The opening sequence to Star Trek series can be important. I honestly believe that the way different opening sequence to Enterprise was a major problem for that series and hurt it in the ratings. I also think the rather lackluster opening sequence that DS9 started out with hurt it. What kind of opening sequence should a new Trek series have? If a future Trek series features the Enterprise, I would like something like a fade in, fade out, montage of all the previous Star Trek Enterprises making an appearance. Something to connect a new series to past shows.
No. A new trek show needs to be able to stand on its own. Embrace the legacy, sure, but don't cling onto it for dear life.
I'd go with quick cuts from scene to scene...smiling faces, exploding bridge consoles, exterior shots of the ship jumping to warp & dropping from warp, the launch of the ship's Captain's yacht, a subtle reference to someone goofing-off during a day-off spent in the holodeck, a love scene, someone visiting a loved one's grave, a shuttle launching from the aft shuttle bay. A Borg armored cube tractoring the ship inside its' queen's-sphere hatch. An up-tempo version of opening credits... think "Star Trek:TNG" meets "McGyver" and/or "Magnum, P.I.".
A new series shouldn't have an opening sequence, the shows are getting shorter, because they show more commercials every year. I don't want them to waste another minute with the opening sequence, a title card that is shown for 3 or 4 seconds is more than enough.
Sadly, Takeru is right; most TOS episodes originally ran close to 50 minutes without commercials. By the time of TNG, it was only down to 48 minutes, but by the time ENT was cancelled, they were down to 42. Even the syndicated reruns get butchered so they can add more commercials. Unless a show is on PBS or HBO or Showtime and can go without commercials, the title sequence has sadly become a bit of a luxury. But perhaps more importantly, I think the producers and writers of this theoretical new show should concentrate on the show itself not sucking, before worrying about what type of opening credits sequence they use.
Opening sequences are on their way out. If there's a new Star Trek series it'll probably have an opening sequence similar to Lost which is basically a logo and a brief bit of music. I'd rather have more story time than a nice opening sequence.
I'd like to see something traditional, like TNG or Voyager. Definitely orchestral music, not a pop song like Enterprise did!
The opening of a Star Trek series needs to be exciting and inspiring (see TOS and TNG), not an orchestral sleep-aid (see everything else).
While I don't think the openings had any effect in the show ratings, I do think that if Trek should return to TV, they should just do the quick title and brief bit of music, much like how shows like Lost and Heroes currently do it.
I like the original Battlestar: Galactica opening music. It practically reaches out and grabs your attention.
Time for some electronica. Give me Crystal Method, Prodigy, Jens Buchert or Guardner. A nice down beat score with a futuristic/space feel to it.
My idea opening... Teaser, Title Card, Commercial, Title Card, Show, end credits will consist of a little montage of the ship and the crew as they grow.
I may be in the minority here, but I always like Enterprise's opening montage and song. The montage set the theme of Earth's history of exploration and I found the lyrics of the song very fitting.
All series feature flybys of the featured ship. All series feature ship moving in/out of warp. Well we've had a fly around the planets. We've had a fly past a comet and a wormhole. We've had a fly through planet rings and a gas cloud. We've had a fly around man-made structures. I suggest we keep this continuity but with places not visited in an opening sequence. Beginning is rather like the opening titles of the Innerspace movie. There we're looking close up at ice in a glass but you can't tell that until it zooms out. It just looks strange and captivating. We could do the same thing with the cellular construction of the navigational deflector or the phaser strip, or the dilithium crystals. Well stick with the dilithium crystals. Same sort of chromatic instrumentals as in the Inner space movie. Camera slowly pulls back and drifts from a view inside the ship, backwards out through one of the windows out into space, becoming an external view. Ship flies by. Programme title. Ship flies off screen, camera rotates to a protostar system from above. Red glowing protostar is seen surrounded by various cloudy lumps. Camera passes through acretion disc and we see dust swirling around some lumps and generally swirling as the camera disrturbs it. On the other side of the disc ship appears, and we follow it fly along the acretion disc towards the star. Star ignites into fusion, and we see an energy shockwave blast out. Ship quickly turns to the side and flies into the darkness, off screen. New scene with shuttlecraft landed on a planetoid. Camera zooms in close to the planetoid as we see the craft take off. Very detailed ejection blanket/cloud. Some particles fly to the camera are seen like little spinning pebbles. Shuttle is off top of screen, and main ship comes into view from bottom right. As shuttle bay doors are opening, the camera drifts into a position looking down through the impulse engine exhaust. Camera shot through the exhaust gasses from the impulse engines causing a light bending ripple/haze to the background. Shuttle glides slowly into shuttle bay seen through the haze. Camera moves back so that final shot is of the shuttle craft not through the haze. Ship flies off at warp to top right of screen. New scene. Black hole moves into frame with spinning clouds around it and visible xray sources from its poles. The ship of the title comes out of warp, flies rightward behind the black hole, where we see gravitational lensing of the ship and a visible interaction of the xrays with deflector shields. In orbit around the black hole is a gas giant. Ship makes a brief pass through the atmosphere of a gas giant, causing it to drag a tail of gas from the planet. The ship turns towards the camera, black hole is seen again at left of screen as camera pulls back with ship heading towards it. Tail of gas is spun around by black hole gravity. Ships again goes to warp but we see the warp from infront of the ship, so the stars around and the back end of the ship are blittered to the centre of the screen, until finally the ship is faster than the camera, moved off bottom of the screen, fade to darkness. Opening titles end.
Contrary to almost everybody I've ever spoken to, I liked Enterprise's theme tune and its pioneers of exploration montage. With the next series, it'll be back to basics and probably the shortest title sequence of all. Something as simple as the title, a starfield and the ship flying into it. The cast names will spill over into the episode itself. Bottom of the screen, while the story is going on. I'm a child of the 70's/80's and prefer the old setup of a teaser, hum along with titles then back to the action again. But TV is moving further and further away from that... Good to see Doctor Who bucking that trend by sparing at least half a minute for the sake of tradition.
Well I'm not one for maintaining tradition just for the sake of it, but the teaser does work well for me. It gives the viewer time to settle down for the program, or make a cup of hot earl grey The brief pause in the story during the opening credits gives a pleasant time to reflect and wonder about what we've just seen. But it shouldn't be too long as it can be pretty tiring after 100+ episodes. 45 seconds is about right. Secondly I don't like writing popping up all over the screen while I'm trying to watch the story. Opening titles are where the actor's names belong and should stay. Or better still, save them for the closing credits.