AUDIO: NASA Wakes Up Discovery Astronauts With Star Trek “Amok Time” Fight Music

Today the astronauts on Shuttle Discovery got a special bonus Star Trek wakeup call. We have previously reported that the original Star Trek theme was voted to be one of the final wakeup calls, but that wont be until next week, but this morning NASA sent up the fight song from Amok Time. Take a listen below.

 

Kroykah! Shuttle Discovery Gets Amok Time Wakeup

On Friday morning (at 4:23a ET), the astronauts on Shuttle Discovery in orbit were woken up to the classic Gerald Fried fight music (“The Ritual/Ancient Battle/2nd Kroykah")  from the classic Star Trek episode Amok Time. The music was selected for the crew by their Earthbound training team. Listen to the transmission below.

There is more Star Trek to come for Discovery’s final mission. As previously reported, the original theme to Star Trek was voted as one of two of the final wakeup calls for the NASA shuttle program. The current plan is for that to be played next Tuesday.

CORRECTION: The Star Trek theme will be played on Monday.

 

More Amok Time

The “Amok Time” fight music is now in space, but this iconic piece of Star Trek music has been working its way into pop culture for decades. It has shown up on The Simpsons, Futurama, Dexter’s Labratory and more. Here is a clip of the “Amok Time” music in the 1996 comedy "The Cable Guy"

It even features in kittie viral videos, like this one:

Could it work its way into the Star Trek sequel?

Last summer at a TrekMovie screening of Star Trek 2009 I asked composer Michael Giacchino about possibly using more classic Star Trek music stings in the 2012 sequel. I also asked specifically if using the fight music from "Amok Time" might be border on parody (because it has been used in comedies before), and Giacchino replied:

You always want to watch for that, if you do that you are not paying attention to the story…so if it is going to ruin that you don’t do it, but you never know. You might be able to orchestrate it in such a way where it suddenly doesn’t sound like what you are used to hearing, but it still is the same thing. Because that music only sounds funny to us now because we know it as it was so well, but you could do something different with it. Still have the soul of it but do it seriously and without making fun of it.

 

Thanks to Mike Okuda who helped with this report

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Cool!

2102 sequel huh? lol!

Glad to hear Trek representing in space! Loved the other clips, too. As far as Michael Giacchino’s comments go, I agree it could be done. Sometimes a key change makes all the difference.

What? They didn’t vote for any music approved by Rick Berman? :p

Got it in my producer’s notes for Monday morning… Trek Theme on shuttle. Col. Boe is a GA Tech grad, so I get to play up the story for an Atlanta audience. It’s gonna be a geek-a-rific Monday.

Absolutely perfect!

thats neat wish i was up there!!!

D’oh! Will do.

#4. LOL hahahah, they’d go back to sleep.

^4. Heh. I submitted the music question for the recent Rick Berman Q&A. I heard he answered it but I haven’t worked up the fortitude to read it yet.

lol lol lol the cable guy ruined it lol

You haven’t seen an “Amok Time ” fight until you’ve seen this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=l9IMzX26kVw

Those kittehs wrestling sure crack me up! When I had two, they would sometimes face off in a completely non-injurious battle of the wills like this one… always fun to watch them work it out.

So IS Giacchino attached to ST’12?

Fantastic! That piece of music is just brilliant. I very much hope they can find a way of reworking it for the next movie.
Its 6.30am and I may have just woken the household up laughing at those cats. Lets hope there’s a vet handy to administer the ‘look dead drug’ that McCoy shoots Jim up with. It could get messy otherwise!
Great stuff.

yes coool

Hail Mike Okuda!

18 – Monday it is. I got that a few days ago from the NASA site. Don’t mind checking though. It’s just such a nice geeky way to start my work week (which begins Sunday night at 11pm, btw, so cue the violin music pour moi.) Atlanta will get Trekked Monday morning on their 4:30am news. (You laugh — I cry — at that hour, but our ratings just came in and that little half hour has more viewers than a couple of the other stations in town get most of the day!!)

The fight in Cable Guy is brilliant. Maybe better than the original :)

Highly illogical.

Every time I hear this I think of the clip from an early “Family Guy” where Stewie orders two servants at Cherrywood to fight to the death.

don’t forget the Beastie Boys “Ch-Check it out” music video! http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2f6s_beastie-boys-chcheck-it-out_music

It’s the Decapodian national anthem!

What else would they use for wake-up? :)

The black cat had a true martial artist’s approach in watching and waiting for the mottled one’s strikes and then using these against it. A true Zen kitty!

i wonder if any of them woke up and expected to see Spock looming over their bed with a lirpa in his hand.

let’s wake them up with “Beyond Antares” next!

I so hope for Amok Time music in the next film, even if its just in the credits. The use of the Courage music during the credits for the last movie was one of the smartest things they did.

Here’s hoping….

ROFLMAO — Do they even have *battle stations* on Discovery?

Tears of sadness & joy!

On the 6.00pm TV news tonight (NZ time 10 March), they showed the discovery shuttle and played all of the Shatner voice-over (with the Courage music) made for the Discovery crew. It was so cool to hear him say it on television.