As ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ heads into its final chapters, composer Nami Melumad is balancing endings, beginnings, and a growing library of themes that now define the series’ emotional core.
“It’s sad and happy at the same time, because the show is about to wrap, but also, I’m trying to enjoy these last episodes and make it as meaningful as possible for our community,” Melumad said as she gets closer to finishing her work on the series.
Composer Nami Melumad reflects on her evolving work on ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ as the series moves through its final seasons, balancing the emotional weight of an approaching ending with the creative momentum of building on established musical themes. Speaking between travel and scoring sessions, she discusses how her process has become more efficient and expansive over time, allowing her to revisit character motifs and deepen them across seasons. Melumad also opens up about her preference for composing to picture, the creative pros and cons of temp music, and the collaborative rhythm of working closely with showrunners. Across the conversation, she frames her work as both technical craft and emotional storytelling, shaped by performance, editing, and the evolving lives of the characters she scores.
Season 3 of ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ picks up with the U.S.S. Enterprise crew, still under the command of Captain Pike, as they face the fallout from their intense showdown with the Gorn. But the mission of exploration continues, leading them to new civilizations—and a dangerous new enemy that will push them to their limits. The season builds on the show’s signature blend of character-driven storytelling and genre experimentation, offering bold adventures that explore themes of faith, duty, romance, humor, and mystery in ways no previous ‘Star Trek’ series has attempted.
Created by Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumet, Kurtzman and Henry Alonso Myers are the co-showrunners. ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ stars Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Celia Rose Gooding, Melissa Navia, Babs Olusanmokun, Martin Quinn, and Rebecca Romijn. Guest stars for season 3 include Rhys Darby, Patton Oswalt, Cillian O’Sullivan, Melanie Scrofano, and Carol Kane. Paul Wesley recurs as a special guest star.
All episodes of ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ are currently streaming on Paramount+. The series returns for its fourth season on July 23.
Awards Focus: It’s so nice to finally talk face to face. How are you doing?
Nami Melumad: Yeah, I know. I’ve been following your materials for quite a bit. I really like your writing.
AF: Thank you. I appreciate it.
Nami Melumad: Yeah, I just got back. I was on a 15-hour flight from Israel. It’s been quite a morning today.
AF: What were you doing in Israel?
Nami Melumad: Just visiting family, my girlfriend, catching some sun and working on ‘Star Trek’ along the way. We did episode 501 just now, and then I started 503, which we’re doing next week. So, yeah, it’s exciting.
It’s sad and happy at the same time, because the show is about to wrap, but also, I’m trying to enjoy these last episodes and make it as meaningful as possible for our community.
AF: This far into scoring ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,’ how has your process changed?
Nami Melumad: Well, I think in essence, it hasn’t really changed. We’re still doing the same process as we did before, where there’s a spotting session, and we go through the scenes with Henry, the showrunner, and sometimes with Akiva, the other showrunner. We discuss what music is going to be where and what function should the music play, what point of view, moments to emphasize, moments to stay out and leave room for the sound.
I’d say things have gotten more clear or more quick sometimes now that we’re in season five, and that certain themes that are reoccurring that appeared in season two and in season three and in season four are now paying off in a larger scope in season five. That’s a very fun thing for me as a composer that I get to go back to certain motifs, certain character themes, or just general ideas that I really wanted to go back to and doing on a much larger scale. I would say it’s quicker.
AF: Compared to the earlier seasons, do you find it easier when you have a library of themes to work with compared to starting completely from scratch?
Nami Melumad: Yeah, I feel like it’s very helpful. It is something that you always want to be mindful of, not overuse something and also make sure that you’re developing along with the characters.
I wouldn’t put the exact same theme as I use in an Uhura episode in season one for an Uhura episode in season five or four. There is a maturity element that goes with the scene and with the character. Emotions develop, personalities develop, and I feel like the music does that as well.
Also, because I develop as a person and as a viewer of the show and all other ‘Star Trek’ shows as well. I’m definitely influenced by everything around me and I think it tells. It’s easy to go back to a certain theme and it’s fun, but it’s also nice to see where it takes you, because that’s just a starting point.
AF: Are you the type that prefers to start composing when you read the script or wait until you get footage to look at?
Nami Melumad: I’m the kind of person who will wait to see footage whenever it’s possible. Sometimes you’re working on an animation or you’ll be working on something that doesn’t—there’s not enough time, and they’ll want you to have themes already in place for when they’re editing.
I, for one, prefer a locked picture or a very close to locked picture. For example, we’ve started working on an episode 503 where it’s not yet locked, but we have to be ahead of the schedule. I did watch it before we even spot it and started sketching things because just because there’s not going to be a lot of time, and I want to make sure that I give the appropriate time for the episode. It’s a big one.
But yeah, overall, I want to be influenced by the actors, by how they deliver their lines, by how it’s edited, and the pace of it. I feel the music should be influenced by all these other elements, like what the costumes look like, and what the directing was. It’s a big part of what I do.
Writing based on script alone is not a smart idea for me to do. It’ll be a blank page for me. It’s not enough. I want to go by what I get from the picture and how I feel from the picture when I watch it and then kind of help elevate that feeling for the audience.
AF: What feelings do you have on temp music?
Nami Melumad: Good and bad. Temp can be something you fall in love with and it can be something that really hurts the project. In television, I would say it’s helpful in general because it’s an addressing point. It’s a point of view where we can say, okay, I think this is wrong because blah, blah, blah. Or I think this has the right idea and then blah blah blah. It does help save time in a sense that when you have this addressing point, it’s easier to say this is good or this is bad.
If the showrunner likes this kind of thing, maybe I could start with something with that tempo or if he likes this string texture or percussion or something. If there’s something that is specifically going to help the scene in their view, then I want to honor that. A lot of times, I’ll do something completely different and then it’ll be sometimes even a little harder for them to, because they got used to something specifically.
But on the other hand, when it’s TV, the turnaround is so quick that maybe they didn’t get used to anything else and they don’t experience temp love and they think, oh, this is actually really good. When you get away from it, usually it’ll be more creative. I like that.
Oftentimes, they actually use the temp music from our show. That’s really funny to me because occasionally there’ll be say this Spock and T’Pring theme all of the sudden appearing from season one and it’s in a completely non-Spock, non-T’Pring, not anything scene. You’re like, oh, I did not see that coming. But I get why they did it because it captured the right emotion for that moment. But I’m like, whoa, this is confusing.
That happens sometimes and it’s sweet that they’re trying to use it to use the score. But also, I’m like, we can’t do that. It’s not going to be this.
AF: At least they used your music as opposed to another composer altogether.
Nami Melumad: Oh, yeah. It’s sometimes pretty hard when they use Hans Zimmer. For example, a lot of those scores of Hans are a hundred piece orchestra with a 20 or 30 piece choir and a million synth. And you’re like, wow, okay. Our ‘Star Trek’ score is not that.
But again, the temp is really used to just give the idea and give really help approve the edit. This is the real reason why temp is being put. It’s mainly to help the editors approve the cut.
AF: I know you’ve already started working on season 5, but was there a cue in season 3 that evolved the most from conception to recording?
Nami Melumad: In the last one—Pike and Batel, there’s a whole montage sequence there where I’m going back to season one, episode one, pretty much first first scene in the show. I’d say that one went a very long way to that final montage.
AF: How did you first become interested in composing?
Nami Melumad: I watched a bunch of films and I was very influenced by those films and I slowly realized that it was the music that was more appealing to me than anything else.
It was ‘Home Alone’ and there was ‘Lord of the Rings’ at the time. There was’ Harry Potter’ at the time and there was this very random Dutch movie called ‘De Tweeling’ in Dutch and in English, it would be ‘Twin Sisters.’ That one also had an amazing score and I remember going around the Netherlands trying to find a CD with the soundtrack and when I finally found it, I learned it on piano.
That was a very big understanding for me that if I can play it, I could probably write it as well. But it was really through watching and listening that that made me want to do this. You know those memorable themes that even ‘The Rock’—I think that was another movie the score talked to me. Funny enough, it was not ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Star Trek.’ It was not one of those.
AF: Is there a studio that you like to record at because of the way it sounds?
Nami Melumad: Yeah, I love Warner Brothers. That’s where we do our ‘Strange New Worlds’ score. I just love the way the room sounds. We also recorded at Fox before, and I’ve been at sessions at Sony and other studios in town.
But for the orchestral sound, I’ve done a lot of scores at Warner Brothers, not just ‘Star Trek.’ I feel like that’s my favorite room. It’s also three minutes away from where I live, which is kind of helpful.
They have the best brownies in the entire world, which again helps.
There’s another movie I had done recently, and that was a jazz score. We recorded at Chaplin Studios—recently renamed, this was Henson Studios. That’s a really beautiful studio as well, but that’s more for jazz or smaller scope scores because you can’t really put a big orchestra there. Not yet.
AF: With ‘Strange New Worlds’ coming to an end—you’ve played in the Marvel sandbox and the Pixar sandbox, is there a sandbox that you want to play in down the road?
Nami Melumad: I would love to come back to the Pixar sandbox. I think every composer would appreciate more ‘Star Trek’ and more ‘Star Wars.’
I’m very much leaning to jazz recently. I’ve found even on some of ‘Strange New Worlds’ stuff that are coming, I have done some jazz cues, which I’m very proud of. I feel like I would love to explore that side a little more. But yeah, anything comes.
I am a big fan of comedy. That’s what I watch usually on my free time so I would love to do more of that. Yeah, and I wish someone picks up ‘Star Trek’ and then does more ‘Star Trek’ for us. As a fan and as a composer as well—this is me talking both hats.
AF: It was so nice to finally chat. Thank you so much.
Nami Melumad: Are you going to go to Vegas this year?
AF: If someone pays me. (Laughs) It’s hard on a freelance budget to do much traveling, especially now that Southwest is charging for bags.
Nami Melumad: Oh, they are? I didn’t know that. I always go JetBlue and they always charge for bags so that’s not new.
AF: Yeah, this past year, Southwest decided no more sitting anywhere and no more free bags.
Nami Melumad: I see.
AF: Two of the perks that were so nice about why I love flying Southwest.
Nami Melumad: Yeah. Oh man, that sucks. Well, maybe they’ll change their mind at some point.