Mine is Cliff Eidelman's ST: VI. The darkness of the score kept coming back to me and making me play the disc over and over again...

The first three movies have scores that are too 'bright' for me. ST: V Final Frontier movie sucked with only the score carrying it along till the end. Generations have music that sounded to similar to the tv series. First Contact had a too 'action' score. Insurrection is just plain slow.

A close second is Horner's work for WRATH OF KHAN (my personal favorite movie of the series), especially "Battle in the Mutara Nebula" and "Genesis Countdown."

The Khan score is much better in the film than on CD. I an way, Horner succeded best in giving the movies the "original" feeling.

But I like them all. I don't have #3 and #4 on CD, but what I have on the Star Trek: The Astral Symphony CD is good. As everybody knows, I love Rosenman's LOTR anyway, and ST4 is quite similar.

#9 is not very innovative, quite repetitive and in fact one of the themes is way too similar to Capricorn One, but when listening to it once in a while, it's surprisingly good. And I LOVE the track "Children's Story"!

ST VI was the first ST score I owned. I would have to say that ST:TMP is a "better" score. I have all but ST:III and Generations.

Trek 2 and 3 basically go together, as 3 is a continuation of 2 (and therefore the music).

I really like ST:VI, and what Goldsmith did for 8 and 9.

I think my least favorites are 4 (Rosenmann) and 7 (McCarthy).

Kevin
(Trek fan from waaay back in the 60's.)

I'm still the obvious STTMP comes first, and then Horner's great Khan score.

I rate the scores:

When I think about Star Trek music, there are two categories: TV and Film. Both are EXTREMELY different. They tried to bridge that gap by having Dennis score Generations... and while the music worked VERY well in the film, I can see why some may not find it that great. Of course, whenever I put in the disc, I love every second of it.

Jeron

Regards,
Sean Robert Abbey

It's that little bit in the transition near the beginning of the filn, from the "past" to the scene on the water when they're decorating Worf (Wharf?) for something.

Rosenman should not have been allowed to score a Star Trek movie.

1) THE MOTION PICTURE
* Rating TMP by the original album, since I haven't heard the expanded edition. I don't want pay over $20 for two CDs when I'm only interested in the score.
2) THE WRATH OF KHAN
* Honestly, KHAN and TMP are so close, rating them could be considered irrelevant.
3) THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK
4) THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY
5) THE FINAL FRONTIER
* I've never cared for the album presentation of FRONTIER, though it works very well in the film.
6) THE VOYAGE HOME
* Rosenman's score is underrated, but I do think it works better on album than in the film.
7) GENERATIONS
8) INSURRECTION
9) FIRST CONTACT
* Both INSURRECTION and FIRST CONTACT sport lovely themes, but mostly forgettable underscore, in particular FIRST CONTACT.

In the Film...

1. The Motion Picture - unequaled before or since. One of my favorite scores of all time and unquestionably Goldsmith's best work, especially the V'Ger material.

2. The Wrath of Khan - the best score of James Horner's career. Action cues that simply defy description. An end credits suite worthy of any classical composer.

3. The Final Frontier - an awesome Goldsmith action score marred by a mediocre album presentation. I mean, what's with this? LOUD! soft! LOUD! soft! MAIN THEME! KLINGON THEME! god theme! MAIN! god! KLINGON! OSTINATO! HORRID SONG! ...album's over.
Bring on the expanded edition!

4. The Undiscovered Country - What an awesome debut for Cliff Eidelman! Great choral moments, apocalyptic action cues, the darkest Trek material ever, what more could you want?

5. The Search for Spock - worth it for one track - the spectacular 8 minute Stealing the Enterprise, a highlight of Horner's career.

6. First Contact - great theme, intelligent action cues, although parts tend to drag a little.

7. Insurrection - nice theme, serviceable action cues.

8. Generations - I'm sorry, but the subdued television sound simply doesn't translate to the big screen. It has a few good moments, such as the destruction of the Enterprise, but most of the rest of boring underscore.

THE MOTION PICTURE (a masterpiece)

THE WRATH OF KHAN (I sat upright in the theater, particularly during Khan's first attack on the Enterprise, wondering who the hell James Horner was)

THE FINAL FRONTIER (I can scarcely describe how thrilling it was to hear Goldsmith back on this franchise)

FIRST CONTACT (I can scarcely describe how thrilling it was to hear Goldsmith back on this franchise)

THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK ("Stealing The Enterprise" is excellent, and I liked the Klingon bits, but also the more ruminative pieces ... an early signal of the kind of music Horner would eventually prefer to write, but it felt fresh at this time)

GENERATIONS (very nice work by Dennis McCarthy for a strange and digressive movie)

INSURRECTION (Goldsmith stumbling a bit, seeming sort of bored -- as I certainly was with the movie as a whole, a real disappointment in the wake of FIRST CONTACT, and my least favorite of all TREK movies)

THE VOYAGE HOME (a couple of nice bits, even if the main title is recycled from LORD OF THE RINGS -- I was amazed that this one got an Oscar nomination)

Both of those scenes are SCORED (rather well IMHO) if you have any doubts go look for yourself.

Regards

I wonder whether it was Horner's idea to leave "Amazing Grace" off the album of WRATH OF KHAN -- he didn't want to put it in the score to begin with, it was at the insistence of producer Harve Bennett, who had a deep sentimental attachment to the tune.

NP: nothing, I can't figure out how the DVD fuction of the IMac is supposed to work. I wanted to play the complete ALIEN, the first one I've rented. Maybe the last one as well! if I don't get it nailed down!

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Originally posted by H Rocco:
I wonder whether it was Horner's idea to leave "Amazing Grace" off the album of WRATH OF KHAN -- he didn't want to put it in the score to begin with, it was at the insistence of producer Harve Bennett, who had a deep sentimental attachment to the tune.

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Now, that’s just my personal opinion, and I’m probably in the minority here, so I won’t dwell on the negative aspects to Star Trek, which after all, only amount to MY own personal opinions.

However, I have seen all of the Star Trek movies, and am familiar with each of the scores. Here are my preferred Star Trek scores, best first. I also rate the movie and then the score based on mlw’s ‘star’ system.

1) STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE movie *1/2 score *****

Despite my disappointment at the movie itself, Goldsmith here created one of my personal top 100 movie scores, and easily my favourite Goldsmith-score. I felt Goldsmith’s music captured the essence of what Star Trek is all about to a far greater degree of success than any other element of the movie. His music was by turns stirring, sublime, majestic, mysterious and beautiful. Mostly, Goldsmith’s music evoked the Star Trek ideal, whilst the rest of the movie failed to capture the flavour of the Trek universe, in my opinion.

2) STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN movie **1/2 score ****

A wonderful, and somewhat different follow-up score from Horner. The movie also went some way to recreating the fun attitude of the original series.

3) STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK movie *1/2 score ***1/2

Again, exquisite work from Horner, here relying heavily on Prokofiev and others, and the score is all the better for it.

4) STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER movie * score ***

Goldsmith returned, armed with his famous TMP themes. Shatner tried with this movie, but ultimately failed, I felt. However, Goldsmith went beyond the call of duty in an attempt to keep the movie afloat.

5) STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY movie **1/2 score ***

A worthy score to a good entry in the series.

6) STAR TREK: INSURRECTION movie *** score **1/2

My favourite Star Trek movie, if only because it attempted, with some success, to inject a little more substantial humour into the proceedings. Goldsmith’s score had some memorable highlights, but again he avoids using his wonderful TMP themes with any real conviction, I believe. It really would be nice if he recycled his ‘The Enterprise’ from TMP.

7) STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME movie **1/2 score *1/2

A success at the box office.

8) STAR TREK GENERATIONS movie * score *1/2

9) STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT movie **1/2 score *

A solid movie.

I'm glad you mentioned "The Enterprise" cue from TMP... that's one of my all time favorites, and yes... I've waited with much anticipation for Jerry to recycle this music. It's fabulous and would work wonders with the visual capabilities of today. Many people dislike the "fly-by tour" of the new Enterprise in TMP... I for one love it, as it showcases Jerry's music brilliantly. It's by far one of my favorite scenes in the film. And what about the black-screen intro with Ilia's Theme? Wow... when I first saw this (I was really young), I was completely taken by the music. It's 3 entire minutes of purely romantic Goldsmith bliss!

Good to hear from you Daniel!

Seriously, Rosenman is an acquired taste. He's a deeply serious musician, that is manifest from everything he's written, but so much of it is interchangeable. Also he tends towards harsh and atonal soundscapes, which puts a lot of people off. He comes off as arrogant and condescending in many of his interviews, which doesn't help any, although he's supposed to be perfectly pleasant in person. (I wonder if he's just so intelligent and articulate that certain things he says sound better in person than they do on the printed page. I don't even know what his voice sounds like, so who knows. David Raksin is another one who I HAVE met in person, a brilliant, deeply sarcastic fellow, and he'll say the most awful, cutting things in such a flat, neutral tone that you KNOW he's just funning ya.)

Jeron

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Originally posted by H Rocco:
Seriously, Rosenman is an acquired taste. He's a deeply serious musician, that is manifest from everything he's written, but so much of it is interchangeable. Also he tends towards harsh and atonal soundscapes, which puts a lot of people off.

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I'm still surprised that I already liked his LOTR score as a child - at a time when I hated classical music, and would also have hated music like this, but seeing it supporting the movie so perfectly seems to have appealed to me already back then.

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Sir, if you enjoyed Rosenman's VOYAGE HOME score, you ought to ADORE his work on LORD OF THE RINGS, available as a gorgeous-sounding CD from Intrada. The main title themes are rather similar.

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In fact, they both have a short passage which could perfectly combine them, leading from on main theme to the other.

quote:

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Originally posted by Jeron:
I'm glad you mentioned "The Enterprise" cue from TMP... that's one of my all time favorites, and yes... I've waited with much anticipation for Jerry to recycle this music. It's fabulous and would work wonders with the visual capabilities of today. Many people dislike the "fly-by tour" of the new Enterprise in TMP... I for one love it, as it showcases Jerry's music brilliantly. It's by far one of my favorite scenes in the film. And what about the black-screen intro with Ilia's Theme? Wow... when I first saw this (I was really young), I was completely taken by the music. It's 3 entire minutes of purely romantic Goldsmith bliss!

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quote:

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Originally posted by Jeron:
Ford, I think he was referring to the cd release... how it is missing some rather good sequences.

Jeron

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He comes off as arrogant and condescending in many of his interviews

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Everytime somebody mentions Rosenman, this comes up. I want to know more about this.
Anyway, I think he's Trek score is good.

Why Kes was fired: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Park/1964/scarytales.htm

NP. THE MUMMY(Jerry Goldmsith)****

So now, where does Nemesis fit in the lists?