FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW

Review of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (Jerry Goldsmith)

1989 Epic/CBS

2010 La-La Land

2012 Intrada

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... on the 2010 La-La Land or 2012 Intrada albums if you're interested in hearing a superior presentation of one of Jerry Goldsmith's most vibrant, thematically diverse, and arguably forgotten "Star Trek" scores.

Avoid it... on any of the albums if you want to hear the replacement music for the brainwashing sequences in the film or if you expect Goldsmith's material for those scenes and concepts to match the strength of the remainder of this otherwise entertaining entry.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier: (Jerry Goldsmith) Several factors conspired against the fifth installment of the famed "Star Trek" film franchise and put an increasing amount of pressure on Paramount to produce a winner with which to send off the original crew in the sixth film. Without a doubt, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was the smash hit of the franchise at the time (and still is to this day), earning hundreds of millions of dollars for Paramount and causing a Trek-related blip on the radar of the Academy Awards. Three years later, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier would cause that momentum to come to a crashing halt, partly due to extremely tough competition from other films in the summer of 1989 and partially due to its own miserable failings. With the Writer's Guild on strike, Industrial Light and Magic unable to provide the special effects, and William Shatner serving as director, the resulting film is a monumental embarrassment to a series that only a vastly superior Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country could salvage a few years later. The film even featured the most humiliating scene ever put into a Trek feature, with Uhura attempting to perform a sultry song and dance matched on album to a wretched, hapless, and tired 1980's rock style. The plot of the film represented the concept's rather lame early attempt to address the search for God (an element better explored in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"), and Spock's half brother brainwashes enough people to commandeer the Enterprise, send the ship to the center of the galaxy, discover an entity that actually turns out to be more of a nasty beast than a deity, and ultimately rely upon a pesky Klingon bird-of-prey to save Captain Kirk. Unfortunately, none of that was handled convincingly, the effects disappointing due to tight budgets and the excitement level restrained by copious amounts of fruitless conversation. One thing Paramount got right with Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was the return of composer Jerry Goldsmith, whose theme for the "Star Trek" universe had earned him an Academy Award nomination in 1979 and acclaim in 1987 for the resurrection of the television show. Leonard Rosenman's score for the previous film, though nominated for an Oscar, had deviated badly from the sound that Goldsmith and James Horner had used to define the "Star Trek" universe, and for film music collectors, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier at least served the basic purpose of reintroducing Goldsmith to the franchise with surprising success.

Not only did the veteran composer bring order back to the "Star Trek" franchise with his themes from the first film ten years prior, but he would also lay the groundwork in themes and secondary structures for his next three films in the series, the final three for the "Next Generation" cast. Returning first and foremost for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is Goldsmith's unmistakably bold action style, with percussion rhythms, frenetic string lines, and forceful brass and snare statements injected into a score that is saturated with some of the composer's best mannerisms. His distinctive rhythmic meter supplies muscular energy to several scenes, particularly early on. A touch of swashbuckling atmosphere and a spirit of exploration also returns in earnest, the pair of "A Tall Ship" and "Plot Course" an optimistic reintroduction to the famed starship (and the latter using piano rhythms on key in similar fashion to Explorers). A memorable, rising synthetic turbine effect introduces key expressions of fanfare. He also wastes no time resurrecting Alexander Courage's original theme in high style, both at the outset and finale of the film (along with a reference at the arrival to "The Barrier"). Goldsmith's own "Star Trek" theme is offered in all its brass glory as well, with the kind of resonance and power in a larger performance that puts the television recording to shame. While bursts of the theme like the one of victory in "Without Help" are memorable, the idea is manipulated very well in subtle variations throughout the score, better in most regards than in Goldsmith's subsequent music for the franchise. Also returning for its due airtime is the composer's Klingon theme, something that teased audiences with only a cameo appearance at the outset of The Motion Picture. Its performances here are rowdy and ambitious, accentuated by creative percussion and synthesizer effects. In "Plot Course," "Without Help," and the film version of "Life is a Dream," Goldsmith even utilizes a wailing electronic ram's horn to emulate the distinctive scream of a large bird for the villains' bird-of-prey. Wood blocks and plucked strings are applied beneath the theme's appropriately bold fifths on brass to represent the exotic aspect of the species. Interestingly, the subsequent score from Goldsmith to utilize the most similar percussive approach was Mulan. A less heralded returning theme is one of stately optimism in the latter half of "Raid on Paradise." This minute of material incorporates the title theme but accompanies it with the motif Goldsmith wrote for Spock's arrival in The Motion Picture, giving second life to one of the several cues the composer wrote for that earlier film but had rejected.

Despite the comfort that all of these returning ideas provide, even more impressive is the array of new material that Goldsmith concoct for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, some of which would be heard throughout Star Trek: First Contact and, to a lesser extent, beyond. One such element was the structure of the title theme and end credits suite, both utilizing a secondary fanfare movement (1:04 into "The Mountain") that would be an obvious addition to the identity of the title theme thereafter. The format of the credits suite that Goldsmith would employ for the "Next Generation" films is introduced here and performed with the most outward enthusiasm the main theme ever received. This arrangement in The Final Frontier would also give concert halls around the nation the ability to let rip with an extended performance of the Klingon theme as well (albeit without the ram's horn producing the screaming bird call). A more interesting, less heralded part of Goldsmith's later "Star Trek" scores is the use of a four-note "adversity theme" (sometimes labeled as a motif for the quest or for inner demons, definitions guided by this first film's employment of it) that seems to cross the generations of the franchise for Goldsmith and in retrospect represents a larger concept of adventure and friendship for the Enterprise crew. The theme is heard in heavy doses throughout The Final Frontier, but it really asserts itself at the outset of "A Busy Man" and explodes from brass near the beginning of "An Angry God" in a fashion not to be heard again in the franchise. Its brevity allows it (along with Sybok's equally short theme, as described below) to be used as a stinger device, and its frequent placements can become somewhat tedious in the score's latter half. This four-note motif (which expands to a seven-note secondary phrase) eventually plays a particularly large role in First Contact as the situation in that film becomes more dire. On a larger scale, three full-blown new themes grace The Final Frontier, two of which with elegance and easy harmonies that help make the albums easy recommendations. The first is a "friendship theme" that is presented at the outset of the film, as the three starring officers camp together in California. The film opens and closes with these pastoral camping scenes, and while Goldsmith appropriately employs the theme of sincere Americana during those moments, it goes sadly missing from his other music for the franchise. The performance of this theme during a rock-climbing sequence in "The Mountain" tingles with some of Goldsmith's light droplet-like synthetic accents that defined his scores of later years, making the cue a clear foreshadowing of several others to come in the 1990's.

Another new theme and an associated set of instrumental tones exist for The Final Frontier's misguided antagonist, Sybok. The theme itself is most often performed by the otherworldly Synclavier synthesizer, its four note phrases dominated by the opening three notes for practically every scene involving the character. As the story progresses, the theme is transferred to brass and strings to denote personal victory or establish empathy between Sybok and Spock. Along with this idea comes a series of Synclavier tones for Sybok's brainwashing sequences, though this material was mostly removed in favor of heartbeat and other effects provided by electronic composer Alan Howarth later in production. Finally, arguably the primary new theme for The Final Frontier is a cerebral and contemplative piece for the religious quest at the heart of the story. As the crew approaches what it believes to be paradise (or God), the concept is reaffirmed with a soothing, harmonically swaying theme often performed by the lighter elements of the ensemble. Its main performances, as the supposed deity is actually discovered, are led by Synclavier and strings to aid the religiously peaceful theme in its allure. The lengthy "A Busy Man" cue, with an extended performance of this idea, has been re-recorded by ensembles ever since. In the film, this cue features one of Goldsmith's more creative incorporations (and a spontaneous addition at the recording sessions) of the Klingon theme in counterpoint as the crew is distracted from the impending threat from a bird-of-prey. Overall, The Final Frontier is a very strong score with highlights not be missed. Assisting the score's ballsy action cues is a remarkably rendered mix of the recording, with dynamic and wet sound compensated for by careful attention to individual instruments, and this ambience matches the vibrant sound quality heard in his late 1990's scores. The original 1989 album for The Final Frontier featured this good sound but also extensive edits and a chronologically random presentation, not to mention the omission of many major cues. The Hiroshima-performed rock song at the end (extending out of the seduction scene for Uhura) is an abomination. In 2010, however, La-La Land Records issued a 5,000-copy expanded pressing of the score's film edits, sans Howarth's music, on one CD while including the older album presentation and largely insignificant bonus cues on a second CD (the alternate takes aren't noteworthy). After this set sold out within months, Intrada licensed the same presentation for an unlimited release in 2012. This kind of product for The Final Frontier was long overdue, and to hear the 73 minutes of music as Goldsmith intended it for the film is an absolute necessity for any of his collectors. For many such individuals, The Final Frontier remains Goldsmith's top "Star Trek" score outside of the original, and it finally received a superior album to illuminate its outstanding narrative cohesion.  ****

TRACK LISTINGS:

1989 Epic Album:
Total Time: 42:25

• 1. The Mountain (3:53) • 2. The Barrier (2:53) • 3. Without Help (4:21) • 4. A Busy Man (4:42) • 5. Open the Gates (3:02) • 6. An Angry God (6:58) • 7. Let's Get Out of Here (5:15) • 8. Free Minds (3:19) • 9. Life is a Dream (3:59) • 10. The Moon's a Window to Heaven* (4:00)

---

2010 LLL and 2012 Intrada Albums:
Total Time: 131:51

CD1: The Film Score: (73:07) • 1. Nimbus III (2:01) • 2. The Mind-Meld (2:43) • 3. The Mountain (Main Title)* (4:53) • 4. The Big Drop (0:26) • 5. Raid on Paradise (2:43) • 6. Not Alone (1:11) • 7. Target Practice (1:52) • 8. A Tall Ship (1:43) • 9. Plot Course (1:46) • 10. No Harm (2:13) • 11. Approaching Nimbus III (2:59) • 12. Open the Gates (3:01) • 13. Well Done (1:16) • 14. Without Help (4:55) • 15. Pick It Up (2:31) • 16. No Authority (0:30) • 17. It Exists (1:47) • 18. Free Minds (3:18) • 19. The Birth (3:53) • 20. The Barrier* (2:52) • 21. A Busy Man (4:41) • 22. An Angry God (6:57) • 23. Let's Get Out of Here (part 1) (3:42) • 24. Let's Get Out of Here (part 2) (3:07) • 25. Cosmic Thoughts (1:16) • 26. Life is a Dream (End Credits)* (3:57)

CD2: The 1989 Soundtrack Album: (59:28) • 1. The Mountain* (3:50) • 2. The Barrier* (2:51) • 3. Without Help (4:18) • 4. A Busy Man (4:40) • 5. Open the Gates (3:00) • 6. An Angry God (6:55) • 7. Let's Get Out of Here (5:13) • 8. Free Minds (3:17) • 9. Life Is a Dream* (3:57) • 10. The Moon's a Window to Heaven** (4:00) Additional Music: (16:46) • 11. The Mountain (Main Title) (Alternate)* (4:45) • 12. A Busy Man (Alternate) (4:42) • 13. Paradise Saloon (Source) (2:42) • 14. The Moon's a Window to Heaven (Film Version) (1:10) • 15. Vulcan Song/Row, Row, Row Your Boat (Instrumental Source) (1:33) • 16. Synclavier Effects (1:54)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert of 1989 Epic album includes no extra information about the score or film. The 2010 La-La Land and 2012 Intrada albums' inserts include identical, extensive notation about both, though they differ in artwork.

Copyright © 1997-2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier are Copyright © 1989, 2010, 2012, Epic Records/CBS, La-La Land Records, Intrada Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 8/29/97 and last updated 5/20/12.