Star Trek: Ranking All 13 Movie Soundtracks

Goldsmith's Star Trek: Insurrection may have the opposite problem that Star Trek: First Contact faced: Anonymous themes collected in a massive, raucous, beautifully rendered score.

Peak 1990s Jerry Goldsmith (and essentially a continuation of the sound established in the contemporaneous US Marshals), Star Trek: Insurrection fully embraces the composer's flare for orchestral and electronic interplay, including rolling pianos and menacing chopping sounds for the evil Son'a, woodwinds and twinkling synths for the gentle Ba'ku. The score for Star Trek: Insurrection deftly balances the film's fast-paced action set pieces with the sometimes majestic pastoral setting, incorporating one of Trek's few romantic themes for Picard and Anij's tepid love story.

Returning themes from Goldsmith's previous works are kept to a minimum, with only a single reference to the TMP/TNG march upon the introduction of the Enterprise-E, two references to the Klingon theme now representative of Lieutenant Commander Worf, and just one quotation of the "A Busy Man" motif which dominated the previous film – a highlight of the work as heard in "Lost Ship / Prepare the Ship". An electronically augmented choir adds weight to "The Healing Process (Original Version)" and the Klingon theme originating in Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a cute inclusion when Worf's feeling "aggressive tendencies" during "The Drones Attack".

Star Trek: Insurrection doesn't contain the memorable material that made Star Trek: First Contact so successful, but the driving force of Goldsmith's full orchestra and creative instrumentation make Insurrection the superior of the two entries.