Star Trek: Ranking All 13 Movie Soundtracks
Which one will be stuck in your head today?
Unlike that other franchise whose name begins with "Star", Star Trek's cinematic musical identity has been surprisingly inconsistent over the past 40 years. With nearly every film came a new composer, leading to the franchise's near total lack of continued themes and leitmotifs across installments.
Without that thematic consistency, the franchise instead relied on tone – triumphant marches, sweeping overtures, romantic love themes, and catchy leitmotifs nudged the action along as much as any soaring vista, tragic death, or threatening space cloud.
Heavyweights like Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, and Micheal Giacchino have produced some of Trek's greatest music, while unknowns like Cliff Eidelman have delivered scores that are just as memorable. Of course there are some headaches in the bunch (sorry Beastie Boys don't count), but for the most part Star Trek's musical legacy is a beautiful and hummable one.
Here's our ranking of all 13 (and counting) Star Trek movie soundtracks from worst to best.
13. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home – Leonard Rosenman
Ditching all of the themes built across the previous two films by James Horner (to say nothing of Jerry Goldsmith's timeless material from Star Trek: The Motion Picture), Leonard Rosenman's music for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is an appropriately upbeat accompaniment to the film's comedic tone, if light on the expected fantasy and nobility of Star Trek film scoring.
Despite the score's Oscar nomination (the second and last for the franchises' music), much of the film lacks score due to director Leonard Nimoy's preference for more naturalistic dialogue scenes. What's left is a short soundtrack without much weight, heavily dated by the 1980s recording style and the inclusion of regrettable source music by The Yellowjackets. The structure of the main title is halting and let's not even talk about that odd Russian jig during Chekov's escape from the US Navy or the "look how much fun we're having" tone of the subsequent hospital chase sequence.
The highlight of this score is the brief but epic reprise of Alexander Courage's theme from Star Trek: The Original Series in the closing moments of the film ("Home Again and Credits" on the soundtrack album), but you'll probably just remember that profane punk song from the bus.