Best sci-fi soundtrack?

POSTED BY: DMI
UPDATED: Wednesday, September 10, 2025 18:37
VIEWED: 49721
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DMI

Thursday, April 12, 2012 1:12 AM

Not theme, but soundtrack as a whole. TV or movie. What you got?

I'm a big fan of Bear McCreary's work on the new BSG, but the tunes to Cowboy Bebop are without a doubt the best part of that show. Makes for a tough choice and there's so many others I love....

WISHIMAY

Thursday, April 12, 2012 2:30 AM

I don't know about sci-fi, but I love Movie soundtracks in general.

I have The Cutting Edge, City of Angels, Chicken Little, The last Mummy movie (Dragon Emperor)sountrack was EPIC!
Dances with Wolves, Forrest Gump, Blues Bro's 2000...

NEEDY

Thursday, April 12, 2012 8:10 AM

This is such a tough question, I'm such a fan of soundtracks in general and I'd say half of my extensive collection of cds are soundtracks

First ones that stick out immediately are:
James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer's scores to Batman Begins and The Dark Knight (if they count as sci-fi),

John Ottman's "Superman Returns" (taking John Williams' original themes and expanding on them, creating a more-rounded score than even the original movie),

Marco Beltrami's "Hellboy" (one of my favourite composers - his action cues can sound samey after a while but he creates the best themes, and Hellboy is one of the most beautiful scores in a long time)

Bear McCreary's "Battlestar Galactica" scores, in particular his double disc Season 4 collection, which on the first cd has so many remarkable tracks to justify the price of the soundtrack alone, only to throw in the 2nd disc which has the music for the final episode, bringing together all the popular themes from the previous 4 years and making it a hugely satisfying send-off.

Michael Giacchino's "Lost" soundtracks. I love all of the Lost Soundtracks, but the final cd (a limited release entitled "The Last Episodes") has, like BSG's Season 4, brought back many old themes, some from season 1, and blended them perfectly with newer pieces. Even now, listening to this cd makes me reflect warmly back on the episodes, and with certain tracks even gets me a bit emotional too.

THESOMNAMBULIST

Thursday, April 12, 2012 9:00 AM

Ok if we're talking soundtracks here then I'm going with Fight Club.
If we're talking Scores then Danny Elfman's Batman Returns. or John William's score for Empire Strikes Back
Theme wise I'd go with the original Mission Impossible Lalo Shifrin (that's kind of sic-fi)

ANONYMOUSE

Thursday, April 12, 2012 12:25 PM

John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra for Star Wars: A New Hope.

Close second: The Empire Strikes Back.

Third: Jerry Goldsmith, Star Trek: The Motion Picture (improved now in the Director's Cut)

Fourth: Michael Giacchino, The Incredibles - a fun soundtrack if ever there was one

Fifth: John again, Superman

Sixth: Jerry again, for Alien - I always loved the theme track especially.

Seventh: David Newman, Serenity - yeah, yeah, seventh, I know, but what's a Star Wars fan who remembers it the first time around to do?

PIZMOBEACH

Thursday, April 12, 2012 1:41 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by DMI:
Not theme, but soundtrack as a whole. TV or movie. What you got?

I'm a big fan of Bear McCreary's work on the new BSG, but the tunes to Cowboy Bebop are without a doubt the best part of that show. Makes for a tough choice and there's so many others I love....

Big fan of Bear McCreary's BSG too. Here are some other favs:

Inception - Magisterial, probably my all time favorite
Water World - James Newton Howard, under appreciated by association with a poorly reviewed movie - too bad, excellent score.
The Village - James Newton Howard, spooky & meditative
Latest Star Trek - Michael Giacchino, not easy working with classic themes, great job imho
Alien - Jerry Goldsmith

non-scifi honorable mention:
Beautiful Mind - James Horner, as classic as it gets
Hans Zimmer - Black Hawn Down, especially Danez Prigent & Lisa Gerrard:

Scifi movie music + Firefly dialogue clips, 24 hours a day - http://www.scifiradio.com

RIONAEIRE

Thursday, April 12, 2012 10:52 PM

Favorite soundtracks, I don't own them all.

Cold Mountain, Braveheart, Titanic, Gladiator, Firefly (but my copy doesn't have the Mal and Saffron song :(), King Arthur, Man On Fire, Secret of Roan Inish, Whale Rider.

I assume you're my pal until you let me know otherwise.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya.

CLJOHNSTON108

Friday, April 13, 2012 5:48 PM

Some of my favorites (not exclusively Sci-Fi, though)...

• Airwolf
• Awake
• Babylon 5
• nuBSG
• Blade Runner
• Conan the Barbarian (Original)
• Cowboy Bebop
• Crimson Tide
• dueSOUTH
• The Equalizer
• The Final Countdown
• Firefly
• From the Earth to the Moon
• Grand Canyon
• Human Target (1st season)
• Inception
• The Incredibles
• In the Shadow of the Moon
• The Iron Giant
• Iron Man
• La Femme Nikita (Movie)
• Miami Vice
• Midnight Run
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture
• Star Wars
• TRON: Legacy
• Any Wes Anderson movie

I love this Internet radio station, Streaming Soundtracks...
http://www.streamingsoundtracks.com/
It's on iTunes, and this page is very helpful...
http://www.streamingsoundtracks.com/modules.php?name=Queue_Played

LWAVES

Friday, April 13, 2012 8:43 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by THESOMNAMBULIST:
Ok if we're talking soundtracks here then I'm going with Fight Club.
If we're talking Scores then Danny Elfman's Batman Returns. or John William's score for Empire Strikes Back
Theme wise I'd go with the original Mission Impossible Lalo Shifrin (that's kind of sic-fi)

It's that time again Som!!
I heartily give a double thumbs up for the Batman Returns score. Elfman's best and perfectly matches the film. Plus the ultimate Batman theme.

In no order and not exclusively sci-fi:

Inception.
Any John Williams score is worthy as well but I do feel that he works best on main themes, love themes and other 'themes' rather than the score as a whole.
Firefly but not Serenity.
New BSG is great.
Lost is great in parts but not others.
Blade Runner is a classic (and other non-scifi scores by Vangelis).
Twin Peaks.
Anything by Ennio Morricone (a musical genius IMO).
Lord Of The Rings
Probably Game Of Thrones once I get to hear it without the TV show.
Star Trek main themes are great but the rest does nothing for me.
Lethal Weapon (the Michael Kamen/Eric Clapton parts).

There's probably others but I can't be arsed to think of any more. :-)

GWEK

Saturday, April 14, 2012 2:45 PM

I'm assuming we're talking scores (instrumental). I have probably 100+ movie scores that I use for background noise when writing and to set the mood for RPGing.

Anything by John Williams, of course, is at the top of the list.

I'll agree that the Firefly score is better than Serenity, and I also like Edmondson's video game work on the Uncharted series (I haven't played the games, so I have no idea if they're sci fi).

Trevor Rabin's score for Armageddon is one of my favorites, quite possibly my favorite non-Williams sci fi score (although for favorite, it gets strong competition from some other non-sci fi Bruckheimer scores, especially The Rock and Crimson Tide). Although his sound is pretty consistent, I tend to pick up anything by Rabin.

Another favorite is (not quite sci fi, but genre) the first Banderas Zorro. Great stuff mood music.

I could probably come up with a few more dozen, but since those are the first once that pop into my head, I have to assume they're close to my favorites. :)

Oh, also Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick. Pitch Black is the better of the two, and the gaping hole in my collection, since it's out of print. If anyone knows where I could acquire it, please let me know!

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