Awesome Music / Star Trek

With over 50 years, as one of the earliest and most successful sci-fi series, it's bound to have a lot of these.
Let these music bring you to boldly go where no man has gone before.

• Star Trek: The Motion Picture
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
• Star Trek: The Original Series
• Star Trek: Picard

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Films

• The five incredibly awesome end credits by Jerry Goldsmith which also served as concert suites:
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture. When it comes to popularity, the inventiveness of the instrumentation, the epic grandeur of the scoring and the benefits of modern recording, this is quite simply Goldsmith's greatest score.
  • Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Another hugely enjoyable Goldsmith score in which the main theme sandwiches the Klingon theme. Goldsmith even utilizes a wailing electronic ram's horn to emulate the distinctive scream of a large bird for the villains' bird-of-prey.
  • Star Trek: Insurrection. This pretty and unassuming theme sandwiched in the middle is a sweet little thing, reminiscent of the kind of lofty strings and woodwind in Rudy and several other tender Goldsmith character scores, perfectly evoking the bucolic idyll of the film's locale. (Watch out, he's got an oboe and he's not afraid to use it!)
  • Star Trek: First Contact. Just the noble and uplifting horn theme bristling with awe inspiring thoughtful woodwinds and strings must surely rank as the most moving musical moment in any of the Star Trek films. Acknowledged by the maestro himself as his best Star Trek score.
  • Star Trek: Nemesis. The maestro's last venture to the Star Trek franchise, where "Blue Skies" is heard on a piano, and it slowly builds up into a full blown Star Trek March.
• James Horner almost manages to top Goldsmith with the scores for Star Trek II and III. "Stealing the Enterprise" is AWESOME!
  • Oh, and listen to "Enterprise Clears Moorings", too.
  • No mention of TWOK is complete without "Battle in the Mutara Nebula". Particularly at 0:55, 1:56, and 2:05.
  • "Genesis Countdown", whose motif at 0:49 was so awesome, it got recycled into "Stealing the Enterprise" in the next film. To say nothing of his little homage to Ligeti's "Atmospheres" at 4:32.
  • Wrath of Khan's Surprise Attack, particularly the cellos at 3:22 onwards - the track gives an utter sense of terror and dread at being ambushed.
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan:
  • James Horner is a genius for knowing when not to bomb us with orchestration. The silence during the climactic chase in the nebula is downright frightening! Which of course makes the actual orchestral bombing all the more satisfying when Enterprise gets the jump on Reliant and the climactic battle begins in earnest.
  • They couldn't afford to bring back Jerry Goldsmith for the sequel, so they took a chance on an up-and-comer named James Horner... who proceeded to kick ASS. As Nicholas Meyer would say, he hired James Horner because he couldn't afford Jerry Goldsmith; but by the time they made Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Horner had become so successful that he hired Cliff Eidelman because he couldn't afford Horner.
  • There are long stretches without music, and the negative space really has an impact too. Of the 113 minute runtime, only 100 minutes have music in them. (The 13 minutes of the score that weren't included in the original soundtrack release were the Genesis Project Film music, and the horror style moments with the Ceti eel and the search of the Reliant.)
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock: Was there a more in-series triumphant moment than immediately after "We have cleared space doors"? Triumphant, yet chilling, knowing what fate lies ahead for the Enterprise.
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home:
  • Leonard Rosenman's opening theme contains snippets from his score from The Lord of the Rings.
  • "Home Again", featuring a gorgeous rendition of the TOS theme for The Reveal of the Enterprise-A.
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier:
  • The score by Jerry Goldsmith. He returned after 10 years and gave it his full orchestra treatment. The Mountain, A Busy Man, Cosmic Thoughts
  • Nichelle Nichols' cover of Hiroshima's "The Moon's a Window to Heaven" is very good, too. The fan dance, not so much.
• Regardless of how one feels about Star Trek: Generations, it is hard to deny that the score, one of composer Dennis McCarthy's few cinematic offerings, is first-rate. Here's the main theme.
• Star Trek: First Contact:
  • Jerry Goldsmith (and his son Joel Goldsmith, scoring alongside Jerry for the only time) firing on all cylinders. Particularly the film's unforgettable "First Contact" theme, which is a reworking of the theme the last Trek film he worked for (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier).
  • "Red Alert" is just one Theme Music Power-Up after another.
  • "The Dish" reworks the Borg theme over and over to new heights of awesome.
  • Plus Cochrane blasting Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride" across the base as the Phoenix lifts off.
• Star Trek: Insurrection: The theme for the Son'a is just grand and epic.
• Star Trek (2009):
  • The main theme "Enterpising Young Man", especially in the opening credits. Something about that crystalline, somber yet uplifting horn solo sends chills down your spine every time.
  • Especially the brief variation that plays on the drill platform when Sulu whips out his folding katana, throws off his helmet, and looks ready to rumble.
  • Michael Giacchino's work for Star Trek (2009) contains many, many notable examples of orchestral awesomeness, such as the beautifully heart-rending "Labor of Love" (played during George Kirk's Heroic Sacrifice), "Hella Bar Talk" (Kirk contemplating his future before joining Starfleet), "Enterprising Young Men" (accompanying the shot of the alternate-reality Enterprise in spacedock) and, most of all, his glorious rendition of the classic Trek theme in "End Credits."
• Star Trek Into Darkness:
  • John Harrison/Khan's theme is a beautiful song that goes darker as it progresses.
  • Special mention goes to the ultimate Tear Jerker, "Buying the Space Farm".
• Star Trek Beyond:
  • Aside from Beastie Boys's "Sabotage", there's Michael Giacchino's "Night on the Yorktown", a beautiful track that compliments the introduction of the Yorktown Starbase and its wonderful visuals.
  • Rihanna's Sledgehammer is a chilly electropop song that plays during the closing credits.

Television Series

• The theme of Star Trek: The Animated Series might be the most upbeat theme Star Trek have ever had.
• The Klingon Battle Theme heard throughout the movies and, on occasion, in the series as well. It's so epic, you'd want to say "QAPLA!"
• Ron Jones's score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation epic "The Best of Both Worlds" is some of the best Trek music ever composed.
  • The Star Trek: The Next Generation main theme is basically the theme to Star Trek: The Motion Picture preceded by a beautiful rendition of the Alexander Courage fanfare.
  • 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.
  • "Mister Worf. Fire." Add in the fan rumors that Patrick Stewart was looking to leave the show at the time, and you had one of the biggest "Oh, shit is ON!" moments of all time. (They completely torpedoed it at the start of the second half, but... there's a reason it's called the best cliffhanger of the series.)
  • 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.
• 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.
• 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: Lower Decks: Despite being an Animated Work Com parody, the theme song isn't any less epic than others.

Star Trek Expanded Universe

• Star Trek Online:
  • Most of the music in the game is merely okay. And then you start fighting Romulans.
  • The main theme starts off with a classic Trek feel, then halfway through kicks off into a rousing orchestra piece that makes you want to jump into your ship and take on the whole galaxy.
  • Legacy of Romulus has a truckload of great music, as befits its status as the game's Growing the Beard expansion pack. Particular highlights:
    • The primary theme for New Romulus. You'll hear this primarily in the Staging Area, but you can hear it anywhere, since it's long.
    • The "Virinat theme" greets newbie Romulans and is the theme of the colony while it's at peace. Later on, it also serves as cruising/ambient music for when you're doing various heroic things as a Romulan character - since you never forgot Virinat and are carrying on its legacy.
    • The already awesome Romulan battle theme gets new variations that are usually played when fighting the Tal Shiar or Elachi as a Romulan.
  • The 2017 First Contact Day probably gave players the best music to launch model Phoenix Warp Rockets to: Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride", the same song used in Star Trek: First Contact.
• Star Trek: Starfleet Command:
  • The soundtrack of the first game was composed by Ron Jones, who was fired from Star Trek: The Next Generation because the producers thought his music was "too epic". Highlights include the badass Romulan march, the tribal-retro Lyran theme, and pretty much everything else.
• A Klingon Challenge: The game actually manages to have better music than a lot of contemporary Star Trek episodes. Stand-outs include the theme played when Kavok beams aboard the Enterprise and hijacks the ship, and the Jaws-like theme that slowly builds up in intensity as the Enterprise approaches the Klingon homeworld during the final five or so minutes of the game.