Hey Neil, by the way, thanks for all of your work on it. I never tire of listening to it.
Perhaps I was being harsh calling it "boring" but it is a lot of creeping around music.
Neil
It was "weird" to me and it made the episode really dark. It's not adventurous or hopeful...
Yep. It was sci-fi/horror music. It was dreary. It did not strike the tone that Roddenberry and Justman wanted to set for Star Trek, either emotionally or stylistically. A rare miss for Alexander Courage, but I also blame the episode itself, the script, for setting him in that direction.
"The Man Trap" score is a part of our history now, we grew up with it, and it may be loved by the few (or the one), but it did not create the ideal lead-off for Star Trek's debut in 1966, and it might be part of the reason Roddenberry's father went up and down the street apologizing to the neighbors that night.
Hey Neil, by the way, thanks for all of your work on it. I never tire of listening to it.
Perhaps I was being harsh calling it "boring" but it is a lot of creeping around music.
Neil
Nah, if you were bored, you were bored. There is a generous amount of that kinda music. Each to his own.
It was "weird" to me and it made the episode really dark. It's not adventurous or hopeful...
Yep. It was sci-fi/horror music. It was dreary. It did not strike the tone that Roddenberry and Justman wanted to set for Star Trek, either emotionally or stylistically. A rare miss for Alexander Courage, but I also blame the episode itself, the script, for setting him in that direction.
"The Man Trap" score is a part of our history now, we grew up with it, and it may be loved by the few (or the one), but it did not create the ideal lead-off for Star Trek's debut in 1966, and it might be part of the reason Roddenberry's father went up and down the street apologizing to the neighbors that night.
I'm the first to admit, I always like the least popular stuff. I - LOVE - this episode. If I had seen the series premiere in 1966, I would have been hooked. Much as I feel WNMHGB should have been broadcast first for the good of the series, I have no issues with The Man Trap being first. Yep, it's atypical for the series. It's very dark, paints Kirk in a pretty unbending light, and Spock is off the charts beating "Nancy" in the face repeatedly with both fists...but it has so much of what I love: the deadly serious tone of the pre-Coon episodes, lots for the supporting cast to do, cold Spock, and a sympathetic alien. You feel for this creature, this poor, last survivor that needs companionship as much as food.
Nope, it's not an adventure and the music does not reflect the "Captain Blood" style exploration feel Roddeberry and Justman wanted. But it was the score the episode needed and it perfectly painted the desolate landscape with the appropriate colors.
Dreary? Nah. Desolate? Cold? Absolutely.
Anyway, just my rambling brain going late into the night...
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