The 14 Dumbest Things In Star Trek First Contact

12. Zephram’s Magic Carpet Ride

Star Trek: First Contact
Paramount

I’m sure when Chuck Yaeger broke the sound barrier he was humming a tune like Haydn's "Ox Minuet" from the 1850s because that’s the equivalent of Cochrane blasting Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride” during blast-off: a song that’d be 93 years old in the year 2163.

It’s a ridiculous conceit by the former TV writers who were no doubt also excited to finally have a music clearance budget.

But you know what’s really dumb? Paying that licensing fee and not even milking that music for all it’s worth and letting it musically carry the whole launch sequence. Instead, they have Riker play backseat grandpa killjoy who asks Cochran to “turn it down.”

If you’re gonna go there, turn it up to 11.

 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Maurice is one of the founders of FACT TREK (www.facttrek.com), a project dedicated to untangling 50+ years of mythology about the original Star Trek and its place in TV history. He's also a screenwriter, writer, and videogame industry vet with scars to show for it. In that latter capacity he game designer/writer on the Sega Genesis/SNES "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — Crossroads of Time" game, as well as Dreamcast "Ecco the Dolphin, Defender of the Future" where Tom Baker performed words he wrote.