CaptainCrunch’s top 10 best all time Sci Fi TV shows opening themes
Yeah, I’m sure by now, you’re all like, enough of the top 10’s Captain, we’re trying to sleep here. But what the hell, I like writing them.
Its no secret by now, that I love Sci Fi, I love the movies, I love the TV shows, I love the books. But beyond the question of what defines good Science Fiction on TV, its what gets your heart pumping at the start of every hour (40 minutes after commercials), what sucks you in and makes you take that big bite of popcorn.
The open scenes more then anything on TV sets the mood, outside of Science Fiction, Mash’s opening, or WKRP just really brings you into the show. With Sci Fi, its like 10x the endorphins when you see a really good opening theme.
This list is more difficult then most, because Sci Fi shows tend to change their themes or video packages year after year, so some long running shows might have 5 or 6 openers, I’m going to focus on the best one, when I talk about the show. I’ve tried to limit Star Trek, shockingly there is no Star Wars opening theme listed.
So put on your “I grok Spock” T-Shirt, fire up your toy light saber, and enjoy this trip down memory lane.
10) Battlestar Galactica (1978)
A lot of this series just doesn’t stand the test of time, especially since it really lasted only a season, and at times, the 70’s cheese was on full on display. But, everything about this opener just set the standard for a long time. From the opening narration by Patrick Macnee (Which literally takes a sinister turn later on in the series) to the operatic theme to the cuts of clips, it just gets your heart pumping.
9) Star Trek DS9
Most Star Trek shows follow the tried and true formula, a ship slipping through space to music. Deep Space 9 had to do it differently since the station didn’t move, so instead we got a loving outside tour of the station, while the really exceptional theme played in the background. Season 4 introduced the Defiant which added a new dynamic to the theme, and they really punched up the audio portion of it.
8) The Outer Limits (1963)
At the height of American paranoia about their government, having a TV show narrator telling you that there is nothing wrong with your TV, that they control it, and to sit quietly and watch the show was the height of brilliant creepiness that set the stage for a terrifying hour of TV. It literally harkens back in a way to the War of the Worlds radio broadcast, where you are literally given no choice to watch once you selected the channel.
7) The Orville
I loved this opener even though it rifts on the Star Trek formula for theme songs of a ship flying through the night. But there’s a certain reverence to this theme that makes it a almost like a love song to the genre. When the show came out it was a parody, so it would have been easy to do something goofy, but Seth didn’t do that, and made a master piece instead.
6) Star Trek Brave New World
This was beautiful in a long way, because instead of going with the usual beats, they showed the Enterprise being activated, and it seemed like a mythical beast chomping a the bit to get going, and the use of music is beautiful. As the ship comes on, it feels like a horse in a stable stomping its feet and saying lets get on with this 5 year voyage.
5) Red Dwarf
This one goes in another direction for me, but its just so silly and obnoxious, and feels like you need to watch this with a strait jacket on, especially when you have a person punching himself in the sack repeatedly.
4) Battlestar Galactica 2004
This is one of the longer opening scenes for a TV show, because originally it started with the story of the Cylons leading to the text “And they have a plan”, then you get this amazing very militaristic drum heavy opening scene with cuts that changed every week with what’s happening in the upcoming episode. But it’s the attention to detail, the declining population count sells the desperation of the quest, and the timing of really emotional clips with the raising tempo of the music make it beautiful.
3) Star Trek Original/TNG
They’re both he same concept with the voice over of “Space the final frontier”. I will say that Shatner's was better the Stewart's, but what puts them into this tie is that the TNG music is just far better. I was never a fan of the Galaxy class hotel ship, preferring the design of TOS. But at the time the effects to show TNG made jaws drop in living rooms, including the shot panning pas the bridge to the rear observation deck where you swear that you can see people moving inside of the ship.
2) Babylon 5
This is one of the shows where the theme changed every year, but it was season 3 that really upped the game. In the first 2 years “Babylon 5 was the last best hope for peace”. But in season 3 it was narrated by Susan Ivana, and she declare that “It had failed and become the last best hope for Victory”. Then we got a up-punched theme that was filled with war imagery, and it really set the pace not only for season 3, but the seasons beyond.
1) Firefly
Yeah, I’m taking some heat of this. But Firefly’s opening theme was ground breaking to me, it really encapsulated the whole concept of “Wagon Trail to the Stars” with a very cowboy theme and a song that wasn’t about victory or anything like that, but was about the desire to be independent and to let me have what I have. There’s a real warmth to the theme that can’t be denied, and the image of Serenity screaming over the cattle as if hearding them was just a master stroke in terms of establishing a theme.
Honorable Mentions: X-files, Farscape, Doctor Who, Twilight Zone, Quantum Leap, Futurama, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
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CaptainCrunch’s top 10 best all time Sci Fi TV shows opening themes
