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A curated selection of Star Trek's most uplifting and memorable scenes. These moments, spanning across different series and timelines, remind us of the core values of hope, connection, and the pursuit of a better future, proving that even in dark times, the spirit of exploration shines.
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This is a list that's been on the docket for quite some time, and for increasingly obvious reasons
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Every day, all one needs to do is turn on the news, and there is something else that will shock and
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upset. I won't mince words, these days are dark. There are many things happening in the world right
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now that will get under the skin of the strongest person, making any of them question the truth
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of a brighter future. What place does Star Trek have in a world like this? I've been a Trekkie
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since 1990, though I'm told on good authority that I watch the best of both worlds, Gusto
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in this time there's been quite a shift in the world economies have collapsed eternal truths
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have proved temporary and hope has become a rare commodity in all of that there's been star trek
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it may have changed forms and people and even locations but the core of the universe has always
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teased for a brighter future one where we can move past the troubles that divide us today
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in this i've compiled a list of those moments that offer the viewer a smile regardless of mood
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moment or situation. Sometimes one just needs to see something upbeat and joyous. These are some
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of those moments in Star Trek. I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture and here are 10 Star Trek moments
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that always make you smile. Number 10. Pathfinder. Looking back on Star Trek Voyager one can never
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discount the distance between the lost ship and the Alpha Quadrant but one could also be forgiven
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for thinking everything was rather close to each other. We blame the constant pristine condition of
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the ship but in the same breath can we get a round of applause for those engineers by the sixth season
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the ship had made semi-regular contact with home but they hadn't had the chance to speak directly
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to starfleet compressed messages were all the rage until a face-to-face zoom call popped up on the
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astrometric screen barclay did something that audiences may not have expected he based on earth
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achieved what voyager and by extension us had been hoping for he proved that the ship was never
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abandoned. They were lost, but at least one person never stopped looking. That first message both
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broke our hearts and lifted them up to the ceiling. Voyager was the focus of the show
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but the audience may have been watching from a place of many years of Trek. Starfleet would
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never give up on a lost ship, they believed. Pathfinder and Reginald Barkley proved it
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There are many moments of this episode that will tug on the heartstrings, but seeing Tom Paris's
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reaction when he hears his father's voice for the first time in almost six years opens a floodgate
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of emotions one only compounded with Janeway's final keep a docking bay open for us catharsis
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joy and hope all in a single sentence number nine trials and tribulations if there were a
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phaser placed to your head and you were ordered to pick one moment from this episode that makes
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you smile more than any other whatever you chose i will tell you that you're right because it's just
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one of those episodes, one that is concerned only with sharing a bit of joy in the universe
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The fact that it pops up in a series that generally took itself so seriously only adds to the fun
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What a celebration this was of 30 years of Star Trek, merging two iterations of the universe
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together, playing with nostalgia the whole time. If one picked the Klingon bar fight, they'd be
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right. If one picked Dax fancying Spock in the hallway, they'd be right. But for this entry
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there is a moment that stands out in a heartwarming and beautiful way and full disclosure
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this theme may be repeated later on this list. The entire incident is an accident caused by a man
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who wants nothing more than to punish James T. Kirk for his own humiliation. Instead he gives a 24th
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century Starfleet crew the chance to say hi to their 23rd century forebears. This is epitomized
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on the bridge when just before the Defiant returns home Captain Sisko takes the opportunity to meet
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Captain Kirk Even Sisko knows that it might have been a step too far over the temporal prime director lines but as those agents assert they would probably have done the same thing themselves We know that we would have too
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Number 8. I should have done this years ago. Star Trek has been graced with several strong series finales
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where ships return home, or are sent out on missions, or the crews even see the birth of the Federation
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All of them have their own wonderful charms, even those based on the holodeck
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but here there is a giant, joyful smile, all thanks to a single hand of poker
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Star Trek The Next Generation shook the world when it debuted, offering a shaky first season
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and then delivering one of the finest sci-fi series ever made by the show's end
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All Good Things is easily one of Star Trek's best finales, giving a true sense of closure, while leaving the door open to more adventures to come
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Poker was a recurring motif in the show, with Riker being the main proponent
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While Data wasn't innocent, the entire senior staff eventually joined those games, bar one
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Having Picard join that final poker game was not just a perfect ending to the series finale
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but a poignant cap on the next generation as a whole. The game was ongoing, as were the feelings between this crew
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As the next generation didn't end with the ship being decommissioned or the crew being reassigned
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that final shot of the poker table with the crew in a circle while the Enterprise-D flew off into
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the stars offered the excitement of future adventures to come. While other finales sought
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to repeat that upbeat feeling, this was the true epitome of a generation's joy in each other
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Number 7. Jim! There are of course so many moments in the original series to pick from
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that it becomes a bit of a challenge to choose what makes us smile the most. Is it literally
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every scene that Uhura is in? Is it all of the McCoyisms that populate the show? Or is it Chekov's
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frequent assurances that a Russian person will always be the one responsible for innovation
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Here, it is a simple thing. It's Jim Kirk's death. Yep, that's it. That's the entry. Next
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Technically, I'm not lying. In a muck time, Spock fully believes that he's killed Kirk
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Calafi and all, Lerpa in hand. The fact that Kirk survives does nothing to dull, initially
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Spock's emotional outbursts as evidenced in sickbay toward the end. On Vulcan, Kirk is pronounced dead
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Regardless of his Vulcan blood, Spock understands his crime. He leaves to face the music, except a
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certain very living Kirk is there to throw a fairly massive spanner in the works. How are you
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Spock? What's the story? Jim! To this day, it is hard not to break out in a massive smile when the
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stoic first officer finally lets loose. He may almost immediately rein everything back in but in
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that moment we see that first officer lose all emotional control overcome with joy and happiness
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Spock in that moment you become us all for that we're eternally grateful. Number six Sundays
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Tuvok and Neelix have had the most interesting journey along the way for two men who started
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their relationship slowly from opposite ends if you will they became closer than anyone dared to
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dream Tuvix may be the most hot button topic in the Delta Quadrant but he was also a union of two
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diametrically opposed people in riddles Tuvok starts again from zero stripped of his logical
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restrictions he begins to understand his crewmates on an entirely different level though he had always
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been a part of them he hadn't truly joined them in their ups and downs here he understood what
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expressive joy was, then it was taken away. Though Tuvok would of course have to become the man he
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always was he almost chooses to remain emotional rejecting the control of his Vulcan heritage For a few moments at least he wants to stay with Neelix as he is No one doubted that Tuvok was going to
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return to his normal logical self, but there is a moment toward the end of the episode when Tuvok
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remembering a joke that Neelix had taught him, ponders how a person may stay alive on a desert
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island armed only with a calendar. The Sundays. They might eat the Sundays. Neelix smiles and we
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all felt a little warmer inside. Number five. Cake is eternal. Star Trek Discovery was unique in one
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of its mission statements. It was a Trek that was highly concerned with wearing its heart on its
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sleeve and thanks to that we got the character of Sylvia Tilly. She was instantly the audience
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stand-in, ready to be our eyes and ears in the 21st century, even if she was positioned in the 23rd
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Tilly was an updated version of the young character that Chekhov, Wesley, Jake, Naomi
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and Hoshi served in times past. Tilly may have been more outwardly emotional, but she reflects
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the time in which she was written. Her arrival in the 32nd century was jarring, but also helped us
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the audience, acclimatize to the new setting. She immediately jumped into professional mode
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but when she got to meet Michael, who had arrived before her, they bonded over the simplest idea in
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the world, cake is eternal. These two friends, separated by years, light years, and the love
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of exploration, reunite to discover that the universe could do very little to hold dessert
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lovers apart. Star Trek can sometimes veer toward taking itself too seriously, but the moments like
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this remind us all that, even in the future, with starships out of whack and people clamouring for
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familiarity, there are those certainties that never change. Friendship is forever, and cake is eternal
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Number 4. Moopsy. This one is quite simple. If Moopsy doesn't bring you joy, then you have bigger
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problems than what Star Trek can offer you. I have no bones, yet I must flee, introduced the
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cuddly little murderer who would soon be adorning bedspreads from here to Kronos. The Moopsy was the
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most adorable, diabolical being that had ever been introduced in Star Trek. The fact that it was so
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squishy did nothing to dull its ferocity, but my god was it cute. Though its teeth are enormous
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and it is surprisingly agile for a sentient marshmallow, this teeny creature is the face
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of happiness, even in the darkest of situations. There is not a single moment in the Lower Decks
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episode in which it appears that it doesn't make the viewer beam with joy. The little squishes
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the smile, the voice, everything. One wonders why it took so long for Moopsy to arrive on screen
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but then we must remember, Moopsy is a gift to all of us, delivered when we need it, not simply when
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we want it. Sure, it may be a bone-drinking psychopath, but it also brings happiness to
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all of those who observed it, through glass. Is that not the true meaning of smiling
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Number three. In your own way, you are as stubborn as another captain of the Enterprise I once knew
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Star Trek Prodigy's first few episodes, like every Trek beforehand, were tasked with settling
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the tone of the show. It was clearly for a younger audience, but it never spoke down to its viewers
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It respected those watching, understanding that some were pre-existing Trekkies while some were
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not. Kobayashi would seem like a knowing nod to the parents in the audience who were watching along
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but it's actually so much more. Dal, challenging as he was, enters the Kobayashi Maru simulation
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determined to prove that he is the best person to control the ship. Instead, he finds a lesson in
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humility and we the audience get a journey through Trek's history. Uhura is there, Odo is there
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Scotty is there, Crusher is there, with Gates McFadden returning to record new dialogue before
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she returned in Star Trek Picard. Spock is also there and it is to him that we direct our attention
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now As first officer he is there to offer the cadet some advice When Dal refuses to accept the no scenario archived dialogue reminds us of the conversation that Spock had with Jean Picard in the early 90s
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In your own way, you are as stubborn as another captain of the Enterprise I once knew
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The association with Kirk is not simply a heart tug, but a reminder to us all
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Dahl may be different from what we're used to, but he is just as much a part of this universe as anyone else
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is he a bit arrogant sure but consider chris pines kirk and see where he ended up arrogance
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is the beginning of the journey not the end number two the voice of the enterprise a simple idea with
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nearly 60 years of history naota uhura helps to guide the enterprise crew back to normality
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after the encounter with subspace fisher while they all give it their best shot at singing it
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quickly becomes apparent that she is not only the best singer, but the focal, vocal point of the ship
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Uhura is not simply a communications officer, she is THE communications officer, serving to unite
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everyone aboard ship, as well as those outside as well. She makes announcements, she lets officers
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know the daily truth, and her voice patches calls through all the time. In short, everyone knew her
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voice long before she sang to them. The Enterprise needed everyone aboard to sing together to achieve
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the correct result, so who better than Uhura to guide them to their big finale? She speaks to them
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she smiles, and we smile with her. She keeps us connected through speech, through song, and through
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hope. There may even be a cameo from some Klingpop warriors bursting with excitement to be a part of
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the musical escapades, although perhaps that feeling may pass after the moment does. Still
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it's down to uhura to connect them starfleet and klingons alike she is the one that saves the day
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she is uhura and she is the voice of the enterprise number one beautiful day william
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shatner was captain kirk from 1966 to 1994 though that's not to say his presence isn't still felt
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chris pine and paul wesley are on hand to offer worthy versions of the captain but there is a
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scene in the mid-90s that encapsulates so much of the joy that Kirk brings to the screen
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and it involves another Starfleet captain while we're at it. Star Trek Generations may be the
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first cinematic outing for the crew of the next generation, but it also serves as the last outing
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for the cast of the original series, some of them at least. Walter Koenig and James Doohan are
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wonderful in their short scenes, but all eyes are on Shatner here, delivering the last original Kirk
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day and what a day it was beautiful day he says as captain picard approaches him by his cabin
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kirk chops wood then smells some burning eggs in he runs to his kitchen inviting picard in
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why not it's his house after all there are trinkets on the wall and toast is quickly brewing
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picard may be all business but the famous captain has other things on his mind
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after all he was out saving the galaxy when your grandfather was in diapers
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the entire scene is just pure joy even tinged with sadness from knowing that it may be the end of an
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era between the clock antonia and butler it was a good day for those who felt human feelings
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that's everything for our list today folks thank you so much for watching along you've been awesome
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and wonderful do you think we missed any big moments let us know because there is never anything
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wrong with sharing more joy in the world let's put that out there and let's keep trying to do a
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little bit of that every single day please make sure that you're subscribed and following we're
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on the various socials at trek culture we're also at trek culture yt on instagram i am at sean
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ferrick and you are just the best live long and prosper till i see you again thank you so much
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folks thank you