Let’s be clear – the Star Trek: Generations soundtrack that was released in 1994 was no slouch, featuring around 45 minutes of music, a collection of Generations and Star Trek: TNG sound effects, and a fridge magnet of the CD cover (no joke!). The soundtrack consumer demands a bit more these days, however, so the miraculously revived GNP Crescendo label has traded in the fridge magnet for an extra disc featuring the complete score from beginning to end.
And let’s be clear about another thing – this has always been one of the two best soundtracks from the TNG movies, demonstrating that Dennis McCarthy was not simply phoning in sonic wallpaper for TNG on TV (at least not willingly). Generations gives us McCarthy at his thunderous best, composing music with a real melody behind it and then giving a truly widescreen treatment. Of the previously unavailable cues, the one I was looking forward to hearing the most was “Distress Call / Harriman and the Ribbon”, whose first glimpse of the Nexus is a masterpiece of spine-tingling, otherworldly foreboding – the sound of laying eyes on something dangerously beyond comprehension.
The highlight of Generations remains “The Nexus / A Christmas Hug”, an eerily beautiful choral piece accompanying Picard’s disorienting fantasy of a perfect Christmas with a family that his Starfleet lifestyle would never allow him to have. McCarthy himself has always been justifiably proud of this piece, and the bonus tracks present us with this selection in choir-only form, with the orchestra mixed out completely (and it still holds up as a great piece of music).
Between this and the recent release of box sets of music from Star Trek: TNG and Deep Space Nine (each of which devote at least one CD to McCarthy’s best from each series), I’d like to think that these 
releases of his work are earning Dennis McCarthy a long-overdue reappraisal from Star Trek fandom, which seemed to indict him of the crime of not being Ron Jones for many years. McCarthy could always crank out a great tune; the strictures placed on Star Trek’s composers by its showrunner kept the music to a very dull roar (in every sense of the word “dull”). This is why you don’t have a 14-disc box set of McCarthy’s music. The expanded Generations soundtrack is a good start on redressing that balance, though.
Disc One
- Main Title (2:54)
- Past Glory (1:19)
- The Enterprise B (0:42)
- Distress Call / Harriman and the Ribbon (4:27)
- Kirk Saves the Day / Deck 15 / HMS Enterprise (4:50)
- Picard’s Message / Raid Post Mortem (4:43)
- Data and the Emotions (0:54)
- Time is Running Out (1:11)
- Data Malfunctions (2:29)
- Soran Kidnaps Geordi (2:44)
- Guinan and the Nexus (2:47)
- Torture (1:37)
- Soran’s Plan Revealed (1:49)
- Prisoner Exchange (2:59)
- Outgunned (3:22)
- The Gap / Coolant Leak / Appointment with Eternity / Out of Control / Blasted / The Crash (5:43)
- Coming to Rest (1:00)
- The Nexus (1:32)
- A Christmas Hug / The Kitchen Debate (8:03)
- Coming to Rest (1:38)
- Two Captains / Crash Recap (2:04)
- The Final Fight (6:15)
- The Captain of the Enterprise (Kirk’s Death) (2:45)
- To Live Forever (2:40)
- Star Trek: Generations Overture (4:13)
Disc Two
Original 1994 album remastered- Star Trek: Generations Overture (4:13)
- Main Title (2:54)
- The Enterprise B / Kirk Saves the Day (3:13)
- Deck 15 (1:41)
- Time is Running Out (1:11)
- Prisoner Exchange (2:58)
- Outgunned (3:22)
- Out of Control / The Crash (2:05)
- Coming to Rest (1:00)
- The Nexus / A Christmas Hug (7:07)
- Jumping the Ravine (1:38)
- Two Captains (1:34)
- The Final Fight (6:15)
- Kirk’s Death (2:45)
- To Live Forever (2:40)
Sound Effects
- Enterprise B Bridge (3:13)
- Enterprise B Doors Open (0:13)
- Distress Call Alert (0:10)
- Enterprise B Helm Controls (0:16)
- Nexus Energy Ribbon (1:38)
- Enterprise B Deflector Beam (0:08)
- Enterprise B Warp Pass-by (0:14)
- Enterprise B Transporter (0:12)
- Tricorder (0:30)
- Hypo Injector (0:03)
- Communicator Chirp (0:06)
- Door Chime (0:07)
- Enterprise D Warp Out #1 (0:22)
- Bird of Prey Bridge / Explosion (2:51)
- Klingon Sensor Alert (0:08)
- Bird of Prey Cloaks (0:04)
- Bird of Prey De-cloaks (0:10)
- Klingon Transporter (0:12)
- Soran’s Gun (0:11)
- Soran’s Rocket De-cloaks (0:05)
- Shuttlecraft Pass-by (0:21)
- Enterprise D Bridge / Crash Sequence (3:21)
- Enterprise D Warp-Out #2 (0:09)
Bonus Tracks
- Prisoner Exchange (film version) (2:59)
- A Christmas Hug (choir only) (1:22)
- Lifeforms (Vocal: Brent Spiner) (0:17)
Released by: GNP Crescendo
Release date: October 15, 2012
Disc one total running time: 75:39
Disc two total running time: 66:11
