Star Trek Soundtrack

Y’all know I likes me some Star Trek. Y’all also know that I like movie scores. So heaven in a box must be a Star Trek movie score, right?

When it’s by Michael Giacchino, you can bet your sweet bippy it is! The official movie score to JJ Abrams’ new Star Trek flick will not be out until May 5th, but several exclusive clips have been given out to various genre websites. Thankfully, someone was smart enough to gather these clips together on YouTube. There are actually 3 different videos – 4 clips each in the first 2 videos, then 1 clip in the last video. The last clip is from the official Star Trek movie website, and is called ‘Hella Bar Talk’.

Star Trek movie scores are kind of a big deal (to nerds). Regardless of the quality of the actual films, most of the scores have been extraordinary. Star Trek: The Motion Picture may have been dubbed ‘The Motionless Picture’ by many fans, but it had absolutely gorgeous music by Jerry Goldsmith. Star Trek’s II & III had James Horner (who I’ve talked about before in Movie Score Monday) and Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country had newcomer Cliff Eidelman reworking Gustaf Holst’s ‘The Planets’ to great effect. So when it comes to scoring duties, Star Trek really has had some of the best behind the baton.

Still, some of Trek’s later musical endeavors both on the silver screen and off had become rather stale and repetitive. Goldsmith’s brilliant theme from TMP was reused many times for later movies and even The Next Generation TV show. By the time the abysmal Star Trek: Nemesis had been released, the music just wasn’t doing anything for me. So the mention of Michael Giacchino was really comforting! His Incredibles score is still probably one of the best film scores I’ve heard in ages, and his work on Lost and Fringe has always been top notch. His love of percussion probably doesn’t hurt him in my book!

Now, I realize the actual titles might raise some eyebrows, but anyone familiar with Giacchino’s previous work on Lost, The Incredibles or MI:III will know he likes to pick cheeky names for his track titles (‘Helluvacopter Chase’, etc.). And ‘Hella Bar Talk’ is actually a reference to 19th/20th Century composer Bela Bartok (considered by many to be one of the greatest composers of all time). What’s nice about these titles are they don’t really give away any plot points. Back in 1999 when John Williams’ score for The Phantom Menace came out, the track ‘Qui-Gon’s Noble End’ sort of, ya know, gave the game away. Given Giacchino’s penchant for nonsense names, I don’t think we’ll be facing that problem again (not compare this new movie to The Phantom Menace – I think we’re all praying it’s nothing remotely like that).

From what I can gather from these brief clips, Giacchino’s Star Trek score is full of the bombast that’s absolutely required for a Trek film. He even incorporates Alexander Courage’s original 60s Star Trek theme into the end credits [insert obligatory geek 'wheee' here]! I can’t wait to hear it in action in 3 weeks!

TRACKLIST:
1. Star Trek (1:03)
2. Nailin’ the Kelvin (2:09)
3. Labor of Love (2:51)
4. Hella Bar Talk (1:55)
5. Enterprising Young Men (2:39)
6. Nero Sighted (3:23)
7. Nice To Meld You (3:13)
8. Run and Shoot Offense (2:04)
9. Does It Still McFly? (2:03)
10. Nero Death Experience (5:38)
11. Nero Fiddles, Narada Burns (2:34)
12. Back From Black (:59)
13. That New Car Smell (4:46)
14. To Boldly Go (:26)
15. End Credits (9:11)

Tags: soundtrack, star trek