The Blaster Beam

The Blaster Beam

Taken from IMDB.com

((Invented the "Blaster Beam", a unique electronic musical instrument which consisted of a 15 foot metal beam strung with several wires and equipped with electric guitar pickups. It was "played" by striking the wires with metallic objects such as mallets or even artillery shells. It was first heard in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" as the distinctive metallic bass notes associated with V'ger. It went on to become a staple of science fiction film scores in the 80's and 90's (such as 2010 and Alien^3)))

Back in the 70s Jerry Goldsmith was slated to write and conduct the score for Star Trek’s first motion picture. Besides writing one of the best score of his musical career, Goldsmith also added the sound of Craig Huxley's Blaster Beam. The Blaster Beam gave the strange cloud V'Ger a unique sound that seemed alien.

The Blaster Beam for V’Ger was one of the few themes not to change when Director Robert Wise threw out Goldsmith’s original score for the film. Luckily, Goldsmith only wrote like 20 mins or so before he had to start over.

Useless facts about the Blaster Beam

~Craig Huxley AKA Craig Hundley Created the Blaster Beam and was a child actor at one point. He even starred in an episode of the original Star Trek show. (("And the Children Shall Lead" ep))

~After Goldsmith moved on, James Horner was brought in to compose Star Trek 2 and 3. Being a complete Goldsmith fanboy, Horner reused the Blaster beam instrument in those two movies. Listen for it in the battle in the nebula and in the stealing of the enterprise.

~Strange but true, it was used in V: The Final Battle. Music written by Dennis McCarthy another trek composer.

~The opening blaster beam solo in the (Star Trek: TMP) movie was completely different than the version used on the album. That’s because the notes could never exactly be reproduced on the Blaster Beam.