“Battle Stations” by Jerry Goldsmith
In the last conference room meeting before Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard, the crew discusses the ramifications of Shinzon's thalaron radiation weapon. Picard decides that they must stop Shinzon from using the weapon on Earth at all costs, saying "all other considerations are secondary."
This is followed by another classic "getting ready for battle" montage as Picard walks through the ship and we hear his personal log in voice-over:
Captain's personal log, supplemental. We're heading toward Federation space at maximum warp. The crew has responded with the dedication I've come to expect of them. And like a thousand other commanders on a thousand other battlefields, I wait for the dawn.
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Goldsmith scores the end of the conference room scene, where the crew makes it clear that they understand that they may be called upon to sacrifice themselves to stop Shinzon, with an appropriate somber tone before quiet trumpets pick up his TMP theme. This then flows into the montage, featuring a new theme reminiscent of his patriotic themes to films like AIR FORCE ONE that plays over the 7/4 rhythms he uses throughout the score.
The cue rounds out with the "quiet before the storm" and a reprise of the TMP theme this time on double-reeds (always a favorite of mine), which is interrupted by the presence of Shinzon and his various motifs played on percussion, synthesizer, and low brass, all in the seven-beat rhythm.
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