#Notevember
Species Theme
“Romulan Theme” by Fred Steiner
Maybe the original “species theme” coming in just the fourteenth episode of Star Trek1, the theme written by Fred Steiner for the Romulans in “Balance of Terror” remains one of the quintessential music motifs in all of Trek. Playing over most of the action involving the Romulans, Steiner’s theme is instantly memorable and iconic.
A testament to the effectiveness of this theme is the fact that it continues to turn up in modern renditions of Star Trek. Jeff Russo made use of it at the end of the first episode of Star Trek: Picard, “Remembrance” as the camera pulls back from Soji and Narek to reveal a defunct Borg cube under the control of the Romulans:
And then, in the fantastic final episode of the first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, “A Quality of Mercy,” Nami Melumad took the opportunity presented by an alternate telling of the events of “Balance of Terror” to bring back the theme yet again during the re-do of the famous “now we are finally going to see what the Romulans look like” moment:
Or if you’re going in production order, episode 8.
Also, there is an argument to be made that Steiner’s excellent theme for Balok and his ship Fesarius in “The Corbomite Maneuver” is the first “species theme”, though that one was never species-specific IMHO.↩
