Dennis McCarthy, a composer who had worked on The Next Generation, was given the task of composing for the feature. Critic Jeff Bond wrote that while McCarthy’s score was “tasked with straddling the styles of both series”, it also offered the opportunity for the composer to produce stronger dramatic writing. The film’s opening music is a choral piece that plays while a floating champagne bottle tumbles through space. For the action scenes with the Enterprise-B, McCarthy used low brass chords. Kirk was given a brass motif accented by snare drums (a sound not used on The Next Generation), while the scene ends with dissonant notes as Scott and Chekov discover Kirk has been blown into space.

Official Releases

McCarthy expanded his brassy style for the film’s action sequences, such as the battle over Veridian III and the crash-landing of the Enterprise. For Picard’s trip to the Nexus, more choral music and synthesizers accompany Picard’s discovery of his family. The film’s only distinct theme, a broad fanfare, first plays when Picard and Kirk meet. The theme blends McCarthy’s theme for Picard from The Next Generation’s first season, notes from the theme for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Alexander Courage’s Star Trek theme.

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