Star Trek: Ranking All 13 Movie Soundtracks

After the broody Star Trek Into Darkness, Michael Giacchino finishes out the Kelvin Timeline Trilogy with a highly memorable, highly enjoyable score for Star Trek Beyond.

Slightly less cohesive than his other two entries, Star Trek Beyond is elevated by the development of Giacchino's "Enterprising Young Men" theme in a number of new variations and by the beautiful music for Yorktown Station. While the previous installments had been light on sweeping fantasy music, Star Trek Beyond's "A Night on the Yorktown" makes up for this deficit with a theme that somehow balances Giacchino's style with the romanticism of Jerry Goldsmith's work and seafaring tone of James Horner's contributions.

In addition to fun new material for the USS Franklin and a tender theme for Jaylah, Giacchino fully develops his main theme from Star Trek (2009), placing it in a number of new settings including a contemplative piano performance in "Thank Your Lucky Star Date", an energetic action variation in "Motorcycles of Relief", and a tragic, choral chant in "Hitting the Saucer a Little Hard".

Unlike the dominant villain themes from both Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness, Krall's ill defined theme is the weak link in Star Trek Beyond, dragging down the latter half of the score. But the final moments feature an emotional reprise of the Yorktown material as well as the triumphant suite (including full statements of Alexander Courage's original theme) that has closed all three Kelvin Timeline films, making Star Trek Beyond another great entry in the franchise.