We’re just days away from the May 5 premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and to whet your appetite for the new series, Paramount+ has revealed the prequel show’s new opening credits sequence!
Series lead Anson Mount performs the legendary Star Trek narration, making this the first time the “Space: the final frontier…” monologue has been used in the television landscape since the 2005 Star Trek: Enterprise series finale. (The so-called “captain’s oath” was utilized, of course, in the closing moments of each Kelvin Timeline film.)
Following the starship’s start-up sequence, the opening credits follow the USS Enterprise as it warps through a variety of interstellar locations — reminiscent of Star Trek: Voyager’s exploratory-style title sequence.
In addition to the gorgeous visuals, Jeff Russo’s new Strange New Worlds title theme is an modern spin on Alexander Courage’s classic Star Trek tune, with a pounding percussion track underscoring the adventurous nature of the series. (Russo’s musical contribution is limited to the Strange New Worlds theme, as Star Trek: Prodigy composer Nami Melumad has command of the series’ episodic score.)
Speaking to TrekCore and some other members of the press in mid-April, Anson Mount shared his excitement about recording the iconic Star Trek narration for the Strange New Worlds credits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GojKnB1uQwM
I knew I wanted to do that speech! I knew it like I knew I wanted to eat — so I was very grateful when [showrunners Henry Alonso Myers and Akiva Goldsman] told me I would be doing it.
We kind of did it on the fly, on set, as a temp track for the editing process, but I really wanted to make sure I got it right. So they sent a bunch of equipment to my place in Connecticut to set up basically a sound studio in my basement.
I was there recording while our tech guy was in New York and our post-production crew was in Los Angeles, all networked. We’re slogging this out, doing many, many takes: combining a sentence from this take, a sentence from that take, making sure everything is sounding the way we want, doing several versions.
This is back in October, and there was a moment when I said, “Guys, can we just take a moment here and acknowledge the fact that we are going to remember this moment for the rest of our lives?”
I mean, it is a very, very select group of people who have the privilege to work on this speech. Everyone was like, “Yeah, yeah, that’s really cool!” There was a pause, and I said, “Of course… you realize right now William Shatner is in orbit.”
It was also a good lesson for me: don’t ever try to out-do Shatner!
Composer Jeff Russo also talks about the theme song in the below video released today on the Paramount+ YouTube channel, which seems to be a mash-up of content from the April 28 and May 5 episodes of The Ready Room after-show.
What do you think of the new Star Trek: Strange New Worlds opening credits? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds debuts with its premiere episode — aptly titled “Strange New Worlds” — on Thursday, May 5 on Paramount+ in the United States, Australia, Latin America, and the Nordics, as well as on CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada.
Additional international distribution has not yet been announced.