I was ready to love Star Trek: Discovery. I’m a casual Trek fan and appreciator of the franchise, but I really love having weekly appointment television. That general appreciation added to my fondness for sci-fi and desire to dive deep into a new series made Discovery a must-watch for me–and must watch I did! And I knew I was in for something truly special after watching Discovery’s cold open and credits sequence for the first time. I was honestly moved to almost-tears when I heard the Trek fanfare blaring out from the TV, and I knew those credits had to be special if they made a casual fan like me choke up.

So imagine my surprise when all the Trek fans in my life started to hate on the credits! I mean overall, my persistent enthusiasm for Discovery has gone hand in hand with my bewilderment at the success of a Star Trek knock-off like The Orville, the show my Trek friends actually want to talk about. Of the CBS All Access show’s opener, I’ve heard that the graphics look cheap, it doesn’t look like a Star Trek show, it’s just a string of references, it’s a lazy idea–I’ve heard it all in regards to these credits. The only thing that threw me off were the 19 producers listed in the credits. That’s Hollywood, baby!

But seriously, why did these credits get to me, and why do they still get to me, week after week?

The credits are presented as animated blueprints, rapidly expanding, twisting, and turning as items from Trek’s storied history are assembled and disassembled onscreen. These credits have everything: spaceships, phasers, tricorders, a Klingon bat’leth, a Vulcan hand, alien flora, two spacesuits going all God and Adam.

Paired with the animation is a new theme form series composer Jeff Russo that, like the graphics, dissects the Trek theme we know and examines its parts before putting them all back together again. As far as the marriage of audio and visuals, the Discovery credits fit together beautifully. It’s also nothing like any previous Trek credits sequence.

The first four Star Trek series (Star Trek, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager) had–and I’m sure this is sacrilege to call out–the exact same opening sequences. All four of them feature a vessel in space. And that’s it.

Seriously. That’s it. A ship flying through space or a space station floating in space, and some names on the screen. The first two series included voiceovers (“Space…the final frontier…”), but the latter two opted to stick with a ship, space, and names. None of them are bad, that’s not what I’m saying; TNG’s credits still ping all the right emotions, conjuring up a sense of optimism and adventure. What I’m saying is they’re all the same. They’re all the same! Look at them!

The franchise broke with tradition with the fifth show, Enterprise, and… uh… I mean…

Between Enterprise and Firefly, there was a hot minute in the early 21st century where country music became the go-to genre for sci-fi, and I am so glad we’ve all agreed to just back away from that trend slowly and cautiously. Even with all of its differences, Enterprise’s credits still prominently featured ships in space, as soon as its music video history lesson left Earth’s orbit.

So this is what Trek fans are used to when it comes to opening credits, and Discovery does none of it. Change can be a great thing, especially when changes are made with the amount of attention to thematic detail as these new credits. Whether or not you think the animation looks good, that’s subjective. I think the muted tone is beautiful and provides a fantastic backdrop for all of the warm oranges, blues, and reds of the designs to pop against. The credits don’t just focus on the ship and they are a string of references, but there’s a powerful thematic reason for that.

Enterprise’s credits showed how man reached the stars, and the other four series showed off the grandeur and excitement of the fully operational Starfleet. Discovery sits in between Enterprise and the original series in continuity, and so do its credits. The Starfleet of Discovery is still being built. It’s not perfect. It’s not yet grand and exciting. It’s engaged in a major war, a war that challenges the morals of everyone in its ranks. This is a show about building Starfleet, and so the credits reflect that.

But on an even deeper level, Discovery–like its credits–shows us what Starfleet is made of. The credits don’t always show an object going blueprint to finished artifact; sometimes the process is reversed, sometimes it’s mixed up even more than that. The credits show us what we know of Starfleet, and then strip them down to show us what’s inside. Discovery is breaking down what Starfleet means, showing us the last gasp of humanity’s worst traits before we reach the utopia depicted in those original shows. That’s what I see when I watch these credits.

The theme complements the visuals by starting with the same melody we know as the Star Trek theme and then drawing it out, as if the theme is searching for what it truly wants to be. The first notes beyond what we know are curious, they linger, and then the tune shifts into something more purposeful, building in intensity until it settles on a horn riff that’s more resilient, courageous and daring. After a slight dip into dizzying strings, it hits you: the Star Trek fanfare, blaring at full volume right as Gene Roddenberry’s name appears.

That, to me, signifies hope, the hope that is intrinsic to Trek. That after the searching, Starfleet’s courage will prevail through trials and we will find peace and prosperity. That’s the show, and that’s the credits. And you know what? After all that, the credits still end on a soaring ship.

Where to watch Star Trek: Discovery