composer of star trek music

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Trek Composers: Twenty-Six Seasons Of Star Trek Music

Cast & Crew

During the fifty plus years of scoring music for various Star Trek shows, four composers are primarily responsible for the different show themes and music.

The composers include Ron Jones, Dennis McCarthy, Jay Chattaway , and Jeff Russo .

The composers had a tricky assignment, enticing original series fans. Jones addressed this by adding something familiar at the beginning of the TNG theme. “What I was told by Robert Justman is that Paramount was worried that everyone who was used to the original Star Trek was used to Shatner and Spock and the look and the feel of that show,” he said. “And now here’s this new one with a British captain with a bald head, and there’s a Klingon there — it was a weird cast! It was like a nightclub in Denmark. It was a weird group of people. And Paramount was worried about that. That’s why they used Jerry Goldsmith ‘s familiar theme at the beginning.”

“I never questioned it,” said McCarthy. “They wanted Jerry, so if that’s what they want, that’s what they’ll get. I did write a theme — I called it the Picard Theme — because I thought they might want one. I had done Dynasty and other shows that were heavily motif-driven, so I thought it might be nice to have a motif for Patrick Stewart . So I wrote this theme that’s floating around on a CD somewhere, and I used it and they liked it. And then about three shows later, I used it again. But they stopped and said, ‘Wait a minute. We’ve already heard that. Don’t do that again.'”

Deep Space Nine was “challenging because it was claustrophobic,” said Chattaway, “but in some ways that made it more interesting. And I think viewers now are coming back to that show and saying, ‘Wait a minute. This is pretty amazing.’ I found it more interesting because it wasn’t about going out to blow up some planet. We had to develop some personal connections and write more personal music. Like the quirky Quark music. It was fun. It wasn’t your typical genre of what space was all about. It was fun. It wasn’t your typical genre of what space was all about.”

Working on Voyager was “like backing into the Next Generation again,” said McCarthy. “It was closer in attitude to The Next Generation and the original series than Deep Space Nine . By that time, we were given permission to be a little bolder. It was a good experience.

McCarthy wrote the music for the first and the last episodes of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine , and Enterprise . “It’s very satisfying,” he said. “There’s sadness, of course, because you hate to see the series end. And with Enterprise , it was really sad because we were hoping to go longer. That was also the last I’d see of that giant orchestra. I’d have fifty to sixty people per episode. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience.”

Star Trek music is “an adventure,” said Russo. “You never know where it’s going to take you. The thing that I’ve enjoyed injecting into Star Trek music is trying to also find an emotionality to it. Telling the story from a character perspective and be able to connect those things thematically.”

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List of Star Trek composers and music

This is a list of composers of music for the series Star Trek , and other articles about music associated with the franchise.

Film soundtracks overview

The original series, the next generation, reboot cast, television soundtracks overview, special instruments, concert tours, external links.

The following individuals wrote movie scores, theme music, or incidental music for several episodes and/or installments of the Star Trek franchise.

Other composers who contributed music to at least one episode include Don Davis , John Debney , Brian Tyler , George Romanis, Sahil Jindal, Andrea Datzman, and Kris Bowers.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

The score for Star Trek: The Motion Picture was written by Jerry Goldsmith , who would later compose the scores Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , Star Trek: First Contact , Star Trek: Insurrection , and Star Trek: Nemesis , as well as the themes to the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager . [3] [4] Gene Roddenberry had originally wanted Goldsmith to score Star Trek ' s pilot episode, " The Cage ", but the composer was unavailable. [5] When Robert Wise signed on to direct the film, Paramount asked the director if he had any objection to using Goldsmith. Wise, who had worked with the composer for The Sand Pebbles , replied "Hell, no. He's great!" Wise would later consider his work with Goldsmith one of the best relationships he ever had with a composer. [6]

Goldsmith was influenced by the style of the romantic, sweeping music of Star Wars . "When you stop and think about it, space is a very romantic thought. It is, to me, like the Old West, we’re up in the universe. It’s about discovery and new life [...] it’s really the basic premise of Star Trek ," he said. Goldsmith's initial bombastic main theme reminded Ramsay and Wise of sailing ships. Unable to articulate what he felt was wrong with the piece, Wise recommended writing an entirely different piece. Although irked by the rejection, Goldsmith consented to re-work his initial ideas. [5] The rewriting of the theme required changes to several sequences Goldsmith had scored without writing the main title piece. The approach of Kirk and Scott to the drydocked Enterprise by shuttle lasted a ponderous five minutes due to the effect shots coming in late and unedited, requiring Goldsmith to maintain interest with a revised and developed cue. [7] : 88 Star Trek: The Motion Picture is the only Star Trek film to have a true overture , using "Ilia's Theme" in this role. Star Trek and The Black Hole would be the only feature films to use an overture from the end of 1979 until the year 2000 (with the movie Dancer in the Dark ). [8]

Much of the recording equipment used to create the movie's intricately complicated sound effects was, at the time, extremely cutting edge. Among these pieces of equipment was the ADS ( Advanced Digital Synthesizer ) 11, manufactured by Pasadena, California custom synthesizer manufacturer Con Brio, Inc. The movie provided major publicity and was used to advertise the synthesizer, though no price was given. [9] The film's soundtrack also provided a debut for the Blaster Beam , an electronic instrument 12 to 15 feet (3.7 to 4.6 m) long. [10] [11] It was created by musician Craig Huxley , who played a small role in two episodes of the original television series. [7] : 89 [12] The Blaster had steel wires connected to amplifiers fitted to the main piece of aluminum; the device was played with an artillery shell. Goldsmith heard it and immediately decided to use it for V'ger's cues. [5] An enormous pipe organ first plays the V'ger theme on the Enterprise ' s approach, a literal indication of the machine's power. [7] : 89

Goldsmith scored The Motion Picture over three to four months, a relatively relaxed schedule compared to typical production, but time pressures resulted in Goldsmith bringing on colleagues to assist in the work. Alexander Courage , composer of the original Star Trek theme, provided arrangements to accompany Kirk's log entries, while Fred Steiner wrote the music to accompany the Enterprise achieving warp speed and first meeting V'ger. [7] : 90 The rush to finish the rest of the film impacted the score. [7] : 89 The final recording session finished at 2:00am on December 1, [5] only five days before the film's release. [13]

A soundtrack featuring the film's music was released in 1979 together with the film debut and was one of Goldsmith's best-selling scores. [7] : 90 Sony's Legacy Recordings released an expanded two-disc edition of the soundtrack on November 10, 1998. The album added 21 minutes of music to supplement the original tracklist, and was resequenced to reflect the storyline of the film. The first disc features the expanded score, while the sequence disc contains "Inside Star Trek", a spoken word documentary. [14] In 2012, La-La Land Records released a comprehensive 3 CD special edition which includes the complete score along with alternates and outtakes remastered from restored original 16 track masters, the original digital album master, and popular cover versions of the film's love theme.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

While Jerry Goldsmith had composed the music for The Motion Picture , he was not an option for The Wrath of Khan due to a budget reduction; director Nicholas Meyer 's composer for Time After Time , Miklós Rózsa , was likewise prohibitively expensive. [7] : 105 Meyer and producer Harve Bennett wanted the music for the sequel to go in a different direction but had not decided on a composer by the time filming began. Initially, Meyer hoped to hire an associate named John Morgan, but Morgan lacked film experience, which would have troubled the studio. [7] : 5

Paramount's vice-president of music Joel Sill took a liking to a 28-year-old composer named James Horner , feeling that his demo tapes stood out from generic film music. [7] : 6 Horner was introduced to Bennett, Meyer, and Salin. [15] Horner said that "[The producers] did not want the kind of score they had gotten before. They did not want a John Williams score, per se . They wanted something different, more modern." [16] When asked about how he landed the assignment, the composer replied that "the producers loved my work for Wolfen , and had heard my music for several other projects, and I think, so far as I've been told, they liked my versatility very much. I wanted the assignment, and I met with them, we all got along well, they were impressed with my music, and that's how it happened." [17] Horner agreed with the producers' expectations and agreed to begin work in mid-January 1982. [15]

In keeping with the nautical tone, Meyer wanted music evocative of seafaring and swashbuckling, and the director and composer worked together closely, becoming friends in the process. [7] : 6 As a classical music fan, Meyer was able to describe the effects and sounds he wanted in the music. [16] While Horner's style was described as "echoing both the bombastic and elegiac elements of John Williams' Star Wars and Jerry Goldsmith 's original Star Trek (The Motion Picture) scores," [18] Horner was expressly told not to use any of Goldsmith's score. Instead, Horner adapted the opening fanfare of Alexander Courage 's Star Trek television theme. "The fanfare draws you in immediately—you know you're going to get a good movie," Horner said. [7] : 9

In comparison to the flowing main theme, Khan's leitmotif was designed as a percussive texture that could be overlaid with other music and emphasized the character's insanity. [19] The seven-note brass theme was echoplexed to emphasize the character's ruminations about the past while on Ceti Alpha V, but does not play fully until Reliant ' s attack on the Enterprise . Many elements drew from Horner's previous work (a rhythm that accompanies Khan's theme during the surprise attack borrows from an attack theme from Wolfen , in turn influenced by Goldsmith's score for Alien . Musical moments from the original television series are also heard during investigation of the Regula space station and elsewhere. [7] : 106–107

To Horner, the "stuff underneath" the main story was what needed to be addressed by the score; in The Wrath of Khan , this was the relationship between Kirk and Spock. The main theme serves as Kirk's theme, with a mellower section following that is the theme for the Starship Enterprise . [7] : 8 Horner also wrote a motif for Spock, to emphasize the character's depth: "By putting a theme over Spock, it warms him and he becomes three-dimensional rather than a collection of schticks." [19] The difference in the short, French horn-based cues for the villain and longer melodies for the heroes helped to differentiate characters and ships during the battle sequences. [7] : 9

The soundtrack was Horner's first major film score, [18] and was written in four and a half weeks. The resulting 72 minutes of music was then performed by a 91-piece orchestra. [16] Recording sessions took place April 12–15 at the Warner Brothers lot, The Burbank Studios. [7] : 9 A pickup session was held on April 30 to record music for the Mutara nebula battle, while another session held on May 3 was used to cover the recently changed epilogue. [7] : 10 Horner used synthesizers for ancillary effects; at the time, science-fiction films such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and The Thing were eschewing the synthesizer in favor of more traditional orchestras. [20] Craig Huxley performed his invented instrument—the Blaster Beam —during recording, as well as composing and performing electronic music for the Genesis Project video. [7] : 17 While most of the film was "locked-in" by the time Horner had begun composing music, he had to change musical cue orchestration after the integration of special effects caused changes in scene durations. [16]

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

Composer James Horner returned to score The Search for Spock , fulfilling a promise he had made to Bennett on The Wrath of Khan . Much like the content of the film, Horner's music was a direct continuation of the score he wrote for the previous film. When writing music for The Wrath of Khan , Horner was aware he would reuse certain cues for an impending sequel; two major themes he reworked were for Genesis and Spock. While the Genesis theme supplants the title music Horner wrote for The Wrath of Khan , the end credits were quoted "almost verbatim". [21]

In hours-long discussions with Bennett and Nimoy, Horner agreed with the director that the "romantic and more sensitive" cues were more important than the "bombastic" ones. [21] Horner had written Spock's theme to give the character more dimension: "By putting a theme over Spock, it warms him and he becomes three-dimensional rather than a collection of schticks," he said. [22] The theme was expanded in The Search for Spock to represent the ancient alien mysticism and culture of Spock and Vulcan. [21]

Among the new cues Horner wrote was a "percussive and atonal" theme for the Klingons which is represented heavily in the film. [21] Jeff Bond described the cue as a compromise between music from Horner's earlier film Wolfen , Khan's motif from The Wrath of Khan , and Jerry Goldsmith 's Klingon music from The Motion Picture . [7] : 113 Horner also adapted music from Sergei Prokofiev 's Romeo and Juliet for part of the Enterprise theft sequence and its destruction, while the scoring to Spock's resurrection on Vulcan draws similarities to Horner's Brainstorm ending. [7] : 114

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

James Horner , composer for The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock , declined to return for The Voyage Home . Because of this Nimoy turned to his friend Leonard Rosenman , who had written the music to, among other films, Fantastic Voyage , Ralph Bakshi 's The Lord of the Rings , and two Planet of the Apes sequels. [7] : 119 [23] Rosenman wrote an arrangement of Alexander Courage 's Star Trek television theme as the title music for The Voyage Home , but Nimoy suggested that he write his own instead. As music critic Jeff Bond writes, "The final result was one of the most unusual Star Trek movie themes," consisting of a six note theme and variations set against a repetitious four note brass motif; the theme's bridge is reminiscent of material in Rosenman's "Frodo March" for The Lord of the Rings . [7] : 119 The melody makes appearances in the beginning of the film at Vulcan as well as when Taylor seeks Kirk's help finding her whales. [7] : 120

The Earth-based setting of the filming gave Rosenman leeway to write a variety of music in different styles. Nimoy intended the crew's introduction to the streets of San Francisco to be accompanied by something reminiscent of George Gershwin , but Rosenman changed the director's mind [7] : 131 and the scene was scored with a contemporary jazz fusion piece by Yellowjackets . When Chekov flees detention aboard the aircraft carrier, Rosenman wrote a bright cue that incorporated classical Russian compositions, while the escape from the hospital was done in a baroque style. More familiar Rosenman compositions included the action music as the Bird of Prey and a whaling ship face off in open water, while the whale's communication with the probe used atmospheric music reminiscent of the composer's work in Fantastic Voyage . After the probe leaves, the music turns into a Vivaldiesque "whale fugue". The first sighting of the Enterprise -A uses the Alexander Courage theme before the end title music. [7] : 120

Mark Mangini served as The Voyage Home ' s sound designer. He described it as different from working on many other films because Nimoy appreciated the role of sound effects and made sure that they were prominent in the film. Since many sounds familiar to Star Trek had already been established—the Bird of Prey's cloaking device, the transporter beam, et al.—Mangini focused on making only small changes to them. The most important sounds were those created by the whales and the probe. Mangini's brother lived close to Roger Payne , a biologist who had many recordings of whale song. Mangini went through the tapes and chose sounds that could be mixed to suggest a sort of language and conversation. The probe's screeching calls were the whale song in distorted form. The humpback's communication with the probe at the climax of the film contained no dramatic music, meaning that Mangini's sounds had to stand alone. He recalled that he had some difficulty with envisioning how the scene would unfold, leading Bennett to perform a puppet show to explain. Nimoy and the other producers were unhappy with Mangini's attempts to create the probe's droning operating noise; after 18 attempts, the sound designer finally asked Nimoy what he thought the probe should sound like, and recorded Nimoy's response. Nimoy's voice was distorted with "just the tiniest bit of dressing" and used as the final sound. [24]

The punk music that blares during the bus scene was written by Thatcher after he learned that the audio to be added to the scene would be " Duran Duran , or whoever" and not "raw" and authentic punk. [25] Thatcher collaborated with Mangini and two sound editors (who were in punk bands) to create their own music. They decided that punk distilled down to the sentiment of "I hate you", and wrote a sound to match. Recording in the sound studio as originally planned produced too clean a sound, so they moved to the outside hallway and recorded the entire band in one take using cheap microphones to create the distorted sound intended. [26] The song was later used for Paramount's " Back to the Beach ". [25]

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

Music critic Jeff Bond wrote that Shatner made "at least two wise decisions" in making The Final Frontier ; he chose Laurence Luckinbill to play the role of Sybok, and he hired Jerry Goldsmith to compose the film's score. Goldsmith had written the Academy Award-nominated score for Star Trek: The Motion Picture , and the new Trek film was an opportunity to craft music with a similar level of ambition while adding action and character—two elements largely missing from The Motion Picture . [7] : 133

Goldsmith's main theme begins with the traditional opening notes from Alexander Courage 's original television series theme; an ascending string and electronic bridge leads to a rendition of the march from The Motion Picture . According to Jeff Bond, Goldsmith's use of The Motion Picture ' s march led to some confusion among Star Trek: The Next Generation fans, as they were unfamiliar with the music's origins and believed that Goldsmith was stealing the theme to The Next Generation , which was itself The Motion Picture march. [7] : 133 Another theme from The Motion Picture that makes a return appearance is the Klingon theme from the 1979 film's opening scene. Here, the theme is treated in what Bond termed a "Prokofiev-like style as opposed to the avant-garde counterpoint" as seen in The Motion Picture . Goldsmith also added a crying ram's horn. [7] : 134

The breadth of The Final Frontier ' s locations led Goldsmith to eschew the two-themed approach of The Motion Picture in favor of leitmotifs , recurring music used for locations and characters. Sybok is introduced with a synthesized motif in the opening scene of the film, while when Kirk and Spock discuss him en route to Nimbus III it is rendered in a more mysterious fashion. The motif also appears in the action cue as Kirk and company land on Nimbus III and try to free the hostages. [7] : 133 When Sybok boards the Enterprise , a new four-note motif played by low brass highlights the character's obsession. The Sybok theme from then on is used in either a benevolent sense or a more percussive, dark rendition. Arriving at Sha-ka-ree, the planet's five-note theme bears resemblance to Goldsmith's unicorn theme from Legend ; "...the two melodies represent very similar ideas: lost innocence and the tragic impossibility of recapturing paradise," writes Bond. The music features cellos conveying a pious quality, while the appearance of "God" begins with string glissandos but turns to a dark rendition of Sybok's theme as its true nature is exposed. [7] : 134 As the creature attacks Kirk, Spock and McCoy, the more aggressive Sybok theme takes on an attacking rhythm. When Spock appeals to the Klingons for help, the theme takes on a sensitive character before returning to a powerful sequence as the ship destroys the god-creature. [7] : 135

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

Director Nicholas Meyer's original plan for the score of The Undiscovered Country was to adapt Gustav Holst 's orchestral suite The Planets . The plan proved unfeasibly expensive, so Meyer began listening to demo tapes submitted by composers. [27] Meyer described most of the demos as generic "movie music", but was intrigued by one tape by a young composer named Cliff Eidelman . Eidelman, then 26, had made a career in composing for ballets, television, and film, but despite work on fourteen features, no film had been the hit needed to propel Eidelman to greater fame. [28]

In conversations with Eidelman, Meyer mentioned that since the marches that accompanied the main titles for other Star Trek films were so good, he had no desire to compete with them by composing a bombastic opening. He also felt that since the film was darker than its predecessors, it demanded something different musically as a result. He mentioned the opening to Igor Stravinsky 's The Firebird as similar to the foreboding sound he wanted. Two days later Eidelman produced a tape of his idea for the main theme, played on a synthesizer. Meyer was impressed by the speed of the work and the close fit to his vision. [27] Meyer approached producer Steven Charles-Jaffe with Eidelman's CD, which reminded Jaffe of Bernard Herrmann ; Eidelman was given the task of composing the score. [29]

Eidelman's previous project had been creating a compilation of music from the past five Star Trek films, and he consciously avoided taking inspiration from those scores. "[The compilation] showed me what to stay away from, because I couldn't do James Horner [composer for The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock ] as well as James Horner," he said. [30] Since he was hired early on in production, Eidelman had an unusually long time to develop his ideas, and he was able to visit the sets during filming. While the film was in early production Eidelman worked on electronic drafts of the final score, to placate executives who were unsure about using a relatively unknown composer. [30]

Eidelman stated that he finds science fiction the most interesting and exciting genre to compose for, and that Meyer told him to treat the film as a fresh start, rather than drawing on old Star Trek themes. [29] Eidelman wanted the music to aid the visuals; for Rura Penthe, he strove to create an atmosphere that reflected the alien and dangerous setting, introducing exotic instruments for color. Besides using percussion from around the world, Eidelman treated the choir as percussion, with the Klingon language translation for " to be, or not to be " (" taH pagh, taHbe ") being repeated in the background. Spock's theme was designed to be an ethereal counterpart to the motif for Kirk and the Enterprise , aimed at capturing "the emotional gleam in the captain's eye". [31] Kirk's internal dilemma about what the future holds was echoed in the main theme: "It's Kirk taking control one last time and as he looks out into the stars he has the spark again [...] But there's an unresolved note, because it's very important that he doesn't trust the Klingons. He doesn't want to go on this trip even though the spark is there that overtook him." [32] For the climactic battle, Eidelman starts the music quietly, building the intensity as the battle progresses. [29]

Star Trek Generations (1994)

Dennis McCarthy , a composer who had worked on The Next Generation , was given the task of composing for Star Trek Generations . Critic Jeff Bond wrote that while McCarthy's score was "tasked with straddling the styles of both series", it also offered the opportunity for the composer to produce stronger dramatic writing. His opening music was an ethereal choral piece that plays while a floating champagne bottle tumbles through space. For the action scenes with the Enterprise -B, McCarthy used low brass chords and touches. Kirk was given a brass motif accented by snare drums (a touch verboten during The Next Generation ), while the scene ends with a dissonant note as Scott and Chekov discover Kirk has been blown into space. [7] : 152

McCarthy expanded his brassy style for the film's action sequences, such as the battle over Veridian III and the crash-landing of the Enterprise . For Picard's trip to the Nexus, more choral music and synthesizers accompany Picard's discovery of his family. The film's only distinct theme, a broad fanfare, first plays when Picard and Kirk meet. The theme blends McCarthy's theme for Picard from The Next Generation ' s first season, notes from the theme for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , and Alexander Courage 's classic Star Trek fanfare. [7] : 152

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

Film composer Jerry Goldsmith scored First Contact , his third Star Trek feature. Goldsmith wrote a sweeping main title which begins with Alexander Courage 's classic Star Trek fanfare . [33] Instead of composing a menacing theme to underscore the Borg, Goldsmith wrote a pastoral theme linked to humanity's hopeful first contact. The theme uses a four-note motif used in Goldsmith's Star Trek V: The Final Frontier score, which is used in First Contact as a friendship theme and general thematic link. [7] : 155–156 A menacing march with touches of synthesizers was used to represent the Borg. In addition to composing new music, Goldsmith used music from his previous Star Trek scores, including his theme from The Motion Picture . [33] The Klingon theme from the same film is used to represent Worf. [34]

Because of delays with Paramount's The Ghost and the Darkness , the already-short four-week production schedule was cut to just three weeks. While Berman was concerned about the move, [7] : 158 Goldsmith hired his son, Joel , to assist. [7] : 155 The young composer provided additional music for the film, writing three cues based on his father's motifs [34] and a total of 22 minutes of music. [33] Joel used variations of his father's Borg music and the Klingon theme as Worf fights hand-to-hand [7] : 156 (Joel said that he and his father decided to use the theme for Worf separately). [7] : 159 When the Borg invade sickbay and the medical hologram distracts them, Joel wrote what critic Jeff Bond termed "almost Coplandesque " material of tuning strings and clarinet, but the cue was unused. While Joel composed many of the film's action cues, his father contributed to the spacewalk and Phoenix flight sequences. During the fight on the deflector dish, Goldsmith used low-register electronics punctuated by stabs of violent, dissonant strings. [7] : 156

In a break with Star Trek film tradition, the soundtrack incorporated two licensed songs: Roy Orbison 's "Ooby Dooby" and Steppenwolf 's "Magic Carpet Ride". GNP Crescendo president Neil Norman explained that the decision to include the tracks was controversial, but said that "Frakes did the most amazing job of integrating those songs into the story that we had to use them". [35]

GNP released the First Contact soundtrack on December 2, 1996. [35] The album contained 51 minutes of music, with 35 minutes of Jerry Goldsmith's score, 10 minutes of additional music by Joel Goldsmith, "Ooby Dooby" and "Magic Carpet Ride". The compact disc shipped with CD-ROM features only accessible if played on a personal computer, [36] including interviews with Berman, Frakes, and Goldsmith. [35]

Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

Insurrection was composer Jerry Goldsmith 's fourth film score for the franchise. [7] : 163 Goldsmith continued using the march and Klingon themes he crafted for Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979, with adding new themes and variations. Insurrection opens with Alexander Courage 's Star Trek: The Original Series fanfare, also introducing a six-note motif used in many of the film's action sequences. The Ba'ku are scored with a pastoral theme, repeating harps, string sections, and a woodwind solo. The Ba'ku's ability to slow time uses a variation of this music. [7] : 164

Goldsmith approached starship sequences with quick bursts of brass music. While observers are watching the Ba'ku unseen, Goldsmith employed a "spying theme". Composed of a piano, timpani percussion, and brass, the theme builds until interrupted by the action theme as Data opens fire. Goldsmith did not write a motif for the Son'a, choosing to score the action sequence without designating the Son'a as an antagonist (suggesting the film's revelation that the Son'a and Ba'ku are related.) The film's climax is scored with the active material, balanced by "sense of wonder" music similar to cues from The Motion Picture . [7] : 164

Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

The music to Nemesis was the final Star Trek score and penultimate film score composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith before his death in 2004 (not including his music for the 2003 film Timeline , which was rejected due to a complicated post-production process). The score opens with Alexander Courage 's Star Trek: The Original Series fanfare, but quickly transitions into a much darker theme to accompany the conflict between the Reman and Romulan empires. Goldsmith also composed a new 5-note theme to accompany the character Shinzon and the Scimitar , which is manipulated throughout the score to reflect the multiple dimensions of the character. Goldsmith also incorporated several zipping, swooshing synthesizers into the conventional orchestra to illustrate the suspenseful and horrific elements of the story. The score is book-ended with Goldsmith's theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture , following a brief excerpt from the popular 1929 song " Blue Skies " by Irving Berlin . [37] [38]

Star Trek (2009)

Michael Giacchino , Abrams' most frequent collaborator, composed the music for Star Trek . He kept the original theme by Alexander Courage for the end credits, which Abrams said symbolized the momentum of the crew coming together. [39] Giacchino admitted personal pressure in scoring the film, as "I grew up listening to all of that great [Trek] music, and that's part of what inspired me to do what I'm doing [...] You just go in scared. You just hope you do your best. It's one of those things where the film will tell me what to do." [40] Scoring took place at the Sony Scoring Stage with a 107-piece orchestra and 40-person choir. An erhu , performed by Karen Han , was used for the Vulcan themes. A distorted recording was used for the Romulans. [41] Varèse Sarabande , the record label responsible for releasing albums of Giacchino's previous scores for Alias , Lost , Mission: Impossible III , and Speed Racer , released the soundtrack for the film on May 5. [42]

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

Before the beginning of principal photography, Michael Giacchino announced that he would compose the score to Star Trek Into Darkness . Just as with the previous installment, Giacchino kept the original theme by Alexander Courage for the end credits, allowing for his newer themes for the various young members of Enterprise to evolve.

Star Trek Beyond (2016)

As with the previous two films, Michael Giacchino composed the score to Star Trek Beyond .

Blaster Beam
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" Star Trekkin' "
" Banned from Argo "
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The Music of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Meet the composers!

A behind-the-scenes look at how composer Nami Melumad and main title theme composer Jeff Russo created the music of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds .

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, South Korea, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In addition, the series airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada and on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Central and Eastern Europe. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

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The Israeli-born composer first shared how she came to Star Trek through its music, as a young girl the English-language program was indecipherable to her.

“My I was a kid in the 90s, and I think it was TNG playing in the background at my family’s house — and I did not understand any of it. There were people with pointed ears and everyone was wearing different uniforms… I did not really get any of it. And it was in English, so I didn’t understand most of it! Later, I kind of came to ‘Star Trek’ because of the music, to be honest, like Jerry Goldsmith’s theme, and then I heard the Alexander Courage theme, and I thought it was so, so incredible. So what really drew me was the music, and it’s kind of like a circle back for me, to be working on this amazing franchise — especially one that features Janeway, because ‘Voyager’ is my favorite ‘Trek.'”

She also shared how her time scoring the Short Trek “Q & A” came to pass, the story which showed Ensign Spock’s first day aboard the USS Enterprise .

“The [‘Short Trek’] was the call of my dreams! I started working with Michael Giacchino, who we all know as an incredibly amazing composer. We did ‘American Pickle’ together, and during that time he connected me with Alex Kurtzman, and they offered me that short, and I got so, so, so excited. It was the legendary characters, you know? Spock! I just love Spock, so much. It was also such a big responsibility too, you know, his first day on the Enterprise. I’m trusted with this? It was an unbelievable moment for me. Luckily it happened very quickly, so I didn’t have time to process — and I’m very grateful for that! So I wrote the score; we did a couple of passes with feedback, and there were some really great ideas that the producers gave me. We recorded it at Warner Brothers, and I think we had 40 or 45 musicians — which was really cool — and then we mixed it. The whole thing was pretty quick, maybe three or four weeks… and then it aired!”

Speaking more directly about her work on Star Trek: Prodigy , Melumad — who will be the first female ‘primary’ composer for a Star Trek production — explained how the Budapest-based orchestra behind the animated series’ music is recording the score all in one place, rather than as individual artists (a challenge Discovery has been facing due to pandemic restrictions).

“For the first episode we had 64 musicians, and we stayed around those numbers. Sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller…. depending on the episode and budget. We started recording once things kind of settled [regarding] COVID procedures; we’re recording in Europe, and the players are together in the actual studio. I’m very glad we’re not doing it [individually] because recording every player separately in their home studio is a mess to edit all those recordings, and they’re not in the same space so there’s way more mixing [required], in terms of getting everyone into that same [sound] space with the mix. It’s also very time-consuming for the musicians, because they have to operate their own [software]… it’s just a lot, technically. So we got very lucky. [I’m remote, and they’re] in Budapest, and they’re amazing, amazing players. I’m in awe of how they read everything the first time they see it. We do a first take, obviously there’s little mistakes, you know, but usually it’s good! And then, second take, wow! Third take, we’re fixing some stuff, maybe changing a few dynamics or articulations, but after 10 or 12 minutes or so, the cue is magnificent.”

She also talked about how the character and story drive the musical intent behind each composition.

“It’s very character based… we’re [going with] motifs for these characters, so musically I’m kind of tying it together. [Musically, characters and story] go together, because if you have a moment that is more about Jankom, or a moment that is more about Zero…. it will be story based, for me, music is always story based. You want to address what’s happening on screen, especially with animation music is such an integral part of moving forward, adding pace and drama and pace and shape to every scene. But it’s also about the characters, and you have to tie it in a certain way that works for that character in the scenario they’re at, whether its danger, or a comedy moment, or hope, or fear — you can play around with those themes to fit that particular emotion. The thing with animation, especially on this show, it moves very fast. Where you were 20 seconds ago is not where you’re at now! It moves very quickly, and it’s great. It provides you so much opportunity for [different] colors, and the characters are so different — they all come from different places. I get to really play with the orchestra, and some synth stuff… it’s very fun to make each of them distinct. […] There’s one episode where I’m using a duduk … but you want to do those things only when they’re justified, you know, when you have a specific character, or a strange planet, or whatever fits. I do like using vocals, so there is quite a lot of that in the score, in several styles… for ‘Q & A,’ there’s a choir in the background at the end, and that’s me [singing]! There’s occasionally a guitar, which is not exactly what you would expect; a little bit of jazzy stuff, too, but of course there is also a large variety of synths which can all be very different.”

Finally, Melumad was asked if music from the legacy Star Trek shows might be included in the episodic score for Prodigy , especially considering the inclusion of a version of Star Trek: Voyager’s Captain Janeway among the series’ cast.

“I am quoting, occasionally, the original fanfare from Alexander Courage; that’s pretty much it. But, I mean, this is about licensing rights and I wish I could quote more, where it fits, but unfortunately we’re not allowed to do that. There’s no ‘Voyager’ music [with Janeway]; there’s some stuff that resembles it, or something that sounds of a memory to it, but it’s definitely not [from] ‘Voyager,’ no. But we’re doing something else, something new — not just in ‘Star Trek,’ but in other cinematic universes, you don’t want to overuse things. You would want to do it really delicately, and when it’s the most impactful, you know? If you get that theme all the time, it’s just not exciting anymore. If it was earned by the characters, that’s when you’d want to use the theme, to get the most emotional impact for the viewer. You’d want to be very particular on your choice when to use the theme.”

You can check out the entire hour-long interview with Nami Melumad — where she discusses her education and early musical experience, other professional projects, service in the IDF, the challenges of scoring for film and television, and more — at The Scotch Trekker’s YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5Yn_W4mZjg

In addition, Rylee Alazraqui — who plays the massive Brikar girl Rok-Tahk on Prodigy — appeared on the Catalina Stars: Young and Famous podcast, where she spoke a little bit about her Star Trek: Prodigy experience so far, and how she brings the large alien character to life.

“When I’m voicing Rok-Tahk, I’m kind of just myself. Her character is a very friendly person; she loves animals, and she’s really kind. She’s also really sensitive, and when I’m acting [as] her, being myself is just really easy. How I came up with the character [voice] for her, I was just myself and they liked it! I started recording the show when I was eight or nine years old, and my voice was definitely very high-pitched in the show [when] we recorded the first episodes…. My voice hasn’t really changed since when I was eight, well, a little bit; it’s gotten deeper I guess. [Laughs] But I kind of listen, and I watched the trailer recently. I kind of memorized how her voice was, and I just make my voice as high as when I originally did the character.”

With SUCH a warm welcome, we decided to ride that energy and spread the Prodigy word to my elementary school this morning! Happy Friday! #startrekprodigy #ParamountPlus #nickelodeon #nickanimation #startrek pic.twitter.com/HHA7tTxnSS — Rylee Alazraqui (@rylee_alazraqui) September 3, 2021

She also described her audition for the role:

“I remember that the other people who went in [to audition] were in for like 15 minutes, and then I came out within like 5 minutes… I know that my mom and I were both thinking I probably didn’t get [the job], but then I got a callback and it just went from there! I was really excited. I didn’t know what ‘Star Trek’ was at the time, so I had to kind of research about it and watch a little bit of it.”

The Diviner isn't SO bad… #startrekprodigy #nickelodeon #startrekonpplus pic.twitter.com/Hmwu4DnAtQ — Rylee Alazraqui (@rylee_alazraqui) September 28, 2021

Finally, as the show has been entirely recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, Alazraqui shared that to date she has only met one of her Star Trek: Prodigy castmates in real life.

“ I’ve met [the other actors] on Zoom for Comic Con, but that’s the only time! I met The Diviner [John Noble] just yesterday actually, while I was filming something; so that was really fun. He’s actually very, very nice in real life! The other cast I have not met, but I really like working with the writers and the director, they’re really nice. But in October, I’ll be going to New York for an in-person Comic Con!”

Star Trek: Prodigy premieres October 28 on Paramount+ in the United States (and CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada), with a one-hour opening episode to kick of the show’s first season; it will premiere on Paramount+ in Australia on October 29.

Additional international premiere dates have not yet been announced.

Behind The Scenes
Nami Melumad
PRO Season 1
Rylee Alazraqui
Star Trek: Prodigy

James Horner

He also appeared in a small cameo role in The Wrath of Khan as an enlisted trainee .

Horner is best known for his scores for Braveheart (1995), Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009).

His work on The Wrath of Khan earned Horner in retrospect an IFMCA Award nomination in the category Best New Release/Re-Release of an Existing Score on the occasion of the 2009 release of the remastered version of the movie, which he shared with Producer Lukas Kendall .

His music from The Wrath of Khan can also be heard in the US theatrical trailer for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , as well as in the Star Trek: Lower Decks episodes " Crisis Point " and " Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus ".

Horner was asked by director Nicholas Meyer to write the music score for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , however, he turned down the offer, claiming his career has "moved past Star Trek ".

Career outside Star Trek [ ]

Born in Los Angeles, California, Horner studied at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London, England. He went on to receive a bachelor's degree in music from the University of Southern California, followed by a masters degree and a doctorate from UCLA. After scoring student films for the American Film Institute, Horner entered a career in film scoring.

Horner began his career composing film scores for several B-movie pictures produced by Roger Corman including Battle Beyond the Stars (1980, with Morgan Woodward , Earl Boen , and Jeff Corey ), as well as low-profile horror movies such as The Hand (1981, with Bruce McGill and Tracey Walter ), Wolfen (1981, with Roy Brocksmith ), and Deadly Blessing (1981, with Michael Berryman , Lawrence Montaigne , and Percy Rodriguez ). His breakthrough work was his score for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , which opened whole new opportunities for the budding film composer. In the years to follow, Horner was assigned to work on films with a wider mass appeal. Since then, Horner collaborated primarily with acclaimed directors Ron Howard (brother of Clint Howard ) and James Cameron .

In 1987, Horner earned his first of many Oscar nominations in the category Best Music, Original Score for his work on Aliens (1981, featuring Jenette Goldstein , Mark Rolston , and Daniel Kash ). He also shared a nomination in the Original Song category that same year for co-writing "Somewhere Out There", the theme for An American Tail (which featured the voices of Christopher Plummer , Nehemiah Persoff , and a young Phillip Glasser ). Horner went on to earn an Oscar nomination for his scoring of the 1989 film Field of Dreams .

In 1996, he was nominated twice in the same category (Best Music, Original Dramatic Score) for his work on Apollo 13 (with Clint Howard, Max Grodénchik , Brian Markinson , Steve Rankin , and John Wheeler ) and Braveheart . In 1998, he received two more Oscar nominations for scoring Titanic (1997, with David Warner , Victor Garber , Michael Ensign , Jenette Goldstein, Shay Duffin , and Greg Ellis ) and writing the music for the film's song "My Heart Will Go On" – winning both. He went on to earn Oscar nominations for his work on Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind (2001, with Christopher Plummer and Anthony Rapp , written by Akiva Goldsman ), and House of Sand and Fog (2003, with Shohreh Aghdashloo , Al Rodrigo , Spencer Garrett , Bonita Friedericy , and Michael Papajohn ).

Among the many other film scores which Horner composed are 48 Hrs. (1982, with Jonathan Banks , Margot Rose , Denise Crosby , and Nick Dimitri ), Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983, with Vidal Peterson ), Krull (1983, starring Kenneth Marshall ), Brainstorm (1983, with Louise Fletcher , directed and produced by Douglas Trumbull ), Cocoon (1985, with Herta Ware and Clint Howard), Willow (1988), The Land Before Time (1988, with the voices of Bill Erwin and Frank Welker ), Glory (1989, with Bob Gunton , Cliff DeYoung , Richard Riehle , Ethan Phillips , and Mark Margolis ), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989, starring Matt Frewer and Amy O'Neill , with Mark L. Taylor , Carl Steven , and Frank Welker, photographed by Hiro Narita ), The Rocketeer (1991, with Paul Sorvino , Terry O'Quinn , Ed Lauter , Max Grodénchik, Clint Howard, William Boyett , Darryl Henriques , and Merritt Yohnka ), An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991, with the voices of Nehemiah Persoff and Ralph Maurer ), Patriot Games (1992, with Bob Gunton), The Pelican Brief (1993, with James B. Sikking , Jake Weber , and Casey Biggs ), Legends of the Fall (1994, with Kenneth Welsh ), Clear and Present Danger (1994, with Harris Yulin , Raymond Cruz , Ann Magnuson , Reg E. Cathey , Vaughn Armstrong , Michael Jace , and Cameron Thor ), Ransom (1996, with Paul Guilfoyle and Henry Kingi, Jr. ), Courage Under Fire (1996, with Tim Ransom , Ken Jenkins , and Bruce McGill), The Mask of Zorro (1998, with Tony Amendola and Victor Rivers ), Deep Impact (1998, with James Cromwell , Mark Moses , Denise Crosby, Tucker Smallwood , Ellen Bry , Kurtwood Smith , and Concetta Tomei ), The Perfect Storm (2000, with Bob Gunton and Christopher McDonald ), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000, with Bill Irwin , Clint Howard, Deep Roy , Landry Allbright , and Frank Welker), Enemy at the Gates (2001), The Missing (2003, with Clint Howard), Troy (2004, starring Eric Bana ), Flightplan (2005, with Lois Hall ), The New World (2005, starring Christopher Plummer, with John Savage ), Apocalypto (2006), and The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008, with the voice of Ron Perlman ).

In 2009 , Horner earned two Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Original Score – Motion Picture and for Best Original Song – Motion Picture ("I See You"), both for his work on Avatar , which starred Zoë Saldana . [1] In 2010, he received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Music for Avatar . [2]

Horner died when his small plane crashed on 22 June 2015. [3]

External links [ ]

James Horner at the Internet Movie Database
James Horner at Wikipedia
1 Daniels (Crewman)

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Interview: ‘Picard’ Season 3 Composers On How They Are Reviving Classic Star Trek Music

| March 29, 2023 | By: Jeff Bond 50 comments so far

Paramount+’s recent Star Trek series Discovery and Picard have employed composer Jeff Russo to bring a modern edge to the shows while occasionally tipping a hat toward the thematic material of earlier Trek composers. But for Picard’s third season, showrunner Terry Matalas recruited British composer Stephen Barton, who worked with Matalas on SyFy’s 12 Monkeys , and Frederik Wiedmann (who’s scored everything from numerous DC animated movies to children’s TV shows and video games). The pair were given a specific mission: resurrect the bold, in-your-face orchestral style of the classic Star Trek movies, with major callouts to themes by Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, Cliff Eidelmann, and even Leonard Rosenman. The result is some of the most exciting Star Trek scoring in years, music that has fans fired up for the imminent soundtrack release. TrekMovie sat down with the composers for an extensive discussion to talk about this classic musical approach and how they tackled it.

Who do you guys answer to on Picard in terms of scoring? And what was the brief, just in general, when you started?

Stephen Barton: Terry Matalas and I had talked about Trek for a long time, actually, particularly when 12 Monkeys was going on. He’s a veteran of Star Trek —he was a PA on Voyager and then worked as a writer on Enterprise . So he’s kind of come up through the ranks on the Star Trek side. And when I first started working with him, five, six years ago, it was something we chatted about quite early on. I think even when I first met him for lunch on the Paramount lot it was one of the things we chatted about. And add the fact we had a shared past in that sense, in terms of what Trek we had grown up with, which was for both of us a case of parents having seen the original series, but the first time we got a series of our own was really Next Generation and watching it as kids. He’s a little bit older, but I was watching it when I was like five or six. I think for both of us it was very much a defining point in our relationship with television and with media in general. Akiva Goldsman was still very much running Picard season two and Terry was very much involved at the beginning of the season as a writer but about three or four episodes in he split off to really look after season three, which was always going to be his baby.

Terry very much pitched it to us as this idea of, let’s look back to the whole of the franchise and let’s look back, really in-depth at the Horner and the Goldsmith scores. Let’s look back at Dennis McCarthy’s work. Let’s look back at Ron Jones’ work, Cliff Eidelman, and Leonard Rosenman, looking back at all of it, let’s take a step back and look at what it means. And because the other thing was, obviously with Trek there’s been so many iterations and things used from one version into another, sometimes without a sense necessarily of what specifically something means. Even the Alexander Courage theme, this is a general Trek theme now and even was, I think, by the third movie, with the idea that this isn’t a specific thing; this is a wider theme. So, I think that was always what we were talking about.

And then as we got through the season, we were about six episodes in and one of the things we set out to do at the very outset was score it all. We weren’t going to do the typical TV thing of tracking, but the problem is, the shortest episode is 50-something minutes. So it’s 500 and something minutes of television. To most TV shows it would just be, we’re going to track half of this, or track a third of this or have three episodes in the middle which are just edited with some interstitials and things like that. And he was like, “No, no, I want to treat every scene of this like one of the scenes in the feature films.” And so, there are two ways to do that. Either you write a ton of music or… well, that’s basically the only way of doing it, really. So that was kind of the genesis of it. And we got about episode six, and I think I’d been on it for three months, I’d written about five hours of music, and was just dead, and we got to this point where we’re like, do we sacrifice the vision? Do we sacrifice that? Or do we get some help? And mercifully, episode seven to nine had a ton of Freddie’s music in the temp track. Because I think that’s one of the things that Drew Nichols, our editor, tried to do-he tried to temp with not Star Trek music, just to be able to get a lens on it, that was different to just putting Trek music wall to wall, which is obviously incredibly easy to do, because there’s so much of it. So Freddie came in and saved the day and took two episodes over and knocked them out of the park, and actually really allowed me to do what I want to do, which is to land the last 30 minutes of the final episode.

Frederik Wiedmann: I was just looking at the minutes for the final episode and I’m counting 55 minutes of music. In one episode of TV.

Frederik Wiedmann, Drew Nichols, Terry Matalas, and Stephen Barton (center four L-R) during Picard scoring session at WB Eastwood scoring stage

Since you mentioned Ron Jones, did you discuss the whole Rick Berman aesthetic versus what Matalas wanted? Because even though the scoring is different for the first two seasons of Picard , there’s a lot of active music, but this in particular, it’s very upfront in the mix and hits things. It is more of a movie aesthetic or a Ron Jones Next Generation aesthetic, as opposed to what the TNG music turned into by season four or five.

Barton: Yes, we discussed this at length. It wasn’t necessarily always even with the Ron Jones stuff what the music was doing in terms of harmonically or thematically, it was just in the way it’s paced and the way it’s scored. And I went back and watched what for me is the pinnacle of season three of Next Generation —at the end of “Best of Both Worlds, Part One,” the end of season three, which for me was ingrained in my mind in the summer of 1990. You have music that’s very overtly scored, it goes right for the jugular, it’s not holding back at all, but it works and it’s not full of music that you separate from the picture, it just is part of it. And so, scoring like that, that it’s okay to be big and it’s okay to go off to moments. And funny enough, I think in episode three, we had a big homage—there’s a big sequence with the first time Vatic fires the weapon, that’s very much an homage to Ron Jones throughout that whole sequence. It just goes there and it says, let’s turn the burner up to 10 and go maximum in terms of the way it’s scored. It’s okay to be big and it’s okay to make bold statements and okay to play melody. And I think that was very much the focus, because that’s what we loved from the Trek both Terry and I remember; that’s kind of a hallmark of it. And Freddy has a number of massive moments in episode seven that are very, very similar, that were just moments where you play it.

Wiedmann: It’s funny, when I watch old movies, including all Star Trek , I’m always baffled by how little music there is actually, in an episode or a movie, how much space there was back then, that was okay. Even when you watch a James Bond movie from the Sean Connery-era Bond, there is so little score in the entire movie. And when it comes, it’s big. It’s bold, and it has a very distinct purpose. I think the aesthetics have changed a lot over the past 20 years in terms of scoring movies, especially in the sci-fi genre, where there’s a lot more music now, and a lot more subtle stuff in between. What used to be just empty space and ambiance now has something like a little pulse or something going on to keep the tension going, that we just didn’t do back then. And I think one of the big challenges in this particular Trek was how do we make it feel like the old ideas, and the old sonic templates for Star Trek while taking it into this current time of scoring? And I think that the response so far has been fans have absolutely noticed how much we go back to the roots of Star Trek sounds while also kind of giving it this modern edge I think it needed.

You have, I think, at least five or six themes that are preexisting, very specific melodies. And then you provide one major new one, I know that there are other pieces of new material, too, that you guys develop, but you have a theme for the Titan that is in the end title. So first, tell me a little bit about developing that. I was talking to someone who’d seen the early episodes before I had and he said, “They’re playing James Horner music.” And when I heard this theme, I realized the theme is not James Horner’s, but the setting it’s in is very evocative of Horner.

Barton: Yeah, that was 1,000% the goal with that. I think the thing that Horner brought to Trek , which I think some people would say is not in the Goldsmith scores—but I think it is, it’s just a lot more buried—is that kind of nautical thing, the militaristic feeling, but it is a very specific, militaristic thing of very much feeling that these ships are just boats in space. Everything from the very classical horn kind of harmonic series, like we’ve got two horns in pairs going up and down the harmonic series, those sorts of motifs, they have a very English feel, and that was something that Horner was very interested in. He was obviously an anglophile and I had the pleasure of meeting him once, actually, only at Abbey Road one time, but I think that that part of Trek was something we felt had been put aside a little bit. It wasn’t that we wanted to necessarily turn it back to being Wrath of Khan but it’s just acknowledging the fact that whilst this is a ship of exploration, it’s still a military command structure, there’s still danger, and I think that the Horner scores for me (danger being one of his motifs, literally , but we then do use his danger motif), it was one where we talked at length about it as, “This is the strongest of spices,” in terms of its musical presence, and I think that’s why James Horner liked it. It’s just such a bold statement, that to not use it to us was almost disrespectful. We’re not going to plaster it everywhere, but I think when we’re in the nebula, there is obviously a bit of a callback to the Mutara Nebula cues.

And so the Titan theme, I think I looked back through a lot of the orchestration, and had access to a fair number of the written scores and I was really looking about how it was constructed. And what was really interesting about Horner’s scores is how he works with limited resources. You get a sense of a very full sound playing, but it isn’t tutti, it’s not wall-to-wall, whereas the Goldsmith scores tend to be very dense, there tends to be a lot going on. And virtually everybody is doing something—during the main title, I don’t think anyone has any bars’ rest in the whole piece, they’re all doing something, whereas the Horner scores are often quite stripped back, very pointillistic, and very focused in their orchestration. There might be quite complicated things, so you have these violin arpeggio figures and I was having to sort of consult on whether they were even playable, because some of them were trying to do some augmented chord stuff that was a little tricky under the fingers. So I think that was the overriding thing with the Titan theme; it was very much an homage to James Horner versus the rest of Trek stuff, the Jerry Goldsmith stuff.

Here is the brilliant ⁦ @ComposerBarton ⁩ conducting his Titan theme with all those wonderful nods to Horner in his arrangement. String section only. It’s been stuck in my head for over a year. #StarTrekPicard pic.twitter.com/f5YCKXI6MS — Terry Matalas (@TerryMatalas) March 4, 2023

So did you sit down and discuss or map how you were going to employ all these themes? Because you’ve got Goldsmith’s March theme, which became the Next Generation theme; you have his First Contact theme, and you have that motif that’s actually from Star Trek V [the “Busy Man” motif from the cue of the same name], and the Klingon theme—and it’s obvious how you’re going to use the Klingon theme, but the other themes, you’re using them but not necessarily the way they were used by Goldsmith. So how did you decide where you were going to apply these themes?

Wiedmann: For my episodes, in particular, it was really all Terry’s roadmap. He’s got an incredible knowledge of Star Trek music, going back to the beginning of it, more than anybody I’ve ever met. And Terry gave us this specific and detailed kind of map, with, “This theme here, I want this thing here.” And he and the editor Drew, they kind of created this roadmap for us where things needed to be dealt with, small adjustments based on our creative ideas that the music had to adjust to, as we were writing. But in general, I would give Terry all the credit for placing the moments and the thematic ideas from the old Trek into the right pivotal places.

Barton: The “Busy Man” motif [from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier ] came to represent a lot of the stuff to do with both Commander Data and then also it’s almost like a nostalgia theme. It’s used in a few places where it’s not specific to that, but it’s used in a couple of places where it’s used to introduce the First Contact theme. And that’s been something where, lots of people say, “Oh, it’s the First Contact theme, it represents first contact. And to me, actually, when you look at the way Goldsmith uses it, the most poignant usage of it for me is in the scene where [Lily, the Alfre Woodard character], is seeing Earth from space for the first time. When she points a phaser at Picard and he gets her to put it down, and he says, “Okay, you’re really on a spaceship.” So for me, that theme always represented the love of spaceflight, and for me what I think Goldsmith was so good at doing was finding themes that can play from different perspectives. So, in those sequences, it’s playing both from the perspective of the audience looking through the crew’s eyes, like you’re going back to this great historical event, but also then you’re looking at the perspective of Zefram Cochrane and you’re looking at all these people with the goal of spaceflight ahead of them.

So, for me, that was always the “nostalgia for spaceflight itself” theme. And so that’s a lot of why we use that in the end credits. And also partly because it was one of those ones where we just felt that theme deserves to be heard more. We put it on the end credits because we felt that it just said something in a really nice way; that it said a lot more about what we were trying to say about the season to the audience. Then the Titan theme, I think very much was looking towards the same thing, where the original Jerry Goldsmith march became very much the Enterprise theme and very much represented the ship and its crew, and we knew we needed a theme for the Titan to do the same thing. This is the Titan and its crew, and obviously, there are places we then take that we haven’t shown yet, so very much that has a purpose and that is going somewhere.

Frederik Weidmann during a Picard scoring session

I think there’s some variation, at least one variation early on of the First Contact theme, something where it’s presented in a way that hasn’t been done before. So obviously, you’ve got access to the written scores for all this material, but have you internalized any of it enough so that you can just go ahead and write that? Or do you always need to refer to the written scores?

Barton: Really good question. Some I have internalized, because some of the genesis of that music and some of the influences on that music, I would certainly count as influences my own, particularly in some of the lesser-known influences, some of the English composers particularly. Growing up with a lot of English choral music and things like the Walton Henry V score, that’s not a million miles away at times from some of the stuff Horner was doing in terms of some of the ways it’s built, and particularly the horn writing. I think that’s one of the hallmarks, but it draws from other influences, too. But there’s a very Waltonian thing in there. And it’s funny with the Shakespeare reference, which plays a lot into certain parts of Trek , and I don’t think that’s an accident in the sense of how it’s scored. So I think that stuff comes a lot more naturally. I find the Goldsmith stuff harder to work with in terms of how it’s built, largely because it’s so heavyweight. He built the big sound before anyone else does. When we sometimes think of combos in the ‘90s and 2000s, of doing the big wall of noise and synths and stuff like that, he was doing it well before then. It’s very much that use of the whole spectrum, and the difficult part of that is time. Building those really dense scores takes a while. I can’t really rush it. And we just didn’t have very much time.

Wiedmann: I can tell you that there’s a short synth-only theme from Goldsmith that we’re using in the later episode for a very particular character. And it took me ages to make that sound out of my synthesizer. There’s probably just a patch Jerry had on some old keyboard, but I had to create it to make it feel just like that, and it took me way longer than dissecting an actual orchestral score. It’s a theme played with a very specific synth sound that fans will be able to tell exactly who I’m talking about when they hear it, so I really can’t talk about it because that hasn’t aired yet.

There’s a specific sound in movies you hear a lot for the past decade. Supposedly, Hans Zimmer invented it, but I’m not necessarily sure that he did. It’s this thing we just call the “ Braaam .” It’s this big bass noise that’s in Inception . But I was thinking actually, that this almost goes back to the blaster beam Goldsmith used for V’ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture . That was actually the first time that kind of approach was used, and so it’s unique and specific to that. And I was thinking, “Oh, this is almost like blaster beam sound,” in some of the Shrike scenes.

Barton: Yes. Very much. I think we had exactly that conversation in February. It’s interesting where things like that become ubiquitous, and particularly in trailers. You could look at it two ways: on one side you could say, “Well, it’s a lazy trope of action writing.” But then you could also look at it as at its core it’s fundamental—you can go back to Carl Orff, Carmina Burana , if you play the orchestral version, not necessarily the two-piano version, it basically starts with that figure, and it’s one of those strong spices. I think the problem is that sometimes the tendency is to just chuck it in like a handful of chili peppers that blows your head off in two seconds. Fabulous, but then 10 minutes later, you’re like, it’s not a particularly good experience, and you’re regretting it. Gordie Howe and I talked about this a great deal on Star Wars as well, on the stuff we’ve been doing together, because if you just plaster the “Force Theme” everywhere, it loses any impact it will ever have. And it’s one of the most precious gems you can be entrusted with. So, I think even when Freddy and I were working out where we have these themes, literally sitting down and asking yourself, how should this be harmonized? Or how should this be accompanied and what’s the arrangement and making it not just a, “press button, Trek theme here,” but actually something that weaves in and out and feels cohesive with the narrative. We did a wonderful session with Craig Huxley, who plays the blaster beam, and we brought him in on the first episode to do some of the sound design around the Shrike.

Blaster Beam on the mixing board from Picard scoring session

Tell me about some of the other new material that you guys produced. And in terms of what you can talk about, there’s a number of dialogue scenes between people where you guys come in very quietly, and I was feeling like I was starting to hear melody, maybe for Roe and Picard. There’s something that plays I think when they’re having their final goodbye. And then you also hear it when Riker and Picard are looking at her Bajoran earpiece, her spycraft. And there’s a big birthing scene in the nebula that has this specific music for it. So how much specific character-centered material did you come up with?

Barton: That’s the family theme, which is what we eventually christened it. We went through many names, it didn’t really quite have a name at first. It’s something that is in the nebula birth sequence, but is hinted at throughout episodes earlier; you kind of hear hints at it. There’s a very, very oblique reference to it the very first time Beverly and Picard catch eye, that very slow string arrangement, but it’s very buried in there. And gradually we unfurled it, and it’s actually very much based off the Star Trek V “Busy Man” motif, but it’s upside down. So the flow takes the first three notes of that and then expands out and that was very much deliberate, and there are reasons for that, actually, that we can’t talk about yet. But there’s a very good reason for that. So the family theme, I think, was the big one, that we unfurl and kind of show for the first time in its full bent. And the other thing that Terry was very adamant about was that he wanted a theme that had a beginning and middle and an end that you play the whole way through. And then, funnily enough, we played it again in Episode Six, pretty much end to end as well.

Did you rerecord the end title, the arrangement of the First Contact theme and the march?

Barton: Those two aren’t rerecordings, those two are actually the original recordings. We went back and found the original—I forget what the mixes of them were off the top of my head, whether they were just LCRs or whether they were 5.1, I think I think First Contact was 5.1. And so they’re cleaned up to a degree so it is a bit of almost a remaster, but those two pieces, we didn’t rerecord. But that was largely because of time, because the other thing we inherited was very much a schedule from two seasons of previous TV, and to a degree of budgets as well. So we had one session in LA where we recorded, I think, 41 minutes in three hours—the musicians were just amazing; we could not have done this anywhere else. The L.A. musicians just killed it, but so many of them have played on so many of the scores. I think when [music contractor] Peter Rotter put the call out, we very much said what it is and we went out after people who had played on [the previous Trek movie scores] and said, “This is what we’re trying to do. We’d love you to come play.” So we had some players who I hadn’t seen in a number of years at the session, and we were actually very honored to have Steve Erdody, who’s playing cello. It was I think his last session pretty much not If not his last batch of sessions, but maybe his penultimate; I think Indy V might have been his last.

There are some pretty deep cuts and other things you referenced. For Daystrom Station you are referencing the orbital office complex music from Star Trek – The Motion Picture . And then there’s the whole museum scene where you even referenced Leonard Rosenman’s Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home theme, which I was really impressed by.

Barton: Leonard Rosenman and sneakily, there is the Horner Klingon theme on the top! That cue, I literally kind of sat down and said, “How many references can we get in?” Some of them are all completely obvious. But even there, we looked at how the harmony, for example, of the Voyager theme—because I find that to be one of the most restrained Goldsmith things where, so often where he pulls back, and really, you’re just dealing with two lines—there’s the melody line, and just a counter line, there’s no real harmony and everything’s implied, and I’m saying, “Okay, how can we even reference that and say we want to call back to that and the way it weaves through?” And so even when Jack gets his idea at the end, there’s a callback to the [ Voyager ] synth theme. I think it gave the studio a bit of a nightmare on the cue sheet because it’s like nine segments. And I think on the soundtrack that’s actually just gonna be listed as like eight Star Trek themes in the space of 90 seconds. And it was a challenge to make it make sense as well and not just feel like, “press button, press button…” I think if anyone’s going to criticize us, I think there’s just the thing of something Terry and I chatted a lot about, which is what would Jerry Goldsmith have done on the sequence? He has these great themes, and I think he probably would have gone to the approach of doing a million other things, and they would have pushed him back and said, “Well, we just want to hear the Voyager theme when you see it with Seven, so, please give us that.” But then he would have done it with consummate class. And that’s obviously the highest bar you can get, and I think in 25 years’ time, someone will say whether we reached that or not, but we certainly are not the ones to be the judge of that. So we’re just trying to do as well as we can.

The Fleet Museum brought back a lot of themes

I was getting choked up during the museum sequence. It is very literally fan service but it’s done very well and tastefully, and especially after everything else that has been built up it works beautifully. When I first started watching this I was initially kind of groaning because it seemed like it was diving so deep into, “we’re gonna do the lost son from Wrath of Khan .” And by the time I got to episode three or four, it all just was working so well, that I really felt like, “Okay, now they’ve earned all this.” And it stops becoming just, we’re gonna throw references to the fans, and it becomes much more like affection, and kind of earning all that and using it and in a really moving way. And the scores are a big, huge part of this. And it’s not just all the references, it’s the approach, the dynamic approach of having real action music and having big commercial playouts and all those things we associate with the older movies and shows.

Barton: Freddie has, without spoiling anything, a cue in episode seven that I think is eight minutes long or something, and it’s one idea. We were into the last three, four weeks, and we still have this pile of music to write, but it was one of those ones where you look at the sequence, and there’s no tracking, there’s no editing that can get you through this sequence. And that’s true of all of the back four episodes, seven through 10. I think that was the other thing we were very much thinking about when we were doing a lot of the action music. And Freddy and I chatted for quite a bit about this: the pacing, particularly when he gets to the final episode is like, how would you get bigger? How do you find places to pay this off? Funnily enough, a lot of where we found the answers to that was in the Goldsmith stuff. Because I think one of the Goldsmith hallmarks is his ability to use silence and his ability to write something big and massive. He’s a master of huge textures, but also a master of when to shut up and let something play. And so in all four of the final episodes, I think there are times we both realized you just pull back and you just let a moment be a moment, and you just be confident that we have the performances and we’re not trying to apologize for anything in terms of the production. The other thing we have is the visual effects are so much better now. We’re never trying to tell you something looks awesome because it probably does. And I think that a lot of the reason for modern film scoring and action scoring being the way it is, is because you see something so amazing on the screen. It’s almost like people are like, “Yeah, you don’t really need to add to it.” Whereas what you can do is realize that that’s not the total idea. The idea is, it’s okay to paint big themes around there, provided you do it in the right way and from the right perspective.

Wiedmann: I think this goes back to another question you had earlier, about new themes that I can’t talk about much. But there is a Jack Crusher idea, a musical idea that comes in the later episodes as his relationship with his father becomes more and more distinct. And his performance was so on the spot every single time that it just felt like you don’t want to do anything. So the theme for him in those particular ones is extremely subtle because he just does it all. So it’s really just very subtly supporting what’s going on, but the performance is so strong that you really don’t want to overstep that. There are so many instances of that throughout the whole season. I think that we’re almost like, “Let’s not break it.” Because it’s so good to begin with.

Frederik Wiedmann at a Picard scoring session

Yeah, that’s something I think people who didn’t grow up on it don’t understand about the older movies and television is that the music was the special effects and it was the sound design on a lot of these things. Before you came up with all these layers of Dolby sound and super sophisticated visual effects, the music had to sell all that stuff. And so it wound up doing so much more dramatically than you necessarily have to now. So what can you tell me about the soundtrack?

Barton: I think it’s about two and a half hours. That was a pretty heavy cull down from five hours. But I think we very much also wanted it to stand up as a listening experience in its own right. Gordy and I have Star Wars , we have a three-and-a-half-hour soundtrack. And at that point with these things, I’d be honored if anyone ever listens to it from start to finish. That’s the nicest compliment I think anyone could pay. But I think what we tried to do is to make it make sense. The funniest thing about the soundtrack is we didn’t cut it. And that sounds terrible. Terry cut it. We presented him a draft and we were chatting about it. And then the following morning, he’s like, “Yeah, I stayed up all night and cut this together,” and gave us a spreadsheet. Not only is he incredibly musical, he actually loves sitting at the back of the room while I write. He just loves it and will actually weigh in with suggestions. And most composers, I tell them that and they go white, and they’re like, “Are you kidding? The director’s in the back of the room while you’re writing, are you insane?” But he’s got such a good sensibility for it. And he’s not someone who says, “Yeah, go up, now go down,” or something like that, but he’s like a rather good composition teacher in a way without knowing it. Without having a background in music, he asks questions and says, “Well, is that theme, does that feel satisfying?” One of the things he often talks about is he wants his music to commit. And I think that’s what sets him apart from a lot of filmmakers in terms of how they handle music. He likes the music to go there. He’s like, “Commit to what you’re doing. Commit to shutting up, if you’re shutting up—get out, don’t leave some little pad.” He’s like, “Just shut up. Don’t be afraid to make the bold choices.” So that’s very much his directorial style. So he cut the soundtrack together, literally put it together and we listened through but I think we changed one track.

I’ve been into this music since I was a kid and it’s very much waxed and waned in terms of how much fun it is. This is very fun. And it definitely feels like something I want to listen to outside of the show and it helps drive the show and make it exciting. So, all props to Terry for being someone who wants that. Because it seems like filmmakers over the past few decades have been very conflicted about whether they actually want music as a real contributor, as a character, as opposed to just filling in the silence.

Barton: I think there was a process that filmmaking went through in the 2000s, and particularly with the boom of digital cameras, digital cinema, and the speed at which the process and the difference between the editorial versus where it’s gone to the Avid, and now we have the online and the offline and there’s the whole process of filmmaking. I think people thought we were going through a growing-up period where less music is more, and undoubtedly films were “less music is more,” and undoubtedly films did take the approach that the filmmaker wants that. That’s their prerogative. Now we’re passing through that and we’re getting to a place where it’s okay to be musical again. And I listen to a lot more scores now and hear a lot more scores where I actually like the music. And I think where it goes in the next 10 years will be very interesting. I think we’re starting to come to a place now where all of those languages are okay, provided you know what you’re doing with them. And so people are coming back to it and saying it’s okay to be melodic, it’s okay to have tunes, it’s okay to develop them. It’s okay to have a theme and call it something and have a leitmotif. That’s okay, again.

Wiedmann: One thing this whole experience working on this show taught me is there’s a lot of film music from 25 plus years ago, when you listen to it today, and you go, “This is not really what we’re doing anymore. This doesn’t really go with today’s aesthetic of moviegoers.” But anything that Goldsmith did, however old it may be, I think it holds up like nothing else to today’s standards. There’s nothing old or old-fashioned or cheesy sounding about it. It’s just like, “Holy crap, this is so fucking great.”

Barton: It’s taken 25 years to realize that.

Soundtrack announced

Lakeshore Records has announced they will be releasing the soundtrack for season 3 of Star Trek: Picard , containing 45 tracks . The digital release will arrive on April 20, the day of the season finale in April. You can pre-order the soundtrack on Vinyl for $35.98 , coming on May 12.

Jeff Bond is the author of The Music of Star Trek . He co-produced the 2012 15-disc box set of all the music from the original 196 6 Star Trek series and has written liner notes for releases of all the original Star Trek theatrical films from Star Trek: The Motion Picture to Star Trek: Nemesis .

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I would prefer more originality across the board myself

Agreed. It’s one thing to celebrate the franchises music, but this is a patch-work quilt of music written for entirely different scenes, characters, what-have-you. Can come over as leaning too much on prior musical greatness rather than doing something original that stands on its own two legs. It’s great to see the love and reverence for the scores however, and it’s incredibly well done. But it just seems an odd season/show to suddenly decide to celebrate Trek’s filmic music in particular, rather than it being a special Trek Anniversary or something. Too much reliance and memberberries!

Ditto. I don’t know why, but it really bums me out that they’re using the First Contact theme as the end theme — and I *love* that theme. But it just feels out of place and, well, borrowed/recycled here. I’d almost prefer the previous Picard theme (which wasn’t perfect). Or a new theme using some of the FC cues.

It’s kind of like how I felt the TMP theme for TNG. It’s one of my favourite movie themes, yet it never felt like it fit the show to me.

I thought combining the TOS theme and TMP theme to create the TNG theme was inspired. It easily became my favorite Star Trek theme. The classical opening narration continued Space The Final Frontier, and the music swells up. Just brilliant.

with all of these former “12 Monkeys” alum showing up on Picard, the one I would most like to see is Emily Hampshire ($chitt$ Creek)

She would be a wonderful addition. Shaw’s ex-wife, another captain, the event planner for Frontier Day, anything.

That would be awesome. But she’s a regular on” The Rig”, filmed about the same time as Picard. So it’s a slim chance at best.

It would be fantastic her and/or any number of 12 Monkeys alumni in addition to those who’ve already appeared. I just finished that show this week. One of the all time great series finales.

I was very much hoping Matalas would bring Hampshire into Trek as well.

Hopefully, he’ll have the opportunity to create as rich and wonderful character for her in a future show, limited series or movie as he did for Stashwick.

And yes, putting Stashwick and Hampshire back together in a scene would be the chef’s kiss.

Another captain would be nice. I want Shaw to be LGBTQ+.

Yep, also agree. I think she was the first person a lot of people thought of who would be involved in this season, even if it was for an episode.

I’d like to see Amanda Schull!

The score is wonderful. Plenty of legacy and plenty new that fits. I just love it all.

Same here. It’s magnificent.

Completely agree. It’s a fantastic score and I love it.

This was a very interesting read but I have to admit, I read the part where Barton was talking about composing for Star Wars and got very confused because when the interview said “Gordie Howe” my brain went “like the NHL player?”

Ha, you HAVE to be Canadian to know that name!

That’s what leapt to my mind also . ;)

No, American, but one of my headmates is Canadian and passed on his love of hockey to me. So I learned a lot about it, including about former players of some kind of note.

Picard season 3 has a great score so far. Job well done on that part . Just thinking about it even the weaker Trek movies are worth watching just for the score alone sometimes. I can just close my eyes , when one of the bad or boring bits crop up ,and just get enveloped by the music.

Absolutely!

Good point. I find this true as well. Generations and Insurrection , specifically.

My unpopular opinion is that I think that Star Trek III is the most under-rated Star Trek movie. It’s far from the best, but far from the worst. I love the music in that movie.

BTW: I noticed the TVH score played a bit when they showed the Bounty BOP in the previous episode.

To be honest, it’s probably the best “odd” Star Trek movie.

Found Matalas’ burner account!

Kidding aside, while this is an unpopular opinion, it shouldn’t be.

I absolutely love ST III, and have since seeing it in theaters. Sometimes I watch it even without watching WOK first. (But usually watch the two as one long movie).

Horner’s score for Star Trek III is my favorite of all the Trek movies new or old. Don’t get me wrong, Goldsmith’s score for The Motion Picture’s is amazing as is Horner’s work on Wrath of Khan. But, Search for Spock just rises that much more above in my book.

Your post just described my total viewing of TMP lol.

Star Trek 5 has awesome music despite the flaws of the film itself.

Awesome score so far on this show, definitely the best we’ve had in all of New Trek including the alternate timeline movies. I especially like what he’s saying about the Voyager theme in regard to Goldsmith’s restraint, and that it basically just has two lines and little harmony… but what they did with the theme *harmonically* for the museum scene was fan-tas-tic: it was just a few small harmonic tweaks (with a modified repetition of the three-note Voyager motif at the end), but it didn’t just make it weave through the scene, it really opened up the theme itself, made it deeper & more nuanced, and underscored Seven’s emotional state very well in that moment. That scene, in a masterful way, went far beyond fan service, and the composition was a big part of that success. Some absolutely brilliant composing for this season, for sure.

Just a quick word to praise this wonderful interview. It had great questions that elicited substantive and fascinating replies. Thank you!

Seconded. Great questions that really let these artists let loose.

Yes, thirded. Substantive discussion, no softballs.

For some reason, every time I hear a musical reference to the TOS movies, it takes me right out of the show. It’s like the auditory equivalent of seeing half the Titan’s crew wearing Monster Maroons instead of current uniforms. For whatever reason, I don’t think of it as “Star Trek” music, but as a historical signifier. I suppose it’s nothing more than a “me” problem in the end.

I feel the same.

The music is great

I’m am glad we are bringing back some awesome themes vs. the wallpaper music of TNG/VOY. Even the TNG theme was a watered down version of the TMP theme. Apart from the Borg music in TBOB I feel for the musicians as hard to utilize such forgettable music, glad to see they’ve decided to embrace the memorable TOS movie cues.

I love direction they’ve taken with the music this season. It’s fittingly more cinematic than the past few seasons and the rest of NuTrek. Great job!

Fantastic interview by Jeff Bond! I couldn’t have asked for better, just MORE!

Like so much of this season, the music harkens back to such a different and more nostalgic time and I love it! It’s a combination of nearly all the greatest Trek hits rolled into one.

I remember when the first teaser showed up on First Contact day announcing all the TNG actors were coming back and they played a piece of James Horner music in it. Many thought it was odd to include when in reality it was just giving us a taste of what was to come!

What I’ve enjoyed most is not the specific legacy cues, but how new music evokes the tone of certain older elements. It’s clear they wanted a James Horner “style” and they’ve captured it well.

Now we just need Strange New Worlds Season 1 Soundtrack!!

I preordered both the digital and the LP set (I wish there were a CD..) but I noticed the LP doesnt seem to have the 45 tracks as compared to the digital. Maybe I’m wrong.

Every time I talk to my brother about Picard, he says ‘it’s great… But how can they get away with using all that classic music and not even credit those guys?’

How could Horner rip off the same classical piece (sans credit) over and over again in his ‘work’? The opening of ALIENS and a sequence in PATRIOT GAMES are just two instances where he totally riffs on the ‘jog in a circle’ cue from 2001, which uses the Gayne Ballet Suite. And by riff, I don’t mean a bar or two, I mean MINUTES of score.

I am loving all the music in the sh0w, including the nods back to previous soundtracks. Star Wars has a very consistent feel to its music, since it all came from the same guy. I always thought that Star Trek had great themes, they just weren’t emphasized as well as they could be. This season is definitely flipping that around. Great article too. Thanks!

I think that musically they could have evoked trek simply by going deep into melody and percussion with new cues. There’s a bit of what Meyer called ‘getting kissed over the phone’ when music from another project gets tracked in, but it didn’t bother me on TOS, because the music was such a vital component, especially Kaplan’s DOOMSDAY MACHINE stuff as reused in IMMUNITY SYNDROME and OBSESSION.

Barton name-checked an absolute legend who deserves attention- Steve Erdody is one of the most prolific cellists in film music, and in classical circles as well. I love that this interview went to that depth on the creators and talent involved. If anyone is interested in hearing an interview with Steve, and to learn more about his work, check out this page: https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2021/07/26/stephen-erdody-podcast/

This was just such a great interview from you guys. Well done! Greetings from Germany!

I am a long-time fan of film scores, particularly Star Trek scores. These two composers knocked it out of the park. My ears and heart could not be more pleased.

Star Trek Has 4 Deep Connections To The Omen

The Omen has key ties to Star Trek in front of the camera and behind the scenes.
Gregory Peck's role in The Omen connects to Star Trek through his grandson Ethan Peck portraying Lt. Spock in Strange New Worlds.
David Warner's performance in The Omen ties him to three memorable Star Trek characters, while Stuart Baird and Jerryt Goldsmith also worked on Star Trek.

Star Trek has 4 deep connections to The Omen . Directed by Richard Donner, the original Omen movie was released in 1976. It was a box office smash, grossing over $60 million in North America. The Omen 's success spawned a franchise, with three sequels into the 1990s charting the life of Damien Thorn, the Antichrist. A 2006 remake of The Omen followed, and the franchise has been revitalized by the 2024 prequel, The First Omen , which builds to the events of The Omen (1976). However, Star Trek is part of The Omen 's roots.

When The Omen was terrifying moviegoers in 1976, Star Trek was struggling to make its own leap to the big screen. A Star Trek movie was in development with creator Gene Roddenberry at the helm, but multiple attempts at a story, including one called Planet of the Titans , stalled. Paramount shifted gears a year later, deciding to make a sequel TV series, Star Trek: Phase II , the flagship of the studio's attempt to launch its own TV network. However, the blockbuster success of Star Wars in 1977 scuttled the Phase II TV project. Star Trek was again purposed as a feature film that eventually became 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture, directed by Robert Wise. And one key player from the first Star Trek movie was critical to The Omen 's success.

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The Star Trek TV franchise has existed for 57 years and consists of 12 shows (and counting). Here's how to watch them all in timeline order.

Gregory Peck's Link To Star Trek

Star trek: strange new worlds' ethan peck is gregory peck's grandson.

The Omen stars Gregory Peck as Robert Thorn, the father of Damien, who he is horrified to learn is the Antichrist. Peck is the grandfather of Ethan Peck, who plays Lt. Spock in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . In The Omen , Robert Thorn is the wealthy and powerful US Ambassador to the United Kingdom. When his natural-born son dies in childbirth, Robert decides to secretly switch his baby for another infant and raise him as his son, not realizing the child is the son of the Devil and that Thorn was chosen to position Damien to grow into power and influence.

On Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , Ethan Peck continues his Academy Award-winning grandfather's acting legacy. Portraying the younger version of Spock that was originated by Leonard Nimoy, Peck's Vulcan has the same gravitas as Nimoy, showcasing the acting prowess Ethan inherited from Gregory. Interestingly, watching Gregory Peck in The Omen , it's easy to imagine him also having the chops to play a Vulcan in Star Trek.

David Warner's Connection To Star Trek

Warner played 3 memorable star trek characters.

David Warner plays Keith Jennings in The Omen. Jennings is a British photographer covering Ambassador Thorn, and he's present at Damien's birthday party when the boy's nanny gruesomely commits suicide to prove her loyalty to the Antichrist. Jennings quickly realizes that a mark follows Damien's victims in the photographs he's taken, and he informs Robert Thorn of his discovery, which leads to his doom.

Star Trek has enjoyed three memorable David Warner characters and performances. In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , Warner portrayed St. John Talbot, the United Federation of Planets' representative to Nimbus III. Warner returned in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country as Klingon High Chancellor Gorkon, who is assassinated in a conspiracy to prevent peace between the Klingons and the Federation. Finally, Warner played one of Star Trek: The Next Generation 's most memorable villains , Cardassian Gul Madred, who famously tortured Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart).

Star Trek: TNGs There Are Four Lights Meaning & Why Its Still Quoted 32 Years Later

Captain Jean-Luc Picard defiantly shouting that "there are four lights" remains one of Star Trek: The Next Generation's most powerful moments.

Stuart Baird's Connection To Star Trek

Baird is the director of star trek: nemesis.

Stuart Baird is a British editor, producer, and director, and he was the editor of The Omen. Baird worked with director Richard Donner on several of his films, including Superman: The Movie and Superman II, Lethal Weapon and Lethal Weapon 2 , and Maverick . Baird also directed the films Executive Decision and US Marshals . Baird's work as the editor of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Mission: Impossible 2 for Paramount led him to Star Trek.

Stuart Baird directed Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002, and he also voiced the computer of the Scimitar, the starship of the villain Shinzon (Tom Hardy) . Baird, who was not knowledgeable about Star Trek , clashed with the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation over creative decisions. Star Trek: Nemesis ' critical and box office failure ended the Star Trek: The Next Generation film franchise. However, S tar Trek: Nemesis allowed Baird to work with composer Jerry Goldsmith once more.

Jerry Goldsmith's Connection To Star Trek

Goldsmith is a celebrated star trek composer.

Jerry Goldsmith was the composer of The Omen . Goldsmith's haunting score was critical to The Omen becoming a horror movie sensation with audiences. Goldsmith went on to become vitally important to the Star Trek movie and TV franchises . Goldsmith scored Star Trek: The Motion Picture , including composing the majestic Star Trek theme that later became the main theme of Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Goldsmith's work on Sta r Trek continued when he returned to score the films Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection , and Star Trek: Nemesis , which allowed him to work with his friend, Stuart Baird, from The Omen . Goldsmith also composed the main theme of Star Trek: Voyager. Jerry Goldsmith is one of the most important figures when it comes to the celebrated music of Star Trek , but he scored The Omen first.

Director Richard Donner

Release Date June 25, 1976

Studio(s) 20th Century

Distributor(s) 20th Century

Writers David Seltzer

Cast Harvey Stephens, Lee Remick, gregory peck, Billie Whitelaw, David Warner

Runtime 111 minutes

Sequel(s) Omen III: The Final Conflict, Damien: Omen 2

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Cast Bruce Horak, Celia Rose Gooding, Jess Bush, Melissa Navia, Ethan Peck, Babs Olusanmokun, Rebecca Romijn, Paul Wesley, Christina Chong, Anson Mount

Streaming Service(s) Paramount+

Franchise(s) Star Trek

Writers Bill Wolkoff, Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers

Directors Amanda Row, Valerie Weiss, Jonathan Frakes, Chris Fisher

Showrunner Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers

Where To Watch Paramount+

Cast Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner, Wil Wheaton, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden

Writers Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller, Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore

Directors David Carson

Showrunner Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller, Rick Berman

Star Trek Has 4 Deep Connections To The Omen

Screen Rant

Star trek: picard composers on star trek music old and new.

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Chicago PD’s Voight Actor Wants New Intelligence Team Members In Season 12

The boys season 4 solves a big unanswered question from gen v's season 1 ending, what time house of the dragon season 2, episode 1 releases on hbo & max.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard season 3! The end is near for Star Trek: Picard as the series’ third and final season draws to a close. While the first two seasons of the Paramount+ series were generally well-received, Picard season 3 has taken the show to new heights, especially as it approaches the inevitable sendoff of its cast and crew. As much as Star Trek: Picard has touched on the wealth of history inherent to modern-day Star Trek , the series has also firmly established itself as a unique entry into the franchise canon, and in many ways will be difficult to follow.

Many of the most impactful moments in Star Trek: Picard season 3 are especially resonant thanks to the season’s music, composed by Stephen Barton and Frederik Wiedmann. Barton is well-known for scoring Respawn games Apex Legends, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order , and the upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Survivor , and Wiedmann has won a daytime Emmy award for his work on the animated series All Hail King Julien . Both composers have turned in incredibly memorable work for Star Trek: Picard , and are especially excited for viewers to hear what’s in store for the final few episodes of the series.

Related: Star Trek Picard Season 3 Episode 7 Ending Explained

Stephen Barton and Frederik Wiedmann spoke with Screen Rant about blending Star Trek music old and new, the end of Star Trek: Picard , and more. Note: This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity .

Stephen Barton & Frederik Wiedmann on Star Trek: Picard

Screen Rant: How was it to jump into the third season of a show that already had music established? Was that limiting in any way, and did it take a minute to find your own groove within what was already there? And Frederik, I know you came in even after Stephen had started working on the season.

Stephen Barton: There are two parts to that question in a way, because there's obviously the prior seasons of Picard , and then there's everything else that came before. I think we set out at the very beginning to say that it is Picard season 3, but really, we were taking a fresh musical look at this in the sense that it was a very different show to Picard seasons one and two. I think there's a different mindset when you come into writing something that you know is an ending, and I think the same is true for Terry Matalas, our showrunner, who wrote a lot of this. You write differently when you know you're trying to stick a landing. Really, we weren't so much looking at Picard season 1 or 2 at all; it was mostly this thing of saying, "Okay, let's look back through Next Generation , particularly the Next Generation movies," but then also looking back to the whole picture of Star Trek. There are obviously characters from Voyager here, there are characters from Deep Space Nine , there are references to both of those things, and references to much beyond that as well. I think it was the moment to stand back and say, "Let's take an overview, and take stock of it all, and ask what all of these themes and this material means, and how best we can use it and honor it," really. I think that was the biggest part of it. Frederik Wiedmann: For me, coming in once Stephen had already laid the groundwork of what the season would sound like, it was more like, "Can you blend into that?" Stephen had established all his themes, and to my delight, they had decided to basically go back to the roots of Star Trek music and continue whatever we knew from the show many, many years ago. [The decision] was to incorporate as much of that as possible in very sensible ways for season 3. I was also told that this was its own thing, and that we don't really have to tie into it musically to seasons one and two. It's just this big nostalgia love fest for Star Trek: The Next Generation, which I grew up watching. It felt like a very nice invitation to do what I always loved and enjoyed watching as a kid.

I read other interviews with you two where you talked about how much you wanted to stay true to the work of James Horner and Jerry Goldsmith. What was your way into doing that while also matching the unique tone of Picard?

Stephen Barton: I think it was kind of an ethos thing. I spent a lot of time talking to Terry and looking at Star Trek: First Contact, w hich I think is a really interesting example of where Jerry Goldsmith reinvents himself and looks at a lot of other people's work. I think there are influences, funny enough, on him from some of the Dennis McCarthy stuff in the latest seasons of Next Generation, and some of James Horner as well. I think Jerry Goldsmith was one of those people who was very good at seeing great nuggets of information that he could use, but use in his own way. The other ethos part of it was this idea that we would need a new theme. First Contact obviously has a fantastic theme that was entirely new to that movie, and we were looking at that and saying, "If Jerry would sit in on this season and look at what [we had], what would he be thinking about?" [We were also] saying, "The Next Gen [motion picture] theme, very much came to represent the Enterprise and her crew. The most logical thing you'd say here is, we have the Titan and her crew; we really need the Titan theme." We had those two competing things. The First Contact theme, to me, doesn't actually represent first contact. If you look at the nicest use of it in the whole movie, it's when Picard has a gun pointed at him, and he shows Lily the Earth from space, and basically says "You're really on a spaceship. We're really in space." This sort of nostalgia for space flight idea and the idea of a movie theme - those two ideas became the Titan theme. It was originally two thoughts that became one. Frederik Wiedmann: By the way, Stephen, not a day goes by where I don't find myself humming the Titan theme, so thanks for that. Stephen Barton: Terry's to blame for a lot of the Titan theme, because we kind of wrote it together. Terry is very musical, and he does something that I think would scare most composers, but is actually great. He's happy to sit in the back of the room while you're writing. That sounds like the worst idea in the world with many directors, but not with him, because he is very musical and knows how to ask questions. I joked with someone the other day that he's oddly like a composition teacher, despite the fact that he [doesn't have] any of that sort of technical thing. The best composition teachers in the world ask questions. They don't tell you what's right, because you can't really tell someone what to write, but they just ask you questions. They say, like, "What are you trying to do there? Do I understand this? What's the structure of it?" He asks those kinds of questions. He says, like, "Can it reach up even more? It feels like it's reaching." His biggest music note is always, "Commit. If you're going to do something, do it. Don't, like, quarter do it." Frederik Wiedmann: He's probably one of, if not the most music savvy people I've ever worked with, from a producer's point of view. To answer your question, when they called me to help on this show, I immediately went to listen to Jerry Goldsmith for hours just to get into that zone. I found that the music is so unbelievably timeless. There are a couple of synths in there that he used, which are like, "Okay, you can't really do that anymore, unless you're doing a callback to something," which we're also doing in season 3 later on, but the orchestral work in the arrangements and the themes completely stand the test of time. I think you could put Jerry's music in a movie today and it would not sound dated, whether it's Planet of the Apes, or Patton , or Star Trek. It sounds timeless, so it wasn't really difficult to adapt it to the modern aesthetic of film music. The one big thing that does change, looking at these old movies and TV shows compared to what we've done, is that we have a lot more music. Back then they didn't score much of the dialogue scenes; they were just completely dry, and then [the score] would come in. That's just an older sensibility of moviegoers. I suppose. If you look at all James Bond movies, you'll find that too. There is extremely little score in those Sean Connery films; it's absurd if you really pay attention to it. We bring in a lot of modern things that weave in and out in between the more traditional, raw, Goldsmith-esque music. I think it's a nice blend that makes it feel current, and appeals to the audience today, but also [has] plenty of nostalgia that people understand. They obviously have picked out every Easter egg that Stephen has planted so far. Looking at Twitter, they have been very good and cautious of it, so mission accomplished. Stephen Barton: One of the things that's really interesting about Jerry Goldsmith in particular is, he was right on the cutting edge of when synths came out. The Next Gen synth sound is a Roland D-50, I believe, because I think that came out in '87. Literally, Next Gen was like six months later, so I believe he had one of the first ones out, and [Next Gen is] one of the first uses of that actual synth which is now a classic. We're using modern elements so it doesn't sound like a score made in 1985, but actually sounds like a score made today; those are things I think Jerry Goldsmith would be doing. He would absolutely be playing with all of the tools that we're playing with. I think that was something that fascinated him, very much so. When you look at his scores, they were all very much on the cutting edge of their time. The Cosmic Beam, which we used a bunch in episodes one and two with the Shrike, was just a cool new thing [for Jerry Goldsmith]. Everyone was like, "This guy Craig Huxley's built this thing that's really cool." [Goldsmith] was an innovator, in that sense, on the electronic front, and I think would absolutely be doing [what we are] today.

I was just talking to a friend about the moment when Seven sees the Voyager and the Voyager theme plays; it's beautiful. How do you decide how much or how little of an established theme to use in moments like that?

Frederik Wiedmann: Terry knows music, and in particular Star Trek music, probably better than anybody. He could write books about it that would be more detailed than any journalist. I think he had a very good roadmap in his head, probably as he was already shooting, where things needed to fall. At least for me, he was guiding me very closely, very specifically; "Here's where I want this theme to start. When they come in, I want the Voyager theme," and he sort of navigated us through it. There were a couple of places where we might suggest something, but it was pretty much all Terry's master plan of how to bring things back here and there and place them in the pivotal moments that really had an impact. Stephen Barton: I think the other thing with these themes is that it's not necessarily just a matter of hitting the "theme button." One thing we both did a lot was look at the way those themes were built, the way they were constructed, and how they were orchestrated originally, and try and find ways into it that felt cohesive. Gordy (Haab) and I have had the same thing on Star Wars, where the themes are very easy to just plop in, but there's a higher plane to be found. One of the things I love in Voyager is that it's actually one of Jerry Goldsmith's most restrained things that he's done. A lot of the episode scores, similarly, are very restrained; they often come down to just one or two voices. One of the things I wanted to do as we came out of the shot of the Enterprise A, was tee it up; the theme is the first thing that says "This is going to be the Voyager," unless you really know the outline of the ship, I suppose, when [Seven presses the button]. There's such a nice little hesitation in the way she goes to press the button, and if you watch that shot, you can see Seven knows what she's about to pull up on the view screen. We timed the theme to land with that, and the texture thins down. There's a violin line, and then the horn, and maybe the bass underneath at the very bottom. It's very thin, [with] a very glassy kind of texture; there's a less being more thing. We go from the quite full arrangement of the Alexander Courage theme into this very sparse thing. It's a lot of that sort of idea, not just being like, "Hey, Voyager theme tune," but saying "How can we bring the most out of this and make it the most poignant, most interesting way of playing it?"

Even as you're pulling so much from previous entries, you're writing a lot on your own. Do you have favorite motifs or themes that you have been able to contribute to this universe?

Frederik Wiedmann: There's an interesting piece tonight (in Picard episode seven) that I'm excited about. It's a big showdown at the end of the episode, and it's seven or almost eight minutes long. It's based on this one idea that just kind of keeps building, and building, and building until the very end. It's almost like (Maurice Ravel's) "Boléro", but a more emotional Star Trek version. It's a little bit of an unexpected musical choice. Just like Stephen said, Terry wants to go bold or go home, so we're running with this concept, and this idea, and hopefully it will have an impact on the audience. We'll see tonight how people like it, but it definitely stands out a little bit from everything else. I'm very excited for that one to debut. It features a wonderful cello solo, and it was a very fun one to write and dig my teeth into. It felt like something slightly unorthodox compared to everything else that was going on in the season, so it's always fun to experiment with that. Stephen Barton: I'd go with the Titan theme. It was one of those things where I [wrote it] and spent the next three weeks agonizing over whether it was something else, because we liked it so much. [I was afraid] I remembered it from somewhere, subconsciously. Frederik Wiedmann: That's always a nightmare. Stephen Barton: Eventually, I played it, without telling them what it was, to like a hundred people, and said "Isn't this tune something?" Once the hundred people didn't know the answer to that question, I was like, "I think we're okay." I'm actually quite partial to the family theme, which is the other big new theme that we introduce in episode four, although it's hinted at beforehand. One of the things that was really fun, and that Terry wanted to do from the outset, was this idea of building up to [this new theme]. You hear very oblique references to it all the way through episodes 1, 2, and 3. Finally, you only actually hear it in full in the "to seek out new life" moments at the end of episode 4. We called it the family theme. It's going somewhere as well, there is very much a point to it, in terms of what that theme does towards the end. It's more into the First Contact vein; this thing of saying, "Let's have a tune that represents not a specific character, or a specific moment, but more of an idea, and use it to sort of underscore this idea as it develops." Obviously, family is one of the biggest overarching themes of the season from a writing perspective, and the difference between the family of the crew versus the family of family. That was why it was such a nice thing to have this big cathartic release at the end of episode four, and then right after it, Picard finds out that Jack was there all along, and he'd met him before; it was this awful, weird moment of realization. He'd said what he thought was a very uplifting line to all these cadets standing around him, which actually turned out to be basically be a punch in the face to someone else without even knowing it. The juxtaposition of those two things, I think, was really nice, and that theme very much digs into that idea.

Stephen, you are one of the few people who have scored Star Wars and Star Trek . That's a small club. Which universe do you think has better themes, and which universe do you more enjoy writing music for, especially using those themes?

Stephen Barton: I think the difference is [that] there's a difference of perspective. The Star Wars music, for me, has always been very much about telling you how massive the stakes are here, in terms of the universe. One of the things I think John Williams' themes are so good at is that sense of importance, [saying] "What's happening here is literally the fate of the galaxy - billions of planets," and making that plausible. With Star Trek, musically, the perspective is slightly different, particularly in Next Generation, but even before that. It's this crew that you, the audience, are part of, in a way. It's like watching space opera versus this idea of almost participating in space opera. That's obviously to oversimplify, because they both have elements of that. [In] Star Wars, the feels you go for are slightly different. I think one of the things that was nice to come back to [in] Trek was [that] it's personal. It's so much about people, and that's why I think the themes that work best in Star Trek have been things like the First Contact theme. There are hits in the field the whole way. Funnily enough, my favorite theme [in Star Wars] is probably the one we don't use, actually - [though] Gordy might have done it - which is Leia's. I've always thought [that] was a really beautiful tune, and sort of Tchaikovsky-esque; it's just so charming. They are very different, though, and there were a couple of times where Terry would sort of be like, "No, you're being a little too Williams-y on this." The very first cue, in fact, when Beverly comes out, there's sort of a fanfare-y theme; for the first version of it I wrote, he's like, "Yeah, okay, a little bit the wrong movie."

Obviously, you can't talk about how this all ends, but as you've been writing toward the ending, have you thought about future stories that you would like to help tell in the universe of Star Trek ?

Frederik Wiedmann: I think there's so much in this season that can potentially become something else. I would love to see where all these characters are going beyond this, for sure. I think there's a lot of good setup here. Stephen Barton: There is something teed up. Obviously we can't say exactly what, because there are many fates yet to be decided. But, I mean, yes. I think Star Trek is at a bit of a crossroads, in a way, as a franchise. Discovery is coming to an end with season five, and Picard has come to an end with season 3 - or has it though? I don't know. Maybe there'll be something. What's really nice about this season is that Terry really shined a spotlight on a ton of the stuff that I think some people had sort of said, "Well, that's never coming back. It's all done." I was a big Voyager fan; I was a big DS9 fan. I think there are stories there that could absolutely go somewhere if done the right way; if it's in the hands of someone like Terry. You'll hear the cast say this, too; this is absolutely his baby. There are shows where that's not the case with show runners, where there's lots of input and stuff like that, but very much this was Terry's thing. To be able to be part of that was just a huge honor and immense fun. Obviously, if he gets the keys to another track, then yeah, I think we'd both happily be there. It's a huge possibility.

About Star Trek: Picard

The third and final season of Star Trek: Picard features Jean-Luc Picard during the 25th century as he reunites with the former command crew of the USS Enterprise while facing a mysterious new enemy who is hunting Picard's son.

Check out our other Star Trek: Picard interviews here:

Daniel Davis
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Star Trek Season 3 Premiere

New episodes of Star Trek: Picard drop Thursdays on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Picard (2020)

15 Famous Actors You Probably Forgot Were in Old Star Trek Movies

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Throughout the years, Star Trek has taken various forms. And, be it a television series or film, there have been famous faces that were not a part of the consistent ensemble. This started with Star Trek: The Original Series , which featured recognizable guest stars such as Fred Williamson, Sid Haig, Charles Napier, and Joan Collins.

Then, over a decade after that show wrapped up its brief three-season run, a film franchise kicked off. And, like the original series and The Next Generation (which began between the releases of the fourth and fifth films), there were some big names attached. They may not have always held the spotlight for long in the films, but they were there. So, who's in what? Let's find out, but note that the films subject to inclusion were only the ones that featured either The Original Series cast members or The Next Generation cast members. In other words, no Chris Pine, Benedict Cumberbatch, Idris Elba, or Zoe Saldaña here.

7 Stephen Collins in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Like some of the show's most deeply philosophical episodes , Star Trek: The Motion Picture tries to bite off a lot. But, in the case of the movie, it's more than it can chew. Yet, it does feature a former celebrity in a big role: 7th Heaven 's Stephen Collins as Willard Decker. Collins' Decker is always butting heads with Captain Kirk, who has suddenly replaced Decker as the captain of the Enterprise .

The Most Controversial Performer on this List

TV fans will recognize Collins not only from the long-running 7th Heaven , but also No Ordinary Family and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia . As for that latter show, he portrayed the biological father to Dennis and Dee Reynolds. Collins' career ended when he confessed to multiple instances of sexual misconduct against a minor, including once a few years before he nabbed the Star Trek role. Stream Star Trek: The Motion Picture on Max .

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

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6 Kirstie Alley, Paul Winfield, and James Horner in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

With tight pacing, the franchise's best villain , Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is the best Star Trek movie to date. It also features a few familiar faces in The Terminator 's Paul Winfield and Cheers ' Kirstie Alley . The former plays Clark Terrell, the captain of the Reliant who is subjected to Khan's eel torture, while the latter plays Saavik, a protege to Spock. Not to mention, the late James Horner provided the film's music, but had a cameo role as an Enterprise crew member.

You've Certainly Heard Horner's Work

Widely regarded as one of the cinema industry's great composers, Horner tragically died in a plane crash in 2015. But he left a massive body of very impressive work, and The Wrath of Khan was one of his earliest projects. Throughout his career, Horner was nominated for Academy Awards for Aliens , An American Tail ("Somewhere Out There"), Field of Dreams , Braveheart , Apollo 13 , A Beautiful Mind , House of Sand and Fog , and Avatar . He also won both an Oscar and a Grammy for Titanic , the former for the score and the latter for "My Heart Will Go On." Stream Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan on Max.

Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan

Star trek’s j.j. abrams advised chris pine to be ‘less shatner’ while portraying james t. kirk.

Chris Pine reflects on playing James T. Kirk in the latest Star Trek movies, and the actor acknowledges those wonderful "Shatnerisms."

5 Christopher Lloyd and Miguel Ferrer in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock may not be a fan-favorite when it comes to the original run of Star Trek movies, but it's generally viewed in a better light than the fifth film. And, unlike the fifth film, it features several big names on the cast list. These include Back to the Future 's Christopher Lloyd and RoboCop 's Miguel Ferrer .

Actors Not Unfamiliar with Sci-Fi

Lloyd portrays the main antagonist in the late Leonard Nimoy -directed film, and he impressively sheds most of the likability he possessed in Taxi and would again show two years later in Robert Zemeckis' classic sci-fi film, Back to the Future . His Kruge is a Klingon officer with his sights set on using a terraforming device called Genesis for evil. As for Ferrer, his role was far briefer, as he played a First Officer aboard a fellow Federation ship, the Excelsior . Stream Star Trek III: The Search for Spock on Max.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

4 christopher plummer, christian slater, and kim cattrall in star trek vi: the undiscovered country (1991).

The even-numbered Star Trek films, at least of the original six, are the best. So, until Star Trek: Generations rolled, the intergalactic film franchise left off on a high note with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . And a big part of that is the inclusion of The Sound of Music and Knives Out legend Christopher Plummer .

Plummer Steals the Show

It's essentially all a Cold War allegory with the Klingons standing in for the Russians. And, while many of the Klingons are ready to strive for peace, there's always someone who sews discontent. That'd be Plummer's general, eye-patch-adorned Chang. But, he's not the only familiar face with considerable runtime, as there's also Sex and the City 's Kim Cattrall as the Vulcan Valeris, the ambitious new helmsman of the Enterprise . Not to mention, there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo from Christian Slater, a fan of the franchise and son of the film's casting director, Mary Jo Slater. Stream Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country on Max .

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

3 whoopi goldberg, malcolm mcdowell, and alan ruck in star trek: generations (1994).

At one point, Star Trek writers wanted to bring William Shatner's Captain Kirk back , but with a villainous twist. That idea was nixed, but Shatner did find a way back into the universe after the initial film franchise had wrapped up. That said, his reprisal of the role in Star Trek: Generations was more or less to kill him off so the IP could change. But, it had a major similarity to the previous film: a big name in the antagonist role.

McDowell in His Element

In the case of Generations , that would be A Clockwork Orange 's Malcolm McDowell as Tolian Soran, who holds the distinction of actually killing William Shatner's Captain Kirk. Ghost 's Whoopi Goldberg also appeared as Guinan, a role she inhabited from 1988 to 1993 on Star Trek: The Next Generation . Succession 's Alan Ruck also has a substantial role as Enterprise -B captain John Harriman who, like his character on HBO's hit series, comes from a wealthy family. Stream Star Trek: Generations on Max .

Star Trek: Generations

Star trek: deanna troi’s 16 best quotes from the franchise.

The beloved half-Betazoid character is empathic, willful, playful, sarcastic, and wears her heart on her sleeve. Here are Deanna Troi's best quotes.

2 F. Murray Abraham and Gregg Henry in Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

The third film to focus on The Next Generation 's cast after Generations and Star Trek: First Contact , Star Trek: Insurrection , often feels like a feature-length episode of the series that inspired it. And, while Nemesis sealed the deal, Insurrection showed that the IP was swiftly dropping out of favor with general audiences. And, yet, Amadeus ' F. Murray Abraham is excellent in the main antagonist role.

An Unrecognizable Abraham

Covered in a great deal of makeup, one would be forgiven for not recognizing the Scarface star as Ru'afo, commander of the Son'a. The same could be said of Gregg Henry as his second-in-command, Gallatin. Though, if they can discern that it's him, they'll recognize him as Peter Quill's grandfather from another little sci-fi IP called Guardians of the Galaxy . Stream Star Trek: Insurrection on Max .

Star Trek: Insurrection

1 tom hardy in star trek: nemesis (2002).

Star Trek: Nemesis ' box office tallies showed the franchise's financial viability had run its course. And, if that wasn't enough, the reaction from critics and fans solidified that. But, it features one of Tom Hardy 's earliest performances, only his second big movie after Black Hawk Down and six years before he started gaining clout thanks to his title role in Bronson .

An Early Showcase for Hardy

Explaining where audiences know Hardy from seems pointless, as he's now one of the biggest performers in Hollywood thanks to Inception , Mad Max: Fury Road , and the Venom films. And, while his role as the villainous Captain Picard clone, Shinzon, isn't as much a showcase as his work in those films, it's still an early sign of his considerable talent. Not to mention, for someone who isn't one of the top-billed cast members, he gets quite a bit of screentime. Stream Star Trek: Nemesis on Max .

Star Trek: Nemesis

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Not only did he and his brother Aaron grow up in West Virginia, they’ve also named the National songs after Civil War battlefields.

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WVU's Star Trek Composer
Composer Jeff Russo on Music for 'Star Trek: Discovery'
Star Trek: Discovery Finale Music with Composer Jeff Russo
Acclaimed and Academy Award-winning film composer Jerry Goldsmith (1929
‘Star Trek’ Composer Michael Giacchino Heads Back Into Space For A Sci
Star Trek: Picard Composer's Season 3 Preview Has A Familiar Sound

VIDEO

Main Theme From "Star Trek: Voyager"
Star Trek Next Generation
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek Theme (live)

COMMENTS

List of Star Trek composers and music
The following individuals wrote movie scores, theme music, or incidental music for several episodes and/or installments of the Star Trek franchise. Other composers who contributed music to at least one episode include Don Davis, John Debney, Brian Tyler, George Romanis, Sahil Jindal, Andrea Datzman, and Kris Bowers.
Theme from Star Trek
The " Theme from Star Trek " (originally scored under the title "Where No Man Has Gone Before") [1] is an instrumental musical piece composed by Alexander Courage for Star Trek, the science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry that originally aired between September 8, 1966, and June 3, 1969.
Star Trek (soundtrack)
Star Trek: Music from the Motion Picture is a soundtrack album for the 2009 film Star Trek, composed by Michael Giacchino. The score was recorded in October 2008 since the film was originally scheduled to be released the following December. It was performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony and Page LA Studio Voices at the Sony Scoring Stage in ...
Alexander Courage
Alexander Courage. Alexander Mair [1] Courage Jr. (December 10, 1919 - May 15, 2008) familiarly known as "Sandy" Courage, was an American orchestrator, arranger, and composer of music, primarily for television and film. He is best known as the composer of the theme music for the original Star Trek series .
Composer Jeff Russo on Music for 'Star Trek: Discovery'
Composer Jeff Russo Boldly Takes 'Star Trek: Discovery' Into New Musical Territory. Composer Jeff Russo felt the weight of more than half a century of music for the various incarnations of ...
Dennis McCarthy
Dennis McCarthy ( born 3 July 1945; age 78) is a composer who has written many Star Trek -related musical scores, including the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine main title theme and the Star Trek: Enterprise end credits theme. He also composed the music for Star Trek Generations and many episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep ...
Star Trek: Two Versions of the Opening Theme
Alexander Courage and Gene Roddenberry, Theme from Star Trek: The Original Series, M1527.8 .C, Music Division. Alexander "Sandy" Courage was the composer of the theme song to Star Trek. Several famous film and television composers had previously turned down the job, not certain that Star Trek would be a success. But Courage was a journeyman ...
The Music of Star Trek
The Official Fans' Guide to the Composers of Star Trek . The Music of Star Trek is a reference book focusing on the composers and music of the various Star Trek series and films.. Summary [] From the book jacket The Music of Star Trek is a critical and historical overview of music scored for Paramount's Star Trek franchise, from the original '60s series to the highly successful Star Trek ...
Exclusive Interview: Star Trek Composer Dennis McCarthy
Dennis McCarthy produced Brent Spiner's semi-legendary album, Ol' Yellow Eyes Is Back.And, oh yeah, he composed the main theme and music for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as well as music for The Next Generation, Voyager and Enterprise.. McCarthy also wrote/conducted the music for Star Trek Generations, Borg Invasion 4D (the short film/attraction at Star Trek: The Experience), as well as for ...
David Bell
David Bell (born 17 April 1954; age 70) is a composer who wrote music for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise. He shared four ASCAP Award wins for his work on Voyager and Enterprise. Some of Bell's scores for DS9 were released as part of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Collection. Many of Bell's scores for DS9 featured Klingons, episodes like "The Sword of ...
10 Favorite Star Trek Musical Pieces
The score for Captain Picard and the Enterprise -E's second film outing is an underrated effort by Jerry Goldsmith, who once again succeeds at combining familiar themes with new pieces that give each Star Trek film its own musical identity. For this piece, the legendary composer's son, Joel Goldsmith, brings vitality, hope, and triumph to ...
Trek Composers: Twenty-Six Seasons Of Star Trek Music
During the fifty plus years of scoring music for various Star Trek shows, four composers are primarily responsible for the different show themes and music.. The composers include Ron Jones, Dennis ...
Looking Back at the Music of 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture'
This was a new direction for Goldsmith, venturing into a more romantic idiom of scoring. "He was definitely a modernist," said composer David Newman in the liner notes for La-La Land's definitive release of the soundtrack. Newman, who played the violin on The Motion Picture, added, "I think Star Trek was a turning point for him.
INTERVIEW
One of the highlights of Star Trek: Picard's third and final season — aside from the reunion of the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew — has been the sweeping, cinematic musical score which has accompanied each episode of this year's adventure. Series composer Jeff Russo departed the show after Season 2 — and new composers Stephen Barton and Frederick Wiedmann took charge of musical ...
The Musical Legacy of Star Trek: The Original Series
David Page has been a fan of Star Trek since it started in syndiction in the early 1970s. He premiered Scoring Star Trek on YouTube in April 2021, and now has over thirty videos on the composers, themes, motifs, and production of this music, with more to come. He is an active musician and singer in the Kansas City area, and has been a songwriter and recording artist.
List of Star Trek composers and music
The music to Nemesis was the final Star Trek score and penultimate film score composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith before his death in 2004 (not including his music for the 2003 film Timeline, which was rejected due to a complicated post-production process).The score opens with Alexander Courage's Star Trek: The Original Series fanfare, but quickly transitions into a much darker theme to ...
The Music of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Meet the composers! A behind-the-scenes look at how composer Nami Melumad and main title theme composer Jeff Russo created the music of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, South Korea, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
Composer Nami Melumad Descibes STAR TREK: PRODIGY's Music ...
Speaking more directly about her work on Star Trek: Prodigy, Melumad — who will be the first female 'primary' composer for a Star Trek production — explained how the Budapest-based orchestra behind the animated series' music is recording the score all in one place, rather than as individual artists (a challenge Discovery has been ...
'Star Trek' Composer Michael Giacchino on His Sci-Fi Debut ...
'Star Trek' Composer Michael Giacchino Heads Back Into Space for a Sci-Fi-Themed Solo Album By Jon Burlingame. ... The music is a mix of orchestra, pop, lounge, jazz, electronics and exotica ...
James Horner
James Horner (14 August 1953 - 22 June 2015; age 61) was an Academy Award-winning composer who wrote and conducted the music score for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. His work on the former was his first score for a high-profile motion picture. He also appeared in a small cameo role in The Wrath of Khan as an enlisted trainee. Horner is best known for ...
Dennis McCarthy (composer)
Dennis McCarthy (born July 3, 1945) is an American composer of television and film scores. His soundtrack credits include several entries in the Star Trek franchise, including underscores for The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, and the 1994 feature film Star Trek Generations. His other television credits include Dynasty, V, MacGyver, Sliders, Dawson's Creek, and Project ...
Interview: 'Picard' Season 3 Composers On How They Are Reviving Classic
He co-produced the 2012 15-disc box set of all the music from the original 1966 Star Trek series and has written liner notes for releases of all the original Star Trek theatrical films from Star ...
Fred Steiner
Steiner also composed and orchestrated additional music for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), was part of the team of composers for the 1985 film, The Color Purple, which received an Oscar nomination, and was an uncredited composer for Return of the Jedi. Steiner was most active in television series during the 1950s and 1960s.
Star Trek Has 4 Deep Connections To The Omen
Goldsmith also composed the main theme of Star Trek: Voyager. Jerry Goldsmith is one of the most important figures when it comes to the celebrated music of Star Trek, but he scored The Omen first.
Star Trek: Picard Composers On Star Trek Music Old and New
Many of the most impactful moments in Star Trek: Picard season 3 are especially resonant thanks to the season's music, composed by Stephen Barton and Frederik Wiedmann. Barton is well-known for scoring Respawn games Apex Legends, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and the upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and Wiedmann has won a daytime Emmy award ...
15 Famous Actors You Probably Forgot Were in Old Star Trek Movies
Nicholas Meyer. Cast. William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , Deforest Kelley , James Doohan , Walter Koenig , George Takei. Main Genre. Action. Chris Pine reflects on playing James T. Kirk in the ...
'Manhunt' Composer Bryce Dessner on Using Dark American Folk Music
Courtesy of Apple TV+. When Bryce Dessner got a call asking to score the music for " Manhunt ," Apple TV+'s thrilling limited series about the search for John Wilkes Booth after Abraham ...