Poll Rank you favorite main themes

[Lord Garth]

Pop quiz: aside from the opening theme, how many DSC themes have you noticed and could hum on request?

1. Mirror Universe, end of the first episode when Burnham kills her way to the bridge.
2. The battle between Burnham and Kol before his ship is destroyed.
3. When Emperor Georgiou makes her grand appearance, complete with guitar riff, and makes short work of Kol-sha.
4. Ominous music at the end of the end of "Battle at the Binary Stars" when Burnham is sentenced to life imprisonment.
5. The melody on the bridge that's similar to the opening theme that's seen typically at the end of an episode.
6. When Discovery makes is grand rescue of the colony in "The Butcher's Knife". The music makes half the scene, and I consider it Discovery's greatest hero moment.
7. The music when Stamets encounters Culber in the Mycellial Network in "What's Past is Prologue".

Good enough for you?

Lord Garth 101: I can back up everything I say.

 

[Boris Skrbic]

But how many times did you watch DSC? (For me, I think it was 2-3 times for S1, 1-2, mostly 1 for S2.)

I noticed the MU theme on my first viewing, but as for the rest, couldn’t tell you.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Tempted to put the Kelvin theme at the top because that is by far and away the one that most gets stuck in my head, but opening the door to movies means I would have to rank the other movies and I don't remember what all of them were, but I also can't just skip them all (because I know off the top of my head I definitely liked FC, TUC and TVH a lot), and I'm not interested in spending the next half hour just watching theme songs.

So, tv only, it is:

DS9 - Somewhat biased, it is my favorite show, but I also just think it's gorgeous and fits the series perfectly
Voy - Surprised to see people hating on the VOY theme - musically it's by far the most 'space-y', imo
TOS - Classic, Iconic
TNG - Was good for its time, now it's too short and too repetitive - it just gets on my nerves watching the TNG credits sequence at this point
DSC - Some parts have potential, but the potential never comes together into a decent theme
ENT - It's lame, but kind of sort of works ok sometimes
TAS - Utterly moronic. Star Trek Love boat.
ENT Remix theme - Even worse than the love boat.

 

[Lord Garth]

But how many times did you watch DSC? (For me, I think it was 2-3 times for S1, 1-2, mostly 1 for S2.)

I noticed the MU theme on my first viewing, but as for the rest, couldn’t tell you.

This is slight goalpost moving, but I'll roll with it. I've seen S1 five times and S2 twice. It will be thrice when I buy the Blu-Rays when they're out. And most likely a fourth time before S3 starts.

 

[Lord Garth]

@Boris Skrbic

I want to follow-up my previous with something. My favorite Trek TV background music -- not talking about the intros -- is from TOS and the first four seasons of TNG. Those won't be topped, musically, because unfortunately TV these days doesn't allow for that, for whatever reason.

This is across the board on all of television. I think music on TV from the '50s to '80s stood out far more in general than from the '90s on. That's why I have to divide things at roughly 1990 or I'd never consider much TV music that's newer.

 

[Boris Skrbic]

Of course it can be topped if a showrunner is smart enough to hire a composer like Bear McCreary and let them do their thing. Think nBSG, Caprica and Outlander.

 

[Qonundrum]

TOS>TNG>DS9(mk2)>DS9(mk1)>TAS>>>>>the ever-so-optimistic evening news>>>>>>>>Sesame Street>Barney the Dinosaur>>>>the others

 

[Boris Skrbic]

TAS music seems to have been written by “rewording” TOS music to save money on royalties, but could it really stand up to legal action? Structurally it’s far too close.

 

[Lord Garth]

TAS music seems to have been written by “rewording” TOS music to save money on royalties, but could it really stand up to legal action? Structurally it’s far too close.

The melody in most of it sounds like it's own Super '70s thing. Gene Roddenberry was a producer on both shows and he wrote the unused "lyrics" for the original Sandy Courage theme. If you took each beat to stand for a lyric, then if the TOS theme meant something, then the TAS theme would be like a word salad with a whole bunch of other stuff thrown in.

An example below:

"This is a sentence where I type about Star Trek."
vs.
"Star Trek where a sentence type this about is I."

I re-arranged the words and some of the meaning now is distorted. In one it's a sentence about Star Trek, in the other it's a Star Trek sentence about me. So the first sentence could mean I'm going to the talk about the show. In the second, it could mean I'm talking about myself as a fan. So the meaning's been altered by rearranging it. And it just sounds worse because it looks like broken English.

"Could we simulate--"
"The sounds but not the language. We'd be responding in gibberish."

 

[Smellmet]

TV:

TOS
TNG

DS9
VOY


DIS




ENT

 

[ichab]

1)DS9
2) TOS
3) TNG
4)VOY
5)TAS
6) DIS

7.) ENT only 7 because that's as low as it can go.