The Music of the Kelvin Timeline

[pst]

so let's talk about michael giacchino's contribution to the kelvin timeline films. i think his three scores have really helped solidify the three films as a cohesive, quality trilogy like williams did with all 7 star wars, shore did with the lord of the rings and the hobbit, zimmer with the dark knight trilogy, etc. i also think his music has helped give the KT that more optimistic tone i mentioned in another thread.

so what's your favorite piece by giacchino (or rihanna i guess) from the kelvin timeline films?

mine is "night on the yorktown". i know i'm not alone in that.

 

[Kor]

Spock's theme with the Erhu. Nice use of a non-western instrument.

Kor

 

[pst]

Spock's theme with the Erhu. Nice use of a non-western instrument.

yeah absolutely, i love the statement of spock's theme in the end credits of 09.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Loved "London's Calling" from Into Darkness.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

I really like "Enterprising Young Men", but really wish they'd remixed it for Beyond.

 

[pst]

I really like "Enterprising Young Men", but really wish they'd remixed it for Beyond.

that's one major criticism of giacchino's work for these films, the lack of variation. the end credits suites are only very subtlety re-orchestrated and he never really did any major tweaks of his main theme. i think the stuff he did at the beginning of beyond is probably the most remixed the "enterprising young men" theme got (i.e. "thank your lucky stardate").

 

[ISS Enterprise]

Feel the end credits scores were solid. 1st portion of them are close to music from end of TOS episode.

Gave each movie same feel as TOS adventure wrapping up

Wasn't a big fan of the Khan music in STID

 

[O_Kav]

I love "Hitting The Saucer A Little Hard" from the ST:Beyond soundtrack. It begins as the fight music from TOS and it ends on a very emotional tone. A very Star Trek(ish) emotional tone.

 

[pst]

I love "Hitting The Saucer A Little Hard" from the ST:Beyond soundtrack. It begins as the fight music from TOS and it ends on a very emotional tone. A very Star Trek(ish) emotional tone.

oh yeah, great piece and speaking of variations on "enterprising young men", there's a beautiful rendition of that theme with choral lyrics at the end of "hitting the saucer a little hard".

there's also a great choral version in "warp core values" from star trek into darkness.

 

[The Wormhole]

As catchy a tune as Enterprising Young Men can be, the fact that it's basically on a loop throughout XI and STID wears it out very quickly. I like that in Beyond they reined in on the tune. Yes, it's still very prominent in the movie and is the undeniable theme, but it doesn't dominate the movie as much as it did the first two. Also, the variations they did for Beyond, particularly used during Kirk's log at the start and during the Enterprise's destruction were a breath of fresh air for that theme. As for other music used in the movies, the Yorktown theme is great, as is the Spock theme.

Although, a complaint I will make is that each movie ends with the Alexander Courage TOS theme, complete with the "Fanfare" which is really so different from the musical identity of these movie that it just stands out like a sore thumb.

 

[ISS Enterprise]

Have to disagree Wormhole.
The end credits music made the 3 movies better for me anyways. They blended in music from each movie into end credits theme too.

As I posted earlier - it closed each movie like TOS episode. Felt perfect for me as the goal for the reboot was to go back to TOS crew and feel

Just personal taste

 

[pst]

Although, a complaint I will make is that each movie ends with the Alexander Courage TOS theme, complete with the "Fanfare" which is really so different from the musical identity of these movie that it just stands out like a sore thumb.

i think the end credits are sort of an artifact of giacchino's original intention to sprinkle the original series theme throughout the first film. those little moments were removed from the final score and the alexander courage theme really only shows up twice in the film and then in the end credits, which becomes a recurring thing in the subsequent 2 films.

Have to disagree Wormhole.
The end credits music made the 3 movies better for me anyways. They blended in music from each movie into end credits theme too.

i appreciate how giacchino was able to make his new theme a counterpoint to courage's old theme throughout sections of the end credits. first courage's theme plays, then giacchino's, then they sort of meld together. very clever writing.

 

[Kor]

I love the use of the original theme in the end credits. It gave me goosebumps and chills up and down my spine.

Kor

 

[Roald]

I think Michael's work for Trek is actually very underrated.. I love these scores so much.. of all music he wrote, without a doubt Night On Yorktown is my favorite... thought it was the best music written in 2016!

 

[David cgc]

I like the original theme in the end credits, but I'm not a fan of how sparingly it's used in the scores, proper. In several of the first ten films, they'd pull out the classic fanfare, or even the entire theme to punctuate a big moment (the escape from Genesis in TSFS, the Enterprise-A reveal in TVH, "Go to Hell" in TUC), but the Giacchino scores almost seem afraid of it. The fanfare is just barely incorporated into the big rescue at the end of ST09, but the one that really bothers me is the very beginning of Beyond, Giacchino likes to imply or refer to themes by only quoting them partially (he did something similar in Rogue One where he tended not to resolve Williams motifs before moving on), rather than reorchestrating them or embedding them into new music. The trick works better with his own motifs, which seem a little more modular, but it's weird when he does it to other pieces. Hopefully "Lucky Stardate" is a good sign for the future, and he'll experiment more with playing tunes in different ways to emphasize or suggest them, rather than just using parts of them in their definitive forms.