It’s easy to focus on all the aspects of the San Diego Comic Con that are frustrating or foolish, but every year there are moments that make it worthwhile. One of those at this past SDCC took place during the Starship Smackdown panel, when physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson took the mic, as an audience member, to argue that the original U.S.S. Enterprise design is “the most astonishing, awesome, beautiful, seductive…machinery that has ever graced the screen!”

Enjoy the video of Degrasse-Tyson’s impassioned argument below.

The context here is that the panel traditionally provides the chance for participants to argue the superiority of one sci-fi ship over another. In this case the panelists were Ashley Edward Miller (X-Men: First Class co-writer), Robert Meyer Burnett (Free Enterprise producer ), Kay Reindl (Legend of the Seeker producer ), Jeff Bond (Geek Magazine editor), Steve Melching (Star Wars: Clone Wars writer), and artist Chris Gossett. They argued the merits of the USS Enterprise as seen in the original Star Trek series, and the one from the early films.

No winner emerged, and the moderator solicited audience input. That’s when Tyson stepped up, and won the panel.

[THR and Seriocity]