I liked most of Star Trek Beyond, but I wasn't thrilled about the climax, when the crew
used ancient RF tech and rock music to destroy advanced enemy ships
I didn't enjoy it because it's so implausible, but I'd be more comfortable if it was a nod to an event in the original timeline. So, has this trope been used before in Star Trek?
Not really, no. The use of the track was obviously a nod to the first film in the reboot series but beyond that, there's been next to no contemporary music in any of the Star Trek shows or films.
It [Sabotage] is in the DNA of this canon. It was in the ’09 Trek, and we went through different iterations of the teaser and I wanted to make sure whatever here is using all the elements from the film. It’s been a part of this Kirk’s journey and so I felt it was very organic, and it will ultimately be in the finished film.
Justin Lin on ‘Star Trek Beyond’ Criticisms: “We Are Trying to Be Bold and Take Risks”
Similarly, while the "take down the swarm" sequence bears some passing similarity to a scene in DS9: Sacrifice of Angels (where the self-replicating minefield is destroyed), there doesn't seem to have been any conscious attempt to reference any prior Trek property.
It really couldn't be. The song blasted over the radio is from 1994. The original series was filmed from 1966 thru 1969 and the films from 1979 (The Motion Picture) to exactly 1994 (Generations).
There's a nod to the 2009 reboot, but definitely not to TOS.
I do like McCoy's comment about this being "classical music".
It could be seen as a nod to the fact that the Borg are weak to conventional projectile weapons. This is shown in Star Trek: First Contact, when Picard uses the Holodeck (with safeties off) to get access to machine guns.
Similarly, the Borg seem to be vulnerable to bladed weapons, like the Klingon Bat'leth.
Both these and the music scene involve using older weapons to defeat an enemy that has tech that stops the higher tech weapons of the day.
It might be a nod to TNG: The Best of Both Worlds where
the crew destroys the attacking Borg Cube by sending an unauthorized command to regenerate via a hacked wireless data connection between Locutus (assimilated Picard) and the Cube.
It could also be a reference to Mars Attacks where
the Martians are defeated by bad music broadcast via sound and radio.
which in turn is probably a reference to The War of the Worlds where
the Martians are defeated by bacteria.
