: (Leonard Rosenman)
When you examine the first ten "Star Trek" films, it's fascinating to
recall that
was the franchise's
most prolific fiscal blockbuster. Despite anyone's opinion of the film's
merits, it came at a time when the series was heading down a dark,
melodramatic path of character deaths that was partially corrected by
the resurrection of Spock in the previous installment. With Leonard
Nimoy at the controls for a second time,
yielded
to elements of pop culture comedy and provided a circus-like atmosphere
for the otherwise heroic science fiction crew, figuring the undeniable
comedic aspect of the original series back into the equation. Part of
the film's popularity also stemmed from its nonstop insults of primitive
20th Century human behavior, as well as the fact that politically
correct messages about humpback whales and increasing environmentalism
were becoming appealing at the time. Using their commandeered Klingon
Bird of Prey, the reunited crew of the now-destroyed Enterprise returns
to Earth only to discover that an angry probe (likely piloted by
left-wing fanatics from a planet covered entirely in blue states) is
using sonic waves to punish the Earthlings because of the lack of whales
remaining in their oceans. The crew conveniently goes back in time,
loads two humpback whales onto the cramped Klingon ship, and returns
just in time to placate the pesky progressives from outer space. Because
of the significant departure in the tone of the plot for
, it should come as no surprise that its soundtrack is unique
within the franchise as well. The previous entries in the series,
written by Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner, were highly respected at
the time and remain popular decades later. But Goldsmith was not yet
ready to return to the franchise and Horner reportedly turned down the
opportunity to continue with the series in advance, leaving Nimoy with
the solution (and clout to execute it) that he had originally sought for
: Leonard Rosenman. Nimoy
hired the classically inclined composer, in part because of a mutual
friendship and admiration the men had maintained for each other for a
decade, to provide a more stately approach to the concept. Only half an
hour of orchestral score music was slated to be heard in the film (with
a few source-like placements as well), marking another deviation. In
fact, a 36-minute sequence set in San Francisco goes completely without
score material in the final edit, a result of Nimoy's desire not to
underscore any dialogue sequence.
The resulting lighthearted orchestral score for
The
Voyage Home achieved the series' second and final Academy Award
nomination, seemingly proving that audiences prefer their science
fiction to border on the mainstream by utilizing friendlier scripting
and scoring approaches. But few devoted fans of the franchise consider
Rosenman's music to be compatible at all with the tone of the other
entries, often receiving ridicule from many while being defended as
marginally appropriate for its context by a minority. The director and
composer continued defending the score for years, using the Oscar
nomination as evidence (which is a logical fallacy, of course, given
that body's tendency to nominate scores that are "different" rather than
effective), and Rosenman has made it clear many times that he saw little
reason to leave the comfort zone of his own, personal writing style to
fit the film and is therefore very happy with the result. Still, amongst
the other nine scores of the franchise's first continuous run on the big
screen, Rosenman's composition is clearly the weak link, often residing
near the bottom of film music collectors' rankings of "Star Trek"
scores. Time, simply put, has not been kind in any way to this score.
And rightfully so. The music may have been justified at its debut by the
enthusiasm for
The Voyage Home as a whole in 1986, but it is
badly dated and disrespectful of the established musical norms of the
franchise that were followed before and after this regrettable sideshow.
The blame for this lack of historical legs isn't due solely to the silly
1986 setting of the film, but rather Rosenman's disregard for the
attitude of the entire franchise. To his credit, he seemingly made an
attempt to infuse subtle references to basic progressions associated
with the Goldsmith and Horner scores (most interestingly favoring the
latter at 2:00 into his original version of "Home Again and End
Credits"), but most of these associations, including the long tribute to
Courage's original theme that was initially recorded for use with the
"Main Title" sequence, were eventually removed and replaced in a second
round of recordings. Instead of offering dramatic music consistent with
the genre during the scenes involving space and technology, Rosenman
scores the film as though it had no connection to the "Star Trek"
universe whatsoever, outside of the several statements of Alexander
Courage's television theme. The irritatingly upbeat composition may not
be inferior in and of itself, but rather it is a poor fit for any "Star
Trek" film, regardless of the comedy elements. The scenes involving the
future "Star Trek" universe are mundane and underdeveloped, and scenes
of chases in 1986 San Francisco are saturated with cheesy, faux-Russian
and carnival-like waltz rhythms and motifs that lose their integrity
when reminded of the genre.
Rosenman's title theme for
The Voyage Home, an
adaptation of his work for the animated
The Lord of the Rings
film from the prior decade, is too strikingly jovial and comedic for the
genre, and it is embarrassing when adapted into a fugue as the Bird of
Prey sinks into San Francisco Bay. This is, after all, a film that
implies the destruction of the planet, and Rosenman's few intentions to
stir genuine tension in his music (as in "Time Travel") are obnoxiously
simplistic attempts to employ dissonance without any sense of style, in
essence allowing the music to dissolve into an atonal set of sound
effects. The music for the probe, the early Vulcan sequence, and the
time travel scenes are lacking in basic excitement or thematic
continuity. The main theme, in fact, plays relatively no important role
in the movie whatsoever, the action sequences not even bothering to
manipulate the idea into much needed darker shades. A secondary theme
for Spock on brass (introduced in "On Vulcan/Spock") is extremely
obnoxious, reflecting Alex North's more challenging progressions from
the 1960's. The series had been carried with instrumental creativity at
the forefront of its musical approach, and Rosenman's score is often a
strictly orchestral piece straight out of a B-grade television flick of
the 1970's, overshadowed by the sound effects of the whales' calls
during many scenes in the final cut. The score's demeanor, even when not
attempting to be silly (as in the Russian style of "Chekov's Run" or
Rosenman's self-professed "circus" style of "Hospital Chase"), is, for
lack of a better word,
lame. The dainty solo trumpets in the last
minute of "Crash/Whale Fugue" actually sound like a close cousin to Alan
Menken's
The Little Mermaid, begging one to wonder if Rosenman
was smoking the happy plant when writing this material. As a final
insult, the introduction of the new Enterprise at the end of the film is
scored without any of the majestic resonance necessary for the event (if
you seek a much more satisfying alternative from another relatively
underachieving score, seek Dennis McCarthy's grand opening to
Star
Trek: Generations). The memorable insertion of two pop tracks for
"primitive" San Francisco culture is understandable (and even
excusable), but it further dates this score and places it in a separate,
lower realm when compared to its peers in the franchise. The "Market
Street" cue (for the "dumbass" sequence) is performed by The
Yellowjackets, utilizing the cheesy sounds of drum machines at the
forefront of a hip but juvenile stab at contemporary jazz. The
spontaneously created group "Edge of Etiquette" provided the harder punk
source song "I Hate You" heard famously in the scene on a bus during
which Spock's limited patience is forced to deal with the scum of the
Earth.
Overall, the soundtrack for
The Voyage Home is
too short, too silly, too dated, and too incohesive to be considered a
success in retrospect. Parts of this score would be better suited to
share an album with Alan Silvestri's
Romancing the Stone. The
sound of the recording, despite the employment of 94 musicians for the
fullest sequences, is extremely dry and restricted, the product of
mixing by Dan Wallin, the engineer best known in the digital age for
continuously sucking all the life out of Michael Giacchino's film
scores. The soundtrack was long represented by an MCA Records album of
36 minutes that eventually went completely out of print and sold for
over $75. It suffered from several bad edits of multiple cues into
single, lengthier tracks, including the sudden introduction of the
actual title theme fanfare in the opening and closing tracks. Padding
its length is the "Ballad of the Whale" recording by The Yellowjackets,
a long pop selection meant specifically for the album. The amount of
orchestral Rosenman music on that product is restricted to roughly 27
minutes, and some of that material is redundant, making it a poor choice
for its price point in the 2000's. For the start of 2012, Intrada
Records coordinated a full release of all music associated with
The
Voyage Home, including the two tracks by The Yellowjackets, the punk
source song by Edge of Etiquette (which was long sought on album, for
some reason), the full forty minutes of score cues that were used in the
movie (with the exception of a handful of passages dialed out), and 25
minutes of alternate recordings made by Rosenman in his initial
sessions. Together, all of this material amounts to 72 minutes in the
best possible sound quality, and Intrada's presentation of those
contents is about as practical as could be expected. Unfortunately,
The Voyage Home is one of those scores that is simply too
obnoxious to get really excited about when treatment like this is
afforded to it. For some, the additional material will be interesting to
hear (especially the original "Main Title" consisting of a rather tepid
performance of Courage's full theme), but the whole score is too upbeat
without rooting itself first in the genre, existing in the treble region
with the sad anonymity of a low budget nature documentary score of the
era. An excellent example of a lighter score that functions well in the
genre is David Newman's
Galaxy Quest, which managed to balance
the science fiction and comedy elements to a much better degree than
Rosenman's disrespectful work here. Nimoy's choice for the score failed
to live up to "Star Trek" standards, and the series would react (or
correct itself) by going back to the only logical choice for the next
score: Jerry Goldsmith. For fans of the "Star Trek" franchise, the
fourth score is easily the last one to consider purchasing, on any
album.
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