Soundtrack Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Volume 3 (1992)

Posted by Jon Blough

April 30, 2009

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Star Trek TOS Vol. 3 This is a review of the original TV score Star Trek The Original Series Volume 3 by Gerald Fried & Alexander Courage.

“It just goes decently when it could have boldly gone, and thus sits as the weakest of the original series episode albums.”

I have never watched the entirety of anything having to do with Star Trek, something I’ll probably get to after I finish all of Frasier (only on Season 3 so far), but from what I’ve picked up doing reviews it appears that the original cast of the Enterprise had some adventures where things went a little…crazy. One planet was set in 1920s gangster culture, another featured a ton of snuggable animals…oh, I’m sure it was fun to watch if you were a fun, but on print it sounds like the show was jumping the shark a bit. Anyways, TOS Volume 3 can be seen as a tribute to those episodes, featuring the scores for “Shore Leave” and “The Naked Time” where the crew respectively sees strange visions like giant rabbits and loses their minds, causing foul deeds like Sulu wielding an epee. Thus one should not head into these scores expecting anything like the awesome power of Volume 2, or even the cerebral creepiness of Volume 1.

Poor Recording Quality

Things actually start out with a bummer as the main titles recording quality seems a bit sparse, not to mention its absence of the female voice that made the other titles a unique bit of fun. Where the gusto? Ah well, not a major complaint. Anyways, Gerald Fried’s second album effort couldn’t be more different from his dark, moody compositions for “Amok Time”. Here everything stays light and bouncy, with a main theme focused on woodwinds, light percussion, and daydreamy strings that feel at home waltzing through a meadow. Honestly, it feels like a comedy moment you’d have heard out of Bewitched. I’m sure it’s very appropriate for the dreamy, illusion-filled episode, and it’s certainly all in good, comedic fun (much more appropriate that Leonard Rosenman’s abomination for ST4), but the lack of thematic grounding in the series (the first three notes of the Courage fanfare makes a brief entrance at the end of the first cue) does make it feel a bit…out there. There’s still a lovely romantic interlude in “Ruth”, fun take on the main theme on trumpet in “Knight/Joust”, and a snazzy ending to “Caretaker/Lazarus” to spice things up a bit. Still, the overall impression is “I just heard a bunch of lovely comedy music”, and without much grounding in the series it’s hard not to be a bit disappointed.

Conclusion

Things start off jazzy as well for Courage’s included score, making you think more of the same is coming, but the rest of the music soon swells to the grandeur we love, and then the fanfare starts off the next cue and everything’s all back to normal. And then…well, the music is technically well constructed, superbly orchestrated as usual, and makes for a good listen, but as with much the second half of Volume 1 it doesn’t leave a strong impression, overall feeling a bit too anonymous in its low key, restrained, downbeat approach. Standout cues help, like the moving string work in “D’Artagnan/Banana Farm” and the second half of “Captain’s Wig”, but the lack of a strong motif typing the score together is kind of a bummer. Only a descending motif comes close to embodying that, but it’s infrequent and unassuming. The brass theme from the second half of Volume 1 does make a grand entrance in “The Big Go”, showing that Courage intended this as some kind of general theme for heroism, but alas it is not in the rest of the score. Regrettably, this is pretty much all I can say about this album; it’s second half is just not definitive enough to really merit much praise outside of “nice compositions by Alexander Courage”. Volume 3 certainly a good listen and anyone who liked the last two volumes should certainly give it a try, but it just goes decently when it could have boldly gone, and thus sits as the weakest of the original series episode albums.

1. Star Trek Main Title :52
2. New Planet/Rabbit/School Chum 4:10
3. Old English 2:12
4. Ruth 2:38
5. Knight/Joust 1:28
6. A Clue/Finnigan’s Return/Leg Trick/Dirt Trick/Tiger Thoughts/2nd Samurai 4:37
7. Caretaker / Lazarus 2:03
8. 2nd Ruth :52
9. Trailer 1:03
10. Brass Monkeys 1:29
11. Joe Berserk 3:05
12. Sulu Finks Out :43
13. D’Artagnan / Banana Farm 3:18
14. Out of Control / Lurch Time / Punchy Kid 1:49
15. Party Time 1:35
16. Medicine Girl 4:30
17. Hot Sun / Off the Cloud 1:06
18. Captain’s Wig 4:01
19. The Big Go 2:42
20. Time Reverse / Future Risk 1:44
21. Star Trek End Credit :46