Star Trek: Ranking The Series Intros Worst To Best

Much like the score from Picard, Discovery’s theme is grandly, impressively nothing in particular. Its highlights are the bookending callbacks to the theme from The Original Series, underscoring that Discovery’s score itself is not that much.

But to the extent that a theme is supposed to convey the core concept of a series, it would seem, then, that the core concept of Discovery is style over substance, something the post-Abrams Star Trek universe has often had to contend with.

To be fair, the visuals accompanying the opening are stylish, like design sketches come to life. Iconic weapons, equipment, and other visual cues like the Vulcan salute appear and are deconstructed as the Discovery itself zips around in the background. There’s an almost dreamy James Bond-esque quality, though dialed back considerably.

But on the whole, both musically and visually, this intro seems to want the viewer’s attention and then doesn’t know what to do when it gets it. It conveys only a sense of, hey, here’s a sci-fi thing.

It is at best a 90-second window for viewers to get up and grab a snack.