FUN FRIDAY: Star Trek Title Sequences

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It’s a well-known fact that I’m a Star Trek fan. Jake Buckler and some of the other bloggers have teased me about it pretty mercilessly over the years. But it’s who I am, and I don’t shy away from it.

Still, even I have to sit back and marvel at the sheer amount of Trek-related content out there. Let’s, for a moment, ignore the literally hundreds of books that aren’t considered “canon.” Although, I will tell you, there’s some good stuff there, if you’re looking for something to read. There have been thirteen films, eight live-action series, and three animated series. These days, Paramount has figured out that the only way to keep its subscribers from ditching is to give them a year-round dose of Trek. And so far, it’s worked.

The sheer visuals of it

I ran across this YouTube video from last year:

It will give you the title sequence of every Trek TV show up to that date. To that, I’ll add two more:

These are the opening titles of Strange New Worlds, the latest in the series, or potentially one of the earliest, depending on whether you consider the original pilot date or the series production date.

And, I’ll add the opening titles of The Orville, which is obviously not a Star Trek show but is such a loving homage that most Trekkers will let it into their hearts anyway.

The completist will tell you…

…that there are a few things you ought to know. First is that the “TOS” (Original Series) titles are the remastered version, not the original 1960s version. There are also several other alternate versions of opening titles out there. Deep Space Nine changed its opening titles a couple seasons in. There was a one-off version of the Enterprise titles that showed the mirror universe. And as for Discovery and Picard, they change their titles with every new season, sometimes more than once. So the completist will want you to see potentially about five more minutes of content. That’s up to you.

But is it all too much?

Yes, I’m the guy who railed on the Marvel Cinematic Universe for going way too far, to the point where there’s nothing left to talk about and you can’t keep it all straight. You can absolutely say the same thing about Star Trek if you want to. And maybe you should. But it really feels like you could watch only one of the different series and still get something out of it. Not so much so, perhaps, with the movies, as they’re more interconnected and rely on your knowledge of the TV shows for the most part.

I do wonder if we are getting to the point where our reliance on franchises has so stifled the creation of new content that it’s going to get harder and harder to ever see anything new. But in the meantime, I do enjoy the Star Trek stuff, so I’m not complaining too much.

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.