Star Trek: Picard's Composers Discuss the Tones and Themes of Season 3

Images: Paramount+ / Lakeshore Records.

April 4, 2023 - Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard is in the midst of delivering an epic story that has brought the crew of the Enterprise-D back together for one last adventure. Showrunner Terry Matalas has certainly delivered the nostalgia hits for fans of The Next Generation with familiar faces and exciting cameos. But more than just seeing fan favorites, composers for the series, Stephen Barton and Frederik Wiedmann have set the tone for fans by bringing in familiar themes from Star Trek’s symphonic history while crafting new themes to support the story unfolding in season 3 of Star Trek: Picard.

Stephen and Frederik sat down with Jeff Bond from TrekMovie.com recently to discuss how they crafted the sound for this season of Star Trek: Picard.

Stephen and Frederik began with how Terry Malalas was very involved in how the show ought to sound. 

Stephen: “Terry very much pitched it to us as… let’s look back to the whole of
the franchise… at the [James] Horner and the [Jerry] Goldsmith scores. Let’s
look back at Dennis McCarthy’s work. Let’s look back at Ron Jones’ work, Cliff
Eidelman, and Leonard Rosenman, looking back at all of it, let’s take a step back
and look at what it means… Even the Alexander Courage theme, this is a
general Trek theme now and even was, I think, by the third movie, with the idea
that this isn’t a specific thing; this is a wider theme. So, I think that was always
what we were talking about.”

Frederik: “It’s funny, when I watch old movies, including all Star Trek, I’m
always baffled by how little music there is actually, in an episode or a movie, how
much space there was back then… I think the aesthetics have changed a lot over
the past 20 years in terms of scoring movies, especially in the sci-fi genre, where
there’s a lot more music now…And I think one of the big challenges in this
particular Trek was how do we make it feel like the old ideas, and the old sonic
templates for Star Trek while taking it into this current time of scoring? And I think
that the response so far has been fans have absolutely noticed how much we go
back to the roots of Star Trek sounds while also kind of giving it this modern edge
I think it needed.”

Watching Season Three of Picard, Star Trek fans will pick up on a variety of themes that Stephen and Frederik pulled from, but they also have introduced new themes to the series.

Stephen: “…The family theme, which is what we eventually christened it… It’s
something that is in the nebula birth sequence, but is hinted at throughout
episodes earlier; you kind of hear hints at it. There’s a very, very oblique
reference to it the very first time Beverly and Picard catch eye, that very slow
string arrangement, but it’s very buried in there. And gradually we unfurled it…
And the other thing that Terry was very adamant about was that he wanted a
theme that had a beginning and middle and an end that you play the whole way
through. And then, funnily enough, we played it again in Episode Six, pretty much
end to end as well.”

Frederik: “…There is a Jack Crusher idea, a musical idea that comes in the later
episodes as his relationship with his father becomes more and more distinct. And
his performance was so on the spot every single time that it just felt like you don’t
want to do anything. So the theme for him in those particular ones is extremely
subtle because he just does it all. So it’s really just very subtly supporting what’s
going on, but the performance is so strong that you really don’t want to overstep
that.”

Music certainly has played a more prominent role in Trek since the modern slate of shows have launched on Paramount+. And as a music fan (band geek in high school), this interview is a real treat to take a deep dive into the craft of composing for a television series. Go check out the entire interview at TrekMovie.com.

On one last note, the digital release of the soundtrack for season 3 of Star Trek: Picard drops on April 20 and you can preorder the vinyl on Amazon right now.