Category Archives: Jerry Goldsmith

Jerry Goldsmith talks Alien (1979)

A look inside Goldsmith’s thought process when he created the score for the ever-terrifying Alien (for a sense of contrast, keep in mind that he composed Alien in the same year as Star Trek: The Motion Picture!!) In fact, if you listen closely, some say that you can hear some of the same minor themes in both films. Primarily listen to the music early in Alien when the camera is panning through the empty corridors of the Nostromo and compare to the music in the scene where Spock is stealing a thruster suit rather late in the film.

*Alien credit to Bill Gold

“Main Theme” from Star Trek First Contact by Jerry Goldsmith

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This haunting theme is the main title from Star Trek: First Contact. This 1996 film is a continuation of a story begun in “The Best of Both Worlds Parts One and Two”, the third season finale and season four opener to Star Trek: The Next Generation. In those episodes, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) was kidnapped by the Borg and forcibly turned into a cyborg himself.

Now, six years later, the Borg have returned and Picard must confront his greatest enemy once and for all. I always found this theme to be incredibly beautiful. In fact, composer Jerry Goldsmith originally wrote this theme for the earlier film Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. In that earlier film, this theme represented “friendship,” namely the friendship that existed between Kirk, Spock and McCoy, who would literally do anything to help each other. To hear the theme in that movie, watch the opening scene when Kirk is climbing El Capitan, and you can hear a brief echo of the theme, which returns later in the campfire scene.

I hope you enjoy it.

Above is a simplified arrangement of the opening measures of the First Contact theme

Star Trek Insurrection:”Ba’Ku Village” (1998)

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“Ba’Ku Village” is a beautiful piece from the opening of Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) by the late Jerry Goldsmith. Composed only two years after First Contact, Goldsmtih did a complete 180 degree turn in the feel of this score, opting for music that was more lyrical and Romantic in style (though still possessing plenty of action cues in the appropriate moments). This piece plays during the opening credits of the film (notably the last Star Trek film to feature credits at the beginning of the film) while the camera pans around the idyllic village of the Ba’Ku people.

As the primary melody ends, the music turns sinister, as it is revealed that the village is being secretly observed by Starfleet and their allies, the So’Nah (who have a secret connection to the Ba’Ku).

Feel free to share thoughts in the comments as well. If you like the music, check out the video below to see the opening credits of the movie (they built the set near Mammoth Lakes in California).