What if you did a pre-credit sequence with the Titan intercepting and/or rescuing the Crushers, maybe using a spliced together version of the real opening for episode 1 and/or episode 2, along with shots from the actual rescue sequence in episode 2. That way, you get the idea that sometime prior the Titan ran into them, and then you get the title, and we assume that’s why Picard and Riker show up after the title.
Good ideas there, I’ll certainly try and work something like that in, it might work better in a version of the cut that doesn’t include the Guinan bar scene to keep it to the same theatrical lengths I intended (I did go back and re-include the meeting with Guinan in the latest draft)
There’s a pretty positive review for the current version over on Reddit from a friend who previewed it.