Battlestar Galactica
2004–2009Sci-Fi ChannelSci-Fi
The only title sequence on this site that reports the plot. Under the Gayatri Mantra and the Cylon text, the American version ends on a count of the surviving human population — a figure recalculated for each episode, so the titles get worse as the show goes on.
Battlestar Galactica rebuilt its titles: three distinct opening sequences are catalogued here across seasons 1–4, running between 43 and 62 seconds.
It arrived on Sci-Fi Channel in 2004, when Mystery Science Theater 3000, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis were also on the network.
Only 139 of the 2,618 shows catalogued here changed their titles at all; Battlestar Galactica did so two times.
All 3 opening title sequences
Seasons 1–2
62sBear McCreary's Sanskrit chant over the opening text — they were created by man, they evolved, they rebelled, there are many copies, and they have a plan — then a fast montage cut from the episode about to air, and the survivor count.
Season 3
43sRe-cut for the third season, and shorter.
Season 4
45sRe-cut once more for the final season.
More sci-fi opening titles from the 2000s
1 sequence
Smallville
Remy Zero's 'Save Me' over a cast that changed almost completely across ten years, with the credits rebuilt around each departure.
- Season 1
1 sequence
Firefly
A slide guitar and a weary blues vocal over a spaceship. Sonny Rhodes sings words the show's creator wrote, and the argument of the whole series — that this is a western that happens to be in orbit — is settled before a line of dialogue is spoken.
- Season 1
1 sequence
Heroes
An eclipse and a card, in twelve seconds. The restraint is the point — a superhero show refusing to open like one.
- Season 1
3 sequences
Fringe
Pseudo-scientific terms floating in coloured fog — and the colour is the plot: the palette changes to tell you which universe or era the episode is set in.
- Season 1
- Season 4
- Season 5
2 sequences
Star Trek: Enterprise
The franchise's most argued-over opening: no orchestra, no starfield, but a montage of real human exploration — sailing ships, biplanes, spacesuits — under a soft-rock ballad. Half the audience never forgave it, which is its own kind of achievement.
- Seasons 1–2
- Seasons 3–4
4 sequences
Stargate Atlantis
The same franchise moved to another galaxy, and the titles say so — a city rather than a gate, rising out of water instead of standing in a mountain.
- Season 1
- Seasons 2–3
- Season 4
- and 1 more