10 Best Star Trek Cold Opens
8. Rainy Night In The Bayou (The Visitor)
The Visitor opens with one of the quieter cold intros on this list. An old man sits alone in his home while a storm rages outside, quietly injecting himself with something. The camera pans across a photo of Captain Sisko and Jake, before coming to settle on the baseball that all Deep Space Nine enthusiasts would instantly recognise.
The chiming doorbell rouses the man, who goes to find a young woman attempting to shelter from the storm. This young woman has come to find the great writer, Jake Sisko, to learn everything that she can from him. The old man, now of course revealed to us as Jake in the future, ponders this, musing that had it been any other night, he would have sent her away. However, on this night, he chooses to tell her the story of how he lost his father.
That's the clincher - this is the story of how Ben Sisko died when Jake was still a teenager, which means the Ben that we, the audience, know is soon to have his clock punched. Fade to credits.
It's quiet and it's calm, and it's one of the most instantly intriguing stories in the show's history.