There are 13 Star Trek theatrical features in total, spanning 45 years. But to this day, the crown jewel in the cinematic Starfleet crown is Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. In fact, the Library of Congress just included Nicholas Meyer’s 1982 sci-fi masterpiece in its National Film Registry. It’s the only Star Trek film to ever receive that honor. And one of the coolest sequences in the movie remains the battle between the Enterprise and Khan’s stolen starship, the Reliant. Now, a fan on YouTube by the name of NJM Photo has recreated that scene, using only AMT Star Trek model kits, and homemade motion control cameras. And it looks pretty amazing. You can see his recreated “Battle of the Mutara Nebula,” right here:
It’s amazing that 40 years later, a sequence that would have cost Industrial Light & Magic hundreds of hours and millions of dollars can now essentially be recreated in someone’s home, DIY style. And it looks just about as good as what moviegoers saw in theaters back in 1982. NJM Photo didn’t actually recreate the battle frame for frame. The cutaways to Captain Kirk and the bridge crew on the Enterprise are not present, for example.
Luckily, he was wise enough to reuse the incredible score for the film by James Horner. The late composer’s score is still the greatest Star Trek film score of them all, in our opinion. (No shade intended to the wonderful Jerry Goldsmith.)
NJM Photo has other videos on his channel using model kits to create movie-like versions of Star Trek starship scenes. They’ve recreated the Enterprise-D from Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as the Enterprise-E from films like First Contact. There’s also one of Voyager, as well as several from the original Star Trek series. They’ve even got a “Making Of” video on their channel, showing fans how they do it at home, which you can watch above. This only proves that there’s no fan base more devoted than Star Trek fans, even close to 60 years later.
