"Home Again" by Leonard Rosenman
While I welcome the opportunity to highlight the most unfairly maligned score in Star Trek, this cue also happens to perfectly fit today's #Notevember prompt.
After the events of STAR TREK III, we have finally made the crew whole again with the restoration of Spock. But our Trek family isn't truly "one" again until the end of STAR TREK IV, because we were still missing one critical piece—Enterprise.
Following the conclusion of the trial and Spock's reconciliation with his father, Sarek, we see the crew being shuttled through Spacedock. It appears that they are being taken to a ship, but which ship?
Some are skeptical:
The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe. We'll get a freighter.
- Dr. Leonard McCoy
Others are more optimistic:
With all due respect, Doctor, I'm counting on Excelsior
- Hikaru Sulu
They all are in for a surprise though when the camera pans over Excelsior, and then beyond to reveal a new USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A).
My friends, we've come home.
- Captain James T. Kirk
Their Voyage Home is complete at last.
I absolutely adore everything about Rosenman's cue here. The quiet scene between Spock and Sarek is appropriately minimally scored, bringing in the Vulcan motifs he has used throughout. When we cut to Spacedock and inside the travel pod, we are treated to a glorious arrangement of Alexander Courage's TOS theme (a rarity in the Trek films). When it looks for a moment that we are approaching Excelsior, the music cuts out for a moment before building to the reveal of the new Enterprise with a triumphant statement of the Courage fanfare that flows beautifully with Rosenman's own themes and the TOS theme on French horn once again.
Kirk's order closes out the film and transitions to the end titles. Since they are a part of the same cue, I've included them here as well.
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