10 Times Pop Music Was Heard In Star Trek

What's that they say about time? There's too little of it? Eat, drink, and be merry! You might want to lay off the second two, though, if you're about to attempt humanity's first warp flight in a ship that was formerly a nuclear missile. Deanna would appreciate it, at least.

Nevertheless, it was with the most historic of hangovers that Zefram Cochrane boarded the Phoenix with Geordi and Riker in tow. The countdown to lift-off begins, but wait, Cochrane has forgotten something, and they simply can't launch without it!! Is it a warp plasma conduit? Dilithium? Not the nacelles, surely? A beagle? Nope, none of the above. It's his (presumably) favourite song on a curiously-shaped bit of yellow plastic. Now, let's get a shift on, the Vulcans are coming!

When Cochrane finally plugs in his mission-critical mini-disc, what immediately blasts out is hard rock band Steppenwolf's Magic Carpet Ride. The song first appeared as the lead single on the album The Second in 1968 and was the band's second biggest hit after Born to Be Wild.

Interestingly enough, the character of Zefram Cochrane made his first appearance on screen in Star Trek only a year earlier in 1967 in The Original Series episode Metamorphosis, played by Glenn Corbett. James Cromwell would play Steppenwolf-fanboy Cochrane brilliantly in Star Trek: First Contact, although we'll never know what Tom Hanks, who was briefly considered, might have made of the role. He certainly would have played it with just as much… heart and soul.

In any event, definitely have the sound down for the first few seconds when you get to that part of your playlist, or you'll end up like Troi and the rest of the Phoenix launch control crew – with burst eardrums!

Ooby Dooby by Roy Orbison also appears in First Contact, to comic effect, but maybe we'll do a sequel article for that one.