The Best of Star Trek: Volume Two: (Various) As
"Voyager," the last of the 24th Century "Star Trek" shows on television
for the franchise, wrapped up its final season, the GNP Crescendo label
concluded its spirit of tradition with "Star Trek" music albums by
releasing a second and final volume of material from shows spanning the
first four series. The label, while concentrating mostly on albums
devoted to "Original Series" and "The Next Generation," introduced the
concept of providing a compilation of single episodic scores from each
of the series in 1996, when their first volume used the tagline of the
"30th Anniversary" of the original show as its selling point. Providing
music from all four series is a popular way to market these products to
fans of each show, and thus, suites from noteworthy episodes of all four
series appear on this second such volume. The debate that usually ensues
about them is inevitably related to selection of which episodic scores
have been included by GNP, and, for the most part, this album features
some solid choices. Rather than devoting the "Original Series" section
to a single episode, "The Best of Star Trek: Volume Two" presents suites
from a handful of "Original Series" episodes that had not yet been
included on previous albums. Compared to GNP's previous releases of
"Original Series" music, the selections here contain some of the more
suspenseful and less repetitive cues, and the label should be commended
especially for releasing a portion of "Balance of Terror," a memorable
episode in which the
Enterprise first encounters and does battle
with a cloaking Romulan vessel. Fans of the robust, orchestral side of
these episodics could certainly have done without the lounge mix of
Alexander Courage's original theme, but die-hards will undoubtedly
embrace it. Moved to the end of the album is the suite from the final
episode of "The Next Generation," with a score that contains some of
Dennis McCarthy's most mature music for the series. The rescue cue is
badly underscored, though this is a usual technique for McCarthy on
these shows. The unused cue marking Q's entrance is particularly good,
and raises questions about why it was abandoned in the editing of the
show. The heroic resolution features Courage's original theme, and makes
for a pleasant end to the album and series.
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In between those two sections is the music for the two
more recent 24th Century shows, "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager." The
suite from "Way of the Warrior" from "Deep Space Nine" is an important
one to include because it marks the height of tensions and battle
between the Federation and Klingons in the middle seasons that revived
the show's respectability. McCarthy's exclamation of "Yo!" represents
the pounding rhythmic music heard as the Klingons attack the station,
and this is among the most memorable music from the series. Thrown in
for a touch of flavor is actress Nana Visitor's own vocal performance of
"Fever" from the episode "His Way." The suite from "Voyager" is the
oddball on the album, offering one of the (if not the most) wacky scores
for the series. In "Bride of Chaotica," an episode (of holodeck mishaps
in a bad 30's sci-fi flick) recent to this album's release, "Voyager"
veteran David Bell plays with the recording's mono-stereo mix to create
a tinny, mono effect for the Captain Proton story while also blurring
the music into bass-heavy stereo brass and strings as the scenes switch
back and forth to the real world of
Voyager. As a final twist of
creativity, Bell hits the listener with one last "Flash Gordon"-style
blast of chords in stereo as the producer credits appear at the end of
the story, raising comical questions about whether this was really the
end for the Chaotica storyline. Ultimately, this album has all the
elements that should please fans of the franchise. With the release of a
healthy portion of "All Good Things," all the absolutely necessary music
from the "Original Series" and "Next Generation" shows has been put onto
CD. Unfortunately, fans of the more recent "Star Trek" incarnations are
well aware that McCarthy's (and others') techniques of underscoring
action scenes and avoiding thematic or creative instrumental usage
causes his scores to become somewhat anonymous. As such, fans have never
been treated to the more ambitious music from "Deep Space Nine" episodes
involving the Dominion war (and the show's finale), nor has the mass of
superior non-McCarthy music from "Voyager" been released. A loud outcry
from fans for the release of three of the Borg double-episodes,
"Scorpion," "Dark Frontier," and "Unimatrix Zero," went unanswered by
GNP, likely due to financial reasons. Unfortunately, that leaves some of
"Star Trek"'s later and best episodic works still unreleased many years
later.
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The insert notes contain short information about each of the
four shows and the selected cues.
