The Theme Song to ‘Star Trek’ Had Lyrics. And They Sucked.

And you won’t believe what they were:

Beyond
The rim of the star-light
My love
Is wand’ring in star-flight
I know
He’ll find in star-clustered reaches
Love,
Strange love a star woman teaches.
I know
His journey ends never
His star trek
Will go on forever.
But tell him
While he wanders his starry sea
Remember, remember me.

Hah?

The lyrics were never even meant to be heard on the show, but not because the network (NBC) nixed them. Roddenberry nixed them himself. Roddenberry wanted a piece of the composing profits, so he wrote the hokey lyrics solely to receive a “co-writer” credit.

As one of the composers, Roddenberry received 50% of the royalties … cutting Alexander Courage’s [the composer of the music] share in half. Not surprisingly, Courage was furious about the deal. Though it was legal, he admitted, it was unethical because Roddenberry had contributed nothing to why the music was successful.

Roddenberry was unapologetic. According to Snopes, he once declared, “I have to get some money somewhere. I’m sure not gonna get it out of the profits of Star Trek.”

And of course, the sci-fi visionary was correct. Star Trek was cancelled after only three seasons, never to be heard from again.