Five years ago I went over the Star Trek movie theme’s. And more recently, I went through all the main theme’s to the various TV series. But there is one other music area I need to discuss. That is the amazing music within the episodes and movies themselves. We all know movies have soundtracks, but did you know some of the episodes had such great music that they have soundtracks from them too? I owned a couple on audio tape. Star Trek always went above and beyond with thier music, with live orchestral melodies in every episode. Usually these were nice, but sometimes they would crank it up to something almost feature film worthy.
Here are my top 10 scores from Trek movies and/or episodes. I had to keep it 10 or we’d be here all day there is so much wonderful music out there.Two big rules here. One, obviously no main titles. It has to be music that takes place in the episode or film. Second, only one score per episode or film. As we’ll discuss there are episodes and movies with so much great music just one could take up the whole list!
#10.Star Trek-The Motion Picture
This is so high becayse it’s almost a cheat. This music is from the fampous beauty pass of the Enterprise. You know, that scene were Kirk stares at the ship for like six minutes? Jerry Goldsmith set a standard with this amazing music, as I said before one of the positives from that movie, and here we get a beautiful rendition on beautifuly display.
#9.Star Trek (Doomsday Machine)
Sol Kaplan did a bunch of classic series episodes. Doomsday Machine is a great episode, punctuated by that awesome music. I’ve seen the episode a million times, and the music still gives me chills during that climax when it looks as if Kirk wont make it. He did other episodes, like Enemy Within, but this is the one I love.
#8.Star Trek III
James Horner does not get enough respect, but the work he did for Trek is iconic. This is the scene from The Search for Spcok when the Enterprise is being stolen. I love when a music score is so good even if you remove the dialogue you get what’s going on. And don’t worry, I’m not done talking about Horner just yet.
#7.Star Trek TNG The Inner Light
I decided this needed to be mentioned because of how famous it is. This is the episode where Picard lives another life, and the music by Jay Chattaway is just beautiful. In fact his simple flute melody has been rearranged for a full orechestrs. It;s of Trek’s best pieces of music. It’s also a nice change of pace to get a soft melody for once.
#6.Star Trek-First Contact
Jerry Goldsmith took the reign’s for this movie. And that score during the final action scene was great. The music when the Vulcans land is wesome too, but I prefer this one. By the way in case you’re wondering, the other three TNG movies did nothing for me music wise (aside from he main theme in Generations).
#5.Star Trek DS9 (Way of the Warrior)
Dennis McCarthy is back to give us this epic battle theme. This is the episode where the Klingons decide to battle the Cardassians. Of course, Starfleet doesn’t like that so they intervene. Which pisses the Klingons off, leading to one epic fight at DS9. This kind of fight needs the right music and yes it delivers.
#4.Star Trek TNG (Yesterday’s Enterprise)
This is a fantastic episode right down to the music. It was Dennis McCarthy again who worked on this episode, and man did he deliver! My favorite is the music during the fight at the end, the way it builds and builds…there’s no way you can’t be at the edge of your seat!
People may disagree with me on my last three so let me explain. These are in order of how much I love listening to the music, without the episode or movie playing.
#3.Star Trek II
People have said Wrath of Khan was a perfect movie, and that includes the unbelievable soundtrack. Usually on a soundtrack you like some music but not all of it. This is one of those soundtracks where every track is fantastic. From Opening Titles to End credits. This selection is from the final action scene but trust me, I culd have picked any of them. Horner was a great composer and worked on dozens of movies.
#2.Star Trek (Amok Time)
This is one the strongest episodes of the series. No action, or even a story in a way, just a strong character piece focused on Kirk and Spock. This was our first time seeing Vulcan, and two best friends were going to be fighting each other. For real! The music needed to be epic and Gerald Fried delivers one of the strongest scores heard in any classic episode. The Vulcan stuff is unqiue and the action a cut above the ususal “fight music”. Fried would do other Trek episodes including “Shore Leave” but this is the best and most remembered.
#1.Star Trek The Next Generation (Best of Both World’s)
Again, it seems the that creators knew this was going to be a huge episode so they upped the anty. As soon as the episode starts the music feels bigger and darker. It was composer Ron Jones who gave this legendary music, and trust me the slection below is just a sample! Jones did the majority of the first four seasons on TNG before leaving, and the less said about that the better. Either way, we still ahave the amazing piece of music. Not bad from a guy who mostly did cartoons! The selection above is just a sample of that episode’s music.
There were a few names I did not mention here. Leonard Rosenman did Star Trek IV and while I love the main theme, the rest was just ok. Cliff Edelman did Star Trek VI and that is one where the music never did much for me. Paul Ballargeon and David Bell did many fantastic scores for the various series but nothing that stood out. And Jerry Fielding did a great job on “The Trouble with Tribbles” with the campy music fititng the tone of that episode beautifully.
Sorry I couldn’t come up with any for Enterprise or Voyager. Finally, since this is a main title I am not counting it. But I felt I should put a nod to the composer who worked on the three “Kelvan Timeline” movies. Someone explain to me what that means?? Anyway here is Michael Giacchino’s amazing redo of the classic Alexander Courage Trek main theme.
Did I miss an episode, score, or artist you feel should be mentioned? Comment and let me know.
No comments:
Post a Comment