Star Trek Blaster Beam

The Star Trek blaster beam doesn't refer to a special weapon of Starfleet Academy or an alien race in any of the episodes. The Blaster Beam is actually a real musical instrument.

The Blaster Beam is constructed of a 15 to 20 foot metal beam that has a number of taut wires with electric guitars pickups hanging from the end. A sound emits when the wires are hit, which could be with anything: fingers, feet, bottles, tire irons…whatever you want. The sound is deep and bass-like and has often been called sinister.

The instrument can be played as it hangs in the air or you can lay it down, as most musicians do because it is easier to play. Most specifically, the Beam was used as V'ger's voice.

Craig Huxley designed the Star Trek Blaster Beam at age 11 and actually started out as a child actor. He acted in many television shows, but his biggest claim is that he played Captain Kirk's nephew in theoriginal Star Trek series. He played Peter Kirk. Huxley was also an accomplished pianist and when he was 14 years old was the lead singer and piano man in the Craig Huxley Trio. Later in his teen years, he took some time off and eventually came back with music as his focus. He created much of the music in the first four Star Trek movies and soon became the main music man behind William Shatner. He also worked on Stevie Wonder albums and Earth, Wind and Fire songs.

The Star Trek Blaster Beam is not exclusive the Star Trek. Three other notable movies include Meteor, The Black Hole and Forbidden World. If you watch Meteor, you'll distinctly hear the instrument used in the scenes where the huge meteorite hurtles toward Earth.

Kitaro is a Japanese musician who has occasionally used the Blaster Beam in his work. He is a composer and plays multiple instruments and is a Grammy winner.

James Horner has also used the instrument for several of his movies like Battle Beyond the Stars and for The Wrath of Khan, with Huxley. The movie 2010, which was co-written by Huxley interestingly enough, also used the Blaster Beam on the soundtrack to the film.

The Blaster Beam was the main instrument used in the score for the IMAX movie Chronos in 1985. It was used by Micheal Stearns. If you purchase (or already have) the DVD, you can watch a short behind-the-scenes of Stearns talking about using the instrument show give a quick demonstration on using one.

Other films that use the instrument include:

• Apocalypse Now
• Wolfen (also scored by James Horner)
• Aliens
• Something Wicked
• Deadly Blessings

Sometime in the early 1990's, a few women made the claim that they got turned on by listening to the Blaster Beam that was part of a concert they attended at Central Park in New York. To test the theories, an FM radio station in Australia played some Blaster Beam music over and over for several minutes to see if any of the female listeners had the same feelings. To the disappointment of the station, no female listeners claimed any sexual stimulation.

• Blaster Beam. For pictures and a detailed description of the instrument, visit this site. You can also see which albums the instrument was used on. Incidentally, the Beam was used extensively on Kitaro's European Tour in 1998.
• Blaster Beam Video. Watch Craig Huxley show you how the Beam is used. He talks about the instrument after the brief demonstration.
• Craig Huxley Official site. View his biography and check out his discography and learn more about the Blaster Beam from the inventor himself.

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