The Phoenix Saga, Part 1: Sacrifice is the first part of one of the most popular miniseries in X-Men: The Animated Series.

In this episode, Professor Xavier sees strange visions of a woman from outerspace. The woman is calling out for help. Xavier calls an emergency meeting of the X-Men and tells them that they have to get into outerspace and find out what this woman wants. Using Jean Grey's telepathy to fool the space shuttle's captain into believing the X-Men are the actual crew members, the X-Men board a space shuttle headed towards a space station.

Upon docking, the X-Men learn that the space station has been taken over by the alien, Erik The Red. Erik The Red attempts to use the space station's weaponry to shoot down the spaceship of an alien criminal, Lilandra. The X-Men battle Erik The Red, damaging the space station and allowing Lilandra's ship to pass unharmed. The X-Men and the shuttle's captain escape from Erik The Red and board their rocket, which has also been severly damaged.

The shuttle's systems begin to fail and the captain can't change course. The shuttle heads right towards Lilandra's ship's radiation exhaust trail. With the autopilot damaged, Jean Grey decides to steer the ship, using her mental abilities to shiled herself from the radiation, while the rest of the X-Men and the captain take cover in the ship's radiation shield area.

The episode ends with Jean Grey screaming in pain as she struggles to keep the telepathic shield around herself and pilot the ship at the same time.