Star Trek: First Contact
Composed By Jerry Goldsmith
Additional Music by Joel Goldsmith
While it was a creative disaster, “Star Trek: Generations” performed well enough at the box office to ensure that the brain trust from that film – producer Rick Berman and writers Brannon Braga & Ronald D. Moore – would return for the sequel.
Berman wanted it to be a time travel story (because, again, no one does time travel like “Star Trek”) and Braga & Moore wanted to utilize their favorite villain from “The Next Generation” television series: The Borg. The television writer’s room could never properly use the iconic villains on the show simply because they didn’t have the budget for the expensive special effects and make-up, but with a $45 million dollar budget, their sandbox was going to get much bigger. One cannot help but note that, for the second (but not last) time in the franchise, the second film in a mini-series would choose a villain from the television series to resurrect and exploit as the captain’s true nemesis.
Berman’s time travel plan originally involved a lighter adventure, with Picard and his crew following the Borg to the Renaissance. But Braga & Moore pushed to show the heretofore unseen moment of first contact, where the Vulcans initially met the human race. Their first drafts were missing something… the Borg were creepy but nebulous. An exec at Paramount pitched adding in a specific villain, and thus arguably the most iconic villain in Star Trek history was born: Alice Krige’s somehow-super-sexy Borg Queen.
With the higher budget, Berman was feeling bullish and decided to bring in an A-list director. He gave the script to science fiction icons Ridley Scott, famous for “Alien,” and John McTiernan, famous for “Predator.” Both turned it down. That’s when Jonathan Frakes, who played Riker on the series, stepped up to the plate – Braga & Moore put much pressure on Berman to give Frakes a chance, (rightly) arguing that he understood the “Trek” franchise better than any outside director ever would. Berman agreed, and Frakes became the second second-lead to direct a “Trek” movie after Leonard Nimoy. He would also be the second second-lead to direct two “Trek” movies, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
The film would be much more action-oriented than “Generations,” with Picard, Worf, Crusher, Data and an earthling named Lily (perfectly played by Alfre Woodard) battling the Borg on the ship while the rest of the crew try to ensure a drunken Zephram Cochrane (a likewise wonderful James Cromwell) creates a warp-capable ship that the Vulcans will detect. It’s an odd mishmash of action, horror and comedy that shouldn’t work, but does thanks to the excellent ensemble and Frakes’ certain direction.
Critics thought “First Contact” was a great movie too, and rewarded it with the best reviews in the franchise up until that point. It appealed to both longtime Trek fans and newbies, and audiences loved it – its $146 million gross far exceeded “Generations’” $118 million.
From the beginning, Frakes was adamant that Jerry Goldsmith be the composer on the film – he ensured that enough money was set aside to hire him. Goldsmith was excited to return to the franchise, but was going through one of the busiest periods of his career, which was damn near always busy. The original plan was to have Goldsmith create the score over the course of a month, but Paramount’s “The Ghost and the Darkness” was having major delays, and Goldsmith’s already short window was reduced to three weeks. Though Berman asked Frakes to find someone else, Frakes refused, and Goldsmith brought in his son Joel Goldsmith (who I will cite as Joel moving forward for clarity) in to help ensure the job would get done.
I should write upfront that I may have some bias toward both the film and this score – “First Contact” was the first “Trek” movie I saw in theaters, and it was a damn-near religious experience for me. The critical consensus for “First Contact” seems to be that it is very good with some franchise highlights… but is still a step below “classic” status.
Spoiler Alert: I love everything about it and will be giving it five stars.
That said, even if I take my rose-colored glasses off, I think that time has been incredibly kind to this work and its reputation has been improving over the years. Here’s hoping this article helps cement it as another masterpiece… because that’s what I think it is.
The first thing that must be written about is Goldsmith’s iconic First Contact theme, which is my favorite theme in the entire franchise. Yes, even moreso than Goldsmith’s Enterprise theme. This is a dark, dense, propulsive action film and nearly any other composer would give us an identity to match that tone. But Goldsmith’s genius is partially his ability to tap into the soul of a project – what’s underneath the surface. And thematically, part of the reason “First Contact” is a great film is because its soul is classic Trek: it’s about humanity rising above its own prejudices and imperfections to do great things. And Goldsmith’s main theme underlines this in spades. I never fail to get goosebumps when I hear it over the “Main Titles,” and when it climaxes in the all-timer “First Contact” cue, it has the power to make your heart grow three sizes.
Like the film, Goldsmith must have had a difficult task at leaping back and forth from the horror to the adventure to the more comedic sections (though, thankfully, they are mostly unscored). But whereas other composers could easily offer up a fragmented work (look what happened with Leonard Rosenman on “The Voyage Home”), Goldsmith always ensures that every cue feels like a piece of his beautiful puzzle.
A large portion comes from the fact that Goldsmith makes “First Contact” as thematically dense as both “The Motion Picture” and “The Final Frontier.” Hilariously, several reviewers stated that Goldsmith overused themes in the score and saw it as a detriment. I hate to use the word “stupid,” but yeah… it’s a stupid sentiment. I adore how Goldsmith calls back to his first two scores here and continues to spotlight and revisit all his new themes everywhere he can – it makes the whole stronger, faster, more accessible. And way more beautiful.
Goldsmith brings back his Enterprise theme, the Klingon theme (which morphs into Worf’s theme from here on out) and the four-note enigmatic theme from “Final Frontier,” here with a much more pronounced presence. To that he adds, by my count, six new ones, including three alone for the Borg! The main Borg theme is four notes and one of the best villain themes in the franchise, malleable enough to work in a myriad of ways – as an unstoppable force, as an action anthem and also when the film leans into the horror aspects.
And then there’s the action! Dear God, the action. Goldsmith has gone from having essentially zero action to compose to in “The Motion Picture” to wall-to-wall action in “First Contact,” and the results are uniformly excellent. The propulsive brass alone is enough to make your walls shake, and I would be remiss if I didn’t put a spotlight on the wonderful “Flight of the Phoenix” cue, which goes through everything from slinky temptation to barnburner adventure all over the course of six minutes. Astonishing stuff.
That cue was written primarily by Joel, who supplies action music equally good as his father throughout the score. Which leads me into the negatives I keep reading about “First Contact,” and why they have unfairly created this narrative that the music is slightly less than others in the franchise. The first is Joel’s involvement at all – it’s an easy story to wave away his contributions as being less good than his father’s, especially since, again, he was primarily handling the action… which is one of his dad’s specialties. But if you were unaware of Joel’s involvement and I simply played you the music, I would bet money you would not be able to tell a difference in style or quality. Still, it’s an easy statement to make.
And also, let’s be honest, the quality of action writing has decreased in the decades since this release, which makes the Goldsmiths’ accomplishment here all the more impressive – at its best, it genuinely rivals the best Goldsmith set-pieces from the era, like “The Shadow” or “First Knight” or “The Ghost and the Darkness.”
Speaking of “Ghost and the Darkness,” let’s talk about the timing of the release. In the late ‘90s, Goldsmith was regularly composing music for 5-6 projects a year, which can’t help but cause listener burnout. It’s one of the reasons so many late-era Goldsmith scores that were indifferently or negatively received at the time are now being re-evaluated as great works. “First Contact” was released in November of 1996. Here are the Goldsmith scores that had already been released that year: “City Hall,” “Executive Decision,” the rejected “2 Days in the Valley,” “Chain Reaction”… and a month after his masterpiece “The Ghost and the Darkness.” I suspect fatigue had definitely set in with listeners by then.
But then there’s the narrative of it all… something our community loves to do, myself included (Hey! I’m creating one right now!). We compare and contrast everything to everything. We rank everything. And very often when a composer releases a bunch of great works in one year, the narrative becomes about which is the best which means exulting one while creating detriments in the others. It happened last year with Michael Giacchino. It happens with Bear McCreary quite often. And after “The Ghost and the Darkness,” which I listed in my Top 100 Modern Scores a few weeks back, I can see making any quibbles and excuses to put that one in top position.
None of these reasons make “First Contact” actually flawed, though. Waving away the complaints, what Goldsmith achieved here is breathtaking. After proving himself twice before, with “First Contact” he was finally made the primary composer for the “Star Trek” franchise until his death.
Long live the king.
Score: *****
The Star Trek Odyssey
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Goldsmith) – Top 100 Scores of All Time
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Horner) - *****
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Horner) - *****
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Rosenman) - ***
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (Goldsmith) - *****
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (Eidelman) - *****
Star Trek: Generations (McCarthy) - **
Star Trek: First Contact (Goldsmith)- *****
Star Trek: Insurrection (Goldsmith)
Star Trek: Nemesis (Goldsmith)
Star Trek (Giacchino)
Star Trek Into Darkness (Giacchino)
Star Trek Beyond (Giacchino)
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 (Barton/Wiedmann)
BONUS: Star Trek’s Television Themes
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