from Joshua Tyler
| Updated
There are many epic space battles in sci-fi movies and television, but at the end of the day, the best space battles will be decided between the two biggest star franchises: Star Trek and Star Wars. Maybe Babylon 5 would have been involved with a bigger budget and modern computers. And if you’ve seen the 2004 reboot Battlestar Galacticayou know how exciting Viper battles can be.
But in the end it comes down to Star Trek vs. Star Wars and their approaches couldn’t be more different. Star Wars’ space battles are exciting battles where fighters drift through space with stationary mega-ships slamming into it. Space battles in Star Trek are tougher, with cruisers considering tactics and making moves for maximum efficiency and drama.
Which is better? This channel is on Starfleet’s side, and we’re about to show you why. These are the best Star Trek space battles.
4. The Battle of Sector 001 in Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: Generations disappointed fans and First contact wastes no time righting this movie’s wrongs, starting with a starship battle on the big screen Generations failed to deliver.
With the Enterprise en route, a desperate fleet tries to stop a Borg cube approaching Earth. The task force is led by Deep Space Nine’s hero ship, the Defiant, commanded by everyone’s favorite Klingon, Whorf. Despite commanding a fleet containing some of Starfleet’s latest combat innovations, Earth’s defenders are completely outgunned and the situation is desperate.
On the brink of destruction, Worf orders Ben out Parks and Rec to drive the Defiant to breakneck speed, no doubt relishing the thought of an honorable death. At the last possible moment, the Enterprise appears out of nowhere to blunt the Borg cube’s attacks. It’s not just the Enterprise, but the new Enterprise E, a ship specifically designed to take down the Borg.
The Borg are old enemies of the Federation and in every previous encounter they always have the upper hand and even with this shiny new sovereign class Enterprise fighting them, that’s what the audience expects. Instead, the Enterprise tears the Borg cube apart, causing the Borg Queen to eject and instead embark on a dangerous time travel scheme, kicking off the film’s story in the biggest way possible.
3. The Battle of Jupiter in Star Trek: Picard Season 3
Hampered by its 1980s TV budget, Star Trek: The next generation rarely shows ship combat on screen. When it did, it was over quickly or was shot in a way that circumvented the time constraints and difficulty of using physical models.
When the Next Gen The crew finally got a movie, most thought it would mean we’d finally get to see what Enterpise D could do with a big screen budget. But on Star Trek: Generations the script made the Enterprise D disappear like a fool due to lame technical information involving shield frequencies and bad decisions by Riker.
When Star Trek: Picard Season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas decided to resurrect the Enterprise D as a chance to right that wrong. With advanced CGI at his command, Matalas launched the Enterprise D into the battle of its life against a Borg Cube so big it might as well have been the Death Star.
In what was certainly no coincidence, the Enterprise’s path to its eventual defeat closely resembles the Millennium Falcon’s run against the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi. Maybe it’s 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 Picard’s third season is so good that it’s well deserved.
Star Trek has never done anything like this and probably never will again. It’s one of the most energetic space battle sequences in the franchise.
2. The Battle of the Mutara Nebula in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Everything that happens in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan leads to the Mutara Nebula.
Captain Kirk was on the brink of defeat and he knows it’s his fault. He screwed up. He ignored Saavik’s warnings and allowed Khan to hit him. People are dead, and the crew he left alive is breathing only thanks to luck.
Both the Enterprise and the Reliant are damaged and crippled, but the Enterprise is worse and that means the Reliant has the upper hand. The crew of the Enterprise confronts a brilliant madman who will stop at nothing until he dies. It’s the perfect setting for the ultimate one-on-one starship battle, and it’s still the gold standard of space battles for many Star Trek fans.
It’s strange to think now, but before Wrath of the KhanStar Trek has never shown audiences a full starship battle. The movie there were no actual battles, and the original series didn’t have the budget to show much more than cuts back and forth between fuzzy models of ships floating motionless in space.
from the beginning Star Trek II director Nicolas Mayer decided to change the course of Star Trek by creating a film inspired by naval traditions. His original script plan for the final ship battle in Wrath of the Khan played like an ancient sailing ship firing cannons. Reliant and Enterprise had to sit in the open, trading boards until someone won.
Production artist Joe Jennings pointed out that this was wrong. He thought that spacecraft would collide with each other during high-speed passes in open space circumstances.
So, with the help of art director Mike Minor, he came up with the Battle of the Mutara Nebula, a situation where both ships would be hobbled and visibility would be limited. This allowed Mayer to film the final Enterprise vs. Reliant matchup more like an intense submarine battle or a Master and Commander -type sail chase shrouded in thick fog. The fact that they did it using only physical models, no CGI, makes it Wrath of the Khan Mutara battle is even more impressive.
The setting is beautiful and visually unique. The strategies included are interesting but also easy to understand.
Both commanders are in situations where they are asked to put into practice the lessons they were meant to learn throughout the film, bringing the film’s plot full circle The battle is decided when Han fails to adapt while Kirk learns from his previous mistakes, takes the advice of his employees and wins. A victory that cost him the life of his best friend.
1. Operation Return in Deep Space Nine’s Star Trek: Sacrifice of Angels
Victory will only buy our heroes more death and war. Losing this conflict means losing everything. This is the setup for Operation Return, the ultimate Star Trek space battle.
This happens in season 6 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine at the end of what is also one of the biggest and best story arcs in franchise history. The episode is called “Sacrifice of Angels” and is the last of an interconnected six-episode series, with each episode before it ending with “To Be Continued”.
The battle takes its name from Starfleet Chief Strategist Captain Benjamin Sisko. He plans a desperate assault to break through the enemy lines and capture Deep Space Nine before the Dominion can clear the way for the Gamma-reinforced Quadrant.
The irony of Operation Return is that Cisco’s plan fails. Gul Dukat, who commands the Dominion fleet, sees through every bit of strategic deception as he successfully lures the outmatched Federation fleet into a trap. This is only thanks to an unexpected last-minute reinforcement from the Klingons flying out of the sun in formation like Han Solo facing the Death Star or Gandalf arriving at Helm’s Deep, that Sisko survives and breaks through enemy lines. But not until it’s too late.
The desperate futility of all this death and destruction only makes it all the more impactful. The good guys do win in the end, not thanks to Sisko’s battle planning, but only after we witness the most spectacular, explosion-filled, starship-shattering conflict in Star Trek.
Over 200 federations starships and the Klingon raptors face off against an even larger enemy fleet consisting of both Karsassian and Dominion ships during the episode’s long series of space battles. This is something that would not have been technologically possible to display on screen in the days of practical motion-controlled models.
Deep Space Nine began experimenting with the use of computer-generated effects for its space sequences as early as season 3. By the time the sixth season aired 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.
“Sacrifice of Angels” was the first Star Trek episode to use exclusively computer-generated imagery. It was such a massive undertaking that the series hired two separate digital effects companies to collaborate on its creation. Digital Muse created the new ships needed for the Federation in battle, while Foundation Imaging created the Dominion Fleet. Digital Muse then put together the first half of the battle, while Foundation Imaging animated the second half sequence where the Defiant makes its way to Deep Space Nine.
To provide some level of tactical realism, the makers of DS9 consulted with military expert Dan Curry and Bradley Thompson, a former pilot, to develop strategies to be used by the warring fleets.
Cool special effects and exploding starships alone don’t make for a great space battle. “Angel Sacrifice” combined those with the incredible stakes the show had been building for six episodes to create the ultimate payoff for long-suffering fans who were brought to a boiling point in the mounting tension.
It works. All this. 6.4 million viewers watched in 1997 when the scene was broadcast. “Sacrifice of Angels” is now considered one of the best episodes of Star Trek.
The fight scene was so beloved that when showrunner Ira Steven Behr had to choose one scene from DS9 to remaster in high definition HD, he chose this one for the retrospective documentary What we left behind. That’s the only one Deep Space Nine sequence that has ever been remastered and it is the best space battle in Star Trek.
