Which Trek Visual/Special Effect Stands Out?

[ThePlumsofWrath]

For me, a few excellent scenes including Kirk being taken over to the Enterprise in TMP closely followed by the first attack by the Reliant on the Enterprise. A couple of other stand out moments for me are the approach to Genesis by the USS Grissom in TSFS, the visual plus the music are awesome and the Enterprise approaching spacedock at the beginning of the TSFS.

Awesome stuff.

 

[The Cutest of Borg]

Agreed on all counts. The visual effects in the first three films were excellent, and hold up very well even in HD. The Enterprise tour from TMP is my favorite all-time effects sequence. I'm also very fond of the "stealing the Enterprise" sequence from TSfS.

I guess they went into penny-pinching mode from TVH on. The effects in the rest of the films ranged from pure crap to meh.

 

[Voyagerian]

Off the cuff, the revelation of the Enterprise-B on the big screen, the Mutara Nebula and pre-battle sequences in Khan, V'Ger, externally-internally, plus the Klingon attack(if often said needing the revamp it later got); Excelsior coming out of the Praxis remnants, crash of the D saucer, deaths of the Senate in Nemesis, the still-about-the-best Enterprise warpjump in TMP, The E sweeps in to save Defiant in FC...and TOP of em all to date...revelation and Titan-rise of 1701 in Star Trek....

 

[JarodRussell]

All of the TMP visual effect obviously, the Mutara Nebula battle, the starbase scenes, the whales, the Klingon blood, the space battle in First Contact.

 

[Shazam!]

I love the Enterprise arriving at/entering Spacedock at the start of TSFS. Especially when we see it from the point of view of Starfleet personal through the window.

 

[ST-One]

TMP - the introduction of the Orbital Office Complex - such a beautiful design/miniature

TWOK - the Mutara-Nebula sequences

TSFS - the destruction of the Enterprise

TVH - the energy wall that rises from the ocean

TFF - the 'god' beam

TUC - the Excelsiors ride through the shockwave

GEN - the Enterprise-D's arrival at the Amargosa observatory

FC - the Borg Queen's connection of her two body halves

INS - the design and the destruction of the collector ship

NEM - the crash-sequence

Star Trek - the Starfleet Academy hangar scene

 

[Warp Coil]

TMP - the Enterprise fly-by sequence
TWOK - the Mutara Nebula sequence
TSFS - arrival at spacedock
TUC - Praxis shockwave
FC - the Borg Queen's introduction
ST '09 - the Kelvin attacked by the Narada

 

[sbk1234]

Everything mentioned already.
Also, the shot from TMP, reused as ENterprise left spacedock in TWOK, when Enterprise flies by revealing its underside, then the camera spins around to follow it as it passes. (Did I explain that properly?)

 

[Search4]

Everything mentioned already... i'm a big TMP fan of course, especially of the 7 minute model orgy. Hey, I own the drydock for gosh sakes.

HOWEVER, the near-final ST09 Kelvin scene - shown for just a few seconds with the nacelle peeling off as it rams the Narada - is the winner in my book. An amazing act of desperation perfectly captured.

 

[Kirkman1987]

Everything mentioned already... i'm a big TMP fan of course, especially of the 7 minute model orgy. Hey, I own the drydock for gosh sakes.

You own THE drydock?

Since it hasn't been mentioned, I'm always impressed by the opening shot of First Contact.

Oh, And Spock's Rocket boots

 

[SRFX]

The Motion Picture - The whole film

Wrath of Khan - Battle in the Mutara Nebula

The Search for Spock - Stealing the Enterprise

The Voyage Home - Hm, not much really. I guess the whales looked pretty believable!

The Final Frontier - Nothing, this movie is horrendous SFX wise. I guess the Shakaree planet from orbit looks alright?

The Undiscovered Country - Praxis shockwave

Generations - ENT-D crash sequence

First Contact - The Battle of Sector 001

Insurrection - I liked the Brier Patch stuff

Nemesis - SPACE BATTLE.

Star Trek XI - the whole thing, but ESPECIALLY watching the Enterprise rise from Saturn's rings. Spectacular.

 

[Char Aznable]

This whole sequence.

 

[AnyStar]

favorite SINGLE effect from any film?

my vote would have to be the slit-scan v'ger cloud

 

[Search4]

Everything mentioned already... i'm a big TMP fan of course, especially of the 7 minute model orgy. Hey, I own the drydock for gosh sakes.

You own THE drydock?

Since it hasn't been mentioned, I'm always impressed by the opening shot of First Contact.

Oh, And Spock's Rocket boots

Yes, i was the sucker... err lucky purchaser from the auction in 2006. Check my avatar. More information at http://www.ncc1701.us/18.html.

 

[Maxillius]

I'll rank my favorites.

1. The new warp effect (ST)
2. Refit Enterprise reveal in (TMP)
3. Enterprise rising behind Reliant in the Mutara nebula battle (TWoK)
4. Little Jim Kirk's failed police evasion where he sends the Corvette over the cliff sideways while bailing out. (ST)
5. Enterprise ramming Scimitar (NEM)

 

[Brikar99]

I'm gonna buck the thread here, and say that one of the effects shots that stands out to me because it's freaking god-AWFUL is when the Enterprise-E is blown towards the screen by the exploding warp core in 'Insurrection'.

Holy god, is that a terrible frigging shot.

This scene here: http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=162&page=5

On the flipside, the shot of the Enterprise trailing some kind of plasma from the nacelles earlier in that sequence looks pretty friggin good.

 

[Guardian Bob]

Man, I wish the Borg fight in first contact was 10x longer. I love the borg ship approaching Earth at an angle then getting fired upon. Then the cube taking ships out in one sweep using that wide weapon.

 

[Yug]

The one I find the most memorable (and was deservedly mentioned many times here) was the Khan/Kirk space battle inside the nebula. Not only does it still hold up, but I'm not sure you could have a scene like that in a modern film. It's slower pace actually built up suspense. Something you'd never see in the quick cut world of modern action sci-fi. It was a classic and calculated battle of wits and strategy, like a game of chess, that was allowed to play itself out to a very gratifying climax, brilliant!! ( I think i'm becoming aroused ) You had to wait with baited breath for the outcome. It was shot so well and still holds up even against newer cgi films, including Star Trek XI. It's still my single favorite Star Trek scene, and I've watched just that part so often I've worn out my VHS copy I got so many years ago... bring on the blu-ray !!!

 

[Anticitizen]

The destruction of the Enterprise in The Search for Spock. Hands-down. It is not only emotionally powerful, but it's picture-friggin-perfect - I don't care what your modern-day VFX budget is, or how many modern supercomputers you use in order to render 3D graphics, but that scene is what puts the magic in Industrial Lights and Magic.

 

[RapidNadion]

The one I find the most memorable (and was deservedly mentioned many times here) was the Khan/Kirk space battle inside the nebula. Not only does it still hold up, but I'm not sure you could have a scene like that in a modern film.

I agree. I use the below image as my wallpaper, and every day I'm amazed at how well it holds up even after 25 years.

http://usera.ImageCave.com/rapidnadion/phaser-hit.jpg[/IMG

EDIT: After poking around the web some more, I found this interesting passage about the above shot. I knew about the big secondary hull model, but had no idea they created the phaser cutting damage with stop-motion animation.

**From [url]http://www.ottens.co.uk/forgottentrek/tmp_8.php**[/url]

[quote]In one of the most impressive scenes of the battle, the Reliant fires its phasers at the Enterprise "neck" section, cutting an enormous gash in the process. This shot was created using traditional stop animation techniques. Kenneth Ralston explained: "I had that section done as a wax piece and then painted it to look like the ship. Obviously, we worked out exactly how the camera was going to move. Then I just went into the wax version, and I would take little sculpting tools and rip stuff up and bend it around. We'd film that, then the camera would move whatever distance it would cover in one frame, and I'd sculpt some more damage. Then, on top of that, we did some animation of a laser hit sort of cutting into it, but if left a real cut-–a big scar [ . . . ]."


The damage brought onto the Reliant was even more severe, and involved making several separate sections. "One of the engine pods blows up," remembered Ralston. 'We couldn't blow up the whole pod for some reason, so I built a shape similar to it and it was more like glass blowing out of the warp nacelle. We shot that as a separate element and then printed that on top of the actual model fo the Reliant, with other pieces blowing off of it. Then, when the whole nacelle blows off, that was just a bunch of explosions and a separate arm that we shot using motion control.""[/quote]