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| Goldsmith |
Star Trek: First Contact: (Jerry Goldsmith/Joel
Goldsmith) After
Star Trek: Generations proved to be a somewhat
awkward transitional film connecting the two most popular series in the
"Star Trek" franchise, Paramount turned to the first officer of "The
Next Generation," Jonathan Frakes, to direct the highly successful solo
debut for his ensemble. A decidedly darker film exhibiting all the
traits of a horror tale,
Star Trek: First Contact soared to
critical and fiscal heights due to several factors, including the
interpolation of the popular Borg villains into the story, the
introduction of a sleek new Enterprise-E vessel, the return to the
concept of time travel, and a number of improvements to the production
qualities of the franchise. The script opens with a Borg attack on Earth
that transitions back in time, dragging one Borg vessel and the
Enterprise through a portal that threatens to disrupt humans' first warp
flight and "first contact" with the Vulcan race, essentially an attempt
to wipe the Federation from history. In addition to a more vibrant
presence of superior art direction and make-up effects, the reemergence
of composer Jerry Goldsmith to the franchise was a very welcome move,
especially after a generally tepid response to television composer
Dennis McCarthy's score for the previous film. For fans of the franchise
and soundtrack collectors alike, Goldsmith's involvement would be a
godsend, for his work on both the first and fifth scores in the series
is considered top notch by both groups. Despite all the hype surrounding
the project, however, the score's creation process suffered from
Goldsmith's hectic 1996 schedule. With post-production on
The Ghost
and the Darkness proving to be a logistical nightmare, and an
understanding that Goldsmith was investing significant attention to that
impressive score,
Star Trek: First Contact would receive
back-burner treatment. Nevertheless, the director and producers made a
specific point of budgeting Goldsmith into the production and the
composer was not about to turn down the opportunity to reinstate his
themes to the franchise. With only three weeks available in which to
score the film, he employed the help of his son, Joel, to meet fast
approaching recording deadlines for the project.
Ultimately, a relatively small amount of unique music was
written for
Star Trek: First Contact, with only 72 minutes of
this material actually appearing in the film. Of that music, Joel
Goldsmith wrote for entire sections of the film relating to the Borg,
eventually contributing 22 minutes of score that utilize the themes
outlined by his father. In it's entirety, the score proved itself to be
adequate, but not much more than that. Despite many opinions to the
contrary, Joel Goldsmith's involvement wasn't the primary reason for the
problems; while some of his cues have a disconnected effect compared to
Jerry Goldsmith's base material, it needs to be noted that Joel wrote
some of the film's most interesting action and horror cues. Instead,
Star Trek: First Contact didn't meet expectations because of its
overall pastoral attitude despite the film's considerable horror-genre
leanings. With Goldsmith focusing the score on the theme associated with
only the finale, the prevailing effectiveness of the horror writing is
diminished. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this criticism stems
from the seemingly incongruent creativity with which Goldsmith crafts
and reprises his multitude of themes. Some listeners have pointed to the
over-abundance of these thematic ideas as the reason for the score's
lack of overall focus, though even these fans would be hard pressed to
find difficulty in the merits of each thematic idea apart from the
whole. As expected, Goldsmith announces the return of this original
theme for both the film franchise and "The Next Generation," utilizing
both the opening and closing titles format that he had adopted in
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. The formula largely works, as it
had in that surprisingly impressive earlier score for a terrible film,
and this loyalty alone earns Goldsmith some kudo points. Quotations of
both Alexander Courage's original series theme and his own prior themes
litter the score; despite what the albums' packaging may say about where
the incorporations exist, the usage is engrained throughout the score in
both bold and subtle ways. Goldsmith also reprises two other themes from
his original scores. First, the Klingon theme from both previous efforts
returns here as the permanent representation of Worf (in the absence of
Klingons in the franchise's solely "Next Generation" films), and is
heard three times in the score.
The most interesting return of an existing theme in
Star Trek: First Contact is that of the "friendship" theme from
Star Trek V. While it's been referred to by many names through
the years (including "the quest theme" commonly in more recent
notation), this theme's first four notes become an interestingly
dominant factor in
Star Trek: First Contact's muted sense of
heroism. Never does Goldsmith actually expand the usage of that theme
beyond it's first four notes, and the reason for these constantly
abbreviated statements remains unknown. In addition to these previously
existing themes, Goldsmith constructs two new ideas and a couple of
underlying motifs specifically for this picture. Most of these ideas
represent the Borg themselves, which is why it's surprising that
Goldsmith used the only non-Borg thematic idea and emphasized it as the
identity of the entire score. The "First Contact" theme is foreshadowed
in several short sequences in the film (outside of the titles),
including "Welcome Aboard," but only receives its full, nearly religious
performance in the actual "First Contact" cue. The noble and uplifting
horn theme isn't one of Goldsmith's most stunning efforts, but compared
to the more bombastic nature of his other 1996 ideas, it's a
dramatically smooth powerhouse. Debate will continue about the merits of
this theme and whether it makes for a better listening experience on
album than in the picture, but there are few complaints to be made about
the ideas conjured to represent the Borg. The persistent super-villains
are identified by an almost ingenious four-note theme that is well
managed throughout the score. It moves in a mechanical, rising
three-note progression through an octave before falling to a minor
accent in the final note, allowing the theme to roll consecutively in a
mindlessly rhythmic format. The instrumentation employed for this theme
hails back to the broad blaster-beam electronics of the first film, with
the dominant bass synthetics harsh in their tones but oddly elegant in
their clarity. Since the Borg are acting in smaller numbers and relative
desperation throughout the score (compared to their usual brute
presence), this theme receives several suspenseful treatments in
mysterious, subdued parts. The one exception, of course, is the battle
with the usual Borg cube at the outset of the film, which is accompanied
by a multilateral brass performance of the theme in appropriately
simplistic unison.
Several other rhythmic and thematic ideas for the Borg are
explored in
Star Trek: First Contact as well. A dramatically
downbeat motif for their threat is exists in "Retreat" and elsewhere, a
manipulation of the primary four-note theme. The death and despair
associated with the mechanized species is afforded a somber motif
introduced in "Battle Watch" that returns after the climactic struggle
that kills the Borg queen. A high-range, almost whimsical synthetic
subtheme for the queen adds to her allure. The rest of the Borg and
their methodical movements are handled with highly mechanical bass
rhythms by Joel Goldsmith. Most of these ideas are rendered with an
electronic tilt, though the score on the whole doesn't have as much
blatant and trademark Jerry Goldsmith use of synthesized elements as the
composer's other entries in the franchise. Taken as a whole, the work
is, like the beloved android Data, fully functional, but its action
material isn't Goldsmith's best and the title theme seems out of place.
Individual cues in the film are impressive, including the "Red Alert"
sequence that accompanies the wholesale battle sequence at the start.
Why Goldsmith decided to identify "Deep Space Nine"'s Defiant vessel
with the Klingon theme, despite Worf's command of it, is a minor
mystery. It makes for good listening on album but doesn't match the
entirety of the scope of action on screen. More effective is the use of
that theme in "Retreat," during which Worf personally leads a portion of
the crew in haste. Many confrontation cues provide the percussion
section with plenty of action, forcing rhythms into the frenetic levels
of
Capricorn One stomping and leading to some highly nostalgic
Goldsmith pomp in "The Dish." Perhaps the best incorporation of
Goldsmith's "Next Generation" theme is an exciting, propulsive
adaptation in "Flight of the Phoenix" (also referred to as "The Starship
Chase"), a nod to the famous identity by the composer's son. Individual
moments of high drama, usually in reference to the desperation of the
retreating Starfleet crew, provide several satisfying harmonic string
crescendos. One such occurrence exists near the start of "39.1 Degrees
Celsius" and another powerful sequence spans the conversational cues of
"Objection Noted" (a.k.a. "Bridge Argument") and "Not Again" (a.k.a. "A
Quest for Vengeance"), the latter featuring a brass version of the title
theme early in the cue that leans heavily upon
Executive Decision
from earlier in the year.
As mentioned before, Joel Goldsmith was initially
accused by fans of writing some of the less interesting filler cues for
Star Trek: First Contact and, to an extent, this is true. But he
also provided the score with a few of its most effective sequences, and
these should be noted for fairness. Most of the scenes during the Borg's
spread through the ship (everything from "39.1 Degrees Celsius" to
"Retreat," as well as "Assimilation") are Joel Goldsmith's work, as are
the three climactic cues ranging from "The Starship Chase" to "Victory
Over the Borg" that constitute what is more commonly known as "Flight of
the Phoenix." Most important in that bunch is the "The Starship Chase"
sequence that makes up the first third of "Flight of the Phoenix" as the
Enterprise is pursuing the primitive vessel, arguably a highlight of the
score sadly missing from the first commercial album. Most fans who make
the complaint about its absence on that album fail to realize, however,
that the cue was written by the son and not the father. Some of Joel's
material, such as "Battle Watch/Starfleet Engages the Borg" and "The
Phoenix" (a.k.a. "Greetings"), does represent, however, the score's
weakest points. Like the score, the 1996 commercial album from GNP
Crescendo had its fair share of flaws, starting with a non-chronological
ordering of tracks. Early pressings of the album suffered from problems
with obnoxious digital pop sounds in several tracks, including three
pops in "Temporal Wake" and two in "First Contact." The product was an
enhanced CD that didn't function across a number of computer systems at
the time (including Mac OS 7 and Windows 95). Most collectors believed
that the more egregious problem with the album was its omission of
several notable cues, a necessity given re-use fees at the time. Like
Star Trek: Insurrection, GNP's early album for
Star Trek:
First Contact is missing a few important tracks, enough to render
the products frustrating. The most notable of these in the case of the
1996 score is clearly the much-discussed early portions of "Flight of
the Phoenix" by Joel Goldsmith. Also of dramatic importance to the score
are the tense "Objection Noted" and "Not Again" underscore cues, as well
as the conciliatory "New Orders" (a.k.a. "The Escape Pods") cue, though
this last sequence is overrated. It's likely that GNP Crescendo could
have covered itself with only the inclusion of the critical portion of
the "Flight of the Phoenix" cue, though the label and its
representatives maintained for years that doing so would have been too
expensive to make the album viable.
Ultimately, the commercial options for GNP's releases
of the Goldsmith scores in the "Star Trek" franchise were less than
appealing to score collectors, many of whom did not care about the
inclusion of the film's two songs and the "enhanced" content in relation
to
Star Trek: First Contact. The fact that a handful of
relatively poor filler cues was chosen instead of missing action
highlights didn't help the label. Fans solved their issue as anyone
would expect in the early 2000's; they got hold of session recordings
and distributed them in bootleg form. It took many years for the
Star
Trek: First Contact bootlegs to make the full rounds, preceded by
Star Trek: Insurrection equivalents because of the latter score's
higher demand in the late 1990's. Several versions of the
Star Trek:
First Contact bootlegs did eventually saturate the secondary market.
First came a 73-minute single CD bootleg of the complete score, followed
a few years later by a 2-CD bootleg set that also featured several
alternative mixes and takes from the sessions. Only true fans will be
interested in these alternative, unused versions (they don't differ much
from the finished cues), and few people will be amused by Jerry
Goldsmith chewing out his son over the studio announcement system and
telling him to get back to work. These presentations did feature the
film versions of some major cues rather than their album siblings. At
any rate, all of the leaked bootlegs of this complete score feature
strong sound quality, though still not as vibrant as
Star Trek:
Insurrection. Comparing the two scores' bootlegs, the
Star Trek:
Insurrection one is still superior all around, though even casual
fans will find some interesting material on the far less essential
Star Trek: First Contact bootlegs. Despite the fact that most
serious film score and "Star Trek" collectors had acquired these
bootlegs over their first dozen years of their existence, GNP revisited
Star Trek: First Contact in 2012 and pressed a 10,000-copy
expanded edition with the complete score and three token alternate
takes. The presentation of this product is not as professionally
attractive as the concurrent re-releases of the franchise's other scores
by Film Score Monthly, La-La Land, and Intrada at roughly the same time,
but at least it exists as a legitimate alternative to those who don't
require the extra 40 minutes of extraneous material on the bootlegs.
Overall,
Star Trek: First Contact is a consistent score with
outstanding cohesion, but a handful of questionable thematic attributes
outside of the Borg material restrict its ambitions. It's generally
well-liked by the collecting community but not a common favorite.
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- Music as Written for the Film: ***
- Music as Heard on the 1996 GNP Crescendo Album: **
- Music as Heard on the Various Bootlegs: ****
- Music as Heard on the 2012 GNP Crescendo Album: ****
- Overall: ***
| Bias Check: |
For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.29
(in 115 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.32
(in 146,964 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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