I'd rather have some music specially made for pinball than using the music direct from the TV show or film. They rarely work well. LOTR and STTNG both have very annoying fanfare style theme tune music that grates very quickly. It's actually the main reason I won't own a STTNG because even though I like the theme tune on the show, it gets old very quickly every time you launch a new ball. I know a few people that agree too. Different music for different media. This is also a problem with music pins in general especially Metallica.

The music on ST sounds great.

I'm not saying that the music on a pin should be entirely dissimilar to the theme it's based on but the sound designer must be very careful when using a piece of music that was written or designed to be heard just once at the start of a show or written to affect our emotions in a particular way to enhance the story at a particular time. The problem is often that music is unsuitable for a pinball game given that it restarts every time you lose a ball or a mode ends and something that can be very rousing and beautiful on TV or on the big screen can become very annoying.

You mention Tron and yes, some of the music from the film is used in the game but it works because of the kind of music it is. It's interesting that the main theme of Tron Legacy isn't used in the game because it's too distinct and upfront, like the LOTR theme and the STTNG theme which I both like and actually listen to the LOTR soundtrack but hearing the start of it over and over like a stuck record actually spoils it for me. Like those awful bleepy versions of classical music on 90s mobile phones. Context is key. STTNG would be much better of the main theme was kept for the attract mode or the end of the game and perhaps a more suitable variant was used while actually playing the game. Something more like the music that is played during the actual show.

A good example of how many pinball sound designers understanf this is on the game Twilight Zone. If you had a loop of the (awesome) theme tune playing most of the game, it would be awful. It's hard to pinpoint why some music doesn't work in pinball and why some does but I think they made the right choice and they picked a great background tune that doesn't overpower the rest of the game which is important to me. Pinball music needs to be catchy and good to listen to but also be easy to ignore and create a background layer to accompany the game SFX and callouts.

I don't want to repeat myself as I posted a thorough explanation a few posts up but, unlike STTNG and LOTR, the DW theme tune, particularly the mix that was made for this game isn't so up front and is more pleasantly in the background. I actually do think it starts to grate after a while but nothing like the way that the music in STTNG and LOTR do.

I rarely play my DW anyway. It's in storage at my aunt's right now. If I'd been playing it for the last two years I think I'd have moved it on by now.

Cool. Are any of those callouts from the films? I've only seen the first one once but some of them sound like impersonators.