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

You’ve seen the movie, now hear the music – well, not quite. In this case, you’ve seen the movie trailer, now hear the music. E.S. Posthumus’ Unearthed is an unorthodox release by a group of producers and musicians whose “day job”, if you will, is to create music for movie trailers. The music is as epic and sweeping as anything you could probably find on the movies’ individual soundtracks, but this music is born in and lives in entirely commercial airspace. And frankly, the idea of marketing movie trailer music on its own is sheer genius. Three million people might see a movie on its opening night, but in the weeks and months leading up to that, between trailers attached to other movies, TV spots, and web exposure, you can bet that six million people have seen the trailer. Even if they don’t bother with the movie, they’ve been exposed to the imagery and the music. You’ve probably heard as much at least as much E.S. Posthumus in the past two or three years as you’ve heard John Williams – you just didn’t realize it.

Things start strong with the mellow-but-epic “Antissa”, while “Tikal” resides a little bit closer to Matrix territory musically. “Ebla” is another winner, with a rhythmic chanting anchoring the entire piece. “Nineveh” and “Pompeii” almost sound like background music from a video game, while “Menouthis” starts out apocalyptic and, again, moves into The Matrix’s neighborhood.

For me, the crowning glory of Unearthed is “Estremoz”, a mournful choral piece set to a gentle breakbeat. I don’t recall having heard this on a trailer for anything, but perhaps there’s a reason for that – it’d have to be one hell of a depressing movie. The music itself is very relaxing and serene, however, if just a little bit of a downer. “Isfahan” closes out the album on a similar wistful note.

Now, of course, the real question is: will you like it? That’s a good question. If you’re predisposed toward soundtrack music, you’ll find something to like here, but keep in mind that many of these pieces are expanded versions of musical compositions that originally only needed to be 30 or 60 seconds; even with running times in the 4-5 minute range, things get a bit repetitive with some of these tracks. And enjoyable as they are, their original function also doesn’t leave a lot of room for subtlety – the full-blast epic pieces throw a massive choir and orchestra at you, and the quieter pieces fall back on every other musical cliche you can imagine, from Irish drums to uilleann pipe. There’s nothing inherently wrong with those instruments or the styles usually associated with them; it’s just that when they show up on this album, the tunes go exactly where you’d expect them to go. It’s almost a “stop me if you’ve heard this one before” phenomenon – a song you could swear you’ve heard before.

1. Antissa (5:11)
2. Tikal (3:46)
3. Harappa (4:36)
4. Ulaid (5:09)
5. Ebla (6:09)
6. Nara (4:51)
7. Cuzco (4:02)
8. Nineveh (3:42)
9. Lepcis Magna (3:27)
10. Menouthis (3:55)
11. Estremoz (5:06)
12. Pompeii (3:40)
13. Isfahan (4:34)

Released by: 33rd Street
Release date: 2005
Total running time: 58:08

While just about every Star Wars fan knows about Meco and his classic Music Inspired by Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk album, most are unaware that he produced this holiday-themed Star Wars album after writing directly to George Lucas for permission to do so. Apparently, Lucas did not feel disillusioned enough following The Star Wars Holiday Special and gave the project the go ahead.

What resulted is exactly what you’d expect; a bunch of super-sugary sweet Christams-y songs that refer to elements of the Star Wars universe. For the most part, it’s the droids that get the attention, as Anthony Daniels as C-2PO and the sounds of R2-D2 introduce all the songs and Daniels sings (or speaks) a few himself.

The only original song that really stands out and deserves any kind of long-term re-play is “What Can You Get A Wookiee for Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb)?”, which fulfills all the promise that preposterous title indicates. The rest are worth a chuckle or two, but mostly produce groans from all but the youngest Star Wars fans. The non-original tracks (”Sleigh Ride” and “A Christmas Sighting”) work better, as they are solid novelty versions of classic well-worn material.

I should make note of this album’s other claim to fame: the fact that it features the first recorded material by Jon Bon Jovi. Credited under his birth name, John Bongiovi, he sings lead on “R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry
Christmas” four years before Bon Jovi’s debut album. He’s virtually unrecognizable, not only because he was younger, but his voice is slightly altered (as all the voices are – to sound like elves, I guess). Still, if you’re a fan, you should get ahold of this little piece of Bon Jovi history.

Ultimately, Christmas In The Stars proves to be less than it could have been. It is neither a timeless work (like Meco’s Galactic Funk) nor a monumental, so-bad-it’s-fantastic disaster like the Holiday Special. It’s a wacky novelty album that kids will love and adults can chuckle over. Star Wars fans will want it for completeness, but playing it at Christmastime is a tradition more likely to be honored in the breach than in the observance.

1. Christmas In The Stars (3:17)
2. Bells, Bells, Bells (3:15)
3. The Odds Against Christmas (3:04)
4. What Can You Get A Wookiee For Christmas (When He Already Owns A Comb)? (3:24)
5. R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas (3:16)
6. Sleigh Ride (3:36)
7. Merry, Merry Christmas (2:09)
8. A Christmas Sighting (’Twas The Night Before…) (3:43)
9. The Meaning Of Christmas (8:08)

Released by: RSO
Release date: 1980
Total running time: 33:52

Thie CD contains the musical highlights from three of Big Finish’s Doctor Who audio adventures starring Peter Davison, from three different composers.

Loups-Garoux, the first “classic Doctor” story following an extended run of eighth Doctor adventures, was a strange audio adventure revolving around a clan of werewolves undercover in Rio De Janeiro. Kicking off with the intentionally cheesy faux theme song “Jaguar Maiden”, this intriguing story winds up with music that reminds me – strangely enough – of Nino Rota’s score from The Godfather. Something about its emotional tone does indeed help me make the mental leap from music for a Doctor Who audio play to Nino Rota. Not bad at all.

The music for Eye Of The Scorpion, the audio adventure which introduced the fifth Doctor’s new traveling companion Erimem, has a strong start, but minus the accompanying dialogue and sound effects of the story, it quickly becomes a bit of a grating listening experience. It’s fun to hear David Darlington trying to straddle the fence between a sound befitting the story’s ancient Egyptian setting and something much more modern, but it also becomes clear that one only has so many options trying to get those two styles to meet.

Primeval, with its return to familiar settings for Doctor Who – namely, deep space, huge battlecruisers (on a BBC budget) and the planet Traken – winds up being the musical score with the most in common with the era of TV Doctor Who it’s trying to emulate. Russell Stone’s expansive, spacey synths and unusual chords are not only a good pick for that kind of story, but they’re not a million light years away from what the in-house composers at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop would’ve done musically for such as story on TV.

With two scores that I’d individually give a rating of 3 out of 4, and one that, to be diplomatic, I wouldn’t, this collection of music from the early years of the fifth Doctor’s new lease on life winds up being my pick for the least essential of the Big Finish music compilations. There’s good stuff on here, but it’s more of a “completists only” release than a must-have.

Loups-Garoux
1. Loups-Garoux trailer (1:14)
2. Theme from Jaguar Maiden (0:49)
3. Stubbe’s Trial / Rosa (3:19)
4. Shadow Across The City (0:57)
5. Spirit Across The Forest (1:42)
6. Winter Wolf (1:49)
7. Closer Than Companions (1:16)
8. Stubbe’s Dance (2:55)
9. Into The Forest (2:37)
10. The Summer Wolf (1:26)

    Eye Of The Scorpion

11. Eye Of The Scorpion trailer (1:28)
12. They Gave Us Dust (1:00)
13. You Can’t Say Pharaoh Than That (0:50)
14. Thebes (0:57)
15. The Erimem Show (2:47)
16. Dead Again (3:39)
17. Sand (5:20)
18. Sarcophagus (3:46)
19. Eye Love 1400 B.C. (4:44)

    Primeval

20. Primeval trailer (1:44)
21. Arrival (0:30)
22. A Vast Spaceship / Kwundaar (3:14)
23. Pleasant Music Is Playing (0:56)
24. The Maligan Takes Hold / The Union Is Beautiful (1:45)
25. Don’t Turn Around (1:26)
26. Healing Waters (1:38)
27. A Place That Stifles (2:03)
28. The Definition Of Save / Creeping Evil (2:39)
29. Captive Emotions / Loose Threads (2:29)
30. Darkest Before Dawn (2:04)
31. We’ve Got Work To Do (0:45)

Released by: Big Finish
Release date: 2002
Total running time: 63:48