The Music of "Where No Man..."

[Wingsley]

Regarding the music of "Where No Man Has Gone Before":

I've noticed that the musical score of this episode is a unique mix of passages that do not seem to blend as easily with other, subsequent eps in TOS Year 1 as those eps do with each other. An example would be the music used to open Act 1 when we see the usual Enterprise flyby. A much better example would be when the Enterprise first encounters the Galactic Barrier. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this music is not heard again until "The Lights of Zetar" in Year 3.

A question: was the musical score incorporated into the ep in 1965 as we know it, or was this music shoe-horned in while the series was winding down in 1969, in preparation for syndication? Is there any place to find definitive answers on this?

 

[Michael]

AFAIK, the score for the second pilot was not "shoe-horned" in any way. Alexander Courage composed an original score for the episode which was later re-used throughout the whole series. Or maybe I'm not getting your question. Sorry. Maybe you can find a definitive answer here.

 

[Wingsley]

The thing I find strange about certain passages in "Where No Man..." is that they are only heard in this ep, then not again until Year 3. You never hear them again in Years 1 and 2.

Another example is the very opening to the teaser of "Where No Man...", as we see the Enterprise approaching, the music is unique. I don't think you hear it again until when Scotty rescues the misfits off the exploding Aurora in "The Way To Eden", unless I'm mistaken.

 

[Philo]

It's especially interesting given that Courage scored both The Cage and Where No Man yet produced a vastly different sounding score for each (kinda reminds me of how Bob Fletcher did the uniforms for both TMP and TWOK). It would appear that once the series went into production they decided to go with The Cage sound more than the Where No Man sound which would explain why it proved difficult to use those cues later.

Then again, there are several scores from the third season that have a vastly different style to them as well. I always found them a little jarring, myself.

 

[Basill]

This subject reminds me of how much I would love a definitive reference source for all the music of TOS and even some of the films down to the cue. However, although I don't have that source, and I could never recall at will every piece of beautiful music from that series (though I could recognize it instantly ) I know of at least one little cue from WNMHGB showing up in a first season episode, "The Corbormite Maneuver." It is the cue from WHMHGB The captain's log immediately after the Enterprise has escaped its terrible encounter with the Galactic Barrier, and is reused in TCM after Kirk's bluff, during Sulu's countdown to destruction. That's all memory, but I'll review those episodes for confirmation.

I have to say the cues you mention used in "The Light's of Zetar" serve that episode well. In my opinion.

 

[Michael]

This subject reminds me of how much I would love a definitive reference source for all the music of TOS and even some of the films down to the cue.

Seconded. I'd love to have such a reference source. I wonder why no-one has produced one as of yet.

 

[Christopher]

Many episodes with original scores have musical passages that were rarely or never tracked into other episodes. Some cues just worked better as stock music or were better liked by the music editors, I guess.

The "Where No Man" score -- most of it -- was released in an album many years ago along with the "Cage" score; since it was on LP, with limited room available, they lopped off the last few tracks of the WNM score, so the fight with Mitchell and other climactic cues are missing. But all the cues from the first 3/4 of the episode are there, reproduced from the original master tapes. So they were all written and recorded at the same time.