10 Star Trek Scenes Even More Impressive When You Know The Truth

We all know what the first duty of every Starfleet officer is; we’ve had the lecture from Picard. Of course, we could always opt instead for Garak’s definitions of 'the truth'. However, with nearly six decades of success and a multitude of new adventures on the horizon, you certainly can’t accuse Star Trek of a lack of imagination. And, if TV and film is the art of trickery in the pursuit of believability, then it is, au contraire, all lies – especially the truth.

With more scenes and scenarios than you can shake a Klingon painstik at, we certainly have plenty of these professional porkies to be impressed with. Think of Riker giving the order to fire at the end of The Best of Both Worlds, Kirk and Spock seeing the faces of the Romulans for the first time, Janeway’s first and last “Set a course… for home”, Sisko and Defiant standing off against the Dominion fleet, or Archer fleeing the exploding Xindi weapon to name but a few.

Some Star Trek moments, however, as remarkable as they already are, only gain in stature when you learn of the effort, ingenuity, skill, sacrifice, and occasionally the arguments it took to make them. The real truth behind the following scenes will make you watch them with a newfound sense of awe.

One of the best episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise’s mixed-bag first season is Shuttlepod One. Intended as a money-saving bottle show, it featured no guest stars or background cast and only six of the main characters – focussing principally on Lieutenant Reed and Commander Tucker, who are stranded in space. It had all the makings of a rather forgettable episode, but its unexpected success lies in the interplay between our evermore cantankerous castaways. Crucially, Dominic Keating and Connor Trinneer, the pair who play them, are also best friends.

Thinking Enterprise has been destroyed and that there is no hope of rescue, the two begin to bicker over their fate. Finally, however, they choose to crack open the bourbon, drown their sorrows, and toast their (‘deceased’) shipmates – all the while freezing their bums off. It is an acting tour de force!

The ‘drunk’ scene, and indeed every scene, in the shuttlepod is made all the more impressive when you know some behind-the-scenes details. As the two actors discuss in their appropriately named podcast 'Shuttlepod', Trinneer and Keating received the script for this episode several days in advance. This, as well as their real-life camaraderie, allowed them to rehearse (a rarity in television) to the point where they were off-script, making the whole thing more like a two-hander play.

Furthermore, the shuttlepod itself was cut in half during filming, allowing for more intimate shots. So that the actors’ breath would be visible on screen, six air-conditioning units were used, and dry-ice packed beneath the set such that filming was only possible in 20-second increments it was so cold.