The 10th Kingdom
Ten hours of fairy tale in which Manhattan and the Nine Kingdoms turn out to share a mirror.
The 10th Kingdom opens with a main title sequence of 80 seconds.
At 80 seconds, it opens well above the 58-second median for sci-fi sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on NBC in 2000, when Columbo, Mad About You and Will & Grace were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
80sFan upload of the opening. The alternative is a Russian broadcast version.
More sci-fi opening titles from the 2000s
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1 sequenceFirefly
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1 sequenceHeroes
An eclipse and a card, in twelve seconds. The restraint is the point — a superhero show refusing to open like one.
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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.
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2 sequencesStar 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.
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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.
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