Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Nostalgic Title Sequences Were Unplanned
Three of the 12 "Star Trek" shows to date begin with the same familiar narration, which was originally spoken by Captain Kirk (William Shatner) in 1966:
"Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise, its five-year mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."
For "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987) and "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" (2022), "no man" was changed to "no one." "Next Generation" was also a "continuing mission" and not a "five-year mission." That narration has come to represent the ethos of the entire "Star Trek" franchise, highlighting that the various shows and movies are about exploration, new life, and going boldly. Unlike the title crawl of "Star Wars," there is no talk of conflict, conquering enemies, or asserting dominance. In the original series, the narration played over a gentle opening fanfare composed by Alexander Courage. "Next Generation" used the same opening music, but blended it with Jerry Goldsmith's theme from 1979's "Star Trek: The Motion Picture."
For "Strange New Worlds," the theme was composed by Jeff Russo (from the band Tonic), and only distantly quoted the Courage theme. Russo's music plays over a title sequence that many Trek shows have employed, that is: glory shots of a Federation vessel soaring through the stars (or sitting still in them, in the case of "Deep Space Nine"), encountering weird planets, other ships, or unusual spatial phenomena.
In a 2022 interview with Syfy, "Strange New Worlds" showrunner Henry Alonso Myers admitted that the classic narration was not an original part of the plan for the "Strange New Worlds" title sequence. The pilot's director inserted it as a placeholder, but the show's producers loved it so much, they kept it.
Space, the final frontier...
The pilot episode of "Strange New Worlds," also called "Strange New Worlds" (May 5, 2022), was directed by Akiva Goldsman, who also serves as one of the show's executive producers. Meyers noted that it was all Goldsman's idea, saying:
"In the first director's cut of the pilot that Akiva did, he just put a new version of the old 'Trek' opening titles sequence in, just like a placeholder. [...] And we sort of loved it."
It seems that when they first screened an incomplete version of the "Strange New Worlds" pilot, the theme sequence hadn't been made yet. To indicate that the show would indeed have a title sequence before every episode, Goldman mocked up a temp sequence that was merely the original "Star Trek" theme with the credits altered. This was fitting, as "Strange New Worlds" is set aboard the exact same starship as the original "Star Trek," and even features several of the same characters (Kirk, Spock, Pike, Uhura, Dr. M'Benga, Nurse Chapel, Number One, Scotty, and T'Pring appear in both shows). Meyers said that the executives loved the sequence, as it directly linked the new series to the classic 1960s "Trek."
"Star Trek" is currently in a state of contraction. "Picard" recently ended and both "Prodigy" and "Discovery" will end after their next seasons. "Short Treks" is kind of over, and "Section 31" will be released as a movie instead of a series. We will soon be in a world where only "Strange New Worlds" and "Lower Decks" remain standing. It's fitting that at least one of those remain intertwined with the original series, letting the franchise come full circle.