Despite being nearly 60 years, the Star Trek franchise is stronger than ever. Thanks to streaming, viewers of all ages are discovering classic series while also watching shows like Strange New Worlds or Lower Decks. One series getting its due, Star Trek: Enterprise, has a controversial theme song that failed to resonate with audiences for a subtle reason. And it might be all George Lucas' fault.
Originally called Enterprise, the series is a prequel set about 100 years after the past events of First Contact. Captain Jonathan Archer leads Earth's first Warp 5 ship into the great unknown to meet the galaxy at large in the days before the United Federation of Planets existed. However, what people most remembered about the series before streaming was the theme song,
"Where My Heart Will Take Me." The song has been played in actual space as a wake-up call for astronauts on the Space Shuttle. Some fans love it, but a piece like that simply doesn't work to open a Star Trek series. It's the fault of that other space opera, Star Wars, and the incredible score by John Williams. It set an unwritten rule for the audience that sci-fi which wants to be taken seriously starts with its music.
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Enterprise debuted in 2001, but the theme song dates back some years earlier. In 1998, Rod Stewart released "Faith of the Heart" by legendary songwriter Diane Warren. For the show, she reworked the lyrics, gave the song a new name, and Russell Watson performed it. In later seasons, the song was rearranged to a faster tempo with drums and tambourines added. However, the Enterprise theme song failed for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the music.
George Lucas knew when making Star Wars that he was in real trouble if the effects didn't work. One way to bolster the gravitas of the movie was to tap John Williams, fresh off Jaws, to write the score. The rest is history. When Paramount tried to make their sci-fi epic, they tapped the equally-legendary Jerry Goldsmith to score Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
The franchise continued to commission themes from Goldsmith, James Horner, Dennis McCarthy and other phenomenal musicians. Their music adds a grandeur to the images, priming viewers for the stories Star Trek delivers. They don't need lyrics because the music speaks directly to the imagination.
Viewers can hum their favorite themes or music cues. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma began his 2021 Presidential Inauguration performance of "Amazing Grace" with the first notes of Alexander Courage's original Star Trek theme. This music becomes a part of the fabric of the culture. In fairness, Enterprise continued to use a traditional orchestral score, but it's the theme song that sets the tone.
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Star Trek's Enterprise NX-01 seen in space
The series co-creators, Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, wanted to do something different after the end of Star Trek: Voyager. One idea, squashed by the studio, was to spend the first season on Earth and only launch the Enterprise during the finale.
They also came up with an opening title sequence that would track the history of exploration and flight, ending with the first warp-drive vessel also from First Contact. Since they were doing something different, they wanted the theme to reflect that. The song, at least with its new lyrics, spoke directly to the series' themes, according to Rick Berman. He especially found it beautiful when taken in concert with the images in the opening sequence. It was a big swing. It just missed.
Music is pretty close to magic, and "Where My Heart Will Take Me" cast its spell on some fans who love it. Yet, for most fans, the absence of a soaring, orchestral theme created a barrier to the rest of Enterprise, which deserves respect among its Star Trek peers.
The show itself was great, with prescient stories about terrorism in the very early 2000s. The Enterprise theme song failed the series because, despite Warren's talent, it couldn't compete with the powerful brass, thundering drums and haunting strings of an orchestra. It primes the heart in a much different way, especially ahead of a show about warp drives and cranky aliens.
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