Movie theme

[MikeS]

Just a quick question, apologies if it's been asked before, I couldn't find a thread...

The "main theme" of most of the movies sounds a bit like TNG's theme, except with more bells and whistles. Is it the same theme we hear in each movie or are they all slightly different? I'd not really listened to the music in the credits before tonight when I watched STIX:INS, I really loved this music. What is it called?

 

[Warped9]

Firstly TNG's opening theme was actually a reuse of ST-TMP's main theme from eight years before TNG aired and composed by Gerry Goldsmith. I'm used to it now, but in the beginning I thought it was a shabby ripoff to reuse TMP's theme. TWOK and TSFS used a different theme composed by James Horner. TVH used yet another theme composed by Leonard Rosenman. TFF returned to using Gerry Golsmith's theme from TMP, and since TFF came out in 1989 it's easy to see how some folks might of thought TFF reused TNG's theme (which aired in 1987) if those folks had never seen TMP. Finally TUC used new music composed by Cliff Eidelman.

My memory is murky in regards to the music of GEN through to NEM, but it wouldn't surprise me if they used music evoking TNG.

 

[Gepard]

I remember the main theme from TMP (and Warped9 is correct; it originated with that film) being used in The Motion Picture, The Final Frontier, First Contact, Insurrection and Nemesis, all films scored by Jerry Goldsmith, who wrote it. I know it wasn't in Wrath of Khan, Search for Spock, Voyage Home or Undiscovered Country. I can't recall whether it was used in Generations, but I suspect not, as that one was scored by Dennis McCarthy.

ETA: There was actually a completely different them written for TNG that didn't recycle any of Goldsmith's score, and was released on the "Encounter at Farpoint" soundtrack tape under the track listing "Main Title #2." You can hear a sample of it here on the Amazon MP3 page. I assume it was composed, rejected, and then the TMP theme substituted at the last minute.

 

[Warped9]

^^ Thanks for the link. Yikes!--that alternate version really is crappy.

 

[tharpdevenport]

TVH and Generations did, however, use Courage's TOS theme, though -- so at least there was something. First seven notes open the first cue in Rosenman's score, and McCarthy has it a handful of times in his score, including hidden & weaved in beautifully in the final cue leading to the ships warping out.

Didn't TNG use Goldsmith's theme a few small times, like in the pilot? Did the D.S.9. episoe use the Courage fanfare in that Tribbles episode?

 

[Gepard]

^^ Thanks for the link. Yikes!--that alternate version really is crappy.

I alternate between liking it for the novelty and thinking it sounds like some sort of Captain Proton-esque '30s serial theme. It's just a little too schlocky for a "serious" TV show. Heck, if VOY had ever given us a Captain Proton theme, it would have been awesome and hilarious if they'd recycled it.

That said, is it me, or does it essentially sound like a faster version of McCarthy's Generations theme (which I also don't care for)?

 

[ST-One]

^^ Thanks for the link. Yikes!--that alternate version really is crappy.

I alternate between liking it for the novelty and thinking it sounds like some sort of Captain Proton-esque '30s serial theme. It's just a little too schlocky for a "serious" TV show. Heck, if VOY had ever given us a Captain Proton theme, it would have been awesome and hilarious if they'd recycled it.

That said, is it me, or does it essentially sound like a faster version of McCarthy's Generations theme (which I also don't care for)?

I can't even remember how the Generations-theme goes right now; it's certainly the weakest theme-music (the score itself is good though).
The Goldsmith-theme is really good in all its various versions and it's great for it's... well... it's grandeur alone.
But I think I prefer to listen to the Rosenman and Eidelman themes.
And the Giacchino theme really gets the blood flowing.
Horner's music is really good (I really like the style of his 80s music), but the truth is: if you've heard one score, you've heard them all. But that one score is fantastically good

 

[Aldo]

I'm a huge Goldsmith fan, but once they got up to the TNG films he was more or less recycling himself. Don't get me wrong, all three of his TNG scores are top notch in my eyes, but they don't really set out to say anything new.

That's why I loved Horner's work on TWOK, he dared to do something different from what was done before. Though in fairness the whole notion of Trek in theaters was still relatively new, so a formula hadn't quite taken hold.

 

[iguana_tonante]

^^ Thanks for the link. Yikes!--that alternate version really is crappy.

I alternate between liking it for the novelty and thinking it sounds like some sort of Captain Proton-esque '30s serial theme. It's just a little too schlocky for a "serious" TV show. Heck, if VOY had ever given us a Captain Proton theme, it would have been awesome and hilarious if they'd recycled it.

OMG it's so 80s!

 

[Gepard]

OMG it's so 80s!

You're right. It also wouldn't sound out of place in a movie like Galaxy Quest – it sounds like a theme written to make fun of late-70s-to-early-90s sci-fi TV themes.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Exactly! Thanks for sharing, I had no idea about it, gave me a really good laugh.

 

[Therin of Andor]

was released on the "Encounter at Farpoint" soundtrack tape under the track listing "Main Title #2."

One of the first things we did at a club meeting, when this LP first came out, was to play this final bonus track over the muted opening credits of an episode of TNG. The timing works exactly.

 

[Nick086]

^^ Thanks for the link. Yikes!--that alternate version really is crappy.

I alternate between liking it for the novelty and thinking it sounds like some sort of Captain Proton-esque '30s serial theme. It's just a little too schlocky for a "serious" TV show. Heck, if VOY had ever given us a Captain Proton theme, it would have been awesome and hilarious if they'd recycled it.

That said, is it me, or does it essentially sound like a faster version of McCarthy's Generations theme (which I also don't care for)?

I can't even remember how the Generations-theme goes right now; it's certainly the weakest theme-music (the score itself is good though).
The Goldsmith-theme is really good in all its various versions and it's great for it's... well... it's grandeur alone.
But I think I prefer to listen to the Rosenman and Eidelman themes.
And the Giacchino theme really gets the blood flowing.
Horner's music is really good (I really like the style of his 80s music), but the truth is: if you've heard one score, you've heard them all. But that one score is fantastically good

Oh I do hun

 

[UssGlenn]

^^ Thanks for the link. Yikes!--that alternate version really is crappy.

I alternate between liking it for the novelty and thinking it sounds like some sort of Captain Proton-esque '30s serial theme. It's just a little too schlocky for a "serious" TV show. Heck, if VOY had ever given us a Captain Proton theme, it would have been awesome and hilarious if they'd recycled it.

OMG it's so 80s!

you can hear the whole thing in the audio section of the Internet Archive
http://www.archive.org/details/EnterpriseUnveils