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Review of the 1998 Commercial Album:
Although featuring a better selection of Goldsmith action cues than First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection lacks a dominant new theme to add to the series. The romantic one that attempts this feat doesn't hold weight when compared to the majestic, sweeping theme for First Contact or the percussion-driven brass Klingon theme for The Final Frontier. In and of itself, the theme is fine --it is comparable to any other Goldsmith love theme-- however it is performed too softly for a Trek film. It serves, ultimately, only to slow down the fast pace of the action. The battle sequences, on the other hand, offer some of the best Goldsmith action music since the Rambo films. Tracks 4 and 6 have an outstanding secondary theme with brass and an electronic accompaniment. The electronic elements add a perfect touch for the alien badguys in this installment (just as it was effective for the Borg in First Contact). Oddly --and this really bothered me-- Goldsmith uses a choral approach for only 15 seconds in the tenth track, and those 15 seconds are marvelous. Why he chose not to use a chorus (even an electronic one) for the rest of the score escapes me. There has been some general disappointment with the use of (or lack thereof) previous Star Trek themes in this score. The main "TMP/Next Generation" theme was used only in two of the tracks. Its one lush appearance at the end of the first track saved that track from being one of the worst opening tracks to a Star Trek score in a long time. The Klingon theme, which made two or three strong appearances in First Contact, is offered only twice in Insurrection, only once on the album, and is barely noticeable. Goldsmith's secondary theme from First Contact and The Final Frontier is used again, however there is no use whatsoever of the main First Contact theme. Minimal interpolation of these themes together would have been nice. The end credits are becoming overly predictable; Goldsmith is utilizing the Star Wars end-credit style of bracketing the film's unique theme with the theme of the series as a whole. Aside from a few mistakes by the brass musicians in this finale, it is exactly the same... with an equally awkward transition to the romance theme halfway through. There are many who would very willingly embrace a fresh suite arrangement of these themes. On the upside, the sound quality of this Goldsmith recording (as with Small Soldiers earlier this year) is superior to those before. The tracks "Not Functioning" and "The Drones Attack" offer a stunning aural presentation of the original recording. A note to those who have seen the film: There was a substantial amount of good music in the film that didn't end up on this CD release. As a whole, the score worked significantly better in the film than it did on CD. The first (of the two) uses of the Klingon theme, as well as much of the lighter Ba'Ku music (in the on-location scenes) was not included on the album. Some of the action music was also omitted, however, with the inclusion of tracks 4 and 6, this wasn't as important as the other music mentioned above. It makes me wonder how much more expensive it would have been for GNP Crescendo to kick the total time from 45 to 60 minutes... It has been mentioned that perhaps it is time for one of the larger labels to begin releasing these Trek scores --one that could afford a full release of all 65+ minutes of the score. Overall, with improvements in some areas and disappointments in others, Star Trek: Insurrection is indeed equal in quality to First Contact. The novelty, however, of Goldsmith's return to the series is wearing off --at least, with these GNP Crescendo releases-- and I would welcome a fresh composer for the tenth installment. For Trek fans, I recommend this score, but to the average listener, it really doesn't recall enough of the earlier Goldsmith/Trek success to warrant much excitement. If only the few key missing cues were presented in whole on an expanded album, this could be a better score than First Contact on album. *** Review of the 1999 Bootleg Album:
Star Trek: Insurrection: (Jerry Goldsmith) It's been three full years since Star Trek: Insurrection hit the theatres, and the long delay before the production of Star Trek X is proving that this could be the longest gap between any of the Trek films. If anything, this extended time, along with the end of both Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager on television, has given fans of the 24th Century Trek franchises more time to reflect on Goldsmith's Star Trek: Insurrection score. Whereas the music for Star Trek: First Contact hit the fans at breakneck speed, immediately exploding in popularity, the music for Star Trek: Insurrection took longer to endear itself to the same audience. However, as the years have shown, a growing respect has evolved for Insurrection. Both the last two feature film score albums from GNP Crescendo, although making a strong presentation of both scores, have lacked a few key cues from the films. In the case of Star Trek: Insurrection, there were several moments in the film when fans of the music would realize that the enjoyable cue they were hearing in the film was not on the album. Credit must be given to GNP Crescendo, which will defend its budgetary and Goldsmith's selection choices to the bitter end, but as with the eighth Star Trek score, everyone knew that a complete bootleg of Star Trek: Insurrection would eventually surface on the secondary market. It took surprisingly little time to do so. Within just a matter of a year after the film's opening in the theatres, the single-CD bootleg of the complete Insurrection score began making its rounds. I'm not typically too enthusiastic about complete scores on bootlegs because I fully support the record labels for the constraints that they work under. However, in the case of Star Trek: Insurrection, the complete score bootleg is a gem not to be missed. All of the music that you heard in the film, but wish you had on album, is now available in the same stunning sound quality as the commercial product. GNP Crescendo (and perhaps even Goldsmith) will argue that all the important music was available on the commercial album. I beg to differ. The bootleg contains an additional 25 minutes of score, with a handful of both short filler cues and lengthy action sequences added to the full product. While Star Trek: Insurrection is by no means a perfect score --or even among Goldsmith's strongest in the series-- it is a score that benefits greatly from a complete, in order listen. A description of previously unavailable cues available on the expanded bootleg: The opening credits are supplemented with over four minutes of the "Phaser Blast" and "Dogfight" cues, the first of which presents the "other" Klingon theme performance for Worf, and the latter of which provides a strong action cue of considerable length. The filler cues "Warp Capability" and "Ba'ku Planet" are not of particular interest, however, the four and a half minute cue "The Hidden Ship" is a considerable omission from the commercial album. As Picard and Data discover the cloaked ship in the lake, Goldsmith composes four minutes of dancing electronics and woodwinds that come directly from the pages of Total Recall's mind alteration scenes... and it's a neat reference for those who enjoy parallels in Goldsmith's work. After the filler cue of "Regeneration," the compelling cue for "Admiral Dougherty" hints at the troubling deception which exists in his presence, and Goldsmith uses a hint of his Starfleet heroicism in a darker performance for this two minute cue. The tension continues to build in "Lock & Load" until a noble blast at the end signals the Enterprise crew's readiness to win the film for the goodguys. Three one-minute cues make up some pivotal scenes together in the heart of the film; "Exodus" introduces a new string plucked theme that makes its one and only performance in the film during this cue... an odd, but fascinating addition to the score. The cues "Data's New Friend" and "A Perfect Moment" build upon the delicate Ba'ku themes until a short, but beautiful rendition of the love theme punctuates the latter cue (which was another glaring omission from the commercial album, and a personal favorite in the film). After a somewhat non-descript "Into the Caves" cue, the stunningly broad music for "The Collector" (as it opens with great SFX) presents the action theme in full glory. A final spurt of the redundant "Countdown" cue ends the new material. The cues described above mix and mingle in order with the previously released music. On the whole, keep in mind that I'm not the biggest fan of Star Trek music, but even I have been waiting for years to hear the strong Star Trek: Insurrection cues missing from its commercial album (even moreso than Star Trek: First Contact). Thus, this is a bootleg that I recommend to all fans of Goldsmith's on screen Trek music. Its sound quality, as mentioned before, is as crystal clear as the GNP Crescendo album, and it allows you to hear the strengths of Goldsmith's score down to every last detail. Seek it with confidence. ****
* Contains "Theme from Star Trek: The TV Series" and "Theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture" ** Different from version used in the film
* Previously unreleased material ** Contains Alexander Courage's "Star Trek" Theme
"Doing a Star Trek film is like returning to an old friend. Beginning with the first one which was difficult, to say the least, because of all the technical problems we had. I've gotten very fond of it. The theme from the first motion picture became the theme of Next Generation and then I wrote the theme for Voyager and the four Star Trek episodes as well, so I feel very much in tune with Star Trek. I love the stories because I think that they're big and they're romantic. You know, it was Gene Roddenberry's hope it'd be a nicer place to live.That's the sort of world, the universe he created and that's what I think all of these scripts portray. I think the toughest part about any film, whether it's a Star Trek: Insurrection or anything else, is just coming up with a fresh approach. When you do a sequel, it's always harder because it's too easy to go fall back on what you've done before. Which is good. I mean, there's a certain flavor I've tried to create with the music of Star Trek. And it's more in the style than repeating the actual notes. Well, actually, there's one little quote of the Star Trek theme. I mean, I use the fanfare that Alexander Courage wrote for the television show; that opens and closes the picture. It goes into a new theme I wrote for Star Trek: Insurrection and then, when you see the Enterprise for the first time, I quote the old theme a little bit. Then you don't hear the old theme until the end of the picture when the credits come up. Everything else is a new approach to it. I want to keep it fresh and different. That's what I try to do. Star Trek: Insurrection is more romantic than First Contact. I think this film is a more romantic film than any of the others have been. I would say there's more action in this than there was in First Contact, but I think that the subplots include a very lovely romantic story. So, that makes it a little different for me."
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