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•	2001 Album

•	1997 Album

•	2018 Album

•	2017 Album

•	2001 Album

•	1997 Album

Goldsmith's material for "Stargate SG-1" works so well that it could serve as a Stargate sequel product on album, and fans of both Arnold and the show were impressed enough by Goldsmith's music to make the 1997 product a strong seller. For what is essentially an imitation job by Goldsmith, he adds many new attractive percussive styles to the equation. While the depth of the ensemble sounds noticeably less, he compensates by carefully selecting instruments throughout the soundscape to maintain interest. The problem with that 1997 Milan album for "Stargate SG-1" in retrospect, however, is that its fragmented nature is not only a nagging detriment but the presentation fails to exhibit the mass of good music for the show that existed outside of the edits with Arnold's recordings. Obviously, with several dozen minutes of music required for each and every episode, there was a lot more of the original material absent from that album. Some fans of the show went so far as to make a mockery of the product and its over-reliance on Arnold's inserted material. Generally, the average fan of the show didn't care about the choppy edits on the album. But fans of the original film and collectors of film music noticed the heavy edits immediately, and they reacted with both disgust and ambivalence to that product. In the end, though, it's hard to argue with its strong sales figures, and it was only a matter of time before another "Stargate SG-1" album hit the shelves. The 2001 follow-up from GNP Crescendo corrects all of the errors from the 1997 Milan album, and it presents the music from "Stargate SG-1" as it was meant to be heard as a standalone work. Along with the occasional references to Arnold's film themes (with no direct lifting of material from the film this time), the 2001 album contains lengthy suites of music from episodes scored by Goldsmith, Kevin Kiner, Richard Band, and Dennis McCarthy. All of these men were accomplished in the television scoring genre at the time, and Kiner had worked with the interpolation of Arnold's themes for the trashy sci-fi film Wing Commander a few years earlier. The most interesting aspect of the 2001 album is the revelation that Goldsmith actually wasn't responsible for much of the best episodic music early in the show's run. The material by Kiner, Band, and McCarthy is by far the most diverse, encompassing both the more exciting and sensitive emotions on a broader spectrum. That said, Goldsmith's material is still extremely functional, and it is still impressive outside the context of Arnold's mixes, even if it does not match the prowess of his recordings for the pilot episode that initially got the axe from the studio.

The highlights of the 2001 GNP Crescendo album are the first two suites, "The Enemy Within" and "Cold Lazarus," with Kiner's two other suites not far behind. The former, McCarthy and Kiner suite features superior sound quality compared to all of the other suites, and Band's latter, delicate piece provides interesting variations on Arnold's themes despite clearly diminished sound quality in its sparsely synthetic rendering. The opening and closing credits performed by the Seattle Studio Symphony Orchestra are adequate once again, but one might wonder why Goldsmith's original theme for the show's end credits isn't used more often within the episodic scores themselves. The diminishing ensemble size compared to early recordings for the show began to wear on the quality as the seasons moved along. In 2017, Intrada Records unexpectedly released a 2-CD set of music from four Band-composed episodic scores from the first two seasons of "Stargate SG-1," and this product didn't take off like the others, eventually suffering a slow death as it slid towards going out of print in 2020. Band's music on this product betrays the budget of the production more than the rest, sounding frightfully synthetic throughout, especially in the action sequences. Sampled orchestral instruments being what they were at the time, the music here sounds like a demo recording in every cue when heard so many years separated from its creation. Band continues to reference Arnold's themes, but only occasionally, the composer seemingly more content to write recurring motifs for individual episodes as he went. This approach is especially evident in the character material in the expanded "Cold Lazarus" episodic presentation. Of the Arnold themes he does reference, the military theme is the most frequent, and here the fake snare and brass really do expose the cheap price tag on the recording. The main theme is an infrequent application, unfortunately, though he strives for some of the glamour of the source material at the end of the "Singularity" episode. At times, Band strays a bit too close to the temp track, including Alan Silvestri's Predator in "Pushing Back Through Gate to Hospital" (from "Cold Lazarus") and Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek V: The Final Frontier in "Finale - Daniel And Then Others Visit" (from "In the Line of Duty"). Understanding the budgetary constraints that Band was facing, the rather unrefined rendering of the music is excusable, but the concept does suffer as a result. The entire point of Arnold's original score and Goldsmith's aping of it in the series premiere was to capture the lush and romantic scale of the fantasy involved, and these later episodic scores do nothing to recapture that scope.

Ultimately, the 2017 Intrada album of Band music for "Stargate SG-1" will only appeal to the most ardent enthusiasts of the show and should be skipped by those seeking Arnold extensions. The biggest treat for franchise fans arrived a year later, when Dragon's Domain Records released a full 74 minutes of music Goldsmith wrote for the "Children of the Gods" pilot. Series creator Brad Wright had never been satisfied with that episode, and in 2009 he released a re-edited version of "Children of the Gods" in what he called "The Final Cut." He received the blessing of the studio to remove Arnold's score, among other alterations, including the excising of controversial nudity in the show. This meant that Goldsmith's original recording was restored into the episode, though due to changes to scene pacing, the composer was asked to rearrange his material to fit the new version. The resulting match of his music with the episode is far superior than the prior edit, and it marked a moment of great satisfaction for Goldsmith, who passed away not long after. The 2018 Dragon's Domain album is immensely satisfying, its mix wet and outstanding general sound quality expressing the orchestrations of the show with crystal clear attention. The irony of Goldsmith's work for "Children of the Gods" is that he adapts Arnold's material all over his work, often in superior extensions and explorations. There are absolutely lovely adaptations of Arnold's main theme sprinkled throughout in softer incarnations, often on woodwinds. Since the pilot is essentially a straight extension of the character arc from the film, Goldsmith also applied the Arnold themes in all the appropriate places to continue that narrative musically. The villain theme for the Goa'uld is entertainingly propulsive. Fans of Jerry Goldsmith will hear a touch of his style in "Daniel and Jack." The only technical detriment of that 2018 product is a very awkward opening edit to "Return Message." Otherwise, it's a really engaging presentation, even at times when it attempts to match the instrumental and choral power of Arnold. Overall, "Stargate SG-1" enthusiasts most will appreciate the 2001 and 2018 albums, both products serving as better companion pieces to Arnold's film score than the largely redundant mash-up pilot score featured on the 1997 album. If you already own the film's score and wish to purchase a single album of "Stargate SG-1" music as an addendum, then select the 2018 Dragon's Domain album. Devoted enthusiasts will find merit in the 2001 product as well, and Goldsmith also released two albums of music for related spin-offs that may be worth exploring. Despite Goldsmith's great (and finally restored) work for the pilot episode, it remains hard not to return to Arnold's original feature work for that dose of epic scope that these televisions scores strive to equal.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

• Music as Heard on the 1997 Milan Album:  ***
• Music as Heard on the 2001 GNP Crescendo Album:  ****
• Music as Heard on the 2017 Intrada Album:  **
• Music as Heard on the 2018 Dragon's Domain Album:  *****
• Overall:  ***