At SDCC over the summer it was announced that Emmy-winning composer Jeff Russo had landed the job for scoring the new CBS All Access series Star Trek: Discovery, but apparently he wasn’t the only one in consideration. According to composer Cliff Eidelman, he was asked to develop some ideas for the show last year by co-creator Bryan Fuller. Eidelman, who composed the score for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, revealed what happened in a Facebook Live chat this week, saying that Discovery consulting producer (and Star Trek VI director) Nicholas Meyer suggested Eidelman for the job and Fuller invited him in.

As described by Eidelman:

When I came in [Bryan] described what they were doing and he was so interested in me possibly scoring this series, he asked me if I would write a theme. So, I went ahead and I was encouraged and thought this was going to happen and I would love to get back into doing another Star Trek series.

At the encouragement of Fuller, Eidelman wrote an idea for the show’s theme, which Fuller liked and he was then asked to write an additional piece. However, work ended after Bryan Fuller stepped down as showrunner last October, as explained by Eidelman:

New people came in and they went in a different direction. The reason I was there was because of Bryan Fuller, and when he left I kind of went with him and wasn’t kept on. I was not signed on. I was never hired or engaged formally. I was just encouraged.

Discovery work sparked creation of EP ‘Into the Unknown’

Eidelman explains that he liked the work he did for Discovery and so he developed it more more and added three other pieces to be released as an EP. The composer said he created his own story concept and visuals “apart from what I was doing initially” which became the EP Into the Unknown, which was released earlier this month.

The title track of Into The Unknown began as his original idea concept for a theme for Discovery and was developed further to become the version on the EP. You can listen to samples of all four tracks from the EP below, via Spotify.

You can buy a digital download of the tracks or the EP at Amazon or iTunes.