Is this the Enterprise theme that could have been?
1 min read
It’s no secret that the Enterprise theme tune was not hugely popular, but for quite some time it was rumoured that the theme would in fact be Wherever You Will Go by The Calling. The song was used in promotional adverts on UPN at the time, leading to conjecture that it would also be the show’s theme.
One enterprising (no pun intended) YouTuber mashed up the credits with Wherever You Will Go; the music blends well with the timing of the video, most notably a change in tempo when the rockets lift off. Could it have been an early contender for the theme?
Take a look, and see which you prefer.
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That actually wasn’t half bad!
That song was from the UPN promos for Enterprise before it started airing. You can hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fnMidQ6CGk
I still prefer the original though.. or the more upbeat one.
I think Archer’s Theme could have been made into a good theme song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RAuU9URKY4
This show needed a strong instrumental theme, not a lamea** song like this one or the one they used in the series. Oh, and they needed a ship design that made sense for a supposed prequel to TOS. This series was a misfire from day one…not unlike the two “JarJar” movies.
ick, no. Just…no.
The Diane Warren song is still better than this. Not good, mind you, but better than this.
I think an instrumental would have been better. Something strong and epic. On the other hand I always wandered why all incarnations of Trek never had rock n roll or pop music as part of the show. Everyone seemed to only listen to classical music. That’s about the only thing I like about Abrams Trek is that there is still rock music around. Although I don’t know who much I would believe James Kirk would have been a Beastie Boys fan.
Yuck. Do you know how everyone loves to paste sentimental music on top of videos of their their photo collections or otherwise useful YouTube tutorials such that they become tedious and annoying? This is like that. It leaves me completely disconnected from the imagery.
Which version we PREFER?!
Isn’t that like asking us which eardrum we prefer to have torn out of our skulls?
Archer’s Theme was actually supposed to be the theme, but the studio wanted a song, not something instrumental, which is why it fits the credits so perfectly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8vslSWlsEg
TOS, to its credit, attempted contemporaneous “future” music a few times. Now unfortunately, one of those attempts was “The Way to Eden”, but in the first season Fred Steiner put together a very cool-sounding instrumental track that played during the miners’ party in “Mudd’s Women”, and “The Conscience of the King” featured a jazz version of the Trek theme that played during the Leighton’s party. And of course there was Vina’s dance theme from “The Cage”.
Of course these tracks sound very ’60s-ish now, but I still prefer it to the way TNG handled in-universe music, which was to simply pretend that nothing at all had been written after 1940 or so. Every time a character played or sat down to listen to music it was almost invariably 18th or 19th Century classical, and this contributed to the often-stodgy feeling of that series. Later, DS9 and VGR pretended that everybody still gave a damn about mid-20th Century pop culture, which seemed pretty silly.
As for Abrams, that jackass ruined “Sabotage” for me forever.
I don’t think the song works as the theme (I’m not saying it’s a bad song). I wouldn’t have been opposed to Beautiful Day, the song they used as a temp track.
Classical is cheaper to license. Riker liked Jazz. I always kind of liked the idea that the classics would still be appreciated by the general public that far in the future.
In ST: Insurrection, Picard briefly listened to a track of the movie ‘Soapdish’ (that the computer chise for him) (which Paramount owns).
Zephram Cochrane was a fan of rock n’ roll.
I really did not like the “Enterprise” theme song (and this remix); it just was not make me think about adventure, just… irritating FM radio. The “Voyager” and DS9 themes were epic. I really felt like they set the stage for what was to come next once the credits stopped rolling.
Where the Hell was this theme? God! That knocked me off the chair! I was like “OKAY! What’s coming next!!!” not that warbley crud they ended up with!
I’m really leaning more towards “In a Mirror, Darkly”.
At the time I was championing this song as an alternative if they were going to go with a pop song. It worked in the promos and as beautiful as the last 4 instrumental themes (well, TOS was instrumental-ish) had been, it was an obvious idea to go with a song with lyrics for once and contemporize things. “Wherever You May Go” isn’t exactly Arcade Fire, but even now it’s not as immediately cheesy and older-skewing as “Faith of the Heart.” A cover version of this song might have worked, skirted some of the licensing expenses and conflicts.
This would have been far preferable to what we got, though instrumental still would have been best. But I did listen to this song constantly the summer of 2001, hoping like so many others it would be the theme. Sadly instead we got what we did.
This possibility was heavily discussed at the time, only to disappear in the static about “Faith of the Heart” itself when the truth was revealed.
I personally loved the Enterprise theme. . .and I wouldn’t change a note or a word.
lol…. okay, I’ll bite….. Which one?
Never cared for Faith of the Heart. Think this works better. Would’ve preferred instrumental and epic, more Goldsmith than McCarthy.
…especially on vinyl. While yiffing. Gah.
Enterprise was trying to break out of the conventions, customs, ruts that had been dug by the previous four series. This was sometimes successful, sometimes not. So they went with a pop song… a horrid, generic, bland bit of pap that didn’t go at all well with the images.
This song is a much better fit. I like this opening a good deal better than the (ugh) official one.
‘Sabotage’ was just about my least favorite Beasties, and I was pretty burned out on it. I actually like the song better after watching that scene. The entire scene seems to have been intended to bridge the gap between us and the 23rd century, to give modern “mundane” audiences something to relate to. I think it worked well.
The self-cannibalizing double-yiffing scene in Star Trek Into We Eat Our Own Feces was just embarrassing, stupid and unnecessary. We’re already there, people can rent the previous film, and gods’ tits, is that vinyl??? Care to guess how expensive the record and player would be? Of all the things he could blow money on to impress chicks, you expect us to believe he got that???
KANG LIKE!
That. Was. Perfect. For. Enterprise. Orchestral, majestic and upbeat, with a more contemporary sound.
Fuck UPN.
The Callings’ “Wherever You Will Go” was teased to us in the promos, then dumped for the “Patch Adams” song?? WHY?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeOwvQFYABo
Definitely NOT series theme song material. Amazingly, I actually like “Faith of the Heart” better than this, and I absolutely never expected myself to EVER type that phrase, as I absolutely hate that theme. Berman was total jag for choosing it, and pretty much sealed Star Trek’s fate afterwards.
Just as the theme from ST:TMP became the theme for ST:TNG, the theme from “First Contact” could have been the theme for “Enterprise.”
This and the one used belong on soap operas.
That’s an awesome theme, agreed. I think there’s a nice troika with that, Goldsmith’s main theme from TMP, and the main title theme from The Undiscovered Country as the best themes. I also think those have held up through the years, and each is very different, with FC’s being more uplifting and hopeful, and could certainly be used for exploration along with Goldsmith’s, which additionally really brings the pomp and grandeur of ST, whereas TUC’s is dark and moody and has been used, I think, in every subsequent Star Trek movie within the prime timeline for promotional purposes, i.e. their trailers… Of course, I also love Horner’s TWOK work and Leonard Rosenman’s fun stuff for TVH… Star Trek has had some great music. Well… it did.
It always irritates me when I hear the TMP theme referred to as “the Next Generation theme”. The TMP arrangement was richer and more powerful than the one used for the theme’s later repurposing.
I always hated Rosenman’s TVH score. The main title was okay, everything else was awful, atonal sludge. It was a major reason TVH felt just a bit too “light”, especially as the conclusion to the TWOK/TSFS films and their rich Horner scores.
I appreciated it for exactly that light quality… it shows the range of Trek… but I can see how it wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
Also sucks.
Oh god this one is even worse than the one they used (and that’s really saying something!).