenes from TSFS i'd add the shot as the Ent limps into Spacedock. Some of the reactions to the crippled ship deserve kudos methinks

 

[Trekker4747]

Messianni said:
Like this?

(Taken from Flux Capacitor's post in the "Photoshop This!" thread in Gen. Trek)

Looks very good (though I personaly would've made the -D bigger.)

 

[DanTheGrey]

In TMP...
- The 'beauty' shots of the Enterprise
- The Klingons vs V'Ger...the classic music makes the scene

In TWOK...
- Reliant's flyby of Enterprise's bridge after they counter-attack
- Kirk/Saavik's chat as they beam up
- The battle inside the nebula
- Kirk's racing through the ship

In SFS...
- Stealing the Enterprise/Spacedock doors
- The self-destruct sequence
- Generally Christopher Lloyd as an insane Klingon
- Scene where Kurge strangles the evolved microbe
- The epilogue after Spock is rejoined with his katra

In Voyage Home...
- When they send the distress signal from Earth
- The Bird of Prey gliding in under the Golden Gate bridge

In Final Frontier...
- As bad as the effects were, the run for the shuttlebay in the shuttle and the resulting crash
- "Don'tcha know a jailbreak when it's happenin'?"
- The scene in the observation room with Sybok

In TUC...
- The opening sequence with the Excelsior
- Seeing the Klingon cruiser get hit by the photon torpedo complete with the lurch
- Kang's monologue as he hunts the ships

In Generations...
- The Astrometrics lab
- The supernova that results from Picard being swept into the Nexus
- The evacuation scene

In First Contact...
- The shot of assimilated Earth
- Deanna/Cochrane/Riker's chat in the bar (cheap as it is)
- "Magic Carpet Ride" blaring during launch

In Insurrection...
- Enterprise using the plasma to ignite the Briar Patch

In Nemesis...
- The new Romulan Warbirds

 

[seigezunt]

Redshirts_Widow said:

Oh and regarding some of the above posters I've always been jealous of those fans who got to see the opening beauty shots of the Ent Refit in TMP actually in a theatre/cinema. Gits!

Yes, I had inch-long goosebumps that December night in 1979. But I was 14 at the time, the height of my Trek-worship. I actually haven't liked the scene much since. It's waaaaay too long. Though it served its purpose for those of us who had been waiting for new Trek for years.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

As much as I don't like Nemesis, the scene where Enterprise is in orbit and the Scimitar decloaks is really cool. I like the music, and the Viceroy is pretty creepy. I like the camera angles in the scene, too.

- FC, Picard's rant and the resulting smashed up spaceships.

- GEN, the Nexus flyover with Soran reaching to the sky

- INS, the battle of the Enterprise and the Son'a ships in the Briar Patch

- TMP, the Enterprise porn

 

[Pro Populo]

Many great scenes have already been mentioned. I'll be a little more specific. Though the entire "stealing the Enterprise" sequence in TSFS is great, the part I always love is the overhead shot of the Enterprise backing out of the Spacedock doors. With Horner's terrific score swelling, it's a great goosebump-y moment.