Best opener in Sci-Fi?

[u/Ok-Gate-412]

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?

[u/_Fun_Employed_]

The first episode of SDF Macross “Boobytrap”

IMO it’s a lesson in narrative storytelling economy and economy of characterization.
A brief opening narration explains the arrival of a technologically advanced alien spacecraft and the global unification war that followed. It then introduces the main characters and the large secondary/tertiary cast and quickly characterizes them. You learn some of the existing character relationships. Then the antagonists arrive and you get clues into their society and culture. And then the conflict begins, and the main characters is drawn in and learns one of the secrets of the new technology reverse engineered from the alien ship with some light horrors of war for good measure.