The music of the final frontier will sound both familiar and contemporary as Star Trek: Discovery brings classic notes back to television. The new Jeff Russo-composed main title theme for Star Trek: Discovery materializes somewhere between the original series and the tinkling melodrama of Westworld.
On Tuesday, the Star Trek: Discovery Twitter account shared a video of Russo talking about composing the theme. The video also featured executive producer Alex Kurtzman praising the iconic original Star Trek theme composed by Alexander Courage. Spoiler alert: the new Discovery theme music does not contain any singing; either in the vein of the classic series or Enterprise.
Picking favorite Star Trek music is just one of many feuds long time Trekkies like to participate in. Still, at the risk of overgeneralizing, the two most recognizable themes are the Alexander Courage bombastic ‘60s adventure theme from the classic series and the Jerry Goldsmith-composed march for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which later became the theme for Star Trek: The Next Generation. Smartly, Discovery isn’t trying to compete with any of that.
Though the opening flutes of the Discovery theme recall both the Orignal Series and The Next Generation, the bulk of music feels more like a contemporary cable drama than any previous Trek. Presumably, this music will be accompanied by an opening monologue, but not necessarily. There hasn’t been a voice-over at the beginning of a new Star Trek series since 1987. Which feels like a synecdoche for the entire show. Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something boldly going where no one has gone before.
The Discovery Twitter account also shared a time-lapse video chronicling the epic construction of the bridge of the USS Shenzhou. Too bad that ship will probably get destroyed in the first episode.
Star Trek: Discovery will hit CBS All-Access on September 24 in the US and Netflix in the UK on September 25.
