Star Trek: Ranking All 13 Movie Soundtracks

Perhaps a sign that Star Trek Generations really is just a big(-ish) budget series finale for Star Trek: The Next Generation, the producers tapped series mainstay Dennis McCarthy for the TNG crew's first big screen adventure instead of one of Hollywood's more notable composers. What resulted is a serviceable, even beautiful score that's almost totally forgettable.

McCarthy's majestic choral compositions associated with the Nexus are a bright spot of the score, clearly an upgrade from the smaller ensembles he was given to work with on a television budget. Generations also features what are arguably the best renditions of Alexander Courage's Star Trek fanfare, the biggest coming just after the opening titles as that mysterious Champagne bottle smashes into the side of the Enterprise-B.

Those benefits aside, McCarthy made a fatal error in scoring Star Trek Generations by failing to incorporate Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek: The Motion Picture march, a theme which had become synonymous with Star Trek: The Next Generation after seven seasons as that show's opening title. Instead McCarthy composed his own, fairly anonymous main title, robbing TNG's first outing of its signature musical identity. It makes sense McCarthy would favor his own composition over someone else's work, but the marketing campaign's use of Goldsmith's march over McCarthy's themes for the film itself had to be a sign...