Maybe we should’ve expected a release like this in a year in which the Star Trek franchise is suddenly coasting along on both warp power and the goodwill of a receptive public thanks to its big-screen relaunch, but this CD’s release caught me completely by surprise, and I hope it’s a sign of things to come.

Simply put, this CD gathers the complete score of James Horner’s celebrated, career-making music score from the second Star Trek film, in order, every note – even including material that was jettisoned after a studio-mandated reshoot required Horner to re-convene his orchestra and add more music at a late date. The soundtrack from Star Trek II has been released before, but this definitive remastered edition adds half an hour of music and represents every note heard in the course of the film. Add to that the usual lavish, well-researched booklet from Film Score Monthly, and you get a package worthy of one of the best scores in the franchise’s big-screen history.

Key passages of music that haven’t been heard before include – believe it or not – major movements in the movie’s climactic space battle, atmospheric tracks from early in the movie, and a brief piece of music that should be forever famous if for not other reason than underscoring William Shatner screaming “KHAAAAAAAAAAN!” Oh, and the death and funeral of one Mr. Spock. In short, the previously omitted tracks are not minor moments in the movie, and why they were left out on the original release is probably down to the fact that, in the LP-dominated days of the early 1980s, a 45-minute soundtrack album was considered more than enough unless, maybe, the movie’s title had “Wars” (rather than “Trek”) after “Star”. Even with that limitation in mind, some of the omissions from the original release are mind-boggling. This CD handily corrects that, and the improvement in sound quality is quite noticeable.

The booklet itself is worth the price of admission too: virtually everything you could possibly want to know about the movie’s music and its composer (including how he got the job and who else almost got the job) is here, lavishly illustrated, painstakingly researched, and the photos even reveal something I had never known about this movie: its composer can be seen in Starfleet uniform in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it walk-on part.

I’m literally praying to God (who may or may not need a starship) that Film Score Monthly isn’t going to be content to leave the Star Trek franchise alone after this release. The third through eighth films cry out for more fully fleshed-out soundtrack releases like this, and I wouldn’t kick FSM out of bed if they wanted to do something crazy like venture into unreleased music from The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine. A pipe dream? Maybe. But until FSM announced it, the expanded Star Trek II score seemed just as unlikely. It’s been worth the wait – great music finally getting a fitting treatment.

1. Main Title (3:08)
2. Surprise On Ceti Aplha V (0:46)
3. Khan’s Pets (4:20)
4. The Eels Of Ceti Alpha V / Kirk In Space Shuttle (3:54)
5. Enterprise Clears Moorings (3:34)
6. Chekov Lies (0:42)
7. Spock (1:13)
8. Kirk Takes Command / He Tasks Me (2:08)
9. Genesis Project composed & performed by Craig Huxley (3:17)
10. Surprise Attack (5:08)
11. Kirk’s Explosive Reply (4:03)
12. Inside Regula I (1:37)
13. Brainwashed (1:25)
14. Captain Terrell’s Death (2:00)
15. Buried Alive (0:58)
16. The Genesis Cave (1:11)
17. Battle In The Mutara Nebula (8:09)
18. Enterprise Attacks Reliant (1:30)
19. Genesis Countdown (6:35)
20. Spock (Dies) (1:55)
21. Amazing Grace (1:27)
22. Epilogue / End Title (8:47)
23. Epilogue (original version) / End Title (7:29)

Released by: Retrograde Records (Film Score Monthly)
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 75:16

The moment that it was announced that J.J. Abrams would be taking the helm of the Enterprise for its next big-screen voyage, the first thought that entered my head wasn’t a question of loving or hating the movie over a year in advance; rather, it was “I hope Michael Giacchino is doing the music.” It actually would’ve been a massive surprise – bigger than any on-screen plot twist imaginable – if that hadn’t turned out to be the case: Giacchino’s music has accompanied Alias and Lost on TV, and Mission: Impossible III on film, all projects headed up by Abrams. Furthermore, with non-Abrams films like Speed Racer, Ratatouille and The Incredibles (whose music earned an Oscar nomination), Giacchino has proven himself to be at the forefront of a new generation of composers, and certainly a dependable one.

The question is: can he handle the final frontier? The Star Trek franchise has seen – and heard – some of the very best works of talents such as Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner, and some of the TV music hasn’t been bad either. Star Trek has established themes aplenty and a rich musical legacy – a lot for even an A-list composer take on. From the opening notes of his score album for the new Star Trek film, Giacchino makes it clear that he’s trying to forge his own path. The score does incorporate the immortal Alexander Courage theme, but not right at the beginning. A rather low-key, somber theme opens the movie, says its piece and gets off the stage very quickly. It’s not entirely unlike – but also not madly similar to – the unusual opening numbers of Star Trek VI and Star Trek Nemesis, and it certainly sets a different tone, shortly before doing the musical equivalent of crashing into something abruptly.

This theme recurs throughout the selections presented here, and though its first statement is somewhat downbeat, it’s driven through major keys and triumphant arrangements as well. “Nailin’ The Kelvin”, a cue accompanying a chaotic early scene in the film in which James T. Kirk is literally born in battle, features this theme in a bittersweet rendition, while “Enterprising Young Men” turns the motif into a bold anthem. A simple but menacing theme for Nero, the movie’s villain, surfaces in “Nero Sighted”, which also brings some of Giacchino’s trademark dissonant action music to the fore (one of the few places where I honestly listened to the soundtrack and thought, “Hey, that sounds a bit like Lost”). More Giacchino action music signatures can be found in “Run And Shoot Offense”, which also introduces a vaguely Eastern motif, and “Nero Death Experience”, which features a rare (for a Star Trek film score) choral interlude or two and resolves to a triumphant statement of the main theme before layering it into a boisterous action cue.

But there really aren’t many places where the Star Trek score is a dead ringer for Lost. Whether it’s a larger orchestral ensemble at Giacchino’s disposal, or a different approach to orchestration, the score is very, very traditional Hollywood blockbuster – at times, it reminds me more of John Williams than anything. Electronics seem to be kept under a tight rein, and the most exotic the selections on the album really get is a lonely ehru motif for Spock’s alien heritage. (Science fiction TV and film scores may be the ehru’s best friend in western music – see/hear also the new Battlestar Galactica and Earth: Final Conflict.)

And the original series theme as composed by Alexander Courage? Its opening fanfare makes a triumphant comeback in “To Boldly Go”, and the end credit suite then takes up a glorious full statement of the entire theme from start to finish, with a very pleasing arrangement that balances the French horns just right – sounding very much like Courage’s original orchestration, except with a full choir standing in for the soprano solo of the original theme. Over the considerable length of the end credit suite, Giacchino weaves Courage’s theme into his own material repeatedly, including one incredibly clever section where he demonstrates that the new movie’s theme can fit inside the original series theme as a running counterpoint composition, melding with the Courage theme and not straining against it. Gorgeous and very well thought-out.

Some fans may be a little displeased that the entire score isn’t constantly calling back the themes of the original series and movies, but why should it? It’s clear from the outset that this is a different Star Trek, with fundamental changes made to select parts of the underlying premise. It’s still about James T. Kirk and Spock and the Enterprise and her gallant crew, but the movie spins these basic conceits into a different direction – and yet not not a drastically different one, just a way to open up new stories in a universe whose cat’s cradle of continuity had, by the time the last TV series ended, become almost too tangled for its own good. And if there is room for new Star Trek stories, then there’s room for new Star Trek music – and one gets the hint, during the end credits, that the next movie’s music might have a slightly more familiar feel to it. Judging by this album, hopefully Michael Giacchino will be giving the next movie its sound too. Star Trek probably isn’t what most Trek soundtrack fans are expecting – but maybe that’s not a bad thing.

1. Star Trek (1:03)
2. Nailin’ The Kelvin (2:09)
3. Labor Of Love (2:51)
4. Hella Bar Talk (1:55)
5. Enterprising Young Men (2:39)
6. Nero Sighted (3:23)
7. Nice To Meld You (3:13)
8. Run And Shoot Offense (2:04)
9. Does It Still McFly? (2:03)
10. Nero Death Experience (5:38)
11. Nero Fiddles, Narada Burns (2:34)
12. Back From Black (:59)
13. That New Car Smell (4:46)
14. To Boldly Go (:26)
15. End Credits (9:11)

Released by: Varese Sarabande
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 44:52

Released free by the composer as a downloadable online demo, this is basically the complete score from the first act of the three-installment semi-pro fan film Star Trek: Of Gods And Men. Composer Justin R. Durban has an extensive resume that includes film and video game work, and so, like many of the stars of Gods, he’s no newcomer to the business.

In terms of how Gods stacks up to other Star Treks musically, perhaps the best comparison I can draw – though I’m not saying they sound a lot alike – is Star Trek VI: dark, subdued music in an orchetral vein, with occasional choral textures and gutturally percussive moments of action. It’s not really like anything else in the Star Trek musical canon, but then neither is the movie it accompanies.

The musical intrigue and darkness pile up quickly in the opening scenes that depict a low-level Starfleet member’s death at the hands of a mysterious visitor. Things lighten up a bit for the visit to the museum ship Enterprise, but when the story’s timeline is altered and we wind up in something like the Mirror Universe a la the Klingon Empire, things turn dark and stay that way. The percussion and rumbling low brass aren’t a million miles away from the music the accompanied the Klingons in several Star Trek movies, though that theme isn’t quoted at all – we’re talking similar instrumentation and stylistic choices.

Everything sounds convincingly orchestral, and the choral vocals pass muster as well. If anything strikes me as something that even comes close to a weak point here, it’s that the music often drops back to a low drone, which is great for dialogue, but a drone is a drone. I’m the kind of guy who’d like the composer to keep something going in the background, and let the sound mixers worry about how much sonic space the music and the dialogue are occupying, but Gods’ director (Voyager star Tim Russ) and producers may have had different ideas during spotting, in which case the composer’s just following instructions/suggestions.

It’s an interesting contrast to most other music you’d associate with Star Trek – even compared to other fan films. Then again, that seems to hold true for everything to do with Of Gods And Men, not just the music.

1. Main Titles – Act I (1:15)
2. Data Clerk’s Demise (1:47)
3. Uhura’s Log (1:31)
4. Home Again (4:11)
5. Charlie’s Revenge (1:28)
6. Capturing The Fox (3:26)
7. The Needs Of The Many (2:59)
8. The Calm Before The Storm (2:57)
9. Approaching The Planet (1:58)
10. Vulcan’s Last Gleaming (1:58)
11. End Credits – Act I (2:30)

Released by: Edgen Music
Release date: 2007
Total running time: 26:00

Star Trek: Intrepid is a fan-made Star Trek spinoff, set in the post-Voyager 24th century and shot entirely in Scotland, which certainly gives it – quite literally – a unique voice. It also has a unique musical voice, with an original score for the pilot episode, Heavy Lies The Crown, by David Beukes – a score which doesn’t use one note of any established Star Trek themes, and it’s a half-hour of good music at that.

With everything from the death of the ship’s original captain, to big space battles, to moments of whimsy, to political intrigue, Intrepid would’ve forced anyone who was doing the music to run the gauntlet and prove themselves worthy. David Beukes passes the test with flying colors with music that would’ve done an actual televised Star Trek episode proud. The big fights are exciting, there’s some quiet menace going on as the plot thickens, the humorous scenes are well-done with an economy of plucked strings and woodwind samples, and there’s a kind of sweeping, panoramic, noble sound that’s almost a prerequisite if you’re going to put the words “Star Trek” on the cover.

One thing I do have to say about the Intrepid score is that Beukes knows how to get the biggest bang out of whatever sample library he’s using. With the fan-made Trek productions, it’s almost a given that your music is going to be done on synths, with samples, or a combination of the two, but in this case, there are very few places where I hear anything that instantly earmarks something as “not orchestral.” There are things you can do with samples – adding room reverb, etc. – that make them sound a bit more real, and the composer seems to have that technique down pat here. Tracks such as “Navar On The Bridge”, “You’re Making Fun Of Me” and “Conference” sound, for all intents and purposes, like he’s got real musicians and instruments miked up in the studio.

Two tracks that really mystify me a bit are “Battlestations” and “Garth’s Gambit”; they’re basically the same thing, only “Battlestations” has dialogue from the show included. I normally scream “argh!” at dialogue on a soundtrack album – even a free one! – but since the music is repeated without dialogue in the next track, I’ll let this one off the hook. I just thought it was a slightly odd choice to include a dialogue version at all, but thankfully the “clean” version is available too.

Overall, the Star Trek: Intrepid pilot score is a real treat for the ears (and at just the right price, too!). It manages to sound “big” in all the right places while being its own animal; there’s nothing here that sounds overly influenced by previous music under the Star Trek banner, aside from a sweeping orchestral sound. Composer David Beukes has, according to his blog, landed a real live composing/arranging/producing gig at a professional recording studio, and listening to this, I can see why. Here’s hoping he’s still got time to venture into the final frontier now and again in the future.

1. Theme From Intrepid (1:22)
2. Introduction (1:16)
3. Captain Talath (2:07)
4. Conflict / You Can Live With It (1:58)
5. Brothers (1:35)
6. Power Down (0:17)
7. Conference (2:17)
8. You’re Making Fun Of Me (0:54)
9. Heroics (2:42)
10. Wrong Again (0:22)
11. Sealed Orders (0:43)
12. Duty (1:58)
13. Five To Beam Down (0:33)
14. Chiron IV (0:58)
15. Navar On The Bridge (1:27)
16. Battlestations (2:13)
17. Garth’s Gambit (2:22)
18. Victory (0:37)
19. Consideration (1:04)
20. Intrepid Theme End Credits (1:16)
21. Intrepid Trailer Theme (1:35)

Released by: David Beukes
Release date: 2007
Total running time: 29:36

Just as I was mightily impressed with the debut installment of the Star Trek fan series Odyssey (see that review here), I was also impressed with its music – and lo and behold, San Francisco-based composer/multimedia producer Dexter Craig has made it available for free. I find myself missing the sound of the final frontier from time to time, and the Odyssey soundtrack hits the spot nicely.

Though it’s synthesized, the music from Iliad is done in an orchestral vein, and nothing here is written in such a way that an orchestra couldn’t theoretically play it. About half a year ago, I reviewed Dennis McCarthy’s CD release of the music from the 1997 CD-ROM game Star Trek: Borg, and I commented on the quality of the synth-orchestral elements available at that time; the music from Odyssey is at least on the same level from a technical standpoint.

Musically, Odyssey is graced with a stately, noble main theme that can best be described as not a million miles away from the Star Trek: Voyager theme – not stunningly similar, but there’s a definite resemblance in terms of feel. The Odyssey motif permeates the entire score, and unlike the Voyager theme, it’s designed to play well in major or minor keys. As the ship’s fate gradually becomes more dire, so too does its music – it’s all done quite cleverly. One lengthy cue, “The Attack Begins”, clocks in at just under ten minutes and puts the theme through quite a few permutations, as well as adding percussion that’s both contemporary and feels a little “ancient” at the same time. “I’m In Command!” builds on that cue’s momentum and begins throwing dark choral textures into the mix. For music that was made for an amateur film, it’s not shabby at all.

The story’s lighter moments are played well too. “Ro And Aster Get Lucky” accompanies a humorous/romantic scene with a piece that eventually breaks out into a tango. At the opposite end of the scale, the music for the scenes on the Archein homeworld and that race’s ships is dark and brooding without going overboard.

Overall, it’s well worth a listen, and quite a commendable effort. There are a few places where the music’s synthetic nature is obvious, but as with the rest of Star Trek: Odyssey, this is a project done without millions of dollars, for the sheer love of it. In that context, it’s good stuff and well worth the download time.

1. Overture (0:14)
2. Archeina (1:08)
3. Odyssey Theme Opening Titles (1:16)
4. Locations; Archeina To DS12 (0:45)
5. The Briefing And In Quarters (1:45)
6. General Morigu And Seram (0:28)
7. We Need A Little Luck (0:39)
8. Majan Gets Bitchy (1:36)
9. Ro And Aster Get Lucky (1:37)
10. Coming Up On Odyssey (0:40)
11. Engineering And The Ceremony (0;58)
12. Departures (2:53)
13. I’m Dying, I Have A Headache (0:35)
14. Doc Vaughan And The Romulan (2:28)
15. The Attack Begins (9:10)
16. I’m In Command! (2:58)
17. The Conference Room (3:08)
18. T’lorra Gets Bitchy (0:35)
19. Stadi’s Mistake (0:41)
20. Personal Log (2:01)
21. End Titles (1:04)

Released by: DexFX.com
Release date: 2007
Total running time: 36:38

One final note, a sidebar to the above review: as I write this review of the Odyssey soundtrack, which was released free of charge, I’ve also been gathering other Star Trek fan films’ soundtracks to review – and I’ve been watching a controversy kick up around another fan-made series, Star Trek: New Voyages/Phase II, which disturbs me deeply, as it involves dancing around wording regarding whether or not the film project is making any money (if Paramount is to continue to quietly turn a blind eye to the project, it can’t make so much as a red cent). I have noticed – and I’m not going to drop names here – that there are a few composers who are charging for the music they’ve composed for these projects. I understand that sample libraries and the software and gear used to make music with them do not come cheap, but while I’m not going to try to tell them what to do, I would suggest that these composers – by flying in the face of the rest of the project of which their music is a part and trying to make a buck – may be recouping their money at the cost of putting the non-profit projects giving them exposure at risk. As an occasional amateur composer myself, I can tell you that the whole reason to attach oneself to a project such as a non-profit or student film – for which one isn’t being paid – is to gain valuable exposure, possibly including exposure to producers who will pay you to work on commercial projects. As such, I will not be reviewing any “paid downloads” of music from otherwise non-profit fan films. I’ll be happy to support the composers by giving them additional exposure through my reviews, but only if their music selections are, like the films themselves, free. – EG

Released through composer Dennis McCarthy’s web site, the music from the first and last episodes of the first season of Fox’s 1995 SF series Sliders will probably sound familiar to fans of McCarthy’s Star Trek work. It’s more of the same of McCarthy’s signature style, though it’s just possible that he gets to cut loose a bit more here – there are more action setpieces in the music than one would expect to find in the average episode of Next Generation or Deep Space Nine. This CD includes selections from the two episodes McCarthy scored in the first season – the two-hour pilot movie and the season finale Luck Of The Draw.

McCarthy’s trademark foreboding style is all over the pilot; with the exception of a few more exciting than usual action cues, much of his pilot score might as well be a Star Trek score, if a slightly more energetic one than usual. Cues like “The Ice Tornado” are big, bustling action cues of precisely the kind that executive producer Rick Berman discouraged at nearly all costs on Trek; fortunately, though, this isn’t Trek.

McCarthy splits the difference between his orchestral style and something a bit more contemporary with the cues from Luck Of The Draw, the first season finale episode which involved a parallel Earth that uses lotttery-selected suicide as a means of population control. For action cues that don’t have to musically illustrate that society, McCarthy slips back into full orchestral mode, again a little more boisterously than he generally would’ve been allowed to be in that other SF universe.

The rest of the first season was scored by Mark Mothersbaugh (of Devo fame), who also composed the series’ main theme; his contributions don’t appear here.

Wrapping up the Sliders CD is a McCarthy original, “Past, Present & Future Suite”, which combines a wild electric guitar intro with some of the composer’s favorite Trek cues, including the heroic opening from the second season opener The Child, and some completely original “rock” material. The opening minute or so of this piece is just awe-inspiring, but its more contemporary middle section peters out about before getting back to business. Still, it’s basically a piece of Next Generation music that hasn’t been heard elsewhere, which is why I’ve got this in the database as a Star Trek soundtrack.

The Sliders soundtrack is an interesting piece of work, and fans of his work (or even listeners who thought he was playing action sequences awfully tame on Star Trek) will probably dig it, whether they’ve seen the show in question or not.

1. Main Title (1:38)
2. The Wormhole (1:56)
3. The First Slide (4:42)
4. The Ice World (3:16)
5. Ice Tornado (4:11)
6. Strange Land (3:33)
7. The Rescue (2:23)
8. Wade’s Death? (1:46)
9. Sliders Escape (2:28)
10. Interlude (1:11)
11. Finale / End Credits (1:38)
12. Slide In (0:29)
13. A New World (1:15)
14. The Girl’s Suicide (2:51)
15. Jail Break (2:26)
16. Wade In Danger (1:23)
17. Slide Out / Quinn Shot (3:12)
18. Past, Present And Future Suite (2:40)

Released by: dennismccarthy.com
Release date: 2007
Total running time: 42:58