20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek: Nemesis
13. The Enterprise Ramming The Scimitar Was A (Mostly) Practical Effect
Though the previous few Next Generation movies began progressively phasing out practical effects and had deferred to almost entirely digital shots of the Enterprise in action, a practical Enterprise effect was employed in Nemesis for one sequence.
When the Enterprise rams the Scimitar on Picard's order during the final battle, a practical 17-foot Enterprise saucer was built and collided into a model of the Scimitar.
The film's production crew shot the effect in slow motion at 360 frames per second to imply a greater sense of heft to the miniatures, and also hung the models upside down so the resulting debris from the crash would "fall up" as it would in zero-gravity.
VFX company Digital Domain then added explosions and other ambient elements to the scene, ensuring the end result is a winning marriage of practical and digital effects wizardry.