Ranking first 5 Star Trek theme songs from worst to best
#5: Star Trek: Enterprise
Someone has to be last on the list, and I’m afraid that for me, that somewhat dubious honor goes to the theme of Star Trek: Enterprise.
This is in no way a reflection of my feelings of the series as a whole, for I am actually currently watching it and find it to be one of the most underrated Trek series, but we are not talking about the show.
I can certainly appreciate the efforts to bring Trek into the 21st century and do so with a fresh and more modern theme song, still, the first version of the theme was the only Trek theme song (to date) to not be purely instrumental, and while the song itself is not a bad one, it just doesn’t get me in the mood for the brand of science fiction and adventure. As only a Trek series can.
Since Enterprise is the last of the first five series I have seen, that has perhaps given me a bias for the instrumental themes of the other four, and I openly admit that. That being said, while not a bad song, it must take its place at #5 in the list of the themes of the first five series.
#4: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Unlike the themes of some of the other series, the theme of DS9 moves at a much slower pace. It is not an entirely inaccurate criticism that the theme lacks the drama that the show itself offers up in copious amounts, but in a way, I find the much slower theme fitting for the setting of the show.
Deep Space Nine is not a series about a starship and its crew gallivanting around the galaxy, but might actually be the Star Trek equivalent of a soap opera, and that is perfectly reflected in its theme song. The series features marriages, workplace drama and they all even hang out in a bar.
Deep Space Nine is less about exploration and zooming through space and more about a community of people, living, working, and co-existing on a space station. While it might lack the drama of the other four themes, the DS9 theme represents the show perfectly.
#3: Star Trek: Voyager
While not unlike the theme to DS9, for both themes move at a slower pace than those that came before them, I feel that the theme to voyager has a bit more touch of the dramatic, a bit more gravitas than the one of DS9.
When listening to Voyager’s theme, to me it conjures up the mood of the unknown, which is of course what Voyager is about. Voyager’s theme brings to mind the sheer vastness of space and all new planets and alien life forms that even Voyager, crewed by seasoned veterans of Starfleet and fans alike have never come into contact with before.
The theme of Voyager delivers the sounds of a sense of wonder and of exploration that is ultimately not only what the series of Voyager is about, but what the Star Trek franchise is about as a whole.