Star Trek: The Original Series (theme song)
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Star Trek was a science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s and aired between September 8, 1966 to September 2, 1969, with a total of 79 episodes produced. Although cancelled after its short run, the program was placed in syndication and spawned a strong fan following.
The show's theme tune was an instrumental piece written by Alexander Courage and over time has become immediately recognized by many people who had never even seen the program. Portions of the original theme music have been used in spin-off series and motion pictures, with Star Trek: The Next Generation's opening theme starting with the song's fanfare, followed by the Jerry Goldsmith-composed theme from the first Star Trek motion picture in 1979. At least the fanfare has been used to begin most of the Star Trek films before seguéing into music composed specially for the given film.
Lyrics were written by Gene Roddenberry without Courage's knowledge and without intending for them ever to be sung. Prior to his writing the song, Roddenberry had Courage agree to allow lyrics to be composed. Despite the non-performance, Roddenberry would nevertheless get a 50% share of the music's performance royalties. Although there was never any litigation, Courage later commented that he believed Roddenberry's conduct was unethical. Roddenberry was quoted as responding, "Hey, I have to get some money somewhere. I'm sure not going to get it out of the profits of Star Trek."
The tune was played over both the opening and closing credits of the Classic series. The opening credits were punctuated at several points by the model of the Enterprise flying toward and by the camera, with a "whoosh" sound, for dramatic effect, there being no actual sound possible in space. The closing credits were overlaid on a series of stills from various episodes, with the theme played again, minus the fanfare.
There were two versions of the theme used in the series. The first season was a strictly orchestral instrumental theme. The second and third seasons a "vocalese" element was added, by soprano Loulie Jean Norman, but with no actual lyrics. In 2006, Paramount began syndicataing a "remastered" version of The Original Series with numerous changes. For this version of the series, the theme music was re-recorded (with a new singer redoing Norman's wordless vocals). This new version of the theme is being applied to all episodes, including first season episodes that never originally included vocals.
In the 1970s, Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed Uhura on the original series, recorded a disco version of the song with lyrics different from Roddenberry's.
At the 2005 Emmys, William Shatner & opera star Fredrica von Stade performed a live version of the theme.
In 2007, some TV ads for the Hummer H3 featured the recording of the second-and-third seasons' theme.
