Favorite Opening Credit Sequence from a Star Trek TV show
- Thread starter tim0122
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The first two seasons of STAR TREK: The Next Generation had a very cool opening sequence that was very well-done. It showed a sort of "departure" from Earth orbit, through and out of the Solar System. It was obviously meant to represent the Enterprise "D" making this trip, but you didn't see it, until we passed Saturn (the last planet shown). So, to me, this scenic route more represented the audience, symbolically leaving Earth, for Space-bound adventures, which I'm sure was the intent, anyway. And it was just very fitting, I thought and almost understated, in a way. I'm very fond of that. Then, in Season 3, it's like, how many Space FX can we shoehorn in, here, before Sir Patrick Stewart's awesome reading of "Space ... the Final Frontier"? It was too busy-looking ... too pretentious ... and looks incredibly artificial, as well ... which I've never liked.
Though it's far from my favourite show (and I haven't seen much beyond season 3) the opening titles to Voyager get my vote. Really well done.
TNG is my all-time favourite Trek show, but the title sequence is just OK (nostalgia aside). The theme is great, of course.
TNG is my all-time favourite Trek show, but the title sequence is just OK (nostalgia aside). The theme is great, of course.
I think my favorite is DS9 (first three seasons), really impressive that the music and visuals were so good and representative of the series (I think the season 4-onward version was good but the music a bit too much lighter and more upbeat, similar to the Enterprise music revision), followed by TNG Seasons 3-7 (so much fun though certainly in a bombastic way; to me it also seems more impressive and natural to not start with Earth in the credits).
TNG, seasons 3-7, awesome intro, Picard's "speech" and main cast and that's it.
For me, it was a toss-up between Voyager and the later seasons of DS9, but I went for Voyager in the end. Beautiful score and lovely visuals.
While I rag on Voyager a lot. It's opening credits and Jerry Goldsmith score was a thing of sublime beauty and majesty. Just that shot of Voyager moving through the gas clouds to that wonderful flowing score was as good as Trek ever got for an opening. Absolute perfection.
Runner up for me would be DS9. Just those initial opening beats with the drums and mournful brass over the comet flyby. Dennis McCarthy's theme starting up.
I love the TOS opening largely just for the music. The visuals while period weren't really engaging. TNG was kind of dull. Just a retread of the TMP theme over some bleach visuals mimicking TOS. And somebody needed to be hauled behind the woodshed and beaten for Enterprise.
Runner up for me would be DS9. Just those initial opening beats with the drums and mournful brass over the comet flyby. Dennis McCarthy's theme starting up.
I love the TOS opening largely just for the music. The visuals while period weren't really engaging. TNG was kind of dull. Just a retread of the TMP theme over some bleach visuals mimicking TOS. And somebody needed to be hauled behind the woodshed and beaten for Enterprise.
Chattaway did all the weekly episodic music for Voyager. But it's main title was a Jerry Goldsmith piece. Jerry was seeking to create a more graceful and feminine feeling theme to match with Voyager's Captain, and the more gracefully curving nature of the ship itself.
Totally agree. That departure from Earth is what made it epic. And the new FX look dated now compared to S1/2.
For me it was between TNG S1/2 and Mirror Darkly Enterprise (I love it, the entire S5 should have been MU). But TNG S1/2 is what got me into Star Trek, so it was the only choice really.
I can't choose Enterprise because the song ruins it.
I can't choose Voyager because of that stupid impossible ring reflection!
TOS is too short and I never liked the vocals (sorry, I just don't).
TAS has bad seventies music.
DS9 is ok, but it's basically a few beauty shots of the station and doesn't show what the series is about.
It's interesting to compare the themes in close proximity - you realise how militaristic most of the Berman-era ones were. You can imagine any of them played at a ceremonial occasion, flags fluttering, troops saluting.
Compared to these I guess you can argue that ENT's theme choice, however misguided, was an attempt to return to civilian virtues as represented by a more popular musical style.
Today was actually the first time I heard the TAS theme! Very 70s. If they'd got Barry Gray to write it, it might actually have been good.
I chose TOS seasons 2-3 for the full-on exotica stylings, which now sound utterly unique.
DS9 seasons 1-3 for its mood of the loneliness of space and sense of mission; the added whooshes for the shuttlepod fly-bys in the later version drag it down.
I chose ENT for the visuals, not the song! I note the poll doesn't differentiate the two versions, with the later "upbeat" version having added percussion. Fair enough; the later version is generally agreed to be inferior.
The Mirror Darkly credits always get me stirred up: "Hell yeah, kill those dirty aliens - Humans rule!" I imagine this is how Trump supporters feel most of the time.
I'm surprised how much support the VOY credit sequence is getting. I always found it moderately pleasant but dull.
Compared to these I guess you can argue that ENT's theme choice, however misguided, was an attempt to return to civilian virtues as represented by a more popular musical style.
Today was actually the first time I heard the TAS theme! Very 70s. If they'd got Barry Gray to write it, it might actually have been good.
I chose TOS seasons 2-3 for the full-on exotica stylings, which now sound utterly unique.
DS9 seasons 1-3 for its mood of the loneliness of space and sense of mission; the added whooshes for the shuttlepod fly-bys in the later version drag it down.
I chose ENT for the visuals, not the song! I note the poll doesn't differentiate the two versions, with the later "upbeat" version having added percussion. Fair enough; the later version is generally agreed to be inferior.
The Mirror Darkly credits always get me stirred up: "Hell yeah, kill those dirty aliens - Humans rule!" I imagine this is how Trump supporters feel most of the time.
I'm surprised how much support the VOY credit sequence is getting. I always found it moderately pleasant but dull.
For me it's a tie between the intros of Voyager and Enterprise. Voyagers intro theme was way more interesting than the actual TV show after the intro.......
Enterprise had a nice montage of events leading into the NX01 as it flies off screen. I liked that intro and I like the theme song too .
Enterprise had a nice montage of events leading into the NX01 as it flies off screen. I liked that intro and I like the theme song too .
I loved the Enterprise visuals showing a quick montage of human exploration. I loved the Goldsmith TMP theme.
I chose Enterprise: Mirror Darkly for this because it was so militaristic and dark; a major departure from normal Star Trek scores. Sometimes different is good: "Mirror Darkly". Sometimes different is bad: "Faith of the Heart".
I chose Enterprise: Mirror Darkly for this because it was so militaristic and dark; a major departure from normal Star Trek scores. Sometimes different is good: "Mirror Darkly". Sometimes different is bad: "Faith of the Heart".
.. Agreed!
I, too, am surprised. And I have to wonder if it would've been afforded the affection it's given, had it not been scored by Jerry Goldsmith, himself. It does drag on, a bit and seems rather uninspired, to me. Like something he hummed to himself, raiding the fridge and just wrote that down.
Personally, I do not really care for bombastic scores. And I hate sitting through a laundry list of credits, it's just not entertaining, I get no sense of occasion out of it. I just wish they'd get on. If they'd done away with the theme music, entirely, and just had credits over the opening scene, I really wouldn't mind ...
I'm glad you can vote for more than one. It's allowed me to make both my sentimental choice (Later TNG) and more objective one (VOY). I wasn't a huge fan of the series, but credit where due.
Patrick Stewart's voiceover and the TNG score are utterly amazing though, and I love the space dust/molten planet/E-D reveal too. VOY had the best varied space environments (even if they too are dated by this point), but the "muzak" score didn't do it for me, and the font was too derivative and for me belongs to TOS Movies.
By that logic, however, the more upbeat, more percussive version of the Enterprise title sequence from season 3 and 4 is missing from your list. For me personally it's superior to the version from season 1 and 2.
On the whole, however, I think the beautiful visuals and quiet music from the Deep Space Nine (season 1–3) and Voyager title sequences are the best.
This is one of the reasons I loved the on from Enterprise, plus when you include the song it also felt like to me that it was also a bit of self discovery of humans via the method of exploration, each time getting that little bit further away.
I know for a fact I am in a minority that Enterprise is my favourite and no I prefered the earlier version of the song rather than the jazzed up version.
I voted for TNG Seasons 3-7, which is mainly nostalgia talking. I also gave a vote for DS9 Seasons 4-7. I like how the station looks busy.
The shortest might be the winner...
The TAS theme is actually a musical inversion of the TOS theme. I've always thought of it as "How can we have a theme that's like TOS's, but isn't so we don't have to pay royalties?"
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