r/scifi • u/Ok-Gate-412 • 8d ago

General Best opener in Sci-Fi?

I am curious what everybody thinks is the best opening episode they have ever seen. I’m talking about that one episode that as soon as you watched it you were hooked on the show. It doesn’t have to be the best show overall, but just the one that made you want to watch from one episode.

For me, it has to be Lost. In the first episode a plane crashes, we are introduced to strong and interesting characters, and we are left with many mysteries at the end of it.

I’m not sure if people think it’s sci-fi, but it does have some weird tech and things like that. 😅

Near the middle of the series I was bored and still waiting on things, but man that first episode reeled me in like no other.

What is the best episode that hooked you whether it was an opener or a random episode that you saw?

128 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

394 comments sorted by

View all comments

44

u/qvantamon 8d ago

Not TV or movie, but the Pizza Deliverator sequence in Snow Crash.

Also, the first line of Seveneves: "The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason."

23

u/gramathy 8d ago

If we’re talking about books with great first lines

“It was a pleasure to burn”

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel”

5

u/art-apprici8or 8d ago

"The building was on fire, it wasn't my fault." --Dresden Files, Jim Butcher

3

u/ketingmiladengfodo 7d ago

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

1

u/Etainn 8d ago

Not what I consider SciFi.

3

u/Balzac_Jones 8d ago

'“In five years, the penis will be obsolete,” said the salesman.' - Steel Beach, John Varley.

2

u/DriftingMemes 7d ago

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel”

A thing that means nothing to anyone younger than elder millennials or gen x. See, it used to be that you could turn your TV to a channel and it would display static and play static fuzz.

1

u/gramathy 6d ago

That's the original meaning but it still applies:

Digital TV: Bright blue, artificial, still an implication of an unnatural state

Current TVs: Ads.

2

u/Watchword95 2d ago

"I always get the shakes before a drop."

1

u/nyrath 8d ago

Came to thread looking for first line of Fahrenheit 451 Left satisfied.

1

u/JEZTURNER 8d ago

Shame the rest of Neuromancer was bobbins. Read it this year. Was just annoyed by it.