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Galaxy Quest: (David Newman) With so many science
fiction franchises in existence, it seems strange to ponder that there's
only been one competent attempt by a major studio to launch a parody of
the genre in recent years. When
Galaxy Quest stuck its tongue out
at sci-fi fans in 1999, those fans generally accepted its humor with
open arms. While most of the jokes in the Dreamworks film will fly over
the heads of viewers not familiar with the
Star Trek universe,
the chemistry of its own cast of starship officers is entertaining
enough to make
Galaxy Quest a worthy standalone comedy. With the
Star Trek universe directly in its sights, the script of
Galaxy Quest follows the possibility that aliens from another
planet mistaken the old Earth-originating television series of "Galaxy
Quest" to be real, and in an effort to help them fight off an alien
race, they build the starship they see in the show and kidnap the real
life actors to operate it in their favor. Those washed up actors are
forced to remember how to play their roles in order to operate the ship
and in turn survive. By no means washed up was composer David Newman,
who had not been integral to the science fiction universe in the 1990's
but who had been capable of producing large scale parody scores with
ease. The choice of Newman for the assignment was welcome to score fans
who had seen the composer languish with failed mainstream opportunities
for several years. While
Galaxy Quest fit squarely into the
parody and general comedy genres that Newman has used before and after
to sustain his career, it was an opportunity to extend those talents
into a more robust, blockbuster atmosphere. The assignment was seemingly
destined to be a John Debney project, for Debney had been both involved
with
Star Trek scoring and extensive parody work, though Newman
produces a score that would very likely have resulted from Debney
involvement anyway. Ultimately, Newman's balance of heroics, awe, and
comedy in
Galaxy Quest would yield universal praise from film
score critics, though with the film fading quickly into the realm of
funny has-been's, the success never assisted Newman in reaching towards
a career with more mainstream recognition.
The greatest aspect of Newman's success with
Galaxy
Quest is his ability to walk the fine line between the cheesy old
scores of classic sci-fi shows and beefier expectations of modern
ventures into the genre. At once, the score for
Galaxy Quest can
embody the trite and overblown aspects of those old scores while also
providing more of the depth and complexity necessary to meet current
expectations. The resulting combination is addresses both basic needs to
such an extent that you end up hearing what amounts to a massive parody
work, the likes of which Debney has also tried to create through the
years. The basis for Newman's work is the "Classic TV Theme" that Newman
conjures with skill at the outset of the film, a bouncy piece with a
heroic heart but only the force of a couple of brass instruments and
perhaps a dozen string players. Tedious as this piece may be in its
"original" form, Newman works wonders with it throughout the remainder
of the score. As the screen actors are presented with their real life
starship, Newman develops the theme for a full ensemble and the light
choir typical to his career. The dynamic orchestral variants of the
title theme occupy most of the action pieces in
Galaxy Quest,
with a few of the more anonymous cues mirroring the style he conjured
for his
Bill and Ted parody efforts. Newman throws a few bones at
fans of
Star Trek music, with blaster beam effects mirroring
Jerry Goldsmith's usage in "Red Thingie, Green Thingie" and a
combination of tingling synthetic effects and percussion for the evil
Serris alien character that offer some hints of both Goldsmith and James
Horner's treatment of Klingons. The overt connections to
Star
Trek music largely stop there, however, allowing
Galaxy Quest
to hold its own court. A few temp-track influences appear in places,
including some of David Arnold's
Stargate at the outset of
"Shuttle to Planet," percussive effects from Brad Fiedel's
The
Terminator in "Serris Kills Everybody," snare rips and string motifs
in the "Crew Quarters" and "The Launch" cues that resemble equivalents
from Horner's
Apollo 13, a brief but obvious tribute to Richard
Strauss in "Revealing the Universe," and, perhaps the most odd of all,
Newman's own theme for
The Phantom opening "The Battle" and later
in the same cue. Likely an inadvertent statement of John Williams' theme
for Yoda makes a splash near the beginning of "The NESA Protector." Of
all these references, the most true parody comes with the adapted use of
the blaster beam effects, also evident very strongly in "The
Battle."
When looking back at
Galaxy Quest, there are
stylistic connections that can be made to the serious science fiction
score that Newman would provide for
Serenity several years later,
a score that would turn out to be yet another failed stab at mainstream
success for the composer. In both efforts, the main drawback of Newman's
writing would reside in the lack of depth in his recordings. The
compositions themselves are intelligent, with extremely effective use of
major and minor key alterations to the title themes, and you can't say
that
Galaxy Quest lacks character. While the lack of depth and
resounding power in
Galaxy Quest may have suited the score's
parody needs quite well, several subsequent scores from Newman,
including
Serenity, suggest that this style is simply inherent in
the composer's writing. This lack of gravity may explain why Newman
still hasn't bust into the mainstream, and, for some listeners, also
explains why
Galaxy Quest is a praiseworthy score without being a
readily enjoyable for several listens. The attitude of the score is just
so positive in character and rooted in the treble region (especially
with the extensive role for trumpet) that it can potentially grate your
nerves despite its strengths. A deeper, mixed choir would have assisted
Galaxy Quest considerably (especially in the symphonic and choral
culmination of the title theme in "Goodbye Serris"), but would have
defeated the purpose of the innocence associated with the characters on
screen. Overall,
Galaxy Quest is a perfect match for its film,
and while it's good for a breezy listen occasionally on album, it's a
score that doesn't play as well when separated from the film's context.
Like many of Newman's scores, no commercial album release was
forthcoming in 1999 (despite the film's success), and so a SuperTracks
promotional release was arranged the following year and sold through
soundtrack specialty outlets for just slightly more than a regular
retail product. With 50 minutes on over 30 tracks, the presentation of
the score is outstanding, though the middle portions do hinder the
strong flow of the early discovery tracks and later battle cues. It's
easy to have a soft spot for
Galaxy Quest because Newman hit the
nail so squarely in the head, but on album you can never quite escape
the swirling parody elements that make the score such an overly bright,
hyperactive experience.
****
| Bias Check: | For David Newman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3 (in 10 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.38
(in 16,785 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
