Here are the lyrics
Excerpt
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.
It was written by Alexander Courage but arranged by Wilbur Hatch of Lucy fame. The soprano wailing like a bitch in heat was added for the third season, for reasons I am unable to comprehend.
The usual stated line is when they have interstellar travel or warp drive. It wasn’t clear to me that they had that–just interplanetary, impulse drive. I know that interplanetary is not enough due to an episode of TNG where the Prime Directive was why they couldn’t interfere with one planet selling an addictive substance to another planet while convincing them it was a cure for a disease. (The disease was just the withdrawal.) They had to find a loophole–they removed their repairs to the ship that shuttled the drug from one planet to the other.
(The fact that they repaired it in the first place suggests there’s still a duty to help out individuals in distress, just not whole civilizations)
Then there’s the second part of the Prime Directive that is cited for why the Federation isn’t allowed to get involved in the Klingon Civil War. Worf had to officially resign his commission to be allowed to act in it (though this was a clear on-paper fiction, as he was able to rejoin at the same rank he left after it was over.)
I was under the impression she replaced the theremin.
Oy, there was a theremin?!? 
You can never have too many.
My band will have a theramin and a mellotron.
I can’t find the cite, but I was under the impression they used an actual human the first two seasons, but replaced her with a theremin in season 3.
You may be referring to the book by Solow and Justman, in which Herb says the vocal was supplied by a singer named (if I remember correctly) Loulie Jean Norman in the first two seasons and then dropped in the third.
I watched every episode of TOS over five years in its first round of syndication and do not recall EVER hearing a vocal until the third season. (I can actually identify when an episode was filmed just by listening to the original soundtracks, since the theme varied somewhat during each season).
In this and in several other details he remembered thirty years after the fact, I’m sure Solow was mistaken. I rely much more on Stephen Whitfield’s book The Making of Star Trek for such trivia, since it was written as the series was being filmed.
Of course, Paramount re-recorded the theme for the remastered episodes this century, so it now has a female vocalist in all seasons. I assure you, this was not the case 50+ years ago.
It’s been awhile since I read the Solow-Justman book, and a long, long while since I read Whitfield’s.
Norman’s Wiki article agrees with me but the source they cited was from 2007. I’ll concede the original source for that cite may indeed have been someone’s faulty memory 30 years after the fact.
Right. Solow and Justman’s book came out in 1996 and has probably been cited many times, but that doesn’t mean it’s 100% correct.
For years, it was claimed that Isis in “Assignment: Earth” had been played by Victoria Vetri (a Playboy Playmate), even though she bore little resemblance to the actress who did. We know now that was wrong. She was played by a professional contortionist named April Tatro.
For years, I had said a forgotten Paramount call sheet would turn up someday with the name of the real actress on it, and it did.
It should also be noted that while it has a section on the music used in the series, Whitfield’s book makes no mention of the vocalized version of the theme. Since it was published between the second and third seasons, this was probably because it hadn’t been recorded yet.
Shouldn’t Bones, as ship’s doctor, have known about Spock’s extra eyelids?
I doubt Spock would have let McCoy get close enough to him to find out, and Vulcans themselves don’t even think about their eyelids
I just checked some episodes on Netflix. The first season has an instrumental theme. The vocal version was added for both the second and third seasons, not just the third season.
I never heard any vocalization in the second season episodes, but noticed it immediately in those of the third season. It was jarring to my 15-year-old ears.
You’re sure you’re not listening to some remastered themes?
However you remember it, Memory Alpha agrees with me. And as I said, the season 2 episodes on Netflix has the vocal version.
The original pilot, The Cage, had a vocalized version but this was dropped in season 1.
The first season used several versions of the theme, including an orchestral and a mixed orchestral/electronic version.
If the Netflix episodes are remastered, why did they remaster season 2 but not season 1?
And in season 3 original there was a “bloop” added in every bar. It stuck out to me and was distracting. I’m glad they took that out.
That’s odd. I’ve seen both the color and the B&W versions of “The Cage” and they had an electronic (theremin?) theme.
The first half of the first season had an orchestral theme that sounded like it was arranged by Wilbur Hatch. It changed slightly after “The Galileo Seven.” It then remained basically the same until the third season.
Whatever Memory Alpha says, I never heard the vocalized version of the theme until the third season.
What was MA’s original position on Isis?
Good question. I haven’t seen many of the remastered episodes, but since Paramount went to the trouble of re-recording the theme, I had assumed they’d use the new version for every one of them. If this isn’t the case, I’m surprised to hear it.
It’s implied, in various ways, that Vulcans are rare in Starfleet, self-segregated (there is a ship entirely staffed by Vulcans), and very private as well. Thus things like pon farr and secondary eyelids are not common knowledge, even to medical personnel, unless circumstances make them undeniable.