Soundtrack Review: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)
This is a review of the television score Star Trek: Deep Space Nine by Dennis McCarthy.
“A real effort to establish thematic integrity and an improved action style are enough to prevent the approach from getting stale like it did in TNG Volume 3.”
My gripe about TNG episode albums (okay, per my reviews I had multiple gripes, but play along) was that the Goldsmith fanfare got a bit tired and there was no strong theme in any album to pick up the slack. I suppose I can’t blame McCarthy since the producers demanded such a musical arrangement, but over the course of the album releases it really affected the quality. So thank god the producers had the guts to let McCarthy write his own theme for DS9 this time, or I don’t know if I could handle any more “albums with no identity”. Excuse me if I like my “boldly going” music to actually boldly go.
Superb Theme
Anyways, McCarthy’s new theme is superb an upbeat, noble fanfare that is perhaps the most majestic statement yet to be heard on any Star Trek television album. Here McCarthy takes the time to weave the theme throughout the score, making it quite rousing to close “The Enterprise Departs/A New Home” and noble to start “Searching for Relatives.” The one series reference is the laudable mixing of the Courage fanfare and the DS9 theme at the end of “Bajor/Jake/Saying Goodbye”. They fit so well together you wish more of the album went in that direction. On the whole, it’s enough to hold the album up against its forthcoming generic qualities.
As to be expected by any Star Trek album by Dennis McCarthy, there are a number of cues that make for an allright listen but after you’ve gone through everything you’ll sit there, scratch your head, and have no idea what they sounded like. “Trashed and Thrashed”, “New Personality”, most of “Time Stood Still”, “Reconciliation”…all and a few more could be interchanged with cues from his TNG or Enterprise albums and few would notice the difference. There’s also a typical dissonant syth take in “Painful Memories” that bears the same unassuming anonymity, even if the cue does transfer into the above “pleasantly generic” category. After two preceding McCarthy albums
Fortunate Developments
There are still a few unexpected developments, most of them fortunate. In “Wolf 359” the synthetic choir shows up for the Borg, though sadly without the motif used in TNG Volume 2, but the better praise is the improvement on McCarthy’s action material here (as well as the extended oomph fuelling “The Sisko Kid”), which is more propulsive and less noisy than his previous incarnations. No classic by any means for sure (it’s well below anything done for the films or TOS, and not at all like “photon torpedoes” as the liner notes suggest) but advancing the concept is always welcome, especially when driving string lines and soaring brass arrangements are in tow. “Into the Wormhole” has a few moments of genuine wonder, while “Time Stood Still” sends the orchestra to atonal war in Goldenthalian fashion, a far finer approach that McCarthy’s understated dissonance for TNG. Regrettably, it would be the elements in the former paragraph that would define one’s impression of the album; had we had more like this, I would of course be much more congratulatory towards the composer.
Conclusion
The unfortunate surprises are the grating modern elements that could rank as heresy for some (though likely not after they’ve heard the opening song for Enterprise). I’m not griping about electronics in general because those are a well-established and essential part of the series. I’m talking about the bass-thumping garbage that is “Cucumbers in Space”, a cue so jolting that it is sure to scare the faithful running in all directions. It also has the hilarious effect of closing with a note pattern that most of you will recognize as the Super Mario Bros. theme. Huh? Yeah, that was my take on it too. Also mind-blowingly out of place is the thoroughly dated feel the single release of the main theme has, with as generically 80s a feel as any lesser rock ballad that pops up on my cafeteria’s radio station during breakfast. Those elements are thankfully not toxic enough to tank the album quality drastically, but they still feel wrong. In the end the album does feel a bit underwhelming for sure, but a real effort to establish thematic integrity and an improved action style are enough to prevent the approach from getting stale like it did in TNG Volume 3.
Album (52:23)
1. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Main Title 1:55
2. Wolf 359 4:50
3. The Enterprise Departs/A New Home 1:10
4. Trashed and Thrashed 1:59
5. Bajor/Jake/Saying Goodbye 1:44
6. Cucumbers in Space 1:44
7. New Personality 2:17
8. Into the Wormhole 3:41
9. Time Stood Still 4:13
10. Searching for Relatives 1:13
11. Painful Memories 4:21
12. Passage Terminated 3:44
13. Back to the Saratoga / What Shields? 2:00
14. Reconciliation 3:18
15. The Sisko Kid 4:40
16. A New Beginning 1:47
17. Theme from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (single version) 4:16
18. Passage Terminated (single version) 3:31
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Comments
the 2 ‘best of’ albums are propably the best of the TV episode recordings. the first disc contains the updated DS9 theme and the symphonic recording of ‘the inner light’, which is my favorite cue from TNG. second set has one of the best scroes from voyager (their tribute to 1930s movie serials, i forget the name) and a few other good pieces.
truthfully, if you had reviewed just those 2 discs and skipped the TOS/TNG episode ones, you prolly would have saved yourself a bit of extra sanity. 
BSG has had some very creative and non-traditional soundtracks, well worth checking out, imo. prolly a cut above the better trek stuff, imo.
i’m surprised you’re unfamiliar with B5. the series itself hasn’t aged well with me, but the music i still consider a benchmark. i also like how they packaged it — you can buy the collections/best of set and get longer cuts and suites, or you can just pick up a few (or in my case, all) of episodic cds and listen to how an individual episode was orchestrated.
as a suggestion, if you ever do try your hand at B5, you might consider contrasting it with some of the tangerine dream movie scores from the ’70s and ’80s, since there is a connection between both (christopher franke was in tangerine dream and wrote all the B5 scores.) specifically, i’m thinking of stuff like sorcerer, thief, risky business, near dark and miracle mile.
haven’t watched ‘lost’ since the first season, but i suppose i could check out the soundtrack albums. ’24′ is a good cal — it’s got solid orchestration that enhances the mood of the show, can’t say i thought much of mr. gold’s dr. who stuff (and never saw the UK queer as folk.)
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well, you’re certainly going the extra mile reviewing all the TV soundtracks.
i didn’t really think much of any of them and think your reviews so far have been more or less on the nose. mccarthy might be a decent TV composer, but that’s about it. he did score one of the movies (‘generations’) and it’s pretty much the most forgettable trek movie score i can think of.
DS9 had some good stuff here and there and i did really like the re-done opening theme they did for the later seasons, but in the end i thought getting goldsmith to do the theme for ‘voyager’ was the best move for that entire series and kinda underscored the differences in level of talent.
in fairness, though, i honestly think it’s much harder to construct a memorable musical narrative when composing for a tv show versus a movie or videogame, mainly due to the constraints of pacing and development — especially when using a somewhat ‘conventional’ orchestral score.
i think one of the reasons the babylon 5 episode scores kinda break this mold is because the music itself was quite different from the norm and allowed itself to be a bit more flexible in terms of its use within the visual narrative (and releasing 20-odd episodic soundtrack CDs to get a good feel for this didn’t hurt.)
that said, at least the trek series HAD some somewhat noticeable scores. i’m really hard pressed to think of ANY tv show on right now that can even say this much (the original ‘CSI’ might come closest, if you like moody/atmospheric stuff.) most shows just layer one song after another now and call it good.
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Jon Blough Reply:
May 4th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Thank you. I think I’m about burned out now with Star Trek scores, and I’m not even finished. I think once I write the review for “In A Mirror Darkly/These Are the Voyages” (probably tonight) and Giacchino’s effort (Friday night) I’m going on sabbatical from the saga. There’s a few TNG episode promos left, as well as the TOS symphonic suites and the 2 Best of Star Trek albums, which I’ve heard contain better material from the later series. Honestly, though, I’ll have done 26 reviews for the series once I get through those two which is probably more than anyone should do for a whole year.
I am unfamiliar with Babylon 5. Maybe that’ll be my next space saga to explore after I take up my friend’s rapid recommendations for BSG.
I think a number of shows contain quality music that rises above situational moments or transitions. Giacchino’s Lost is the series’ emotional and adrenaline core. 24′s music has certainly evolved over the years and become epically exciting at this point. Any Murray Gold album should also cure this complaint. Sure, there’s a ton of procedurals out there, and the LAO franchise still specializes in droning chords, but from the small selection I’ve heard that’s still enough to keep people happy.
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