This, along with Goldsmith’s music for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, seem to have entrenched themselves in the minds of the public and Trek fans alike as the definitive Star Trek movie scores…by virtue, I suspect, of having been the first two. There are lovely passages – and a beautiful main and closing theme – in this action-packed score, but in a few places the sound is just too thick and too boisterous, and it’s hard to keep up with it all. Still, it’s one of everyone’s favorite soundtracks, and it is good. It’s a much better entry than Horner gave us for the Star Trek movie that followed 
this one. Also noteworthy was the use of that instrument/sound/thing called the Blaster Beam – a distinctive tone that distinguished the first two Trek films and then seemed to disappear completely until the eighth movie – in some new and different ways than it had appeared in Goldsmith’s score.
- Main Title (3:03)
- Surprise Attack (5:06)
- Spock (1:10)
- Kirk’s Explosive Reply (4:02)
- Khan’s Pets (4:18)
- Enterprise Clears Moorings (3:32)
- Battle in the Mutara Nebula (8:08)
- Genesis Countdown (6:36)
- Epilogue / End Title (8:40)
Released by: GNP Crescendo
Release date: 1982
Total running time: 44:35
