by Joshua Tyler
| Updated
There have been plenty of epic space battles in sci-fi movies and television, but ultimately, the best space battles will be decided between the two biggest star franchises: Star Trek and Star Wars. Babylon 5 may have been competitive with a larger budget and modern computers. And if you've watched the 2004 reboot of Battlestar GalacticaYou know how exciting these snake fights are.
But in the end, it comes down to it Star Trek vs. Star Wars, and their approaches couldn't be more different. Space battles in Star Wars are thrilling aerial battles in which combatants zoom around the universe against the backdrop of giant, stationary ships that rocket wildly. Space battles in Star Trek are more action-heavy, with cruisers thinking through tactics and making moves with maximum efficiency and drama.
Which is better? This channel is joining Starfleet, and we're about to show you why. These are the best space battles in Star Trek.
4. The Battle of Sector 001 in Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: Generations Disappointed fans, and First contact It wastes no time in correcting this film's mistakes by opening with a big-screen spaceship battle Generations Failed to deliver.
With the Enterprise on the way, a fleet desperately tries to stop the Borg Cube from approaching Earth. Led task force Deep Space Nine The hero ship, Defiant, under the command of everyone's favorite Klingon, Whorf. Despite commanding a fleet containing some of Starfleet's latest battle innovations, Earth's defenders are completely outgunned, and the situation is desperate.
On the verge of destruction, Worf orders Ben out Parks and Recommendation To take the challenger to the speed of impact, and undoubtedly enjoy the idea of an honorable death. At the last possible moment, the Enterprise appears out of nowhere to fend off the Borg's attacks. Not just the Enterprise ship, but the new Enterprise E, a ship specifically designed to take down the Borg.
The Borg are long-time enemies of the Federation, and in every previous encounter, they've always had the upper hand, and even with this shiny new sovereign institution to fight them, that's what the audience has come to expect. Instead, the Enterprise rips the Borg cube to shreds, prompting the Borg Queen to break out of it and embark on a risky time travel scheme instead, kicking off the film's story in the biggest way possible.
3. The Battle of Jupiter in Star Trek: Picard Season 3
After being hampered by the television budget of the 1980s, star trek: The next generation Rarely does any ship combat appear on screen. When it did happen, it was completed quickly or photographed in a way that overcomes time constraints and the difficulty of using physical models.
when Next gen The crew finally got a movie, and most thought this meant we'd finally see what Enterpise D could do with a big screen budget. but Star Trek: Generations The script had come out of Enterprise D like a log due to poor technology involving the shield frequencies and poor decisions by Riker.
when Star Trek: Picard Season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas decided to revive Enterprise D, and it was an opportunity to right that wrong. With modern CGI at his command, Matalas took down the Enterprise D in the battle of a lifetime against a Borg Cube so large it might as well have been the Death Star.
In what is certainly not a coincidence, the Enterprise's path to defeating them ends up looking like the Millennium Falcon running against the second Death Star in… Return of the Jedi. This may be a little silly in the context of Star Trek, but it's a lot of fun, and by the time it happens, everything else in season three of Picard was so good that it was completely earned.
Star Trek has never done anything quite like it and probably never will again. It's one of the most action-packed space battle sequences in the series.
2. The Battle of the Motara Nebula in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Everything that happens in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan It leads to the Motara Nebula.
Captain Kirk He was on the verge of defeat, and he knew it was his fault. He made a mistake. He ignored Savik's warnings, allowing Khan to bring him down. People have died, and the crew left alive is only able to breathe thanks to luck.
Both Enterprise and Reliant are damaged and obstructed, but Enterprise is in a worse position and that means Reliant has the advantage. The crew of the Enterprise encounters a brilliant madman who will stop at nothing until they're dead. It's the perfect setup for the ultimate one-on-one starship battle, and remains the gold standard of space battles for many Star Trek fans.
It's strange to think now, but before Wrath of KhanStar Trek has never shown audiences a full starship battle. Moving picture There was no real combat and the original series didn't have the budget to show much beyond cuts back and forth between static ship models floating in space.
From the beginning, Star Trek II Director Nicholas Meyer set out to change the course of Star Trek by creating a film inspired by naval lore. His original written plan for the ship's final battle in Wrath of Khan If it were going like an old sailing ship, firing cannons. Reliant and Enterprise were to sit in the open, exchanging critiques until someone won.
Production designer Joe Jennings pointed out that this was a mistake. It was believed that spaceships would collide with each other in high-speed passages in open space conditions.
So, with the help of art director Mike Minor, he came up with the Motara Nebula Battle, a situation where both ships are stuck and visibility is limited. This allowed Meyer to film the final match between Enterprise and Reliant that closely resembled an intense submarine battle or a Master and Commander sail chase wrapped in a thick fog. The fact that they pulled it off using only physical models, without any CGI, makes it so Wrath of Khan The Battle of Mutara is even more impressive.
The setting is beautiful and visually unique. The strategies involved are interesting but also easy to understand.
Both leads are placed in situations where they are required to apply the lessons they should have learned throughout the film, bringing the plot of the film full circle. The battle is decided when Khan fails to adapt, while Kirk learns from his past mistakes. He takes his officers' advice and wins. A win that cost him his best friend's life.
1. Operation Return in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's “Angels' Sacrifice.”
Winning will only buy our heroes more death and war. Losing this struggle means losing everything. This is the setting for Operation Return, the best space battle in Star Trek.
It happens in the sixth season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine At the end of what is also one of the biggest and best stories in franchise history. The episode is called “The Sacrifice of Angels”, and is the last of an interconnected series of six episodes in which each episode before it ends with “to be continued”.
The battle gets its name from Starfleet's chief strategist, Captain Benjamin Sisko. He plans a desperate attack to break through enemy lines and retake Deep Space Nine before the Dominion can clear the way for reinforcements from the Gamma Quadrant.
The irony of Operation Return is that Cisco's plan failed. Jules Ducat, who commands the Dominion fleet, sees through every bit of strategic trickery, and succeeds in luring the defeated Federation fleet into a trap. It was only thanks to unexpected last-minute reinforcements from the Klingons that they flew out of the sun in formation like Han Solo Facing the Death Star or Gandalf reaching Helm's Deep, Sisko survives and breaks through enemy lines. But not until it's too late.
The desperate absurdity of all this death and destruction heightens its impact. The good guys win in the end, not thanks to Sisko's battle planning, but only after we witness the most riveting, explosion-filled, starship-destroying conflict in Star Trek.
More than 200 unions Space ships The Klingon birds of prey engage a larger enemy fleet consisting of Carsassian and Dominion ships over the course of the episode's long space battle sequence. It's something that wouldn't have been technologically possible to display on screen in the days of practical, motion-controlled models.
Deep Space Nine It began experimenting with using computer-generated effects for its space sequences again in the third season. By the time season six began in 1997, they had mastered it and become so confident in their abilities that the show decided to do something new with their CGI. technology.
“The Sacrifice of Angels” was the first Star Trek episode to use exclusively computer-generated imagery. It was such a massive project that the series hired two separate digital effects companies to collaborate on its production. Digital Muse created the new ships needed for the Federation side of the battle, while Foundation Imaging created the Dominion fleet. Digital Muse then pieced together the first half of the battle while Foundation Imaging animated the second half's sequence in which the Defiant penetrates Deep Space Nine.
To ensure a certain level of tactical realism, DS9's producers consulted with military expert Dan Carey and Bradley Thompson, a former pilot, to develop strategies that would be used by struggling fleets.
Great special effects and exploding spaceships alone don't make for a great space battle. “Sacrifice of Angels” combines those dizzying stakes that the show has been building over the course of six episodes to deliver the ultimate reward for patient fans who have reached a boiling point under the mounting tension.
You succeeded. All of it. It was watched by 6.4 million viewers in 1997 when the scene was broadcast. “Angels' Sacrifice” is now considered one of the best Star Trek episodes.
The battle scene was so beloved that when showrunner Ira Stephen Bear had to choose one scene from DS9 to remake in HD, he chose that scene for the retrospective documentary What we left behind. She's the only one Deep Space Nine The sequence that has ever been recreated and is the best space battle in Star Trek.
