Your Favorite Main Title Theme Song (all TV series)

[dub]

• TOS - Great nostalgia. Can work great in a medley with the I Love Lucy theme without missing a beat or changing keys.
• TNG - I love the TMP part, but I'm not a fan of the instrument (or synth sound if that's what it is) that's used in the Courage section at the beginning. It makes the show sound dated immediately.
• DS9 - when I first heard it, it depressed me. LOL! Very sparse. But when I watched the series again a couple of years ago, it grew on me and now I absolutely love it. So much emotion is packed into that understated but brilliant Trek theme.
• VOY - Best theme. Best show open.
• ENT - Archer's theme is nice. And the diddy they use in the open is an okay song, but just doesn't work for me personally as a theme song for this show. I've heard someone here say they used it at their anniversary. I think that's great! But as the open for this show? No thanks.

 

[BK613]

What, no love for TAS? I like it better than 'Faith of the Heart'

 

[ryan123450]

My favorite is VOY. I loved that show so much as a teen. The intro brings back so many memories.

 

[CorporalClegg]

TOS season two, original version. I get excited every time I hear it.

That's a difference?

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

That's a difference?

Season 3 introduced the opera singer, IIRC.

--Sran

 

[Captrek]

No, the singer was introduced in S2, along with DeForest Kelley's name in the credits.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I get that, but I didn't know there was more than one.

 

[scotpens]

In order of preference:

TOS -- The first and best Star Trek theme. With its melody of long, soaring legato notes over a busy background rhythm, it says romance and adventure without any clichés of "space music." It has similarities with the songs "Out of Nowhere" and "Beyond the Blue Horizon," both written in the 1930s.

TNG -- I like the TMP/TNG theme, though it sounds maybe a bit too martial. Makes a good tune for a marching band.

DS9 -- A majestic fanfare that sounds like a lot of other majestic fanfares.

VOY -- Meh. Sounds too much like a hymn or a national anthem.

ENT -- Absolutely awful. A generic pop ballad that some hack songwriter could have scribbled on a dinner napkin in five minutes.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

That would've made a helluva theme for Galaxy Quest.

It makes me think of sails and swashbuckling.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

TOS season two, original version. I get excited every time I hear it.

That's a difference?

Yeah.

Not counting the pilots there are two versions for season one, and there's one version each for seasons two and three (season two and three had the same arrangement, but different conductors and recordings).

See here under Track Listing and search for "main title" (case insensitive). There are two different mixes each for the season two and three versions.

In 2006, for TOS-R they re-recorded and/or remixed the theme to create three different versions, one for each season, to get "better" audio quality of some kind (I'm not sure what the technical problem really was), and they used a new singer for seasons two and three. I'm so sorry, but Elin Carlson's performance just doesn't compare to Loulie Jean Norman's.

teh wiki

 

[Cyke101]

I actually prefer the Goldsmith TMP theme, but I hate the bland orchestration of it used for TNG, which is why I didn't vote for that.

I almost voted for TNG until I read this post. Perhaps, if it wasn't for TMP, I'd prefer it more.

Though, I do like that the song these days is much more grouped with TNG than TMP. And reusing TMP probably helped TNG get off the ground in the first place -- an epic movie-style score (but not epic movie-style orchestration, though) for a fledgling show that many doubted.

Oh my that just sounds terrible. Pure 80s action schlock. Did they also plan for every episode to end with everybody laughing and freeze frame?

Also agreed. Pretty campy all around.

---

As for the the rest:

-No disrespect to Alexander Courage since all the themes are essentially variations on his, but I like Giacchino's interpretation of it. But of course, his version wouldn't exist had it not been for Courage in the first place. I thin Giacchino's work is a good homage and tribute, and proves that a TV theme can work on the big screen. I was completely blown away and shaken, almost to tears, from hearing Courage's theme in a giant theater when ST09 came out.

-I ended up voting for Voyager. My least favorite show but the theme is perhaps the best fitting to the show's premise. In my opinion, it's both the most cosmic and the most optimistic of the themes (TOS and TNG had very actiony themes, DS9 was stability, and ENT -- well, was just desperate Lite FM corniness).

-Maybe on the same token, I couldn't vote for DS9 because it was so -- stationary. However, the S4 revamp was a small but great change, and it should've been the theme all along.

-ENT's Archer's Theme, I agree, would have been vastly preferable to what we ultimately got, but the mixing of orchestra with electric guitar and rock drums instantly made me think of middle aged men in dad jeans trying to stay relevant but keeping the band Chicago on standby.

A few years ago here in Chicago, our classical station WFMT had a marathon of space music, and that included the themes of TOS-VOY (and using TMP in place of TNG, but recognizing that it would serve for TNG in the lineup). What a treat to hear! I was also very relieved when, after Voyager, they moved on to Gustav Holst's The Planets, rather than going with Enterprise

 

[dub]

In case anyone would like to hear that alternate TNG theme without the crappy edit...not that a clean version helps or anything

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzpeulsbv8o[/yt]

 

[CorporalCaptain]

-Maybe on the same token, I couldn't vote for DS9 because it was so -- stationary. However, the S4 revamp was a small but great change, and it should've been the theme all along.

Yeah, the revamp transformed something boring into something exciting.

I actually prefer the Goldsmith TMP theme, but I hate the bland orchestration of it used for TNG, which is why I didn't vote for that.

I too prefer the TMP theme hands down to TNG's, despite having the Courage intro. In compressing the TMP theme to get the TNG theme, they excised some interesting variation in the middle.

 

[scotpens]

In case anyone would like to hear that alternate TNG theme without the crappy edit...not that a clean version helps or anything

I like the "funny credits" version better.