All things STAR TREK….
- This topic has 16 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 4 weeks, 1 day ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I’m not a big STAR TREK fan, so I’m probably the last person to create a topic on this, but I know there are several here who are.
I do it now, because Mark Burgess has just written a fine review/essay on Leonard Rosenman’s STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME.
(from before, Nils has written reviews of James Horner’s STAR TREK II and Jeff Russo’s STAR TREK: PICARD).
What’s your take on the fictional universe, or their scores?
Even though I always was a huge science fiction fan in ever, aspect, not only space travel, Star Trek never was my thing. It just had the advantage of being there in abundance when there was no other food for my scify hunger. But to stay in the metaphore in a way I watched it for the nutrients, not for the joy. But of course with time I had some fun with parts of it.
My first encounter with Star Trek was when it replaced Space:1999 on TV. I loved “Space:1999”. Star Trek then was kind of a letdown.
I’m old enough to have watched Star Trek in its first run on UK television, and really liked it.
I went to see ST:TMP in 1979, terribly excited to pick up where TV had left off. I was gutted. There’s that clip on The Big Bang Theory where Sheldon slags off every aspect of it, and I’m afraid I’m with him. I’ve seen most of the original cast films and didn’t warm to any of them.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed the 2009 reboot. I felt that the new cast actually got the spirit of the TV series more even than the original actors, whose aging at least matched the glacial unfolding of the V’ger story. And sorry but I think Giacchino also nailed the scores better than Goldsmith, as revered as the latter is among your average film music fans, including many of whom I admit to being very fond.
And I thought the animated series “Below Decks” was clever and hilarious.
There’s often the STAR TREK vs STAR WARS angle, so let’s get the most important part out of the way: If I had to choose the music of only one franchise for the rest of my life, every series, every film, every game, I’d choose STAR TREK. OK, now that that’s out of the way….
STAR TREK was — I’m pretty sure — my first encounter with science fiction. I was a small kid watching Kirk, Spock and McCoy navigate the universe with a mixture of swagger, logic and exasperated medical ethics. It felt important, even if I couldn’t yet articulate why. It still does. I don’t know how often I built the NCC 1701 USS Enterprise with my Lego blocks. It’s still perhaps the most beautiful spaceship I know.
STAR WARS is cinema, STAR WARS is mythic, operatic, built for the big screen and the big gesture. STAR TREK is television. It is conceptual, discursive, and at its best when the Enterprise crew is essentially doing what we were doing at home: sitting in chairs and staring at a large screen. The bridge is, in a sense, the universe’s most expensive living‑room setup. STAR TREK is television… even the characters in STAR TREK watch television most of the time. 🙂
I adore the original series and THE NEXT GENERATION. I’ve seen every episode. What made these shows tick? Perhaps the pleasure of watching familiar minds wrestle with unfamiliar problems. STAR TREK works because it’s built for that rhythm. There is an encounter with a strange culture or phenomenon, followed by the triangulation of perspectives: Kirk is action, Spock is logic, McCoy is humanity. TNG refined the formula with Picard’s liberal‑arts gravitas and Data’s ongoing quest to understand the species that built him and Worf’s “Klingon’s don’t cry” attitude.
This is where the STAR TREK’s heart beats: in the scientific, moral and philosophical discussions that unfold around the conference table. The special effects were always secondary in STAR TREK. There are some who decry STAR WARS for being “space fantasy” (which of course it is, nothing wrong with that), yet consider STAR TREK more scientifically sound… hahaha… yeah, and STAR TREK has interspecies offspring! Sorry, but that is just way more “fantasy” than Yoda juggling stones with his mind.
There is, of course, one glorious exception to my “Trek belongs on television” thesis: STAR TREK – THE MOTION PICTURE. I remember seeing the Enterprise on a cinema screen for the first time, bathed in Douglas Trumbull’s effects and propelled by Jerry Goldsmith’s glorious, all time favorite score, and feeling something close to awe. The film is slow, contemplative, occasionally self‑indulgent… and unmistakably aligned with Gene Roddenberry’s original vision. It’s the one Trek film that feels like an actual science fiction movie…
The rest of the films? Well, they try. Some succeed more than others. I have seen them all, some I like more than others (my second favorite STAR TREK movie is actually not THE WRATH OF KHAN but INSURRECTION), but the truth is that STAR TREK’s conceptual architecture is theatrically-stagey in the old sense. It is built for episodic exploration, not blockbuster escalation. When the franchise leans too hard into action and space battles what not, it usually falls flat. STAR WARS is much better at action scenes than STAR TREK.
As for the later series, I’ve seen quite a bit of DEEP SPACE NINE and dipped into VOYAGER, and the newer shows beyond that barely register beyond a polite nod. Haven’t seen any of the TV shows of recent years, though I’d probably find LOWER DECKS entertaining. The J.J. Abrams films were… forgettable. Pleasant enough for two hours, then gone from memory like a transporter beam that never bothered to reassemble. STAR TREK in name only. Best thing about them, once gain, was the music by Michael Giacchino.
So we’re back to the music! That is where STAR TREK becomes something else entirely. Goldsmith, Horner, Rosenman, Eidelman, McCarthy, Chattaway, Jones, Courage, Giacchino… a lineage of composers who treated the franchise a canvas for orchestral storytelling, Star Trek seems to get the best out of composers. All Star Trek scores are great (just some are “greater” than others, if you excuse the Orwell reference). I pretty much love them all. Even when the scripts wobble, the music stands tall.
In the end, STAR TREK is best when it invites discussion about who we are, who we might become…. So that’s a lot going for a small TV show that was cancelled after two, then three seasons.
So STAR TREK will always have a special place in my heart, even though I’m not at all interested in watching any of the new shows… from what I hear, they are all bad anyway.It just had the advantage of being there in abundance when there was no other food for my scify hunger. But to stay in the metaphore in a way I watched it for the nutrients, not for the joy.
That’s a very precise description, and something I can very much relate to. Some friends and I made it a mission to rent and watch all the STAR TREK films that were available on VHS in the 90s. And then I did watch THE NEXT GENERATION semi-regularly when it was on Norwegian TV, early Saturday afternoons. Because it was basically only that and BABYLON 5 available to me (I connected to the latter far more). But mostly, it stayed in the outer rim of my awareness. A few years ago, I made my first forray into the original series too, but nothing that struck a chord, I’m afraid.
Music-wise, I have all the feature film scores (excluding the new Giacchinos, of course), most on CD, some only on digital because I’ve traded off the CDs. And that BEST OF STAR TREK CD featuring music from the TV shows. Plus some odd’n’ends, like the SYMPHONIC STAR TREK CD by Kunzel & co. (once owned on CD, now only as files).
I grew up with STAR TREK on TV and this is one of those shows where it was repeated so often that the music became ingrained in my memory and it’s familiarity is now comforting (as well as excellent in its own right) (the music for LAUREL AND HARDY and [to a lesser extent] cartoons such as SCOOBY-DOO and TOM AND JERRY).
There’s so much that was familiar to me in terms of the music for STAR TREK by the time that the massive multi-CD set of the music from the original TV series came out that I lapped all that up. So much so that that set is probably my favourite “Desert Islands Discs” choice for STAR TREK music.
When it comes to the films, the music for STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE and STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN are my choices. Both Goldsmith and Horner’s scores are top quality. And I wouldn’t protest too much if I were left with these titles as my only examples of those composers’ works.
STAR TREK III and STAR TREK IV are also scores from the franchise I like – and are movies that I rate highly too. But, after that, my interest diminishes both in terms of the films as well as the scores (maybe the latter is related to the former).
I usually consider myself quite shallow in that I tend to see plots for films and television shows at face value, rarely seeing the social commentary embedded within a story. If it’s a film of TV show that is telling a good story then that’s what I enjoy. From that perspective, the original STAR TREK TV had some great stories, great characters (and their various interactions), and great music. (BTW, the TV shows from THE NEXT GENERATION onwards were shows that never really grabbed me, including the music.)
I did like both Star Wars and Star Trek. I have seen everything of classic to TNG Star Trek (I have virtually not seen an Star Wars series yet ignoring D+). That means indeed all movies and all episodes. The only thing I haven’t seen only a few episodes is the old animation series. Had on my Netflix list too long and now all is gone… I also haven’t seen all of LOWER DECKS which is really fun as I am relying on TV here (I don’t have and want Paramount+) and only the first free epsiode of ACADEMY. TNG is great I watched it after school in TV as it was shown pre-prime-time. I like VOYAGER as well – I even like ENTERPRISE but I really love DS9.
My first encounter was as a child with TOS in TV of course. I didn’t see it completely then because it was not shown completely in TV back then as usual and mixed up in order a bit if I recall right. I rewatched really completely and in English the frst time on Netflix.
The Abrams films I can tolerate as a reboot – you cannot use TOS setting nowadays – although as it was quite fittingly casted although unnecessary.
Same problem I have with DISCOVERY which didn’t fit as a prequel at all and IMHO it got better after the time jump and should always have played in the future right away. STRANGE NEW WORLDS does a much better job modernizing the setting and is my favorite show of the news ones (just recently saw Season 1+2). PICARD was okay as a kind of nostalgia. As mention I like the silly over the top references in LOWER DECKS. PRODIGY was okay once you could get used to the animimaton.
Scorewise I have a lot. The Goldsmiths of course. The first as the expanded 3CD set and the fitht as 2CD Lalaland edition, and WRATH OF KHAN in the FSM edition. All others just in standard versions partly digital only (boots not counted………). I do have these olde TNG and best of editions for the TV stuff and the first DS9 Box from Lalaland. TNG area music of course tends bit to meander around and requires Thor’s whittling 😉
Of the Giacchinos I have the first as CD and I was really disappointed to bored… Once a fan of his game scores and TV scores he started to leave me cold beginning with MI3 specifally. I have the 2nd digitally though but not the third.
The music of the “New Trek” is mostly uninteressting, here seems STRANGE NEW WORLDS the most interesting but I haven’t listened to it outside the episodes. LOWER DECKS has a nice nostalgic traditional Star Trek score though
My first encounter with Star Trek was when it replaced Space:1999 on TV. I loved “Space:1999”. Star Trek then was kind of a letdown.
I had never seen this in childhood expect maybe bits as I knew the theme and the eagles. Just around 10 or so years ago it was shown again and as much as the premise is nonsense I really liked it, too.
Btw, nice and a bit unusal written review of STAR TREK IV. The score gets some hate every now and then is my impression but I always liked it, too. I even can forgive that Rosenman basically re-used his LORD OF THE RINGS march 😉
It’s part of the tri-force of nerdom, with Star Wars and LotR. My mom was a big Trekkie, and I got it from her. I find myself becoming more of a purist as I get older. TOS has steadily become my favorite. The conservatism, in all its facets, has begun to erode my love of TNG. Still, when it was good, it was very, very good.
I find myself becoming more of a purist as I get older.
Always quite interesting to observe how one changes getting older. And sometimes in ways you never thought in younger years 😉
Always quite interesting to observe how one changes getting older. And sometimes in ways you never thought in younger years 😉
lol, you have no idea
I enjoyed reading that review for TVH. For what it’s worth, I would probably take it over either Horner score, though I’m sure I’m in the minority on that one. Rosenman was a very learned, if not very accessible, composer. I enjoy his work a great deal. Horner is probably the composer who frustrates me the most.
Major Trekkie here 🙂 . STAR TREK is without a doubt my favourite film and (first and foremost) TV “thing”.
My first exposure to it was watching a few episodes of the The Original Series at a classmate’s home back in the 70s (it ran on Swedish television, which they had). I also saw most of the movies when they came out, but I didn’t get seriously hooked until I got my first VCR in the early 90s and started buying THE NEXT GENERATION episodes on VHS. It took off from there – I think I had some 60-70% of all the episodes that were released on VHS (TOS, TNG, DEEP SPACE NINE, VOYAGER and ENTERPRISE), and now I have basically everything that’s ever been released on DVD, Blu-Ray and 4K (except the animated shows – not really my thing). I guess it says something about my level of fandom that I have 14 DVDs and Blu-Rays with documentaries about STAR TREK. 😉
THE NEXT GENERATION is still my favourite, and I’m currently into a full re-watch on Blu-Ray (soon finished with season 5).
Nick mentioned many of the reasons I like STAR TREK in his excellent post above. I love the moral dilemmas and philosophical discussions, the fact that a group of people can actually work together to solve a problem (scientific, cultural, technological, diplomatic, military etc) without being at each other’s throats, the urge to explore (space, science, other cultures, the human condition…), and the joy the characters seem to feel while engaged in all of this. In fact, “joy” is for me very much what STAR TREK is about.
Related to that, I find it refreshing that TREK is one of very few science fiction franchises with an optimistic and hopeful view of the future, arguing that, yes, if we get our act together here on this planet, brighter and better times lie ahead. Of course, with the current state of the world, this now seems more impossibly utopian than ever before… But one can always hope.
As for the music… well, Goldsmith’s TMP score is among my all-time favourites, and his other TREK scores are very enjoyable also, although I think none really compare to his first one. There is something to enjoy in all the other TREK movie scores too, but I can’t say I play the ones by Giacchino a lot… And for some reason I’m particularly fond of Dennis McCarthy’s GENERATIONS – which probably is a somewhat dissenting opinion (we discussed it here).
The TOS scores are iconic, of course, and I have the 15-disc set from La-La-Land. There is some terrific stuff there, although much of it does have that “60s TV scoring” sound, which isn’t really my favourite style. McCarthy, Ron Jones, Jay Chattaway and others did some great work from TNG to ENTERPRISE, but the strict limitiations set by the producers on what the composers were allowed to do make a lot of it sound very similar, and sometimes a bit bland (Jones more or less ignored this, which is why his TNG music is so great, and which is also why he was fired in season 4).
Of the recent series, from DISCOVERY onwards, I think Jeff Russo did really well on PICARD and the ongoing STARFLEET ACADEMY, as well as Nami Melumad on STRANGE NEW WORLDS.
And sorry but I think Giacchino also nailed the scores better than Goldsmith
Yes, that’s definitely another dissenting opinion! 🙂 But fair enough, of course.
The conservatism, in all its facets, has begun to erode my love of TNG
That’s an interesting observation, considering that the TNG universe sometimes is accused of being a “communist utopia”. 😉
But if you’re thinking of things like gender roles, for instance, I agree – even in the TNG era, they were pretty traditional.
…until I got my first VCR in the early 90s and started buying THE NEXT GENERATION episodes on VHS.
But isn’t that also when it ran on Norwegian TV?
But isn’t that also when it ran on Norwegian TV?
No, I’m pretty sure that was in the late 90s/early 00s.
You’re right, it was 1996. So you were already set with those tapes before the rest of us started watching it on telly. I googled just now, and found a few interesting tidbits — TV Norge was the first Norwegian broadcaster to send anything STAR TREK with their TNG in the fall of 1996 and a couple of years henceforth. But they only bought the rights for the first three seasons, and they showed the episodes haphazardly, and not even all of them. Which explains why I remember those Sunday afternoon viewings as scatterbrained, jumping back and forth — even those stories that had continuity across several episodes, they sometimes broke up. Later (in the year 2000), it went to TV2, which showed the whole thing in proper sequence, but by then I had mostly zoomed out, I think. Or maybe I watched a little bit even then.
But it was almost all we had, so didn’t really pay that much attention to this “flaw”.
Ah, the age of linear TV…
That sounds about right. But I think TV2 only showed first four seasons. My understanding is that back in the day, TV channels could buy TV shows in “packages”, with one package typically containing up to 100 epsodes, which exactly covers the first four seasons of TNG. And then I guess they didn’t care to buy the package with the final three seasons, for some reason. Low ratings, perhaps? STAR TREK has never had a huge following in Norway.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.