FromThe X-FilestoCowboy Bebop, some sci-fi shows are so great, I could tell they were going to be masterpieces in the first 10 minutes of their pilot episode. As the market becomes more and more saturated, it’s increasingly important forthe opening scene of a TV showto hook audiences right away.
If a given viewer isn’t grabbed by a show in the first 10 minutes, they can just move on to something else.The best sci-fi showsset up an intriguing premise and lovable characters in their opening sequence.Shows likeThe Last of UsandStranger Thingswere masterpieces from the very beginning.
10Firefly
Fox made the inexplicable decision toairFirefly’s episodes out of order, so the episode that was intended to be the series premiere — the two-part “Serenity” — ended up being aired as the season finale. Instead, Fox aired “The Train Job” as the first episode, so audiences didn’t get a proper introduction to the characters and the series was canceled after one season.
But if you watch the show on streaming today, the episodes have been mercifully put back in the right order. If you start with “Serenity,” you’ll get the introduction to the characters and their world that you’re supposed to get. Within 10 minutes, it’s clear that this quirky space western is a masterpiece-to-be.
9Black Mirror
Charlie Brooker’s twisted anthology seriesBlack Mirroris a tech-basedTwilight Zonefor the modern age. In the first few minutes of the first episode, the British prime minister is told that a princess has been kidnapped and will only be released if he has sex with a pig on live television (and this was years before “Piggate”).
This premise immediately established the tone ofBlack Mirror. It would bean unrelentingly dark, hilariously biting satire of contemporary society. Forcing the prime minister to have sex with a pig on TV was the first of many horrifying premises this show would deliver. Later, we’d have ad-tier brain implants, a murder museum, and Instagram likes that determine the social hierarchy.
8The Last Of Us
The opening scene ofThe Last of Us’ first episode takes place decades before the rest of the series, and doesn’t feature any of the show’s main characters. But it was the perfect appetizer;it set the appropriate ominous mood for the sci-fi horror saga that would follow, and established just how devastating the series’ fungal apocalypse would be.
The series opens on the set of a Dick Cavett-style talk show in the 1960s. The host is speaking to a pair of epidemiologists about the threat of a global pandemic. This interview sequence makes climate change a part ofthe Cordyceps outbreak’s backstory, and it explains, in no uncertain terms, just how devastating the outbreak would be.
7Stranger Things
The first episode ofStranger Thingsopens with an atmospheric horror set-piece in which a scientist attempting to escape from a secret lab outside Hawkins, Indiana is attacked and killed by an unseen monster. This opening scene immediately told us that this seemingly quaint little town had supernatural threats lurking on its outskirts, waiting to pounce.
After that terrifying cold open, we’re introduced to four endearingly nerdy boys finishing up a 10-hourDungeons & Dragonssession. On his ride home,young Will Byersencounters a strange creature and mysteriously vanishes without a trace. This opening sequence sets up an intriguing mystery, a fascinating world, and an ensemble of lovable characters.
6Orphan Black
Orphan Blackhas one ofthe best pilot episodes ever made. It sets up one huge question in its first 10 minutes, then keeps begging more and more questions as it gets deeper and deeper into its web of intrigue.That first scene is gripping enough to keep you coming backfor the rest of the series.
It sets up one huge question in its first 10 minutes, then keeps begging more and more questions as it gets deeper and deeper into its web of intrigue.
When one woman witnesses another woman jumping in front of a train, she’s horrified to find that she looks exactly like her. This opening sequence instantly makes you curious to learn what’s going on. As the pilot unfolds and Sarah Manning uncovers a cloning operation, you remain just as curious.
5The X-Files
The central dynamic at the heart ofThe X-Fileswas the complicated relationship betweenAgents Mulder and Scully. While Mulder fully believes in ghosts and U.F.O.s, Scully is a skeptic — and at the beginning of the pilot episodes, they’re paired up in a secret underground department of the FBI dedicated to investigating supernatural phenomena.
This opening scene isa masterclass in setting up a TV series. It establishes the exciting premise of a pair of FBI agents going after aliens and monsters, and it immediately sets up a compelling dynamic between those two characters. Mulder and Scully were an iconic duo after just 10 minutes in each other’s company.
4Lost
Losthas one of the most exhilarating pilot episodes ever made, andit wastes no time getting into the action. In the opening seconds,Jack Shephardwakes up disoriented in the jungle and stumbles out onto the beach, where his fellow survivors are flailing around the flaming wreckage of their plane.
This opening sequence instantly established the intensity, intrigue, and cinematic production values that would makeLostone of the biggest blockbuster shows of the 2000s. Plus, watching Jack spring into action and rescue all the people he could made him a hero that audiences wanted to root for right off the bat.
3Futurama
Matt Groening’s long-anticipated follow-up toThe Simpsonsset itself apart immediately. In the opening minutes ofFuturama, pizza delivery boy Philip J. Fry gets trapped in a cryogenic chamber a few seconds before the turn of the millennium. A thousand years later, he’s thawed out at the turn of the next millennium and finds himself in “the world of tomorrow!”
From the outset,Futuramahad the same gag rate asThe Simpsons— non-stop jokes with a nice balance of highbrow and lowbrow humor — but with a sci-fi twist.Futurama’s fish-out-of-water premise, colorful cast of characters, and delightfully satirical vision of the distant future instantly made it one of the quintessential sci-fi sitcoms.
2The Mandalorian
The scene inThe Mandalorian’s pilot episodethat really made it an instant hit was the final moment when Mando realizes his high-profile 50-year-old bounty is actually a tiny baby, and defies his creed to protect the kid. But the opening sequence wasa perfect introduction to the titular soldier of fortune.
The Mandalorianwas the first live-actionStar WarsTV show.
We meet Mando as he walks into a bar, approaches his latest bounty, and calmly tells him he can bring him in warm, or he can bring him in cold. The ensuing fight scene introduced the show’s signature cinematic action andshowed Din Djarin to be a cold-blooded killer, masterfully setting up his transformation into a loving, caring father figure.
1Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebopis the gateway anime that got a lot of newcomers interested in the genre, and it’s easy to see why from its incredible pilot episode. The series doesn’t get the crew of the Bebop together right away — it takes a few episodes to bring in Faye and Ed — butit sets up its unmistakable style and tone right from the jump.
It succinctly introduces us to the show’s premise of cosmic bounty hunters seeking their fortune, its visually striking intergalactic setting (a fully colonized Solar System in the distant future), its idiosyncratic mix of western, noir, and hard sci-fi, and above all, its use of searing social commentary.
