It’s a damn shame that this soundtrack was released only as a composer promo (which is a private pressing of a score paid for by the composer as an audition piece for future work as the studios look the other way, a kind of barely-sanctioned bootleg). Just as the movie Galaxy Quest itself was a hysterical spoof of all things Star Trek, throwing the out-of-work cast of a cancelled cult sci-fi series into the middle of a real interplanetary war, the music from that movie is a glorious send-up/homage to just about every composer who has laid their sonic fingers on that genre, from John Williams to James Horner to Jerry Goldsmith. And the sad thing is, for the most part, it’s a much better listening experience than, say, Goldsmith’s own score from the most recent Star Trek movie. In some ways, with this being the soundtrack to a spoof, the music had the same opportunity as the actors: to ham it up beyond anything that would normally be allowed in the object of the parody. David Newman (102 Dalmatians, Bowfinger, Anastasia and many others) rolls out snare drums, blaring brass, roaring bass notes, thick choral textures…in other words, just about every musical trick denied to the current composers of the Star Trek TV spinoffs. But this isn’t to imply that Galaxy Quest‘s score is all bombast – far from it. There are some musical moments of wonder that put anything since Star Trek: The Motion Picture to shame too.
The music is helped out tremendously by a theme tune – obstensibly that of the fictional TV show Galaxy Quest – which can be put through seemingly endless major and minor key mutations. The same theme is played as heroic, desperate and tragic, and it works. That theme tune is also included in two different 
interpretations on its own; one for the “original series,” and the second – slightly different and more thickly orchestrated – for the Next Generation-style revival which is implied to be on the air in the film’s closing credits.
Now, if only the actual Star Trek music sounded like this.
- Galaxy Quest – Classic TV Theme (0:59)
- Prologue: Galaxy Quest Clip (1:34)
- Pathetic Nesmith (0:59)
- Revealing The Universe (1:03)
- Meet The Thermians (1:11)
- The NESA Protector (0:45)
- Crew Quarters And The Bridge (1:32)
- The Launch (2:08)
- Serris Tortures Captain (1:17)
- Red Thingie, Green Thingie (3:33)
- Shuttle To Planet (1:45)
- Trek Across The Planet (2:55)
- Rolling Sphere (2:35)
- Pig Lizard (1:44)
- Rock Monster (1:56)
- “Digitize Me, Fred!” (1:18)
- “I’m So Sorry” (1:44)
- Fight Episode #17 (1:16)
- Hallway Sneak (1:02)
- Alex Finds Quelick (1:22)
- Omega 13 / Heroic Guy (3:13)
- Big Kiss / Happy Rock Monster (1:19)
- Quelick’s Death (2:09)
- The Battle (3:08)
- Mathazar Takes Command (0:58)
- Serris Kills Everybody (1:30)
- “Goodbye, My Friends” (0:52)
- Crash Landing (0:40)
- Goodbye, Serris (2:05)
- The New Galaxy Quest (1:00)
Released by: Supertracks
Release date: 2000
Total running time: 49:32
