Published on Feb 16, 2006
Back in the day, I was a huge Star Trek fan.
In fact, I remember hating The Wonder Years because it would
come on before The Next Generation. Today, thanks to Spike
TV, my love of the series has been rekindled, as you can watch five
hours of Trek every day. Going further, this CD has a
special place in my heart because it was one of two I was given
with my first stereo. Over and over it played in my room, until I
“outgrew” Trek. Now, here I am, about a decade later,
reviewing it. Funny how these things work out.
While I was a fan of the series, I was not a hardcore
Trekkie. They could probably listen to this disc and pick out
minute details of what is different than the original works.
However, there don’t appear to be that many differences to my ears
than what the music actually was for the movies and shows. The
themes for The Motion Picture or The Next Generation
are pulled off extremely well. In fact, in a live setting with a
full orchestra, some come off as more energetic.
There is one gaping flaw on this disc, and it is the
inclusion of the sound effects. Apparently, the orchestra wanted to
show off how they could reproduce Star Trek effects
naturally. Big mistake. You can go from listening to the final
throes of the theme to the original series, to buzzing and beeping
meant to imitate a Trek alien. These effects ruin any
momentum the tracks build up. Honestly, if I wanted to hear “whale
songs,” I would go down to my local Target and buy one of the
cheap, fake, crappy CDs. In fact, on my iPod, I’ve gone ahead and
just removed the sound effect files, leaving just the music.
Luckily, it is the music that carries the disc. The
music of Trek has always been overblown and pretentious, but
for the most part it works. With the exception of the theme to
Star Wars or Jaws, I can think of no more
recognizable piece of movie music then the theme to The Motion
Picture. “The Klingon Theme” accurately captures the essence of
the people from the movies and show. It’s jagged, abrupt, and
rough. Perfect for Worf, right? The TV shows are all here, with the
exception of Enterprise, which came out much later. Sure, “The
Original Series” theme comes off as less eclectic, but it sounds
more polished. While I understand the desire to include
Voyager‘s theme, it is probably the least inspired of all
the TV scores, quite derivative of the works that came before
it.
Erich Kunzel and co. also highlight some of the
lesser known pieces of Trek history. I’ve always thought the
jazzy, upbeat theme to The Voyage Home was one of the better
Trek bits of music. Also, while listening to “A Busy Man”
from The Final Frontier, I realized that the composers to
the last few Trek films took major elements of that theme
and have been using them to great effect. The end title to
Generations also has become one of my favorites of the year;
it’s a shame that it wasn’t used more in the following movies.
This CD really would be close to perfect if it didn’t
suffer from a few lackluster tracks and those terribly annoying
sound effects. However, that is what the skip button is for, so if
you give Symphonic Star Trek a listen, I suggest you use
it.