Star Trek Music thread

[Dark Raven]

Star Trek has had some magnificent scores, whether for the TV series or the movies. Alexander Courage composed the original Trek theme of course, but then there were others like Jerry Goldsmith (who did a whole bunch including ST:TMP, ST:TNG, ST:FC, ST:Voyager), James Horner, Dennis McCarthy, Jay Chattaway and Michael Giacchino.

There have also been a number of musical episodes in the TV series such as the flute melody from "The Inner Light" and "Lessons", Nichelle Nichols singing, the various Vic Fontaine (James Darren) musical numbers or some of the songs in Voyager by Seven of Nine and the Doctor.

Here's the place to discuss the good and the bad.

BTW has anyone ever seen this youtube fan video someone did with the music from Air Force One (by Jerry Goldsmith) set to the opening credits of ST:Voyager?

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It works pretty well I'd say.

 

[Duke]

I've always liked the score from Star Trek First: Contact that was done by Jerry Goldsmith.

 

[Dark Raven]

I've always liked the score from Star Trek First: Contact that was done by Jerry Goldsmith.

That was a magnificent piece. It's a real shame Goldsmith is dead.

Here's the haunting and beautiful Inner Light suite:

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[Duke]

That has always been one of my all time favorite episodes of TNG because of what Picard endures during the course of the show. The melody Picard plays on his flute is beautiful.

 

[Dark Raven]

Did anyone ever get the album "This One's From the Heart" by James Darren?

It was a pretty cool album and included all of the songs his Vic Fontaine character sang on Deep Space Nine such as "Paper Moon", "Come Fly With Me", "The Best is Yet to Come", "The Way You Look Tonight", "I've Got You Under My Skin", "I'll be seeing you" etc.

Unlike some of these other albums by William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy or Brent Spiner, this is a really decent album because Darren can sing decently as you'll have seen on DS9. It's in a very Sinatra-esque style and he sounds like a proper Las Vegas crooner.

The only issues I have with it is that some of the instrumentation is different from the orchestration used in the episodes. Some of those in the show were actually better arrangements, such as the haunting "I'll be seeing you" used in DS9 during the Dominion War, or "Paper Moon" used in the episode with the same name, but these aren't bad at all.

 

[Pink Ranger]

No Star Trek music thread would be complete without mentioning the greatest call to battle of all time:

 

[Mace Dolex]

Can't say I'm an expert on Star Trek music since I only have the soundtrack to ST II: The Wrath Of Khan mostly because of the awesome battle music with the Enterprise and Reliant.

Aside from that I do like Jerry Goldsmith's score for Star Trek TPM.

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

The best soundtrack ever was Star Trek The Motion Picture, composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith. A brilliant musician completely on a par with John Williams. Very sad that he and his son are gone from us.

When I listen to the expanded CD edition of STTMP, I can play the scenes out in my mind, the music is just amazing to me.

 

[Dark Raven]

The best soundtrack ever was Star Trek The Motion Picture, composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith. A brilliant musician completely on a par with John Williams. Very sad that he and his son are gone from us.

When I listen to the expanded CD edition of STTMP, I can play the scenes out in my mind, the music is just amazing to me.

His son too?

Sometimes I wonder though whether his ST: TMP theme should've been kept just for that film and the movies instead of being used for ST: TNG, and giving that series a theme of its own. But then on the other hand, would the theme have become as well known had it not been played on a weekly basis?

I did love his Star Trek: Voyager theme too. It was a beautiful theme conveying that sense of yearning for home and that someday they would return, while still having a sense of wonder at the new, unexplored worlds in the furthest reaches of the universe.

 

[Picard Sisko]

Jerry Goldsmith was simply the best IMO. His score for The Motion Picture was magnificent. Love his "Enterprise" them in that film, despite that scene being 5+ minutes long.

 

[Smegger56]

I think the best score was from James Horner in ST2: TWOK. Close second was from Cliff Eidelman, who did ST6: TUC. Though the Goldsmith main theme used in TMP, TFF and TNG is great, overall, I prefer the scores from films 2 and 6.

Someone did an audio edit of the end of Star Trek TWOK from the point where Kirk and co beam back on the Enterprise after being on the 'space body', where only the soundtrack was playing. No VO or sound effects. And themusic tells a story itself. I wish I could find it

 

[Dark Raven]

Most of the series or movies had great themes. I think the ones which were least memorable though are Star Trek V, Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis.

Generations by Dennis McCarthy was great. I loved the fanfare sound at the start, and then the heroic theme that was building throughout.

I found a fan edit of the opening of Enterprise with "Archer's Theme" from the end credits playing over it instead of Russell Watson's song.

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Although the audio isn't great, I think it sounds better and more appropriate. I didn't mind "Faith of the Heart" though, but it was rather unusual for a Trek series.

 

[DarkKnight88]

The movie scores were all pretty great except for The Voyage Home. Someone dropped the ball there to an otherwise great movie.

 

[Picard Sisko]

The Motion Picture had a fantastic theme. I really wish Goldsmith could have returned for The Wrath of Khan, but I loved Horner's theme as well (including the work he did for Search for Spock). The Voyage Home didn't have a great theme, but it worked considering the premise of the film (traveling back to the 1980s). Had a Christmas jingle to it I suppose. I think the best part about The Final Frontier was Jerry Goldsmith returning as composer. Though, it felt cheap compared to what he did for The Motion Picture.

Generations didn't have good or bad music IMO. It just wasn't memorable. In fact, I don't think it had much of a theme to begin with, and I cannot understand why they never used the TNG music for the film instead. First Contact was beautiful, and I think it has my second favorite score of all time (next to TMP). Insurrection was meh, but Nemesis was a big improvement IMO.

Michael Giacchino did a fantastic job as well for the 2009 reboot.

 

[Soapy]

I haven't really paid much attention to the music in Star Trek in the past, except for the obvious big themes, but I watched Nemesis again a week or so ago and noticed that it did have some pretty great music.

 

[Picard Sisko]

To me, Nemesis wasn't such a bad film. It just seemed dry, and made the franchise feel like it ran out of gas. It was too dark (darker than Deep Space Nine), and was a depressing end to the TNG crew altogether.

 

[Soapy]

I personally don't think any of the movies are bad. Well... Final Frontier is kind of bad. But it's not terrible, it's not unwatchable or anything.

As for Nemesis, I actually like it a lot and think it's pretty underrated. I do think it was an unfortunate end to TNG though, especially since people seem to think it's such am awful film.

 

[Dark Raven]

The Motion Picture had a fantastic theme. I really wish Goldsmith could have returned for The Wrath of Khan, but I loved Horner's theme as well (including the work he did for Search for Spock). The Voyage Home didn't have a great theme, but it worked considering the premise of the film (traveling back to the 1980s). Had a Christmas jingle to it I suppose. I think the best part about The Final Frontier was Jerry Goldsmith returning as composer. Though, it felt cheap compared to what he did for The Motion Picture.

Generations didn't have good or bad music IMO. It just wasn't memorable. In fact, I don't think it had much of a theme to begin with, and I cannot understand why they never used the TNG music for the film instead. First Contact was beautiful, and I think it has my second favorite score of all time (next to TMP). Insurrection was meh, but Nemesis was a big improvement IMO.

Michael Giacchino did a fantastic job as well for the 2009 reboot.

What? Generations did have a memorable theme composed by Dennis McCarthy, who also did Deep Space Nine. It has a very fanfare-like, ceremonial opening (like something you'd get for a Starfleet Olympics or gladatorial contest) followed by a soaring, heroic theme that keeps building.

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I especially loved it when Picard is chasing Kirk on horseback through the Nexus.

How can you say that's not much of a theme?

 

[Picard Sisko]

Okay, there's a theme, but... it wasn't a very clear or memorable one. This is also just my opinion, so keep that in mind.

Here, this is what you want to look at:

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