Star Trek: 10 Times Music Saved The Day
Sing us a song, you're the Star Trek man! How come you don't know Row, Row, Row Your Boat?
Music is that one gift greater than all of the spare parts in Engineering. Star Trek has offered a beautiful soundtrack for the audience over the years, as well as showcasing some of the greatest talents in modern musical history.
Full disclosure, for the inevitable video: rights are a funny thing. Music, quite correctly, is a heavily licensed commodity. Artists deserve to be paid for their work, now and always. Still, the little chaos goblins in us would love to sit with you and play those tunes. One day, dear reader. One day.
We may have to use our imaginations here as we explore those moments in which music - either a lush orchestral piece or a booming vocal rendition - sprang to the rescue during a daring scene in Star Trek. Thanks to Phil Magnus for the inspiration here, a musician who's also our editor! Grab your metronome, project from the diaphragm, and join us on this musical odyssey.
10. A British Tar - Star Trek: Insurrection
Star Trek: Insurrection carries on the grand tradition of Data's exploration of humanity, this time using Gilbert & Sullivan to bring the android back down to Earth. Data may have been malfunctioning but such is the power of music that he shrugs it off to hit those notes.
Insurrection, despite its heavy themes, is a far lighter film than both Generations and First Contact, so the appearance of a sing-along scene was hardly that much of a surprise. Having it serve such a key role may have been a bigger surprise but, in honesty, was it not Trek to its core?
There may still have been phaser fire and unsafe velocities (just wait til they get their hands on the Argo) but A British Tar is one of the funnier, key moments of a funny, inoffensive film. Worf may not have had a chance to familiarise himself with all of the new crewmembers but, without them, Data might never have been able to expose the Son'a's dastardly plans.