Is this the Enterprise theme that could have been?

[Christopher]

Granted, but you'll forgive my wanting a bit more coherence for Trek ...

Let's see, how about...

"Beyond the rim of the starlight,
My love is wand'ring in starflight...."

Actually one reason the choice of "Faith of the Heart" works for me is that it's amazing how perfectly the lyrics fit the premise of the series, and Archer's attitude at the beginning. It fits so exactly that I was surprised when I first learned it wasn't written for the show.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Actually one reason the choice of "Faith of the Heart" works for me is that it's amazing how perfectly the lyrics fit the premise of the series, and Archer's attitude at the beginning. It fits so exactly that I was surprised when I first learned it wasn't written for the show.

Indeed. And, quite a long time before "Broken Bow" premiered, someone mentioned here that an earlier version of the song, by Rod Stewart, had been featured on the motion picture soundtrack of "Patch Adams" - and I was able to locate a copy on Amazon. When it arrived, I played that track over and over, to get myself prepared for ENT.

I've always enjoyed the song. A few years later, Russell Watson was invited to sing "Where My Heart Will Take Me" (Theme from Enterprise)" live at the opening of the grand finale of a football game Down Under. They had used the song extensively in promotions for that season of the sport; even though the same TV network was screening "Enterprise" at night, no connection was mentioned.

Diane Warren, the writer of "Faith of the Heart", ended up penning a song for the grand finalists' showdown of the second season of "Australian Idol". It had a very similar style and message, almost a sequel, and it was fun to collect another song in the same vein.

 

[Tiberius Jim]

I believe that "Archer's Theme" was intended to be the main theme for the show, but then the studio wanted a song instead of something insturmental?

Yep. And this is how it would have looked/sounded:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8vslSWlsEg[/yt]

 

[iguana_tonante]

I like "Archer's Theme", but that would have been boooooring.

 

[Yanks]

It took a long time for me to accept Enterprise's intro.

I'm fine with it now.

But, this is all they needed to do.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVkSwgDDuuM[/yt]

 

[dub]

I'll throw my edit of the open into this thread since it's topical:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8S0cC4jn-M[/yt]

 

[Yanks]

I'll throw my edit of the open into this thread since it's topical:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8S0cC4jn-M[/yt]

Very nice!

 

[Masiral]

I'll throw my edit of the open into this thread since it's topical:

I especially like the ending of that, with "Archer's Theme" morphing into the TOS theme.

 

[R. Star]

I never had anything against the Faith of the Heart bit, but the staff would've taken a lot less crap if they went with Archer's Theme, which is a nice enough soundtrack on it's own.

It amazes me how much people harp on something as minor as the opening credits. That's almost as silly as saying, I hate the font the credits are in and will never watch this show again!

 

[Christopher]

What always surprised me were the people who objected to "Faith of the Heart" because they insisted, "A Star Trek theme needs to be an orchestral piece, not a pop song!" They didn't seem to realize that the TOS theme was very much written in the popular song style of the day, a pastiche of "Beyond the Blue Horizon" with a bossa nova rhythm inspired by "Begin the Beguine." Not to mention that the main melodic line was sung by a soprano in the second- and third-season arrangements. And of course Roddenberry wrote (bad) lyrics for it so he could get royalties from the sheet-music sales.

 

[dub]

I don't have a problem with the song. I think it's fine for wedding anniversaries as has been mentioned in the past. I just didn't think it worked for the open of this show. Unless the open showed Archer singing it with the crew playing instruments and singing back-up in the background. And occasional shots of fat Riker in the audience. With comic sans font for the credits. Fuchsia. I wouldn't harp on it then. That would be silly.

 

[Christopher]

I just didn't think it worked for the open of this show.

Why not? As I've said, the lyrics are a perfect fit.

 

[Yanks]

What always surprised me were the people who objected to "Faith of the Heart" because they insisted, "A Star Trek theme needs to be an orchestral piece, not a pop song!" They didn't seem to realize that the TOS theme was very much written in the popular song style of the day, a pastiche of "Beyond the Blue Horizon" with a bossa nova rhythm inspired by "Begin the Beguine." Not to mention that the main melodic line was sung by a soprano in the second- and third-season arrangements. And of course Roddenberry wrote (bad) lyrics for it so he could get royalties from the sheet-music sales.

This is purely a personal thing. Either you like it or you don't. What kind of music or when really is immaterial. The TOS theme was very "60's" for those around then. It's just the "Star Trek theme" for all us that weren't.

I didn't, because of the very reason you stated. I had just watched DS9 & Voyager when I first saw Enterprise and I was accustomed to the orchestral pieces. They were very much a part of "trek" for me and Enterprises' 'Faith of the Heart' didn't set well at all. I loved the video montage though.

The same was true for me the first time I saw ST09. For whatever reason, I didn't enjoy the music. Now I think it's one of the finest scores in trek movie history.

Now I've grown to like Faith of the Heart as well. (but I skipped it and cringed each time I watched Enterprise the first couple time I watched the series) I even know all the words!

 

[Christopher]

This is purely a personal thing. Either you like it or you don't. What kind of music or when really is immaterial.

Well, yeah, but I'm not talking about people's tastes in general. I'm referring only to those specific people who voiced objections to the very concept of a Star Trek theme being a popular song, as if that had never been done before, when in fact it essentially had been.

 

[dub]

I get what you're saying, Christopher. But the lyrics weren't really the issue for me. I think what I liked about the theme songs for TNG, VOY and DS9 is that they could use a few notes or lines from the theme within the scores of individual episodes from time to time throughout each series to drive home an emotion or an idea, or even just a musical voice as we see a shot of the ship, or space station, or a Captain, or colleagues/friends in a touching moment. And for me, there was an emotional connection there to the theme songs in that way. They couldn't really do that with the "Faith" song without sounding like bad elevator music. It didn't lend itself well to orchestral scores. Archer's Theme on the other hand, that was nice and could be used (and was used) in the scores. The opening credits offers a whole minute at the beginning of each episode to help set the tone for the show. And I just think it would have been better to use Archer's Theme in the open to make the emotional connection to the theme even stronger. As far as TOS goes, Courage may have written a theme song in a '60s style, but it has proven to be a great theme for a variety of styles (not just the jazzy style of the show's open). They used the opening fanfare a lot throughout the series, and of course again in TNG. And the main part of the theme was used nicely in several of the films to set the tone for different scenes. And as we've seen with the JJ Abrams films, it has stood the test of time. "Faith" just doesn't have that flexibility. Archer's Theme does.

But, really as Yanks said, it's subjective. I seem to agree with most of what he said. And he said it in a much more articulate way than I could.

 

[Christopher]

I think what I liked about the theme songs for TNG, VOY and DS9 is that they could use a few notes or lines from the theme within the scores of individual episodes from time to time throughout each series to drive home an emotion or an idea, or even just a musical voice as we see a shot of the ship, or space station, or a Captain, or colleagues/friends in a touching moment. And for me, there was an emotional connection there to the theme songs in that way. They couldn't really do that with the "Faith" song without sounding like bad elevator music.

I think the opening few lines of the song have a pretty nice melody, and I really love what the cello does under "But my time is finally near" in the season 1-2 arrangement. They did use snippets of the theme orchestrally a couple of times in the first season, and there's an instrumental version under the end titles of the pilot.

Although I agree, "Archer's Theme" works better as a leitmotif.

 

[Yanks]

I get what you're saying, Christopher. But the lyrics weren't really the issue for me. I think what I liked about the theme songs for TNG, VOY and DS9 is that they could use a few notes or lines from the theme within the scores of individual episodes from time to time throughout each series to drive home an emotion or an idea, or even just a musical voice as we see a shot of the ship, or space station, or a Captain, or colleagues/friends in a touching moment. And for me, there was an emotional connection there to the theme songs in that way. They couldn't really do that with the "Faith" song without sounding like bad elevator music. It didn't lend itself well to orchestral scores. Archer's Theme on the other hand, that was nice and could be used (and was used) in the scores. The opening credits offers a whole minute at the beginning of each episode to help set the tone for the show. And I just think it would have been better to use Archer's Theme in the open to make the emotional connection to the theme even stronger. As far as TOS goes, Courage may have written a theme song in a '60s style, but it has proven to be a great theme for a variety of styles (not just the jazzy style of the show's open). They used the opening fanfare a lot throughout the series, and of course again in TNG. And the main part of the theme was used nicely in several of the films to set the tone for different scenes. And as we've seen with the JJ Abrams films, it has stood the test of time. "Faith" just doesn't have that flexibility. Archer's Theme does.

But, really as Yanks said, it's subjective. I seem to agree with most of what he said. And he said it in a much more articulate way than I could.

Wow. Thanks!

Good point about using the score during the episodes. 'Faint' doesn't lend itself to that very well.

I'm a big fan of 'Archer's Theme'. I used to look forward to the end credits just to listen to it Sometimes I even tear up thinking they shouldn't have been cut short.

I know, I'm a sap.

 

[Mach5]

and there's an instrumental version under the end titles of the pilot.

And it's absolutely beautiful. Actually made me tear up once.

 

[MacLeod]

Taste in music whether it be instrumental/lyrics is highly subjective. For me I'm not sure Archer's Theme would work as an opening theme. to me the tempo when compared to the other themes seems off.

"Faith of the Heart" did fit the overall theme of the show. Though I prefered the orginal S1-2 version and didn't see a need to change it (for the worse).

 

[Gaith]

I've always had a soft spot for the cheesy sincerity of "Faith of the Heart" and its lyrics, but reading over this thread made me realize that it's really a self-congratulatory song that's an odd fit for a prequel series. Yes, I get that humanity has triumphed over its own demons and violent history, and is celebrating that, but the show is about us only beginning to make it into deep space, and as such, a "yeah, we've accomplished so much!" song doesn't really stoke the fires of excitement.

Instead, something much faster-paced than the DS9, Voyager and even TNG themes could have been more effective. Something like the "Can You Dig It" theme from Iron Man 3, say.