By Nami Melumad (title themes by Jeff Russo)

Lakeshore Records

Boldly going alongside Captain Pike and his crew…

Most of the Star Trek soundtracks these days come out around the time of the season’s release, but this one was an odd exception, having been released around the same time as Picard Season 3, shortly before the release of Strange New Worlds season 2 on Paramount+.

The reason for the delay is shrouded in mystery, but whatever the reason, it meant the soundtrack to the first season could work as a tease and excitement-builder to encourage the listening audience to tune in for the new season.

As for the music itself, rest assured that it’s worth the wait. Russo’s theme, opening with the familiar plinky intro everyone remembers from the late Alexander Courage’s TOS intro, before going into a throbbing engine buildup that launches to a sweeping and cheerful exploratory mode that, while not as catchy or memorable as the TOS theme, feels more Trek-ish than his Discovery theme.

Melumad’s score is the main attraction, however, and very satisfying it is too. She opens with “Everyone Wants A Piece Of The Pike,” which gives us first a melancholy and then upwards-looking buildup for the Captain, before softening again into his melancholic depths to be overcome. “Put A T’Pring On It” is an early highlight, with some lovely melodies taking us into the characters’ world, and that’s swiftly followed by “Eyes On The Enterprise” which has  Berman-era house style tone to the intro before getting into a gently soaring and thrilling intro to the ship, with a triplet that has the feel of engines ticking over. It’s not derived from the spacedock music from The Motion Picture, but very much conveys the same feel, and does have references and quotations from Courage’s original theme. There is a feel of Goldsmith’s last couple of TNG era movie intros on Ortegas’ theme, “Home Is Where The Helm Is,” while Uhura gets the rather bouncy and quirky “Space Cadet” to pleasingly and encouragingly represent her.

That jaunty bounciness continues into “Comet Away With Me” for Uhura’s mission, before “Romancing The Comet” ends with thrilling orchestral tension. There’s a lot of progressive driving tension motifs through the album, along with plenty of more gently paced introspective material. The action cues for the most part follow the pattern of orchestral rapidity and sweeping horns following in from that sort of driving buildup of tempo. You can hear this throughout the likes of “M’hanit And Greet” and the latter part of “The Pike Maneuver” through to “Throw Plasma From The Train”.

It’s nice to hear recognisable themes for various characters, with Pike and Uhura having particularly noteworthy and obvious ones, melancholic and bouncy respectively. As for Spock, what catches the ear is not his thematic representation elsewhere, but the gorgeous folding of the melodies and sounds of Gerald Fried’s distinctive sistrum, bass guitar, and French horn motifs from the TOS episode “Amok Time.” The buildup and bursting forth of it is beautifully handled, and Melumad will go on to use it again in season 2, along with some other familiar motifs, so let’s hope that season’s soundtrack isn’t as delayed.

The last few tracks on the album calm down to the more melancholic and emotional tones, which Melumad excels at, and overall it’s a gorgeous album, with some of the finest orchestral scoring Trek has ever seen – well, heard – on TV, both in terms of nostalgia and new takes that fit the events on screen – which is the job of a soundtrack score.

Verdict: Awesome stuff, balancing a bunch of different elements to satisfy a wide range of listening fans. 10/10

David A McIntee