Space Battles/Sci-Fi Action scenes.

[MadAmosMalone]

Yeah, I agree. I love some good sfx stuff too, but sometimes just seeing the actors react to the situation escalates tension just as well as extended shots of the ships duking it out. For example, I think the battles in The Wrath of Khan and Nemesis both look great, but the latter is overlooked because the film itself falls short on an emotional level.

*nods in agreement* This is that "context" I mentioned earlier. In TWoK, each shot was important. In Nemesis, they just slugged it out ad nauseum. It got actually kinda tiresome after a while.

It wasn't one of the most noteworthy engagements, but both the space battle and brief land battle in the TOS episode Arena strike me as some of the more realistic depictions of futuristic warfare that we see in Trek (not that that's saying much). Unseen enemies on a faraway ridge are demolished and forced into a retreat by a small mortar-like weapon.

Also agree here. In fact, in Bread and Circuses, Kirk mentions 100 men with phasers could overwhelm that planet's combined military forces. Considering the range and versatility of hand phasers I don't think that was an idle boast. Even if the 100-man force didn't have the support of the Enterprise, they could set their phasers on wide-beam and mow down hundreds of "Romans" per man well before the Romans got into range to hit them. The only limitation of hand phasers is being line of sight weapons. The Romans, being at 20th Century tech levels, would bring heavy artillery against the Starfleet guys and could hit them from very far away. That's when those "photon mortars" would come in handy. We often joke about "red shirt" deaths but Starfleet ground forces would probably be a lot more formiddable than we usually see in the show.

In the subsequent space battle with the Gorn ship, the original effects make it clear that they're trading fire with a ship that's on the edge of visual range at best.

Have you ever played the tabletop strategy game, Star Fleet Battles (SFB?) I used to play that game a LOT when I was younger. The game is played on a hex-grid map where each hex represents an area some 10,000 kilometers across. Even Star Wars ships are tiny compared to that. An engagement at five hexes or less is considered "close range."

For the later Trek series, the Dominion War in particular has a lot of great action, but they fight like they have WWI or WWII technology sometimes.

I didn't wanna comment on that before when others were talking about Sacrifice of Angels. Good episode but, yeah, I always thought the "scale" was just all wrong for a battle like that. Contrast that with the battle scenes from TNG's The Wounded where everything was just Okudagrams on screen.

Then occasionally they introduce a technology like a rifle that could fire transporting bullets, only to completely forget about it once the credits roll.

Well that's been Star Trek since forever though, right? When they encountered Dr. Korby's happy android emporium and bar and grill, did no one ever return there to find out how to turn a hundred pounds of biscuit dough into an android? Did no one ever return to Mr. Flint's planet to learn more about the advanced tech he developed or acquired? Did no one ever study the engine mods the Kelvans made to the Enterprise to hijack it to Andromeda? Most significantly of all, did no one ever return to the Guardian of Forever? The TAS episode Yesteryear is considered canonical isn't it? The whole series was ripe with sequel possibilities and implications to explore.

As for movies, the Battle of the Mutari Nebula and the Battle of Endor are two that stand out. Another good one that has the disadvantage of being in an unpopular movie is the final battle in Ender's Game.

I kinda liked Ender's Game. Saw it in the theaters when it came out. Saw it with a friend who was more familiar with the books than I was. It met with his approval too.

[The Romulan Republic]

I know I know...we're here for the great characters, the compelling stories, the interesting speculation on the advancement of technology and the impact it'll have on humanity....but sometimes we also enjoy a good throw down whether it be in space between massive capital ships or a personal fight with plasma blades. This thread is for a discussion of those scenes, what they say about the series, how they were shot, what you liked etc.

Hey, there's a lot of room for character drama and riveting stories in war. The best war scenes aren't just flashing lights and CG gore. Some of my favourites:

For large-scale battle scenes:

The Battle of Hoth (Empire Strikes Back).
The Battle of Geonosis (Attack of the Clones).
The Battle of Endor (Return of the Jedi).
The Battle of Scarif (Rogue One).

For smaller skirmishes:

The Battle of the Mutara Nebula (Star Trek: Wrath of Kahn).
The fight with the Doomsday Machine (Star Trek: TOS).
Most of Aliens, Terminator II, and Fury Road.

For small-scale fights/duels:

Neo vs. Smith (The Matrix).
Both Luke vs. Vader duels (Star Wars).
A bunch of duels from Star Wars: Rebels and The Clone Wars.
Some of the Star Wars Prequel lightsaber duels.
The Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman/Doomsday battle from Batman v Superman.

If you count fantasy, then I'll throw in:

Helm's Deep (LotR films).
Siege of Gondor (LotR films and books).
The Battle of the Pellenore fields (LotR books).
The Battle of Hogwarts (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II, film).
The Maelstrom battle (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End).
The Battle of the Bastards (Game of Thrones).
Aragorn vs. Uruk (LotR films: The Fellowship of the Ring).

And probably there are a whole bunch more I've left out.

Edit: Hell, I didn't even touch on Dresden Files (books), or the Buffyverse, or even Gargoyles had some decent ones.

[Admiral X]

youtu.be/mvl6uVweAhE

[Ordo]

youtu.be/_Mg7qKstnPk
This did a fantastic job of setting the desperate tone for the future war. I mean you see bright spots throughout, shots of humans defeating machines....but those tincans are absolutly relentless here...and the score drives that home.


youtu.be/HkVwEXbR2cU
I love this scene from T2 not just because of the heavy weapons and explosions...but because it shows how much THIS Terminator has grown. That last shot from his POV where his scanners say 0.0 casualties still creates a very triumphant feeling whenever I see it.