10 Most Intense Star Trek Cold Opens

What is more intense than watching your favourite ship and crew explode in a ball of flame? Doing it multiple times, we suppose, although we weren't to know that was in store as Cause And Effect burst onto our screens in 1992. The infamous time loop episode, directed by Jonathan Frakes, began with a bang.

The audience is given no context or any time to breathe. The ship's starboard nacelle is on fire, throwing the Enterprise-D into a spin. On board, the crew is scrambling to control the situation before Picard gives that fateful order to abandon ship, to no avail.

No one escapes as the hero ship of The Next Generation is destroyed - cut to credits.

This cold open is a masterwork in grabbing and holding the audience's attention. Why is this happening? Who is responsible? Why does Ro Laren have that haircut? These are all answers that need answering - you can bet good money that everyone came back after the credits finished rolling. 

The classic The Devil In The Dark teaches the audience that just because different lifeforms may come in various shapes in sizes, they may not be so different from each other. Having said that, the cold open to this first-season episode of The Original Series is chilling, with a side of nightmare.

On Janus VI, some thing has been terrorising the colony. With echoes of the great horror B movies of years past, Schmitter takes his position at the guard post, clearly afraid and almost ready to bolt. Chief Vanderberg assures him that he'll be fine - he has his phaser, after all. And he can just cry for help if need be, bringing the rest of the team to him.

He does cry for help - but it's far too late. The eponymous beast rises before him, terrifying the man, before the screen cuts away. When the rest of the minors arrive, all that remains is a pile of burnt ashes - all that's left of Schmitter. 

Cut to credits.

It's A Wonderful Life for some, but certainly not for Johnny Picard, in Star Trek's take on the classic Christmas tale. Though everything may come to a happy ending by the episode's close, opening the story with a dying captain in Worf's arms made audiences sit up straight.

The only context that we are given is Dr Crusher preparing to receive casualties before the group materialises directly into sickbay. These officers were mid-fight, a point confirmed by Riker moments later. But all eyes are on Jean-Luc, the burn on the front of his uniform, and his unconscious form.

Things flash to white just to confuse us further. Picard stands, seemingly alone, in a wide open space. John De Lancie's unmistakable voice floats through the air - confirming the captain's death. This sixth-season episode did not allow for a moment's pause before jumping into the opening credits, leaving the audience reeling, just as shocked as Patrick Stewart's face on their screens.

Following Star Trek: Voyager for three and a half years means that one grows close to the characters, particularly those with whom one spends the most time. If killing Picard in Tapestry and EVERYONE in Cause And Effect worked, then why not try it again?

Captain Janeway was, usually, a human being. So, seeing her in full Klingon regalia, with a forehead to match, was an eye-opener as The Killing Game began. With a Mek'leth in hand, she fends off foes - including a Hirogen Alpha, a member of a newly introduced race of villains.

Kate Mulgrew gave it all she had in the swift, brutal combat, baring her teeth and growling with enough gusto to give Gowron a smile. Still, the Hirogen ducks, weaves, and dives - plunging a dagger straight into her chest. Without any concern, he lifts a Starfleet combadge and calls for her to be sent to sickbay.

Why was Janeway Klingon? Who was this Hirogen hunter? Why did he have a combadge? We yearned to know more - and we weren't disappointed. 

The finale of The Next Generation's third season is, of course, one of the most renowned episodes of Star Trek overall. It, when combined with its conclusion, shaped so much of the franchise to follow. How many times have other events been compared to Wolf 359 by now?

The first part opens with the Enterprise-D arriving at Jouret IV, responding to a distress call that was abruptly cut off. Though the ship is ready to assist, they find their services no longer required, as there is no one left to need them.

It is a dark, frightening way to kick things off, with that matte painting, based on a meteor crash site in Arizona, according to the text commentary on the Star Trek Fan Collective DVDs, giving the scene a sense of scale. To anyone familiar with that arc, this was a direct reference to the colonies 'scooped up' in the first season finale, The Neutral Zone.

The Next Generation had not ventured into horror, barring an exploding officer or two, before this opener. The scene set the stage for the arrival of the Borg in the Alpha Quadrant and the fundamental shift in the Star Trek universe forevermore. 

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.

The finale episode of Star Trek: Picard serves as a culmination of that show's arc and also as a fitting end to, as Picard himself says, a story that began over 35 years prior. Jean-Luc's dealings with the Borg, seemingly completed in Star Trek: First Contact, come back to haunt him as the Enterprise-D rushes toward the Sol System.

This cold open began with a great surprise. Walter Koenig returned to Star Trek for the first time since Star Trek: Generations, this time playing Anton Chekov, President of Earth. Echoing the words of another President over a century earlier, he warns all approaching ships to avoid Earth at all costs. On screen, after a nod to The Next Generation's opening credits, the Enterprise-D crew grimly face the truth: no one is coming to help them.

Picard sets the stakes, ordering that the Borg must be destroyed, no matter the cost. They have his son, they have the younger officer in Starfleet, and they have the fleet. As the Galaxy-class ship faces off against the Cube, dwarfed by it, it seems as though this cavalry has no hope. 

They look set to complete their mission regardless. The pacing, music, and performances all combine to create one of the tensest scenes in Picard, as well as one of the most intense cold opens in the Star Trek universe.

Scorpion may be the gold standard when it comes to cold opens in Star Trek. It is certainly among the shortest while also being the most shocking. The Borg, the greatest enemy that the Federation had ever known, float in two enormous cubes towards the screen. Though they implore us not to resist, we needn't have been concerned. 

They're all dead, burning in their vaporised ships. All of this and not even a minute on the clock.

The introduction of Species 8472 could not have been handled better, proving the old adage: the unseen monster is the scariest. It worked for Bruce the Shark back in 1975, and it worked for the tripedal menace in Scorpion.

Star Trek: Discovery's second season came to a head with Such Sweet Sorrow Part 2, the culmination of several arcs, and the final episode set in the show's 23rd Century. As such, it includes a 'previously on' to remind the audience how things had gotten to this point - before the adrenaline truly kicks up a notch.

Across the Discovery and the Enterprise, two crews prepare for battle. The engineering team on Discovery construct a new Red Angel suit, while Reno charges the Klingon Time Crystal. Emperor, now Captain, Georgiou boards Discovery just in time for Leland - the revenant in the grip of Control - to hail them all. Saru and Pike are steely-eyed against dead eyes, both espousing hope and courage.

Then the Section 31 fleet splinters as hundreds of support craft detach from their parent ships - dwarfing the resistance against them, all before the credits roll.

Saru's words, quoting Sun Tsu, reminding those around him to be the director of their opponent's fate, seem small in the face of so much opposition. It all builds to a crescendo, and the stand-off is ready to explode.

Sacrifice Of Angels differs from the first few entries on this list as it is the closing part of a multi-episode story. Operation Return was the name of the game as two large fleets faced off against each other. In the moments before those first Federation fighters began their attack, the mood was tense on the Defiant.

A cold open can serve as a recap statement while also throwing the audience into the action. Here, there is the short 'previously on-' segment, establishing how we got there. The ambient sounds fall away as Captain Sisko orders his forces to target the Cardassians - giving Nog, and thereby the audience, the chance to question his tactics. 

This is followed by O'Brien and Bashir reciting a passage from The Charge Of The Light Brigade by Lord Alfred Tennyson. That, too, told the story of a smaller force engaging insurmountable odds. How does that story play out? As O'Brien tells Nog:

You don't wanna know.

Salivating, the audience hoped things would go better for Starfleet.