Buy it... if you're interested in hearing one of Jerry Goldsmith's most vibrant, thematically diverse, and forgotten Star Trek scores.

Avoid it... if you just can't shake that image of Uhura dancing and don't want to get anywhere close to the hapless 80's song she was dubbed to.

Goldsmith

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier: (Jerry Goldsmith) Several factors conspired against the fifth installment of the famed Star Trek film franchise and put an increasing amount of pressure on Paramount to produce a winner with which to send off the original crew in the sixth film. Without a doubt, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was the smash hit of the franchise at the time (and still is to this day), earning hundreds of millions of dollars for Paramount and causing a Trek-related blip on the radar of the Academy Awards. Three years later, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier would cause that momentum to come crashing down, partly due to extremely tough competition from other films in 1989 and partially due to its own miserable failings. With the Writer's Guild on strike, Industrial Light and Magic unable to provide the special effects, and William Shatner serving as director, the resulting film is a monumental embarrassment to a series that only a vastly superior Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country could salvage. The film even featured the most humiliating scene ever put into a Trek feature, with Uhura attempting to perform a sultry song and dance over a wretched and hapless 1980's bed of tired rock sounds. One thing Paramount got right was the return of composer Jerry Goldsmith, whose theme for the Star Trek universe had earned him an Academy Award nomination in 1979 and an Emmy in 1987 for the resurrection of the television show. Leonard Rosenman's score for the previous film, though nominated for an Oscar, had deviated badly from the sound that Goldsmith and James Horner had used to define the Trek universe, and for film music collectors, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier served the one purpose of reintroducing Goldsmith to the franchise with surprising success. Not only would the Trek veteran bring order back to the Trek franchise with his themes from the first film ten years prior, but he would also lay the groundwork in themes and structure for his next three Trek films, the final three for the Next Generation cast.

Returning first and foremost for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is Goldsmith's unmistakably bold action style, a trait that he injects without hesitation into a score that is saturated with some of the composer's best mannerisms. He also wastes no time resurrecting Alexander Courage's original theme in high style, both at the outset and finale of the film (with a few less obvious statements in between). Goldsmith's own Trek theme is offered in all its brass glory as well, with the kind of resonance and power in a larger performance that puts the television recording to shame. Also returning for its due airtime is Goldsmith's Klingon theme, something that teased audiences with only a cameo appearance at the outset of The Motion Picture. Its performances here are rowdy and ambitious, accentuated by creative percussion and synthesizer effects. In "Without Help," Goldsmith even lets loose with a synthetic scream of a bird for the villains' Bird of Prey. Even more impressive is the array of new material that Goldsmith would concoct in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, some of which would be heard throughout Star Trek: First Contact. One such element was the structure of the title theme and end credits suite. The format of the credits suite that Goldsmith would employ for the Next Generation films would be performed here with the most enthusiasm the title theme would ever receive. The end credits for The Final Frontier would also give concert halls around the nation the ability to let rip with an extended performance of the Klingon theme as well. A more interesting, less heralded part of Goldsmith's later Trek scores would be the use of a four-note "adversity theme" that seems to cross the generations of the Trek universe for Goldsmith and represent a larger concept of adventure and friendship for the Enterprise crew. The theme would receive lengthy treatment at the outset of "A Busy Man" while exploding in brass near the beginning of "An Angry God" in a fashion not to be heard again in the franchise. This four-note motif (which expands to a seven-note secondary phrase) would play a particularly large role in First Contact as the situation in that film becomes more dire.

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Two full-blown new themes grace The Final Frontier with elegance and easy harmonies. The first is a "friendship theme" that is presented at the outset of the film, as the three starring officers camp together in California. While the film opens and closes with these camping scenes, and Goldsmith appropriately employs the theme during those moments, it goes sadly missing from his other music for the franchise. The performance of this theme during a rock-climbing sequence in "The Mountain" tingles with some of Goldsmith's light droplet-effect synthetic accents that would define his scores of that era. The primary new theme for The Final Frontier is a cerebral and contemplative piece for the religious quest at the heart of the film. As the crew journeys to the center of the galaxy to find paradise (or God), the concept is sold to them with a soothing, harmonically swaying theme often performed by the lighter elements of the ensemble. Its main performances, as the supposed deity is actually discovered, are led by a light synthesized woodwind/voice that aids the religiously peaceful theme in its allure. The lengthy "A Busy Man" cue, with an extended performance of this theme, has been preformed in concert. In the film, this cue features one of Goldsmith's more creative incorporations of the Klingon theme in the background as the crew is equally distracted from the impending threat from a Bird of Prey. Several action cues in The Final Frontier stand among Goldsmith's best adventure material outside the franchise, include "Open the Gates," a cue that moves with trademark Goldsmith percussion rhythms, frenetic string meanderings, and bold brass and snare statements. Assisting these cues is a remarkably rendered mix on the recording. A dynamic and wet sound is compensated for by careful attention to individual instruments that might otherwise be drowned out. On album, the quality matches the vibrant sound quality heard in his late 1990's scores. The album for The Final Frontier, however, is presented out of order (with the three major subthemes presented in succession in the first three cuts) and is missing some noteworthy material from the film. The Hiroshima-performed rock song at the end is an abomination. For some collectors, however, The Final Frontier remains Goldsmith's top Trek score outside of the original. ****

Bias Check:

For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.22 (in 111 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.36 (in 120,039 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.