Every Star Trek Opening Titles Ranked Worst To Best

Though they all follow a very similar pattern, there are three different variations on the opening sequence for Star Trek: The Next Generation. The first, used only in the first and second season, placed emphasis on the Enterprise-D leaving our very recognisable Solar System and heading out into the galaxy. Seasons three and four updated this, making the planets more ambiguous and adding stellar bodies as well.

The fifth season was almost identical, though a trailing edge was added to the letters making up the name of the show, which was dropped from the sixth and seventh seasons. The music used was a remix of the theme from the Motion Picture, arranged by its composer Jerry Goldsmith. Though people queried its use, Roddenberry explained that it was the theme for the Enterprise - all of them, not simply the original ship under Kirk's command.

Robert Justman claimed credit for the idea of this sequence, which he said he wrote a first draft of in 1986. He added the instructions to have the Enterprise leaving the Solar System before heading out into the cosmos, as it would give the audience the sense that they were travelling into unknown places with them. Later, in a memo to Roddenberry, he also wanted more emphasis on the ship itself, leading to those beautiful fly-by shots of the Enterprise-D.