| The Best of Star Trek |
| Composed by Various Artists |
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Music Composed by Alexander Courage, Jerry Fielding, Jerry Goldsmith, Dennis McCarthy, Ron Jones, and Jay Chattaway Produced by Neil Norman and Mark Banning Release Date: 1996 |
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This was the first of two volumes of Star Trek compilations that offered music from each of the four incarnations of the Gene Roddenberry's famous creation (with more to come later I'm sure to include the fifth spin-off, Enterprise). This album was released way back in 1996 in celebration of the 30th Anniversary of Star Trek, during a time when the fervor was returning with the anticipated release of Star Trek: First Contact. The compilation offered some great selections from such episodes as The Trouble with Tribbles, Heart of Glory, and The Inner Light. While the sequel release managed to top this one, that is not to say that this CD is without merit. The album spans the four series' in chronological order, presenting Jerry Fielding's quirky score to the equally quirky Star Trek episode, The Trouble with Tribbles. The style for this score is quite a departure from what key composers Alexander Courage and Fred Steiner (among others) had delivered before, but then again the episode was just as different from what had followed before. Fielding definitely shows his knack for playing the moment, and the score is actually a fun piece of work, albeit an odd one at times. Even in the short amount of space devoted too it, all of the major cues from the score are here, including an unused section of music that is easily seen why it was left off (it gets just a little too crazy, but it's still an enjoyable piece of music). The album then moves over to a different realm with Ron Jones' excellent work for the Next Generation episode, Heart of Glory. If you've read my reviews of Jones' other scores from the Star Trek universe, you should already know how much of a fan I am of his music, and the selections provided here just impress me even more. Jones just seems to have become giddy with the prospect of scoring an episode that deals with the Klingons and he really brings a lot of innovative ideas to the music. The clacking Klingon motif is instantly recognizable and is essentially a melding of the Klingon motifs provided by Goldsmith and Horner but with Jones' own touch. The end result is quite entertaining and the suite of music from that episode is easily the best on the whole CD. Jones' action scoring here is some of the best I've heard from him, and the little synth touches that he employs work quite well. Jay Chattaway gets a lone track which consists of the orchestral version of his main theme from The Inner Light. The theme itself is excellent and the orchestral backing of the primary flute melody powers this cue to perfection. This is the only CD release of this selection that has it right, as the version found on Chattaway's album (Star Trek: The Next Generation Volume 4) only has a piano accompanying the flute. It is a major letdown after the performance included here. Dennis McCarthy owns the last half of the disc with his scores to the Deep Space Nine Episode, The Visitor, as well as the Voyager episode, Heroes and Demons. Being a primarily character driven episode, The Visitor tends to bog down at times. The music itself is pleasant enough, but after the thrilling Heart of Glory and the beautiful Inner Light theme, this score seems to fall a little flat. The music picks up again with Heroes and Demons which McCarthy uses to present his own style of swashbuckling music. It is a really interesting style considering that McCarthy never shies away from his beloved strings when more brass would definitely be called for. Several moments approach the kind of scoring that Goldsmith would employ for First Contact, and it is a good suite overall but it still could've used just a little more kick in the action cues. The linear notes for the album are well put together and include info on all the major composers as well as a little information on the episodes presented on the album and the basic scoring approaches used. Since the CD was released during the marketing blitz for Star Trek: First Contact, there is promotional material by way of an "interactive game" which is nothing more than a crappy little Macromedia program that interferes with PC CD players by trying to install itself every time the disc is popped in the drive. It is quite annoying, but I have experienced worse. This is a great compilation from GNP Crescendo, and even though the second release in this series was better, the collection of cues and suites on this album is not easily ignored. Any serious fan of Star Trek scores would do well to check out both of the Best of Star Trek albums, with hopefully more to come in the future. **** |
| Track Listing - Total Running Time: 63:42 | |
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