10 Most Intense Star Trek Cold Opens

5. The Expanse

Star Trek has 'changed the game' so many times in its history that this phrase is in danger of losing meaning. However, the finale of Enterprise's second season opened with a scene so shocking and devastating that there is no other way to describe it. Here, on a show with a jaunty pop-rock tune for its opening credits, was the 22nd-century equivalent of 9/11.

The Xindi (we would come to learn) launched their probe against Earth, firing a laser that cut a swathe through the American eastern seaboard, leaving 7 million lives lost. It was sudden, it was stunning, and it came out of nowhere. 

This cold open was deliberately designed to evoke memories of the attack on the World Trade Centre barely two years prior. The efficacy of the Xindi arc is an ongoing debate in Trek fandom, though there is little argument that it began with a powerful statement of intent. 

It may have been a little too close to home, too close to the event, but The Expanse set out to shock us - and it achieved it in spades.