10 Best Uses Of Special Effects In Star Trek

3. The Battle Of Wolf 359 - And All The Parts We Didn't See

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine opens with a bang, as per the intention of Michael Piller. He included the Battle of Wolf 359, tying this new show into greater Trek lore - and also bringing back his own earlier work on The Best Of Both Worlds.

Visual Effects Supervisor Robert Legato was given a warning to craft this battle before the rest of the pilot went into production. He envisioned a frenetic scene, based on the wreckage that the Enterprise had discovered. He filled the sequence with said wreckage, taking great care to ensure that the hull registry matched the names spoken aloud in The Best Of Both Worlds, Part 2.

After having done this, he was then informed that the action would begin as the battle started, rather than his idea of depicting a battle halfway through. After having put all of that in, he had to go back through the sequence and take a lot back out again. In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion he put it simply:

It was a heartbreaker.

Still, the prologue did exactly what it set out to do (including exploding the USS Saratoga at the Paramount soundstages) allowing the new series to begin with that bang they wanted.