Awesome Music / Star Trek: The TV Series

aka: Star Trek The Series

To boldly sing what no one has sung before!

• Star Trek: The Original Series:
  • The main theme by Alexander Courage. Majestic, surreal, futuristic, adventurous and deserving its iconic status. The opening fanfare has been recycled for nearly every subsequent Star Trek theme.
  • The tense music in the closing moments of the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Doomsday Machine" is kickass, as is the swirling arrangement of the main theme used at the beginning of the teaser.
  • Vina's Dance is an Indian oriental sounding theme and original anthem for the Green-Skinned Space Babe. You also hear it in "Wolf in the Fold", in the Argelian bar where Kara (Tania Lemani) is dancing.
  • Gerald Fried's brooding cello theme first heard in "Amok Time" (also played on electric guitar) does as much as anything else in defining the character of Spock. The iconic "Kirk Fight Music" (real title "Ancient Battle") was composed for the same episode and is probably the second most famous music cue for the series, after the main theme itself, having popped up in numerous other media.
  • Any episode scored by George Duning (e.g. "The Empath"). In fact, it can be argued that what salvages the generally weak third season is the lush, mystical music contributed both by Duning and primary composer Fred Steiner (whose eerie score for "Spock's Brain" is so much better than the episode itself).
  • The two contributions by Sol Kaplan (the sinister "The Enemy Within" and the thrilling "The Doomsday Machine") stand as some of the finest music ever composed for Star Trek. Both scores were constantly reused in later episodes, such was their potency and effectiveness.
• The theme of Star Trek: The Animated Series might be the most upbeat theme Star Trek has ever had.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation:
  • The main theme is basically the theme to Star Trek: The Motion Picture preceded by a beautiful rendition of the Alexander Courage fanfare.
  • Ron Jones' score for the epic "The Best of Both Worlds" is some of the best Trek music ever composed.
  • The moment when Picard says "magnify" cues the creepiest, most-spine-chilling music ever heard in a Star Trek production. Gene Roddenberry's dream, say hello to George Orwell's nightmare. And it will never be topped...ever: they even made Wesley just another character who you'd pity if he was Assimilated Into The Hive Mind.
  • His theme for the Romulans is deliciously sinister.
  • From "The Best of Both Worlds", "Intervention" manages to weave multiple themes from the episode together into a frantic piece that backs the Enterprise crew's daring rescue of Picard from the Borg cube.
  • One of the most touching episodes of TNG, "The Inner Light", has a beautiful flute score composed by Jay Chattaway. The music by itself is almost enough to make you cry on its own, but when combined with the story, it's overwhelming. A fan-created 40th anniversary tribute video used the "Inner Light" music very effectively.
• The (first) DS9 (here) and Voyager (here) themes are contemplative yet memorable. As a matter of fact, they won the 1993 and 1995 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music, respectively, and Voyager's has been called the most beautiful opening theme of the whole franchise.
  • The thunderous march for the Borg from "Dark Frontier". The powers that be billed this two-parter as a big cinematic event, and composer David Bell stepped up to deliver a score with a lot more kick than the usual VOY/DS9 era "sonic wallpaper" approach.
• All the fan hate aside, "Faith of the Heart" (the Star Trek: Enterprise theme song) is a brilliant song.
  • What was supposed to be the original opening theme was good too, however.
  • The Mirror Universe opening theme makes up for it and then some. If they had that as the theme for the whole series, it would have been awesome.
  • For the Borg episode "Regeneration", guest composer Brian Tyler delivers some of the best incidental music since Ron Jones composed for the TV franchise (some of it reused from "Canamar" earlier in the season), giving the episode a tense and atmospheric soundtrack that's befitting of the Borg's inversion of Badass Decay, especially the theme that plays during the climax, the aptly named "Borg Attack".
• Star Trek: Discovery:
  • After the infamous "Faith of the Heart", we're back with a fully orchestral theme for Discovery, one with a whimsical melody that calls the TOS theme to mind.
  • The "black alert" theme, which plays most times Discovery fires up its spore drive, is a sign that something awesome is about to happen.
  • The Terran Empire's Leitmotif is regal and oppressive, very fitting for The Empire.
  • The season one finale ends with a GLORIOUS rendition of the TOS theme. Likewise, the Season 2 finale weaves them together over the credits.
• Star Trek: Picard:
  • The low-key, beautiful title theme is actually based on a flute melody performed by Picard/Kamin's son Batai in the classic TNG episode "The Inner Light," as well as weaving in the TNG theme. It perfectly sets the mood for the show.
  • The dark, modernized take on the Romulan theme from the TOS episode "Balance of Terror" that's first heard during the final scene of "Remembrance" is dark and epic.
  • When La Sirena warps away from Earth, the BGM is a huge "He's Back!" for Jean-Luc Picard, especially as the familiar Star Trek theme plays when Picard gives his trademark hand gesture and catchphrase: "Engage."
  • The triumphant reprise of the TNG theme that plays when Starfleet warps in to stop the Romulan assault on Coppelius. It sets the stage perfectly for the shot that follows: Captain William T. Riker in the center seat of the USS Zheng He, commanding the fleet and ready to kick some treacherous Tal Shiar ass.
  • The beautiful, haunting cover version of "Blue Skies" by Isa Briones is the mourning song when Data's consciousness dies in "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2", and it's arguably the saddest, most touching scene of Season 1 for longtime Trek fans.
  • The end credits for the season finale are an incredible Triumphant Reprise of the main theme, perfect for warping off into another adventure.
  • The Season 3 premiere "The Next Generation" gives us "Leaving Spacedock", which masterfully blends together Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner's themes from The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan with Season Three co-composer Stephen Barton's new Titan theme.
  • The Season 3 episode "Bounty" gives us "Legacies", a gorgeous musical Continuity Cavalcade as Jack and Seven look over the legendary starships parked at the Fleet Museum, going from the Deep Space Nine theme, to TOS, to Voyager, before ending on The Voyage Home theme for the Bounty.
  • "Vox": Season Three co-composer Freddie Wiedmann's score for the entire episode, but in particular "Make It So" for Team Picard's reunion with the Enterprise-D and the slow, emotional, but eventual triumphant surge of the TNG theme as the 1701-D and her command crew fly to save the Federation together one more time.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks:
  • Despite being an Animated Work Com parody, the theme song is just as epic as the others.
  • The magnificently over the top version of the main theme from Mariner's holoprogram manages to make an Affectionate Parody scene even funnier by playing the entire thing seriously.
• Star Trek: Prodigy: Accompanying an absolutely gorgeous, awe-inspiring title sequence filled to the brim with Visual Effects of Awesome is the epic series main theme, composed by Michael Giacchino, who scored the Kelvin Timeline movies.
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds continues Jeff Russo's streak of modernizing classic Trek music with a powerful and urgent rearrangement of Alexander Courage's theme for TOS that finishes off with a wistful retro version on theremin.

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