Star Trek: Picard Composer’s Season 3 Preview Has A Familiar Sound
Star Trek: Picard composer Terry Matalas has revealed that season three will feature the iconic theme from Star Trek: First Contact.
Star Trek: Picard composer Terry Matalas took to Twitter on Thanksgiving and gave everyone a sneak listen at what he has planned for the third season of the Next Generation spinoff starring Sir Patrick Stewart. Fans were ecstatic to hear that the preview revealed Matalas’s intention to feature Jerry Goldsmith’s theme from Star Trek: First Contact, the Next Generation feature film released in 1996, in the upcoming season. The tweet included video of a sound mixing board, with the familiar strains of the “Main Title” playing.
Needless to say, fans were ecstatic in responses to the video. Ever since Paramount announced that the third season of Star Trek: Picard would finally reunite the entire surviving Next Generation crew with Patrick Stewart for a final adventure, fans have been eagerly anticipating the new season, which premieres February 16, 2023.
While the trailer for the new season has provided some details on the plot, including some of the villains the Enterprise crew will face, the music could provide some insight into a possible plot point. First Contact was a time-travel film, in which Picard and the crew battle the Borg, who are attempting to change history and stop Earth’s first contact with the Vulcans. Since the Borg featured heavily in season two of Picard, it is possible that they will factor in the new season as well, with the music acting as a musical bridge to the past.
Matalas actually responded to several comments to his tweet, and did provide more context. When a Twitter user asked if the music would be used with an appearance of the Enterprise-E, Matalas confirmed it would not, but provided no additional context.
For those who need help keeping track of their Enterprises, the Enterprise-E was introduced in First Contact, and was featured in the following two sequels, Insurrection (1998) and Nemesis (2002). It replaced the Enterprise-D, which was destroyed in Star Trek: Generations (1994). The Enterprise-E has not been featured in Star Trek: Picard, but fans have been sentimental to see the iconic ship again, and hope the cast’s reunion with Patrick Stewart will provide the opportunity.
Based on the new trailer, released at the recent New York Comic Con, we know season three will star Amanda Plummer as Vadic, a new enemy seeking vengeance against Picard and the Federation, although we don’t know her motives. We also see the return of Daniel Davis as Professor Moriarty and Brent Spiner reprises the role of Lore, Data’s evil twin brother who was thought to have been deactivated and gone.
Jerry Goldsmith’s haunting and sentimental First Contact theme is among his finest works ever, which is truly saying something for the Oscar-winning composer, who has scored some of the most iconic films in Hollywood history.
He started his career doing TV scores in the 1950s, and moved on to feature films, providing the scores to The Planet of the Apes, Patton, Papillon, Chinatown, Alien, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Poltergeist, First Blood (and the Rambo sequels), Gremlins, Hoosiers, Rudy, Air Force One, Mulan, and The Mummy. And those are just the blockbusters.
In addition to the original Star Trek film and First Contact, Goldsmith scored The Final Frontier, Insurrection, and Nemesis. He earned 18 Academy Award nominations over his career, winning only once, for the score to 1976’s The Omen.
