Boldly Go

I have here on several occasions praised the talents of film composer Jerry Goldsmith. He was a true giant of his field, writing for (ha!) scores of movies; simultaneously, he may have been one of the most underappreciated composers ever, winning only one of he 18 Academy Awards for which he was nominated. Enthusiasts of film music might have a spirited debate about which of his scores was his career best work, but they could certainly agree on the films that would adorn his Top 5 list. And right there in the upper echelons would be his score for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

One of the reasons I think Goldsmith is less known and regarded than the famous John Williams is that, throughout his career, Williams has created one memorable theme after another. Ask anybody to hum the music from Superman, Jaws, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, or Harry Potter, and you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't remember at least one of them. Goldsmith, on the other hand, may have scared the crap out of audiences with Poltergeist and The Omen, seduced with Basic Instinct, and energized with Planet of the Apes, but only a real film music nut would be able to hum you a few bars of the themes from those films.

But there is one bright, shining exception -- Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The iconic theme for the film became the theme for the entire second age of Star Trek when it was re-used for Star Trek: The Next Generation. And as performed for the original movie, by an orchestra nearly twice the size of that used for the later TV series, Goldsmith's powerful anthem knocks you back in your seat and starts you off on an adventure.

And that's only the beginning. Jerry Goldsmith created a Klingon anthem for their brief five minutes on screen, a powerful horn blast built on musical fifth intervals, that became the basis for musically representing the Klingons for decades to come. He wrote a powerful and romantic theme for the character of Ilia that was also the basis for a three-minute overture before the opening credits (this movie and The Black Hole being the last two widely released movies to ever make use of the overture device). And he also pioneered the use of a then brand-new musical instrument known as the Blaster Beam, an enormous amplified table played by striking its wires with an artillery shell; the music personified the film's nemesis V'ger, and the distinct sound would show up extensively in other sci-fi films that followed, including the next two Star Trek films scored by James Horner.

A few years ago, for the anniversary of the film, a 2-CD version of the soundtrack was released. I cheerfully snatched it up to replace my existing copy of the soundtrack, hungry for every note of the score I could lay ears on. But now, I'm kicking that set to the curb in favor of the love letter to Jerry Goldsmith that has recently been released by La-La Land Records: an all new 3-CD version, remastered from the original source material.

This new collection has every last piece of music that appeared in the film. In addition, it has all the versions of the major cues that comprised the original soundtrack album released; sharp ears will note that not every track on that album used exactly the same recorded takes as what was used in the movie.

But that's just the beginning. This new set also includes a half-disc full of an early unused score that Goldsmith started recording before the movie's elaborate visual effects had been completed. In these early takes, you can hear a sort of primordial version of the finished product, a strangely skewed take on major cues. Several secondary themes and ideas for instrumentation are present, but Goldsmith had not yet landed on that iconic theme. (And yet, you get to hear brief passages where you can tell he almost had it.)

The set includes as a bonus the very first orchestra take ever of that iconic theme, complete with the background chatter picked up in the studio before and after the take. It includes some tracks of wild synthesizer experimentations, searching for the weird sounds that would flesh out the score. And then, just to prove the set has everything, it also includes: 1) a disco version of the Star Trek theme that was adapted for commercial release (because hey, it was the 70s and someone had done it for Star Wars); and 2) a laughably horrible love theme set to Goldsmith's music and sung by Shaun Cassidy, intended as a possible cross-promotional tool that was never widely released in the U.S.

The set also includes a lengthy booklet of liner notes that go into fantastic detail about the making of the score, and the specific recorded takes used on the album. I learned things even though I was already an enthusiastic fan of the music, such as the fact that original Star Trek series composers also contributed, uncredited, to its creation. Alexander Courage, composer of the original series theme, actually composed himself the two brief passages in which the movie score references that theme. And Fred Steiner, whose bombastic music was a signature of so many episodes, came in to help Jerry Goldsmith meet his deadlines by composing a handful of secondary cues based around the themes Goldsmith had already produced.

If you're a fan of orchestral music, or of Star Trek, or of Jerry Goldsmith, this limited edition, 10000-print-run set is an absolute must have. It's a grade-A production of grade-A music.