Rank the Films Based on Music Scores

[tomalak301]

I got to thinking lately (And with the death of the composer for Trek IV), that each movie brought with it an outstanding score. I apologize if this has been done to death (I don't post in this forum a lot) but how would you rank the movies based on the Music from favorite to least favorite:

For me:

The Motion Picture/Final Frontier
The Undiscovered Country
The Voyage Home
The Wrath of Kahn/Search for Spock
First Contact
Generations
Insurrection
Nemesis

 

[Cyrus]

This is really tough as the musical score was one thing I liked about all the Trek movies.

TMP
TUC
FC
TWOK
TVH
NEM
TFF
TSFS
INS
GEN

 

[cardinal biggles]

TMP
TWOK
TUC
TVH
TSFS
TFF
FC
INS
NEM
GEN

 

[Kegek]

Hmm. Let's get the obvious out of the way:

TMP
TUC
TWOK

Okay then. TMP represents the best work for the franchise that Goldsmith did; TWOK for Horner, and TUC is just a very solid, atmospheric score. For me, these stand in a league of their own compared to the rest of the film scores, and TMP above all.

TFF
FC-INS
TVH
GEN
TSFS
NEM

FC and INS are about the same to me because they're good, but Goldsmith is showing far less originality than he even did in TFF, which I think is easily his strongest Trek score after TMP. Thankfully both have some nice moments. TSFS suffers essentially the same problem, but it's moments aren't as nice. GEN and TVH, the sole film scores for the series from Rosenman and McCarthy, are decidedly unspectacular. Rosenman's fits TVH hand-in-glove - bland, happy, and forgettable, just like the movie. Yet, it still has far more verve and character than McCarthy's decidedly uninspired GEN score, the least satisfying original score in the series. So why do I rate NEM the last? Candidly, NEM is unreservedly phoning it in, recapitulating whole sequences from TMP and just adding a few stray additional themes - none of them, sadly, any good.

In conclusion, none of these are bad scores; but there are three ones which are top notch and the rest are, at best good, at worst derivative and/or mediocre.

 

[Jon1701]

^

I gotta agree with most of that Kegek, although I rate TSFS a lot higher. "Stealing the Enterprise" is a great piece.

TWOK is probably my favourite, with TMP a very close second. Having said that, the YOSEMITE suite in TFF is a truly beautiful peace of music.

Just beautiful.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

TMP
TFF
TWOK
FC

I lose interest after that.

I was watching part of "Battle Beyond The Stars" last evening. Horner's entire Trek score is in that movie.

 

[EnsignRicky]

01 The Wrath Of Kahn
02 The Motion Picture
03 First Contact
04 The Search for Spock
05 The Voyage Home
06 The Final Frontier
07 The Undiscovered Country
08 Generations
09 Insurrection
10 Nemesis

 

[Jon1701]

I was watching part of "Battle Beyond The Stars" last evening. Horner's entire Trek score is in that movie.

Part of?

I watched it again for the first time in years the other week.

Still a great film. In a shit way.

 

[RyanKCR]

TMP
TWOK
NEM
FC
TSFS
FC
TFF
GEN
INS
VOY

 

[butch101]

simple.
1. tmp
2. twok
3. tff
4. tuc
5. fc
6. tsfs
7. ins
8. gen
9. nem
10. tvh

Butch

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I was watching part of "Battle Beyond The Stars" last evening. Horner's entire Trek score is in that movie.

Part of?

For research.

In the last, oh, nearly two years I've watched just about every skiffy space movie I can think of - particularly low-budget jobbies like "Battle" - as well as a fair sampling of classic submarine flicks and westerns.

In all of that, there are some movies that I can only bear in part. I'm afraid that I didn't make it much past the opening sequence of "The Riddick Chronicles."

BTW, that sucker's name is Khan, not Kahn. There are two very disparate ethnicities going on there.

 

[RyanKCR]

I was watching part of "Battle Beyond The Stars" last evening. Horner's entire Trek score is in that movie.

He got the TWOK score gig due to that film and Horner indicated Goldsmith's TMP score was his inspiration for "Battle Beyond the the Stars" and you can
easily tell that when you listen to the blaster beam during the approach to the Ephastes station near the beginning of the movie.

 

[sbk1234]

1. FC
2. TMP/TFF
3. INS
4. TWOK
5. TSFS (different enough to have its own mention)
6. TVH
7. GEN
8. TUC
9. NEM

 

[Vasquez Rocks]

FC
TMP
TVH
TWOK
TUC
NEM
INS
TFF
TSFS
GEN

 

[SmoothieX]

First Contact for me, followed closely by Wrath of Khan.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

By scores, it'd have to be:

WRATH OF KHAN/SEARCH FOR SPOCK
THE MOTION PICTURE
THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY
FIRST CONTACT
VOYAGE HOME
THE FINAL FRONTIER
NEMESIS
INSURRECTION
GENERATIONS

 

[James Bond]

The First Contact opening score is perhaps one of the greatest pieces of music in Star Trek history.

 

[Sci]

1. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
2. Star Trek: First Contact
3. Star Trek: The Motion Picture
4. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
5. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
6. Star Trek Generations

And all the rest just kinda bob into each other.

 

[HoundDog]

I don't think that any of the films had a bad score. So I'm just naming the three that I think are the most outstanding:

1. TMP
2. FC
3. TUC

 

[Warp Coil]

TWOK
TMP
TUC
FC
TSFS
TFF
INS
GEN
TVH
NEM

As iconic as some of Goldsmith's scores from TMP have become to the franchise, I think that Horner's score for TWOK was better overall. Either way, these are my top two. Cliff Eidelman's work for TUC was so.... different, dark, interesting, moody.... I'm so happy that they took a risk on this one. FC is Goldsmith's second-best work, and has a beautiful theme. The music played during the opening credits is just beautiful. I find Goldsmith's TFF score to be fine (but not great), and Horner's follow-up with TSFS recycled a lot from TWOK which is fine, but not quite as spectacular. I originally liked McCarthy's score for GEN, but it hasn't aged well IMO. Same is true for Rosenman's work for TVH. I know Goldsmith's health probably deteriorated as he got older, so by the time INS and NEM rolled around, he was just phoning it in. Paramount should have thought outside the box and brought in someone else.