Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brilliant?

[JT Perfecthair]

I thinks its possible that TMP is the finest soundtrack ever written for any movie, but all the movies from TMP through Into Darkness have wonderful music.

TMP: Goldsmiths V'jer cloud and the drydock, the opening becoming the TNG theme

2/3: Horner's nautical theme for 2 and the incredible "Theft of the Enterprise" from 3

4: the light, fun music which perfectly suited a much different story from the rest

5: It has "A Busy Man" which is simply beautiful whatever you think of the film.

6: a brilliant opening and doesn't try to drown us in "the Klingon theme" for each Klingons appearance

7: I love the music when Picard is in the Nexus

8: First Contact has perhaps the best of the opening theme of any of the films

9: not so much the theme, but rather the incidental music really makes Insurrection tolerable

10: I wish the opening to Nemesis was longer, what was with the 15 second intro?

11/12: I don't care for Giaccano's opening theme music but I do like certain sequences, Pike's shuttle leaving to visit Nero in 2009 and the London sequence from Into Darkness for example.

As for the various series, I think DS9 has the best opening, Voyager a close second, with Enterprise being the only one I make it a point to fast forward through.

So, does anybody not like the music in general or have an issue with a particular film? Does anybody like to listen to the soundtracks just as symphonic works, rather that as "Trek music?"

 

[USS Triumphant]

Re: Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brillia

The only times that I can remember Trek soundtracks standing out as being "the star of the show", so to speak, are the soundtracks for II, '09, and the opening of VI. The rest has just been background, and the best I can say for it is that it is obviously well-composed for that purpose, because I can't remember any of it being jarringly BAD.

The biggest crime of the soundtracks, in my opinion, is the omission of the awesome "I Hate You" by Edge of Etiquette from the purchasable soundtrack for IV.

Edit: I actually like Russell Watson's "Faith of the Heart", and have it on my mp3 player, but I agree that it wasn't quite right for a Trek theme. Given that they seemed determined to use a more contemporary piece with lyrics, though, we definitely could have gotten WORSE.

 

[HIjol]

Re: Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brillia

Glad to be able to admit that I DO listen to the soundtracks and individual compositions as music qua music, rather than always as just a "Star Trek" thing...I know a little about music and it's various purposes, and USS Triumphant is correct in that the kind of music being discussed here is that which is often composed to be more in the background, but I feel that many times, ST music comes right out front...

...anybody ever do the Klingon battle theme song in heavy traffic, desperately searching for the disruptor cannon button on your steering column?...

 

[DrCorby]

Re: Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brillia

I've loved movie (and TV) soundtracks for years, evoking images from the movie/show, as well as just great music to listen to.

However, there is one that does bug me -- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Not that it's bad music, per se. But it sounds so much like composer Leonard Rosenman's score for Ralph Bakshi's animated Lord of the Rings from 1978. Couldn't he come up with new music for Star Trek, instead of reusing so much of his previous work? Granted, I've never listened to them side-by-side, so to speak, but as soon as I started listening to the ST4 soundtrack, LOTR images just flooded back into my mind...

 

[2takesfrakes]

Re: Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brillia

TMP & TWoK are both brilliant works in their entirety. After that, I don't know what happened.

 

[Elder Knight]

Re: Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brillia

Yes. For the most part the only soundtrack albums I bought in that era. Somewhere around here there are six lonely audio cassettes in a group.

 

[Melakon]

Re: Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brillia

I liked Jerry Goldsmith's scores; one of my first soundtrack albums was the one he did for the original Planet of the Apes. James Horner's Wrath of Khan score I often had on in the background when playing a submarine game on an Atari 400 about 30 years ago.

 

[Runetouch]

Re: Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brillia

Star Trek definitely has been consistently good in music, even if it hasn't been consistently good in other stuff.

 

[Cyke101]

Re: Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brillia

I quite like how Goldsmith's TMP score could be creepy at times, and I loved the sense of grim urgency in TUC. I also appreciate how Giacchino seems to really lovingly pay homage to the 60s.

And then we have this beauty
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9q6Va4Ee1g

 

[The Wormhole]

Re: Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brillia

For the most part, yes the Trek movies do have excellent soundtracks. Insurrection's isn't really anything too memorable (but then, neither is the movie) and the Abrams movies get too caught up with the "Enterprising Young Men" tune to the point of overplaying it.

 

[Maurice]

Re: Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brillia

The trouble with Horner's scores is that he's just riffing on the same music he did over and over again in that period. It's not just the orchestration, sometimes he's reusing the same music from film to film, from Humanoids From the Deep to Cocoon to Aliens. His scores aren't brilliant because they're largely recycled.

Goldsmith's TMP score is brilliant, and one of his top three. I dunno if I'd go so far as best score ever. Even more than his TMP score, his TFF score is much better than the film it accompanies. Every time I hear it I wonder what a Goldsmith TWOK score would have been, as I can imagine it given the direction here.

The rest. Meh.

 

[Tarheel]

Re: Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brillia

I enjoy every soundtrack, including all of the TV series, and have them queued up in my iTunes. I usually keep them on shuffle while I read my Trek lit. The only exception is The Voyage Home. I've never liked that soundtrack and it's the only one that I don't own.

 

[The Wormhole]

Re: Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brillia

The trouble with Horner's scores is that he's just riffing on the same music he did over and over again in that period. It's not just the orchestration, sometimes he's reusing the same music from film to film, from Humanoids From the Deep to Cocoon to Aliens. His scores aren't brilliant because they're largely recycled.

It's like the joke I made while watching The Perfect Storm. "I don't get it, are there massive waves splashing against the boat, or is the Reliant attacking?"

 

[Maurice]

Re: Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brillia

I could literally hum along with the boat chase music at the end of Cocoon because it was essentially the Battle in the Mutara Nebula music.

 

[geneo]

Re: Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brillia

Star Trek Insurrection is my favorite.

 

[Smellmet]

Re: Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brillia

I liked the one for Insurrection but there were too many bits that seem to be recycled from earlier scores for me, and bits that didn't quite fit, like the beginning where Data goes crazy, the music just seemed to be an over-dramatic recycled bit of (admittedly) classic Goldsmith, I liked Nemesis better.

TMP is the absolute champ for me though, and 1 of the best 4 scores in movie history IMO along with Superman the Movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark & the original SW trilogy - absolutely amazing. Horner's work on 2 & 3 are a very close second, they were that good that it's probably the reason why Trek mixed up composers and themes for the rest of the series instead of using Goldsmiths main theme throughout (I mean - can you imagine all the Star Wars movies having different composers and main themes now?).

TUC was very good in parts, as was GEN and FC, and TFF has a pretty strong score also. The new movies are pretty decent too but I feel like they need a bit of time to grow on me some more.

4 I simply cannot abide, but I can see why it was like it was, a big dramatic score would have been totally inappropriate.

Probably never going to happen but I would absolutely love to see Hans Zimmer have a pop at Trek.

 

[Maurice]

Re: Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brillia

I always laugh when I see "best ever" lists that only include sci-fi/fantasy genre films. There's tons of great film scores out there which are as good as or better than the ones typically listed. Lawrence of Arabia or The Magnificent Seven, anyone?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Re: Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brillia

You don't even have to cheat on Goldsmith. You can go with Patton, which has a seriously awesome score.

However, I love The Magnificent Seven's music.

 

[Greg Cox]

Re: Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brillia

Star Trek Insurrection is my favorite.

That's a good one. I've listened to soundtrack way more times than I've ever watched the movie!

 

[Tiberius]

Re: Whichever movie, do you feel all the Trek soundtracks were brillia

The trouble with Horner's scores is that he's just riffing on the same music he did over and over again in that period. It's not just the orchestration, sometimes he's reusing the same music from film to film, from Humanoids From the Deep to Cocoon to Aliens. His scores aren't brilliant because they're largely recycled.

So? The fact that certain themes have been used several times in no way reduces their quality.