Warning: This article contains references to suicide.
Opening scenes are one part of a screen drama where the sci-fi genre especially comes into its own. Speculative and futuristic premises often provide the ideal setup for jaw-dropping sequences in the first moments of a science fiction film or TV series.
The best opening scenes in the history of sci-fi movies, such as the beginning of Star Wars or the epic first moments of 2001: A Space Odyssey, changed cinema forever. Meanwhile, a large proportion of the best TV show opening scenes of all time have at least something to do with the science fiction genre.
Sci-fi gives screen productions the scope to be as creative and imaginative as the logic of the material universe will allow them. With the development of motion picture technology over the past 75 years, there’s been an unfathomable growth in the potential of brilliantly inventive works of fiction with some sort of scientific basis to be rendered realistically onscreen.
Much of this potential has been realised in the first scenes of landmark sci-fi TV series. On the other hand, there are certain shows in the genre with relatively understated openings which are nonetheless equally impressive, because they astutely put the onus on audiences to use their own imaginations in relation to the science-based hypotheses they’re seeing and hearing.
Firefly
The Battle of Serenity Valley
Firefly’s opening scene is far from understated, however, and it’s all the better for the spectacular battle sequence with which it begins. We’re introduced to Mal Reynolds right in the thick of the action during the Battle of Serenity, a key moment in the Unification War which frames the show’s plot.
This extraordinary scene, with accomplished visual effects and an overall sense of realism in the setting where the battle takes place, is a major reason why Firefly is considered the best sci-fi show of all time by many fans of the genre. The series gets stuck into its story from the very start, just like a great war drama or classic Western.
The Mandalorian
Mando’s Barroom Brawl
The Mandalorian’s central character Din Djarin is someone whose complex backstory takes time to understand. Yet, “Mando”, as he’s referred to in the first scene of the series, at least makes it clear immediately what kind of character he is. He isn’t someone who lets antagonists off the hook, this barroom brawl on the planet Pagodon brutally illustrates.
Djarin’s handling of the conflict is straight out of the Western playbook of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. He may as well be in a saloon bar somewhere in the Old West. But he isn’t, and his Mandalorian costume only makes the way he dispatches a group of local hunters and goons even cooler.
The Last of Us
The Threat Of Fungus
The first scene of The Last of Us almost took the form of an instruction video, according to the show’s co-creator Craig Mazin. Anyone who’s watched the inimitable performance of John Hannah as maverick scientist Dr. Neuman will be glad it didn’t.
Neuman explains in ominous terms to a talk show audience why fungus poses the biggest threat of any type of microbe to humanity, because of its ability to control the brain functioning of any animal it infiltrates. A superbly staged shot shows the studio audience under the sway of Neuman’s words, mirroring the content of what he’s saying.
More importantly, though, the clever conceit of a talk show explanation succinctly gives us the exposition we need to make sense of The Last of Us’ terrifying dystopian premise. We realize from the very being that something horrifying is about to happen.
Severance
Helly R.’s Survey
Long before Helena Eagan’s identity twist in Severance, she captures our attention with the show’s disturbing first scene, where we initially find her lying on a meeting room table as a speaker asks her, “Who are you?” In fact, what we’re being introduced to here is a test for the severance process, but we aren’t to know that at this stage.
The point of the scene is to unsettle us, and make us question what exactly we’re watching. We empathize deeply with the character at the center of the scene, who doesn’t appear to know who or where she is, or why she’s being surveyed by what appears to be a computer program at the other end of a speaker.
Severance’s opening scene is certainly minimalist. But precisely because of its less-is-more approach, within the claustrophobic confines of a corporate meeting room, it’s one of the most engrossing first scenes of any TV show in history.
Star Trek
A Timeless Opening Sequence
Star Trek’s first episode isn’t among the best of the original series, but its opening scene is still quite rightly the stuff of legend. We get our first spectacular panoramic view of USS Enterprise orbiting a planet, are introduced to Mr. Spock as acting captain, and see Captain Kirk and his crew teleporting for the first time.
The technical aspects of this scene hold up remarkably well in the context of today’s sci-fi TV, given that the episode is almost 60 years old. Back in 1966, Star Trek’s first opening sequence was revolutionary, taking both television and the sci-fi genre by storm.
The Expanse
What Julie Finds In The Engineering Room
Although The Expanse’s opening is a direct homage to Alien – the original 1979 movie directed by Ridley Scott – it’s still very powerful on its own terms. Protagonist Juliette Mao’s efforts to break out of a spaceship storage room are expertly shot, with the set design in the scene particularly impressive.
But it’s the end of the scene that really makes it stand out, of course. The blood-curdling scream of Florence Faivre, the actor who plays Mao, when she sees a human-like being emerge from the ship’s nuclear reactor, will haunt anyone who sees it.
Orphan Black
Sarah’s Doppelganger Commits Suicide
Orphan Black begins much like any other social-realist drama series, following Tatiana Maslany’s Sarah Manning as she changes trains during a commute. While waiting for her train, she argues with someone on the phone about being able to see her daughter, Kira. No one could have expected what happens next.
Sarah sees one of the 17 clone characters Maslany plays in Orphan Black, just down the platform from her. When the woman turns around, Sarah is horrified to find that she looks exactly like her. There’s worse to come, though, as the woman steps into an ongoing train, killing herself.
This scene is among the most shocking openings to a TV series in history. It sets the tone for one of the most darkly thrilling sci-fi shows of the 21st century.
Fallout
The Nuclear Attack
The first moments of Fallout are beautifully sequenced, providing us with arguably the best opening scene of 2020s TV so far. The show manages to make the detonation of an atomic bomb genuinely fear-inducing.
We aren’t just watching the children who witness the first bomb being dropped from the vantage of a suburban birthday party in Southern California. We feel as though we’re in the scene with them.
The split second of silence when blinding light reflects off a window pane at the moment of the bomb’s impact is an ingeniously subversive way to induce suspense. Once the blast heads the way of the partygoers, low-angle camera shots bring us terrifyingly close to the action.
The Twilight Zone
An Empty Town
The first truly great opening scene of a show in the sci-fi genre arrived way back in the 1950s. The Twilight Zone is famous for the shocking twists that end many of its episodes, but its first-ever scene is just as effective. The scene follows an unnamed character who mysteriously finds himself in an unknown town without any inhabitants.
Spanning more than 15 minutes of continuous action, the scene grows creepier and creepier, as the man continues to walk around a fully-functioning town looking for people, but finding nobody. “Where Is Everybody?” may be a slow burner of an episode, but that’s exactly what makes it so frightening.
Lost
After The Crash
Lost
9/10
- Release Date
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2004 – 2010-00-00
Among the best examples of TV shows that get us hooked from the first episode, Lost is surely a contender for the very top spot. In any case, it certainly has the sci-fi genre’s most legendary opening scene in TV history.
Jack Shephard awakening to find himself on a desert island following a plane crash, surrounded by other traumatized crash survivors, has us gripped from start to finish. The scene’s intensity is truly overwhelming, as those with only minor injuries tend to serious casualties and pull others from the wreckage, while one poor soul gets sucked into the plane engine.
Lost might straddle various genres during its six-season run, but its opening scene is unmistakably sci-fi. What’s more, it continues to take pride of place among television’s most extraordinary beginnings to a show in any genre.
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