For space is wide and good friends are too few
Seven’s my favourite daughter
I know what’s best
I will protect her
You and your kind
Will be slaughtered
If you stand in the way
Of my favourite daughter
“Favourite Daughter” by Leslie Hudson, a chilling duet for Janeway and the Borg Queen. I got to see Leslie Hudson perform this live with Dr. Mary Crowell, and it was amazing.
“Tribbles” by Julia Ecklar, a heartfelt lament from our dear Captain of the Enterprise.
Lyrics, chords, and sheet music are included in the Traveller Songbook, which is available for free download from Prometheus Music as a scanned PDF.
I got the replicator malfunction blues
It messes up whatever I choose
Chief come and fix it and don’t be late
We never had this trouble on Deep Space 8
It’s driving me crazy, and I’m losing weight
And I got those replicator malfunction blues
“Replicator Malfunction Blues” by Chris Conway, a song about the trials of living on a certain space station.
Lyrics available on the Deep Space Love CD page (scroll halfway down the page to get to the lyrics section).
(And yeah, I know it was forever ago, sorry we’re bad at answering messages!)
Tumblr managed to eat your ask as I was replying to it, but the gist of it was that you were wondering if we had the lyrics to “Farewell Mother Russia” by Debra Sanders and Kathy Mar, since you couldn’t find them anywhere, and couldn’t hear all the words in the recording on YouTube.
I haven’t been able to find any lyrics online – I’m sure they’re written down in a songbook somewhere, but wherever it is, it hasn’t been digitized or transcribed. (If anyone does have the lyrics lying around somewhere, please let us know!)
That said, I was able to transcribe most of the words from the online recording. There’s just one word in the chorus I can’t quite catch – if anyone knows what it is, or has any corrections to my transcription, absolutely chime in!
[ETA: correct line provided by @sci-fantasy]
I am the navigator of the Starship Enterprise,
And I am honor-bound by oath to guide her through the skies,
But greater than that honor is the pleasure that I feel
Each time I stop to realize that all my dreams are real.[chorus:]
Farewell Mother Russia, I rise to meet the stars
And take my balalaika song beyond the moon and mars,
Though somewhere Mother Russia is white with winter snows,
I help to forge that starry trail, and go where no man goes.Oh I have seen an entity who tortured me with rage,
And I have known an alien plague that cursed young men with age,
But I’ve discovered joys as well, and made a friend or two,
Drunk vodka, yes, and told some tales when every trek was through.[chorus]
Forgive me sweet Irina, I never learned to love,
My eyes were always turned toward the starry skies above,
But if I had another chance to do what I must do,
Beside me on the Enterprise would be no one but you.[chorus]
Trills, they want to have fun!
Trills just want to have fun!
When her shift in Ops is done
Trills just want to have fun.
“Trills Just Want To Have Fun” by Jeff and Maya Bohnoff, a song for Jadzia Dax.
As I boldly go, against our foes, my red shirt is my glory,
But If I should die, hold your head high and tell them all my story
“Red Shirt’s Prayer” by the PDX Broadsides, a song for the unsung heros of the Star Trek universe.
I’m a Next Gen girl
And I know my place
Is on the bridge of the Enterprise D
I need an android and a Betazoid
And a smattering of humanoids
Uh huh, to satisfy me
So when a Vulcan uses contractions
And there are multiple uniform infractions
I gotta remind myself that I’m a Next Gen girl
An alien in an Original world
“Next Gen Girl,” a declaration of loyalty from Leslie Hudson. She explains:
I grew up immersed in TNG and dabbling in the rest of Trek. When I finally started watching TOS as a series I felt it necessary to declare my bias. I may love it all, but TNG is mine forever.
He’s dead, Jim.
He’s gone and died.
He’s croaked off,
I don’t know why.
Some weird disease we’ve found
Has put him six feet down.
Cremation
Has claimed him.
He’s dead, Jim.
“He’s Dead, Jim,” an early song by Julia Ecklar, which is… pretty much what it says on the tin.
Lyrics, chords, and sheet music are included in the Traveller Songbook, which is available for free download from Prometheus Music as a scanned PDF.
It’s more convenient to label us the dissidents
So you can sleep at night
We are the symptom things are more rotten
Than they are black and white
“DMZ” by Leslie Hudson, a song for the Maquis. Leslie writes in the song description: “The idea of mutiny so alien to TNG but central to DS9 & VOY demonstrates a fundamental shift in Trek philosophy. What glistens on the surface is suspect. Look deeper.”
Redshirt
by Rob Wynne
TTTO: “Blackbird” by Paul McCartney and John LennonRedshirt beaming down to planetside
Doesn’t have a name to know him by
That poor guy
He will only be here ’til somebody has to dieRedshirt beaming down to planetsideIt don’t matter what steps that you takeIt’s for sureYou will not survive beyond the first commercial breakRedshirts die, Redshirts dieOn every world that we’re stopping by…Redshirts die, Redshirts dieOn every world that we’re stopping by…Redshirt beaming down to planetsideDoesn’t have a name to know him byThat poor guyHe will only be here ’til somebody has to dieHe will only be here ’til somebody has to dieHe will only be here ’til somebody has to die
I wrote this one a couple of months ago. My friend Marcos Duran had posted his filk about Star Trek redshirts (to the tune of “Roxanne”, and the idea for this parody popped into my head.
Jimmy always was a restless boy
You could see it in his eyes
There was something wrong when I watched my son
When Jimmy watched the skies
And very often on an Iowa night
I’d see him standing in the yard
I can’t describe how I loved that boy
But Jimmy loved the stars
“Tiberius Rising” by Ookla the Mok. It had to have been rough being Jim Kirk’s mother.
Lyrics available here.
I am a hologram
Live my life as a photonic
I am a hologram
Is that all that I am?
“Children of Light,” an anthem for hologram rights from Leslie Hudson.
What was the very first filk song you wrote about?
oooh! I was writing songs since I was very small and they were all about fantasy things (exception: the time my fourth-grade class wrote and performed a musical about whales in which I played a marine biologist/detective) because everything in my life was about fantasy things.
But the first actual filk I wrote was a collab with one of my best friends from college. It was written to the tune of “I Ain’t Marching Anymore” and was called “I Ain’t A Martian Anymore.” I should see if I can dig up the words.
I think that she came up with the title, and then I suggested the line “Take a look at what we’ve done with a laser-powered gun,” and then we wrote verses back and forth to each other over the summer and on each other’s whiteboards when we got back to school. It was a very fun process!
(bonus minor collaborators were my dad for insisting I find a way to rhyme “vortex” with “cerebral cortex” and @thebastardofgloucester for knowing board games they play in the Star Wars universe)
… i have a MIGHTY NEED to see these lyrics
Okay, here we are. Turns out I still have the whole thing memorized even though I need to go look up that Star Wars board game every time.
I Ain’t A Martian Anymore
You’ve heard of those Ferengi with their acquisition rules
Their plotting and their scheming and their lore
They take all that they need, they have no law but greed
But I ain’t a Martian anymore!
And you’ve doubtless met those green men in their funny little ships
Drawing circles in your fields of corn
Every day is an occasion for an alien invasion
But I ain’t a Martian anymore!For it’s red planet’s children that always go to war
Red planet’s children who fall
Take a look at what we’ve done with a laser-powered gun
And tell me was it worth it all?I’ve had my share of combat now in every part of life
In games of dejarik as well as war
If a wookie has to win it then why bother to begin it?
And I ain’t a Martian anymore!
And I must have wiped the Daleks out at least a hundred times
But they keep on resurrecting by the score
When they next return I’m slated to be first exterminated
But I ain’t a Martian anymore!For it’s red planet’s children that always go to war
Red planet’s children who fall
Take a look at what we’ve done with a laser-powered gun
And tell me was it worth it all?I may have been a Martian but I’m sick of all this strife
I’m sick of spilling alien guts and gore
I’ll wind up like a Reaver smashing heads in with a cleaver
If I stay a Martian anymore!
Now the Cybermen are screaming that the universe is theirs
The Vogons threaten poetry galore
Let them toss me in a vortx, mess with my cerebral cortex
But I ain’t a Martian anymore!
No I ain’t a Martian anymore!For it’s red planet’s children that always go to war
Red planet’s children who fall
Take a look at what we’ve done with a laser-powered gun
And tell me was it worth it all?
to the tune of “Northwest Passage,” by Stan Rogers
Sung at the funerals of Starfleet crew members who died in the line of duty. “In the line of duty” is to be understood as “while in good standing at all,” whether the particular crew member died on a rescue mission or peacefully in bed.
(refrain)
We will gird our minds with the armor of compassion
And set our course for starfields where we have not gone before
To see far more worlds than one person can imagine
Each nebula and wormhole is a newly opened doorWe started on the ocean and we sailed from coast to coast
And we mapped the planet over, every tree and rock and ghost
And when the world was drawn out and the sea and land were ours
We raised our eyes and turned them to the stars(refrain)
We will gird our minds with the armor of compassion
And set our course for starfields where we have not gone before
To see far more worlds than one person can imagine
Each nebula and wormhole is a newly opened doorEach planet is a treasure, every nebula a jewel
And the workings of the galaxy are strange and sometimes cruel
But our duty is to guard it from the ones who would destroy
And to learn and to adventure is our joy(refrain)
We will gird our minds with the armor of compassion
And set our course for starfields where we have not gone before
To see far more worlds than one person can imagine
Each nebula and wormhole is a newly opened door‘Tis a gift to sail the cosmos with the glory that is flight
Serve the universe together, and the future will be bright
We’ll go hand in hand together and both near and far we rove
And the message we are sending out is love(refrain)
We will gird our minds with the armor of compassion
And set our course for starfields where we have not gone before
To see far more worlds than one person can imagine
Each nebula and wormhole is a newly opened doorNow your wandering is over and your mission at an end
You will leave us with all honor as a true and loyal friend
While we cannot go together you can travel with no fear
To the last and most unknowable frontier(refrain)
We will gird our minds with the armor of compassion
And set our course for starfields where we have not gone before
To see far more worlds than one person can imagine
Each nebula and wormhole is a newly opened door
Who checks the airlocks anyhow?
A million years from now it may reach
Home…
It is a blessing and a curse among filkers, but a lot of our best jokes need…a bit of setting up.
The first of these (lyrics) is a deceptively sweet love song. The second (lyrics), by the same band, is a legitimate criticism of Gene Roddenberry’s visual worldbuilding. The third (lyrics) is Bob Kanefsky’s triumphant combination of the two, in beautiful polyphony by the original band.
(Series: Filksong Genealogy)
