Star Trek Generations (soundtrack)

Dennis McCarthy's original score for.

Overview
The score for Star Trek Generations and the big screen debut of the TNG-era itself is inseparably linked with its television music roots. Rightly so, as veteran TNG composer Dennis McCarthy, too, made the transition with this the seventh Trek film.

However, while the scores from the original Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes were (by direction of the producers) understated, McCarthy was allowed a wider latitude with the new motion picture. Finally given the orchestra he required to create a score of "epic" quality, and ultimately incorporating a rather sizable choir; a reflection of Cliff Eidelman's score from.

With no identifiable themes to bring forward into the film franchise, McCarthy nevertheless segued motifs and arrangements from the television series into new themes for the film. Clearly identifiable are three themes: one for the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) and her crew, one for Soran and the Klingons and one representing the Nexus comprise the bulk of the score, with McCarthy reprising Alexander Courage's TOS fanfare several times. These echoes of Courage's original Star Trek theme are some of the most powerful and bombastic versions ever heard.

While Jerry Goldsmith's Next Generation theme was heard in the Generations trailer, the piece was not used in the final film.

Notable for a Star Trek score is the use of a choir throughout and dominating the main title and Nexus themes. Save for the previous effort, no other Star Trek score has before or since used such a prominent choral element, surprising considering the presence of voices in many modern film scores.

Track listing
The commercial soundtrack release of Star Trek Generations contained a sampling of the music used in the film. Below is a list of the tracks made widely available. The commercial album also contained 22 tracks of sound effects.


 * &dagger; Contains TOS theme composed by Alexander Courage