Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
1993–1999SyndicationSci-Fi
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.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine rebuilt its titles: two distinct opening sequences are catalogued here across seasons 1–7, running between 113 and 115 seconds.
At 115 seconds at its longest, it opens well above the 58-second median for sci-fi sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on Syndication in 1993, when Romper Room, Soul Train and Hee Haw were also on the network.
Only 139 of the 2,618 shows catalogued here changed their titles at all; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine did so once.
All 2 opening title sequences
Seasons 1–3
113sDan Curry's original: the wormhole opens and the station drifts, empty and quiet, to Dennis McCarthy's slow theme.
Seasons 4–7
115sRebuilt for season 4 — ships dock and depart, a workbee and suited repair crews appear, Michael Dorn is added to the cast cards, and McCarthy's theme is re-recorded at a faster, more martial tempo.
More sci-fi opening titles from the 1990s
5 sequences
The 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 sequences
Stargate 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 sequence
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Japanese Super Sentai footage cut against American actors, and the biggest thing on children's television for three years.
- Season 1
5 sequences
Babylon 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
4 sequences
Farscape
A Henson creature workshop pointed at space opera, and an opening that halves in ambition halfway through the run — the narrated version explaining the premise gives way to one that assumes you already know it.
- Season 1
- Season 2
- Season 3
- and 1 more
1 sequenceSliders
A wormhole opening in a San Francisco street, and four people falling into it — the same shot every week for a show about never seeing the same world twice.
- Season 2