I am a devotee of almost all things Star Trek. I’ve been mesmerized ever since I saw the mammoth saucer section of the Enterprise-D slowly engulf my television screen. Those opening credits for Star Trek: The Next Generation remain awe inspiring.
I was only 7-years-old when those images on TV first captured me. How integral music was to that Trek magic was not top of mind. Initially, I was put off by the work of Alexander Courage and other composers when watching the original series. It was only later, in my twenties, that I began to appreciate that early Trek music.
The producers lifted from Star Trek: The Motion Picture when it came time to give The Next Generation a theme song. Written by Jerry Goldsmith, it felt decidedly different in style from what had come out of those 1960s small-screen teleplays.
So it is no real surprise that the music for the Original Series would sound more of its era. That show went on the air in a time when westerns dominated the television landscape. Science-fiction was mostly of the campy, low brow variety. 2001: A Space Odyssey would do quite a bit to elevate the genre. It wouldn’t launch into movie houses, however, until after the last episode of Star Trek’s second season aired.
Alexander Courage’s theme has endured, but he didn’t do much composing for the show beyond a few episodes. Courage had a falling out with series creator, Gene Roddenberry, after he wrote bogus lyrics to claim half the music royalties for the theme. Roddenberry never really intended to use those lyrics on the show.
Fred Steiner ended up writing much of the music from the 1960s run of Star Trek. It sounded like TV music for a space western airing in the 1960s. When the franchise made its way to the big screen in 1979, tastes had changed. More significantly, the scale of its ambitions were now larger.
The music of Star Trek passed into the hands of Jerry Goldsmith (who apparently turned down the original scoring gig for the TV show) and then James Horner. Other contributors to the franchise’s musical canon have hewed closely to those sweeping orchestral arrangements. Trek owes its symphonic legacy mostly to Goldsmith and Horner, and in particular to scores written for feature films.
That is a bit of a surprising anomaly when you realize the franchise has thrived mostly on television. Long before Star Wars parked its movies in the garage and focused on streaming series, Star Trek was churning out one seven season spin-off after another. Then it stopped, leaving a gulf of years between that golden age and the modern small screen incarnations.
Personally, I’m glad to have so much of that music captured on vinyl. That is thanks to Silva Screen Records and the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. They’ve made quite a lucrative gig recording cinematic classics.
“Music from Star Trek” does include some of Alexander Courage’s original work for the franchise. Mostly it sticks to the more memorable pieces from the various film iterations. It sounds absolutely wonderful, even as it lacks some of Trek’s deeper cuts. This is almost always the case with the Prague Philharmonic’s output.
I’m torn on whether to buy their upcoming release. “Music from the Star Trek Saga” disappointingly repeats many of the same notes (literally) included here. That release, however, will include a bit more from Trek television series that dominated the 1990s.
A bit of a double dip? Sure. Trek fanatics like myself have no qualms about revisiting our favorite bits from the storied history of that continuing mission.