Alexander “Sandy” Courage composed the theme tune for the hugely popular Star Trek television series in 1965, thereby establishing a fashion for celestial melodies in an era of optimistic science-fiction.

“I have to confess to the world that I am not a science-fiction fan,” Courage admitted in an interview eight years ago. “Never have been. I think it’s just marvellous malarkey.”

That malarkey, in turn, found something defining in an A-flat for flute that led into a piece born out of optimism and a belief in the progress of mankind.

Courage’s Star Trek theme achieved its effects with endearing simplicity and ease. The celebrated “whoosh”, for instance, accompanying the first appearance of the swooping USS Enterprise is a sound that was, in fact, voiced by the composer himself.

The other programme for which Courage wrote the actual theme was the courtroom drama Judd for the Defense. But portions of the music first heard over the opening and closing credits, its brass fanfare included, later cropped up in the show’s numerous spin-off films, television specials and related franchises, even if those subsequent ventures came attached to their own composers.

Courage’s credits as composer and orchestrator encompassed a golden age of television, from The Untouchables and Lost in Space to The Waltons, Eight is Enough, and Falcon Crest among many others.

He won an Emmy in 1988 for scoring a Julie Andrews Christmas special and received two other Emmy nominations. Earlier work on film brought Courage two Oscar nominations within three years during the 1960s, including a shared citation with Lionel Newman for the children’s classic Doctor Dolittle in 1968. More recent film orchestrations include The Shadow, The Mummy, and the Meryl Streep action-adventure movie The River Wild. Courage also enjoyed a rare on-screen cameo role for a composer in Yes, Giorgio, starring Luciano Pavarotti, in 1982.

Alexander Courage, always known as Sandy, was born in 1919. He grew up in New Jersey before attending the Eastman School of Music in upstate New York. He began his Hollywood career at MGM, which employed him to orchestrate and arrange such classic musicals as Guys and Dolls, Funny Face, Gigi, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, while Fiddler on the Roof, The Poseidon Adventure, and Jurassic Park were among the titles (not necessarily for MGM) that followed in the 1960s and 70s.

In the 1950s Courage composed the scores for such cinematic curiosities as The Left Handed Gun and Shake, Rattle and Rock!, before moving easily to television and back to film.

John Williams, the composer of the Star Wars theme, passed the baton to Courage in the Superman franchise, offering up musical duties in 1987 on Superman IV: The Quest For Peace.

Away from music, Courage was a keen photographer and a busy family man, with four stepchildren. His third wife, Rachel, died in 2005.

Alexander Courage, composer, was born on December 10, 1919. He died on May 15, 2008, aged 88