The good news is, this set does cherry pick some of the best music from the series. The bad news? Well... to be blunt, even the best stuff, at times, is not that good. For those who haven't heard me tell this story a few times already, here's the short explanation. Producer Rick Berman ran things for all the "latter" Star Trek series, from The Next Generation to Enterprise. And his musical tastes were sadly lacking. He believed that music should be a bland wallpaper, never really noticeable in a finished episode. For around half the run of The Next Generation, brilliant composer Ron Jones got away with ignoring that mandate, producing enough quality music that La-La Land records put together a box set of all his compositions. But eventually, Rick Berman fired him, and supplemented his stalwart Dennis McCarthy with another composer, Jay Chattaway, who would give him the boring and interchangeable material he wanted.
Those two composers were responsible for most of the music of Deep Space Nine. But with two Star Trek series always on the air throughout the life of the show, they sometimes needed help from another composer who'd pinch hit for an episode. This 4-CD set includes one disc featuring the work from five such composers, along with an all-McCarthy disc, an all-Chattaway disc, and a fourth "lost soundtrack" disc, a compilation of music that another label once considered publishing (but decided the money wasn't there).
The sad truth is, in these four full CDs of music, there's really only about one disc's worth that's worth having. Most of the music is amorphous string passages in free time, supported by occasional lazy phrases from muted horns. Unless you're looking for music to fall asleep to, or music to have on in the background while you do something that commands your full attention, you probably wouldn't want it. Divorced from the images of the show, it packs no punch.
Why then did I even buy the soundtrack? (Besides being such a Deep Space Nine fan?) Well, because the one disc worth of good material is pretty special. Most of it comes from that "lost soundtrack" disc; that other record label may have decided against releasing it, but their music curators at least had good taste.
That disc features excepts from three prominent episodes of the series. "Our Man Bashir" was a wild, James Bond style romp in the holosuite; its music melds the Deep Space Nine theme with the brassy, rock style of John Barry's music for the James Bond franchise. "Trials and Tribble-ations" was the anniversary episode that digitally inserted the Deep Space Nine characters into a famous episode of the original series; its music runs a bit more free, as it moves along the continuum toward the more brazen sounds of the original series' music. And "What You Leave Behind" was the series finale; its music features a moving, lengthy montage set to the melody of the classic tune "The Way You Look Tonight."
Add to the mix a few noticeably good tracks from the other discs. Gregory Smith does some interesting work on the late episode "Field of Fire" (in which Ezri Dax accesses the memories of a murderous past host to help solve a present day crime). Dennis McCarthy serves up some strong battle music for the episodes "The Die Is Cast" and "Shattered Mirror." and Jay Chattaway has some good moments in the third season premiere "The Search."
All together, the "25% hits" ratio of this set means that most people probably won't want to pick it up. But for a hardcore Deep Space Nine fan, it might be a necessity. I give the set a C+ overall, while the cherry-picked version of it would probably warrant an A-.
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