Earth: Final Conflict
1997–2002SyndicationSci-Fi
Developed from Gene Roddenberry's notes after his death, and it shows in the titles: benign-looking aliens, civic architecture and a great deal of blue, all arranged to look like a press release rather than an invasion.
Earth: Final Conflict rebuilt its titles: three distinct opening sequences are catalogued here across seasons 1, 3 and 5, running between 48 and 51 seconds.
It arrived on Syndication in 1997, when Soul Train, Judge Judy and VeggieTales were also on the network.
Only 139 of the 2,618 shows catalogued here changed their titles at all; Earth: Final Conflict did so two times.
All 3 opening title sequences
Season 1
48sThe first season's sequence. More than one version circulated during this year alone, so this is one of them rather than the only one.
Season 3
51sThe third season, rebuilt again as the cast turned over — this show replaced its lead more often than any other in the catalogue.
Season 5
50sThe final season, rebuilt after a near-total turnover of the cast.
More sci-fi opening titles from the 1990s
5 sequencesThe X-Files
One sequence held untouched for seven years, then rebuilt twice as the cast turned over. The card at the end is the real trick: it reads 'The Truth Is Out There' most weeks, and something else entirely more than twenty times.
- Seasons 1–7
- Season 8
- Season 9
- and 2 more
4 sequencesStargate SG-1
The gate opening, every week, for ten years — David Arnold's film theme rearranged for television and a sequence that never stopped being about one piece of hardware.
- Season 1
- Season 6
- Season 9
- and 1 more
1 sequenceMighty Morphin Power Rangers
Japanese Super Sentai footage cut against American actors, and the biggest thing on children's television for three years.
- Season 1
2 sequencesStar Trek: Voyager
The most purely beautiful of the Trek openings — Voyager skimming a comet, threading a nebula and sliding past a gas giant while Jerry Goldsmith writes the loneliest theme in the franchise. Nothing about it is in a hurry to get home.
- Seasons 1–3
- Seasons 4–7
5 sequencesBabylon 5
Five seasons, five openings, and each one changes who is allowed to speak. The monologue passes from the station's first commander to his successor to his second-in-command, then splinters across the whole cast, then stops being a monologue at all.
- Season 1
- Season 2
- Season 3
- and 2 more
2 sequencesStar Trek: Deep Space Nine
A title sequence that starts still and learns to move. The station hangs motionless in the early years; by the war it is surrounded by traffic, which is the whole arc of the show in ninety seconds.
- Seasons 1–3
- Seasons 4–7
