And – Spock’s theme, from Wrath of Khan, was incorporated throughout Search For Spock, btw.. With the new movie being a Spock story, it is going to be mighty interesting to see what we will hear in the new movie. Can’t wait!!!

I loved Gerry Goldsmith’s theme, but James Horner made those movies stand out with their music far more i think. Let’s hope for a Horner-esque soundtrack!

And after having read your post. Right on, brother.

Have you ever heard the fantastic John Williams extended version from a few years ago? You’d like it i’m sure.

Why? Because this movie is supposed to be about TOS. It’s a celebration of TOS and what made it work. In my opinion, the TOS theme tune is just as big a part of TOS than any of the characters, or the Enterprise. It’s integral to the very heart of the show.

Modernise the theme, sure. But use it!

I’m a musician and here’s how I’d go about doing the theme myself… I would be sure to keep the exact same melody and the exact same chords. They’re both very important. The counter-melodies (i.e. parts of the tune that aren’t the main melody) would almost certainly be altered, and I’d probably make them a lot heavier and more dominating, to allow a new emphasis to be given to an old piece.

The instrumentation would absolutely be altered (mainly, beefed up to match the scale of a massive movie), with obvious homages paid to the original instrumentation, without it detracting from the overall feel. The rhythm and tempo would also be adjusted.

In terms of structure, I would probably extend the original theme quite heavily by having loads of ‘new bits’ that added to the drama and scale of the movie, with the original theme there in the middle, possibly with different-paced sections. Certainly, it would need to end on a big, exciting uptempo pace, like the original (which slowed down right at the end, like the original).

Generally speaking, though, I think the series of films need to have a strong theme tune that does not change, and is only adapted slightly to fit into new contexts.

I aggree with everyone here that TOS music is 30% of what made it work great. It would be nice to have a few cues included in the new film like JJ did with MI:111. Those little touches really made the third MI movie work and was fun to hear. It is really to bad Mr. Lalo Schifrin has never had a chance to add the Star Trek canon other than MI music in the bloopers. It is also possible for Bill Shatner to at least do the classis intro and maybe re-word it a bit, with the original fan fare. Can’t wait to hear it. Let them do there magic.

3rd season stuff I’ve always thought was a bit out of character from the show I knew from the first two seasons. We hear evidence of it right away with “Spock’s Brain”. Which I thought was weak. However, it did have it’s moments. The stuff that was written just for the one with the OK Corral…what’s that called,…uh “Specter of the Gun”, had some interesting moments. The bar room piano with the twisted, off kilter approach was nice. And there were some nice moments in “Enterprise Incident” but I really like the bible that was laid out early on from music that was written for The Cage and later eps.