Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you're ready for a strong and rewarding Jerry Goldsmith experience that only skirts the edge of the Star Trek universe with its tender romanticism and Total Recall-styled action cues. Avoid it... on the commercial album if you expect to hear a truly rounded presentation of the score, for this is a rare instance in which bootlegs really should merit widespread consideration. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Star Trek: Insurrection: (Jerry Goldsmith) Actor Jonathan Frakes returned for his second turn in the direction of the Star Trek film franchise, an entry that toned down the suspense and gave the series a breath of fresh air. The plotline of Star Trek: Insurrection is a lightweight compared to those that came before and after, lending more credibility to the informal rule that odd-numbered films in the franchise tend to be flightier affairs. In what essentially amounts to a bloated 2-hour version of a story best sculpted for an episode of "The Next Generation," Star Trek: Insurrection tells a feel-good tale of the people of a heavenly planet being forced to relocate because of a natural resource that an alien race needs on the planet (insert wry comments about parallels between this and the history of America... "Star Trek" writers can never resist such inspirations). When the "Next Generation" crew of the glamorous new Enterprise (apparently rid of its unsightly Borg alterations in Star Trek: First Contact) try to intervene, they discover that the story is far more complicated. Less complicated this time around, ironically, is Jerry Goldsmith's score. While the quality of Star Trek: Insurrection (as a whole) is universally considered less than that of Star Trek: First Contact, Goldsmith's score for the ninth film is arguably stronger than the highly stylistic and overbearing tones of the previous film's score. "I think this film is a more romantic film than any of the others have been," Goldsmith stated at the time. "I think that the subplots include a very lovely romantic story. So that makes it a little different for me." He also commented that "there's more action in this" than in the previous entry, a true statement about a work that has many close ties to one of the composer's most popular action/science-fiction triumphs, Total Recall. The score for Star Trek: Insurrection, in sum, is more satisfying in its romantic and action elements because of the simplicity of both and, on album, it's among the better in the franchise. It remains leagues ahead of Goldsmith's disappointing departure from the concept in Star Trek: Nemesis. For the purposes of this review, the track titles and times referenced will refer to the expanded score as it appears on the numerous bootlegs that have existed on the market for a long time. Goldsmith claimed upon writing Star Trek: Insurrection that the score only uses three themes, which unfortunately sells him a bit short. He explicitly avoided writing an overarching theme to cover the entire film, as well anything major to represent the Son'a villains. On these points, there is really no argument. But he claims that he constructed only one theme for the Ba'ku people, which is a curious statement because of its blatant falsehood. The primary, general idea for the Ba'ku is heard in leiu of a traditional overture, and a suite-like format exists at 1:05 into "Ba'ku Village" as well as in the role of interlude during the "End Credits." It also makes a brief appearance at the start of "Regeneration" and anchors the finale of the film at 6:00 into "The Healing Process." This pretty and unassuming theme is reminiscent of the kind of lofty strings and woodwind identity in Rudy and several other tender Goldsmith character scores. Among these works, this theme for Star Trek: Insurrection is somewhat generic despite its pleasant tones. Far more beautiful is the secondary theme for the Ba'ku, one which critics (and Goldsmith himself, apparently) seem to lump in with the previous theme. In reality, this second clearly delineated idea is more prevalent in the score, and represents both the magical elements of the Ba'ku's civilization (rather than simply the innocence, which the first theme addresses) and the relationship between Captain Picard and the leader of the Ba'ku. This theme is far lovelier that the more generic Ba'ku one, touched upon briefly in "Warp Capability" and "The Ba'ku Planet" before occupying almost the entirety of "New Sight." A downright magical reprise of the theme on whimsical strings highlights "A Perfect Moment" and one last performance graces "Into the Caves" at the 1:10 mark. These two themes together make for a significant amount of extremely relaxing material, a trait that you wouldn't expect from a Star Trek score, but it's still welcomed for its uniqueness in context. The two other themes that Goldsmith mentions are the ballsy action theme heard at the score's most rambunctious points and a heroic motif that is reminiscent of the four-note equivalent on brass that he had used in his previous scores in the franchise (and which makes a cameo at 1:20 into "Admiral Dougherty"). The action theme is a roaring and bold brass construct with trademark Goldsmith rhythms of pounding piano and timpani; the rhythm is formulated in "Dogfight" and matures in "Not Functioning," where (at 0:50) the tenacious theme joins it for several extremely satisfying capitulations. The idea is reprised in "The Drones Attack" and, more dramatically, in "The Collector" (at 0:35). A faint manipulation of the idea is strung out in "The Same Race." It has been reported that this ambitious piano rhythm and accompanying theme were based off of the unused cue written by Goldsmith for the "Massacre" scene in Total Recall, which would make sense given the close stylistic similarities between the works. The heroic submotif also referred to by Goldsmith is put to extensive use throughout the score, heard prominently at the end of the short, initial title sequence (0:40 into the opening cue). It has a passing resemblance to the start of Randy Newman's main theme for The Natural, though this similarity seems completely coincidental. It actually originates in Star Trek: First Contact, not surprisingly. Two of the slower, more melodramatic statements of this theme exist at 0:55 into "The Hidden Ship" and 3:45 into "The Healing Process." It's a versatile motif, like the one that it replaces in the franchise, and continues in the mould of Goldsmith's distinct style for the films. Despite what Goldsmith says about the lack of a theme for the villains, there does seem to be a minor motif for them. Used throughout the score, its most prominent and lengthy usage is during the entirety of the "Countdown" cue, and an argument can be made that it serves a more general purpose of extending suspense rather than represent the Son'a specifically. Either way, it's effective, despite being somewhat typical to Goldsmith's habits and therefore generic in style. To his credit, Goldsmith maintains strong continuity in Star Trek: Insurrection due to his constant use of at least one of these ideas in every cue. Wrapping up the themes, several old favorites are also present in Star Trek: Insurrection. Alexander Courage's original television show theme is heard directly at the outset of the score and in its usual role in Goldsmith's "End Credits" format. Goldsmith's theme for the Enterprise and the "Next Generation" crew is only heard in that same standard suite and once during the film itself (as the Enterprise is first seen at the start of the film). The composer throws a bone to die-hard fans with two small references to his famous Klingon theme as a representation of Worf (at 8:10 into "Phaser Blast" and 2:25 into "The Drones Attack"). Outside of these small nods to the rest of the franchise, Goldsmith doesn't make much of an overt attempt to attach this music to the previous scores. He allows his usual stylistic tendencies to make the connections, and it works. Outside of his recognizable thematic structures and orchrestrations, the employment of his array of synthetic sound effects is put to fantastic use. As in Total Recall, the electronic rhythms and singular sound effects receive a major role in Star Trek: Insurrection (perhaps the greatest of any of the composer's five scores for the franchise). A handful of specific, individual moments in the score should be recognized before moving on. The first of these is the strangely unique rhythm and theme in "Exodus," an awkwardly cute break in the action. The progression of the "Main Title" sequence, after the conclusion of the statement of Courage's theme and the heroic subtheme, mirrors the majestic descending notes of the opening to Star Trek: First Contact, an interesting thread of consistency. The climax of "The Healing Process" offers the score's only short burst of choir in a remarkably powerful crescendo (at 4:05). A singular, lightly stepping rhythm in the latter half of "The Children's Story," along with several other Ba'ku-related material, is a foreshadowing of the innocent side of Goldsmith's forthcoming (and underrated) score for The Haunting. The performance of the "End Credit" suite is still not as strong as the one for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, which endures as the best version of that format produced by Goldsmith (regardless of the improvement in sound quality over the years). In general, Star Trek: Insurrection will be remembered for its enjoyable romantic elements and superior action material that raises more ruckus than most of Goldsmith's scores since the Rambo days. It will be less recalled as a distinct Star Trek entry. Strictly in terms of quality of enjoyment, the score ranks near the same level as Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and remains a step above Star Trek: First Contact and two steps above Star Trek: Nemesis. The composer's scores of 1998 and 1999 (beginning with Small Soldiers) feature fantastic sound quality, with the recordings by Bruce Botnick mixed with a perfect blend of instrumental clarity and ambient reverberation. In Star Trek: Insurrection, the resulting wet sound causes cues like "Not Functioning" and "The Drones Attack" to be stunning aural experiences. Unfortunately, occasional mistakes in the brass section can't be washed away by the mix, and they particularly flub a portion of "End Credits" (which is why, along with the awkward transition to the Ba'ku material halfway through, is why it's not among the better suites). Fans of the film noticed immediately that a substantial amount of good music did not make the cut on the 41-minute GNP Crescendo release of the score to retail outlets (an album that lacks the enhanced-CD capabilities of GNP's release of the predecessor). Over the three years following Star Trek: Insurrection, both of the remaining "Star Trek" series on television ended and Star Trek: Nemesis was seemingly taking forever to reach completion, giving fans of the 24th Century "Star 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 the ninth film took longer to endear itself to the same audience. However, as the years have shown, a growing respect has evolved for Star Trek: Insurrection. The last two feature Star Trek film score albums from GNP Crescendo, although making a strong presentation of both works, lacked a few key cues from their respective films. 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, too. Within just a matter of a year after the film's opening in the theatres, the single-CD bootleg of the nearly complete score began making its rounds. It's not uncommon for recording sessions of Star Trek scores to be leaked to the collector's market (in some cases, as with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, it took a while), and regardless of your feelings about supporting the record labels for the constraints that they work under, Star Trek: Insurrection really is a score that is better appreciated in a fuller form. Almost all of the music that you heard in the film (but wish you had on album) was made available in the same stunning sound quality as the commercial product. GNP Crescendo (and perhaps even Goldsmith) would have argued that all the important music was included on the commercial album, but in this case, a strong rebuttal can be made against them. The bootleg contains an additional 25 minutes of score, with a handful of both short filler cues and lengthy action sequences added to the listening experience. While Star Trek: Insurrection is by no means a perfect score (or even Goldsmith's strongest in the series), it is one that benefits greatly from a complete, chronological listen. The only way to fully comprehend the development of Goldsmith's secondary themes and motifs (whether he personally admits to them or not) is to hear the score this way. Addressing the previously unreleased cues, the opening credits are supplemented with over four minutes of the "Phaser Blast" and "Dogfight" cues, the first of which presenting a performance of the Klingon theme for Worf, and the latter of which providing a strong action cue of considerable length. The filler cues "Warp Capability" and "Ba'ku Planet" are not overwhelming, but they do offer lovely renditions of the secondary romance theme for the Ba'ku. The four and a half minute cue "The Hidden Ship" is a considerable omission from the commercial album. As Picard and Data discover a cloaked ship in a Ba'ku lake, Goldsmith composes several minutes of dancing electronics and woodwinds that come directly from the pages of Total Recall's mind alteration scenes; it's a neat reference for those who enjoy parallels in Goldsmith's work. After the negligible "Regeneration," the compelling cue for "Admiral Dougherty" hints at the troubling deception which exists in his presence, and Goldsmith uses a touch of his Starfleet heroism (and the aforementioned four-note theme that was previously prevalent in the franchise) 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 day. Three one-minute cues make up some pivotal scenes together in the heart of the film; "Exodus" introduces the unique string-plucked theme that makes its one and only performance in the film during this cue. 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 secondary romance theme punctuates the latter cue (which was another glaring omission from the commercial album and a favorite moment in the film). After the somewhat non-descript "Into the Caves," the stunningly broad music for "The Collector" (as it opens with great visual effects) presents the action theme in full, elongated glory. The redundant Son'a material of brooding suspense in "Countdown" ends the new material. The added cues mingle in order with the previously released music, producing an outstanding presentation of the score. Despite all the hype you've inevitably heard about the superiority of the 2-CD bootleg release of Star Trek: First Contact, the single CD bootleg for Star Trek: Insurrection is a better investment. The crystal clear sound quality is the ultimate selling point, allowing you to hear the strengths of Goldsmith's score down to every last, wall-rattling detail. Seek the bootleg with confidence. More generally, either the bootleg or commercial album will provide you with a strong and rewarding Goldsmith experience that only skirts the edge of the Star Trek universe.
Music as Heard on GNP Crescendo Album: *** Music as Heard on Bootlegs: **** Overall: **** Track Listings (1998 GNP Crescendo Album):
Total Time: 41:29
* contains "Theme from Star Trek: The TV Series" and "Theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture" ** different from version used in the film Track Listings (1999 Bootleg):
Total Time: 65:52
* contains previously unreleased material All artwork and sound clips from Star Trek: Insurrection are Copyright © 1998, GNP Crescendo Records, Bootleg. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 12/6/98, updated 9/5/08. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 1998-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
1998 GNP Crescendo