Look, there's just no accounting for taste. I say, if people like a cat singing scales or a symphonic arrangement of a cat singing scales or some kind of plodding dirge, or something that was so unforgettable that I forgot it, then let them. Enterprise might have had some of the lamest throwaway episodes and banal plot devices of the entire franchise but it had the best, most upbeat about the future (and therefore most appropriate to the entire franchise) opening sequence.
Agreed. There's a lot about Enterprise you can be critical of without going after the opening sequence. I liked it as it captured humanity's journey to reach for the stars and strive for better things. Even if you don't like it... so what? Can you really say you're going to base your decision of if you'll watch a given series based on it's opening theme? Classic judging a book by it's cover.
You all can have another minute on me. [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3FyRkbRSsI&feature=channel&list=UL[/yt]
Just my two cent, don't care for either version. So I don't watch or listen to it, but when I watch different Trek series on DVD, I don't watch the title sequences of any of them, skip them all together. That portion of the show (I feel) is a waste of my time, head right for the meat and potatoes.
I never minded having "Faith of the Heart" as a theme song, though I tend to agree it's a bit on the cheesy power ballad side. But I always liked the idea of breaking away from TNG/DS9/VOY-era Trek's addiction to instrumental themes. It was a good idea for Star Trek to try to break away from its cliches and to maybe be a bit edgier, a bit more rock'n'roll. I didn't care for the execution, but I liked the concept. And a memorable theme song can be a great way of setting the tone of a show. There are numerous examples -- Alabama 3's "Woke Up This Morning" on The Sopranos; RJD2's "A Beautiful Mine" on Mad Men; the Dandy Warhols's "We Used to Be Friends" on Veronica Mars; Joss Whedon's "The Ballad of Serenity" as performed by Sonny Rhodes on Firefly; the Doctor Who theme by Ron Granier and Delia Derbyshire; Nerf Herder's Buffy the Vampire Slayer theme; Darling Violetta's Angel theme; "Gayatri" by Richard Gibbs on Battelestar Galactica; the X-Files theme song; etc. The key is to be creative; the problem with most of the Berman-era music is that it was all designed not to be creative, not to draw attention to itself in any way. To just be forgettable and bland. I mean, heck, if they had to stick to something instrumental, they could have at least gone for something like W.G. Snuffy Walden's theme for The West Wing. So I give them credit for the idea of breaking out of Berman-era cliches, but deduct points for picking the blandest, most forgettable power ballad they could find. They tried to break their bad habits but fell back into them.
The opening theme for Enterprise is fucking horrible. There is no other way to state that. Especially when compared to the intros of the other series. The problem is plenty of people do judge books by their covers so to speak. Seriously the other intros may be cheesy but I think their sound is a bit more timeless. Enterprises intro is extremely cheesy and makes it dated. I really like Enterprise so far. Im almost done with Season 1. But whoever picked out that intro, fuck you. Alright, I think this makes a good first post. :-) \ I posted my first reply before the forum would let me post it. I just now saw this. I think the instrumental/ classical like sound was perfect. Timeless as I said and I think its more accessible to people. Where as a rock or jazz or hiphop theme might be said to pander to a certain audience. TNG was the first startrek I watched and maybe its a bit of nostalgia but I've always loved that theme. All 3 of the 90s ones actually. I think its much more inspiring.
Instrumental/"classical" music is not timeless. It is in fact a product of a very specific culture and a very specific era in history, as any History of Music class would make clear. You could make such an argument about jazz or hip-hop, but given the overwhelming dominance of rock'n'roll on American popular music over the past 50 years, I just don't think that's a reasonable thing to say about rock'n'roll. And the argument that Star Trek should just do the same thing over and over again for the sake of "accessibility" is essentially an argument against creative experimentation and evolution. That sort of thinking, if applied too broadly, leads to creative stagnation and audience fall-off. Which is not, mind you, to say that there's no room for instrumental music in Star Trek. ST09 made heavy use of it. But ST09 also made use of the Beastie Boys -- Abrams's team proved themselves willing to experiment and evolve and branch out even in things like music, and the result was one of the strongest, most invigorating Star Trek scores in decades. Repeat after me: "Change is good."
I was initially astonished at their choice of an intro song. As the seasons proceeded it became an integral part of the watching ritual. It was a time our family set. a side other stuff to sit on the couch and watch. It may seem cheesy but it was almost as important as mealtimes together, and happened much less often! When I pop the DVDs into the player I make a point of playing the intro every time for the nostalgia. Never loved the song for it's own merits (didn't hate it either - kind of a meh song) but am very attached to it because of the nostalgia factor and it's assoc with the franchise