Star Trek: List Them as Missing

What Will and Won't Be On Sony's Expanded Star Trek: The Motion Picture CD

by Jeff Bond

Over the past three years fans of Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek: The Motion Picture score have been getting a harsh lesson in the relative powerlessness of the soundtrack-buying demographic as opposed to consumers of more socially accepted brands of music. After a seemingly innumerable number of delays, fans were promised November 17 as the album's release date, "set in stone." The more jaded among us had already noted that late November was perilously close to the release of the next Star Trek feature, Star Trek Insurrection (also scored by Goldsmith), and that Paramount Pictures has been known to derail releases of Star Trek music that might compete with its lucrative Trek theatrical feature soundtrack albums (case in point: Jay Chattaway's collection of music from Star Trek: The Next Generation, bumped from a long-delayed release a couple of years ago by the release of Star Trek First Contact).

When it was recently announced that the expanded TMP album had apparently been delayed yet again (this time allegedly until next spring), the reaction among collectors has varied from rueful, head-shaking exasperation to something akin to a stampede of torch-bearing villagers descending on Sony. Unfortunately, in the great scheme of things a few thousand soundtrack collectors have very little bearing on Sony's decision to release this album, which must appeal to a wider (yet dwindling) audience of Trekkers, hence the decision to include the Ed Naha-produced Inside Star Trek album, with its idiosyncratic compilation of Gene Roddenberry anecdotes and staged interviews with William Shatner, DeForest Kelley and Mark Lenard, with the recent addition of recollections spoken by Nichelle Nichols.

The primary difference between the last delay and all the others over the past few years has been that Sony has let slip an advance copy of the CD to the press, meaning us. The package we received contains both CDs and the liner notes by Ford Thaxton and David Hirsch. As a public service, we thought the people out there who still have to wait around an indeterminate amount of time to find this album on store shelves would like to know exactly what's on it and how it sounds. While a track listing has been made available, there's been some confusion as to exactly which cues are which, so let's adjust our Trekkie tunics Shatner-style and investigate:

First of all, let it be said that the new Sony album (total time: 65:06) sounds absolutely terrific and should be a boon to anyone remotely interested in the Goldsmith score. The original CBS/Sony LP and CD was noted for its crisp and powerful sonics, and the new mix retains that and more. The 18 cues are arranged chronologically, opening the album with "Ilia's Theme," which played as a pre-credit overture during the film's initial release in what was the last exercise of this grand movie-going tradition. Goldsmith's brilliantly powerful and optimistic main title march opens the film, quickly followed by the "Klingon Battle," which introduces both the composer's heraldic clarion call for the Klingons, played over pulsing, Prokofiev-like effects from plucked strings, and the striking blaster-beam effect and Vaughan Williams-inspired ascending low brass material for V'ger (spelled Vejur in the film's cue titles). While the gong-like blaster beam appeared in a few other sci fi film scores of the period (Laurence Rosenthal's Meteor among them), its use in Star Trek: The Motion Picture as a kind of aural calling card for the incomprehensibly vast V'ger entity was ingenious, instantly evoking the mystery and essential alienness of the alien probe.

"Total Logic" plays as the film cuts from the aftermath of V'ger's destruction of three Klingon warships to an elaborate matte painting of the surface of the planet Vulcan, on which Spock is undergoing the Kohlinar discipline to purge himself of all human emotions. Goldsmith composed a strange, almost Oriental melody for massed strings, played over odd-sounding, bumping percussive noises created by striking slit drums with hard rubber "super balls" (a great example of Goldsmith's unconventional approaches to percussion), and wrote a bright, ascending motif for Spock's initial mental contact with V'ger--material that would later climax in "The Meld." The Vulcan music bows out with crashing, bittersweet chords as Spock is rejected by the Vulcan Masters and segues to an explosive reading of the opening march as the view shifts to Earth and Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco, with busy rhythms played by flute, strings and electronics as Admiral Kirk arrives in an airborne tram.

The cue then shifts into the next track, "Floating Office," a beautiful, hypnotic piece with delicate string and flute glissandi drifting over a bass line minor key variation of the title march melody. This cue, a highlight of the score, was only added to the album mix within the last few months--something we have the album's long delays to thank for. The familiar "The Enterprise" cue plays next as Kirk and Scotty tour the retooled starship as it waits in orbital drydock, followed by "Leaving Drydock," with a spectacular, brassy treatment of the starship's departure from Earth. "Spock's Arrival" is a fascinating rhythmic treatment of the Vulcan music, with bubbling string and woodwind glissandos looping around the rich, low-string playing of the Vulcan theme and a bright, three-note motif for Spock's entry on to the ship that seems inspired by a motif from Holst's "Mercury" from The Planets.

Goldsmith develops his material for V'ger in the lengthy atmospheric cues "The Cloud" and "Vejur Flyover" as the Enterprise journeys into the heart of the probe's accompanying energy fields and then travels over the craft itself in sequences designed to demonstrate the relative insignificance of the mighty starship compared to the immense alien craft. Next in line among the newly-added cues is "The Force Field," which opens with striking blaster chords as V'ger begins to pull the Enterprise inside its sphincter-like rear "orifice" (no jokes, please...). This is one of the most evocative cues in the movie, full of distinctive percussive and atmospheric effects, including liquid-sounding rushes of air and something resembling an electronicized whale call. Oddly, the cue on the expanded Sony album is not the one heard in the film but evidently a different take (the opening blaster tones are played quite differently in the album version, and my guess is it is probably almost impossible to play the blaster beam exactly the same way twice).

"Games" plays as Commander Decker and Dr. Chapel try to coax human emotional responses out of the humanoid probe replica of the dead Enterprise crewperson Ilia, with subtle suspense textures alternating with various treatments of Ilia's theme. A wavering, glassy figure occurs and crescendos as Spock delivers a classic Vulcan nerve pinch to an unsuspecting crewman so he can sneak outside the Enterprise with a thruster suit. "Games" appears to be somewhat truncated, as it includes some of Spock's exit music but not the prelude leading up to "Spock's Walk." There's also a peculiar bit of orchestra noise here (at 2:02) that sounds suspiciously like someone breaking the string off of an instrument by accident. While it's possible this is an intentional effect, in at least one recording I've heard of the TMP sessions the orchestra breaks off playing after this sound is made.

The kinetic "Spock Walk" from the original album plays next, followed by two newly-added cues, "Inner Workings" (with atmospheric treatment of Kirk, Decker, Spock, McCoy and Ilia journeying outside the Enterprise to discover the true nature of V'ger), and "Vejur Speaks" with slowly building suspense as Ilia demands "the information" from Kirk, who in a classic Shatner moment raises his hands imploringly and announces to the alien probe that "We...are the Creator." The rhapsodic "The Meld" from the original album follows, segueing into "A Good Start," with a wistful horn reading of the march melody playing over Kirk, McCoy and Spock's discussion of the merging of V'ger, Decker and Ilia into a new life form, followed by somewhat of a reprise of the pre-tour shuttlepod music from "The Enterprise" cue as Kirk orders the Enterprise back on mission, and a wildly lyrical treatment of the march theme (accompanied by a dizzying electronic flute tone) as the Enterprise wheels above the camera and warps off the screen. The end title march then plays as it did on the original album.

While the new album adds around 20 minutes to the 40-odd minute running time of the original CBS/Sony LP, Goldsmith's score totals over 100 minutes and includes spectacular alternate versions of "The Enterprise," "Leaving Drydock," "Spock's Arrival" and one or two other V'ger-related cues which were written before Goldsmith developed the familiar march melody heard at the beginning of the movie. Below is a list of all the cues heard in the movie and their relationship (if any) to the new album.

1. Ilia's Theme

2. Main Title

3. Klingon Battle

4. **Total Logic

5. **Floating Office

6. The Enterprise

7. *Malfunction - a moody cue heard just after two Enterprise crewmen are killed by a molecular taffy pull in the transporter room

8. *Goodbye Klingon - a dark take on the V'ger material played as the crew watches the destruction of the Klingon ships on the Enterprise rec room viewer - this cue was adapted by Fred Steiner from Goldsmith's original material

9. *Goodbye Epsilon 9 - a growling, rhythmic cue underscoring the destruction of Epsilon 9, ending with a frightening, enhanced gong chord

10. *Pre-Launch - Goldsmith's pulsing Federation motif played by low strings and percussion over a broad take on the march theme - also arranged by Fred Steiner

11. Leaving Drydock

12. *Theme From Star Trek (TV Series) - a wistful rendition of Alexander Courage's Trek TV theme written for woodwinds, arranged by Courage himself

13. *Warp Point Eight - an ascending, propulsive cue for the Enterprise shifting into warp drive - arranged by Fred Steiner

14. *No Good-byes - a treatment of Ilia's theme as Decker and Ilia whine about their lost love in the corridor outside Kirk's cabin

15. **Spock's Arrival

16. *Theme From Star Trek (TV Series) (see #12)

17. *Warp Point Nine - the warp drive music climaxes in an exultant take on the march melody as the Enterprise successfully achieves warp one

18. *Meet Vejur - a menacing, brassy opening gives way to an expansive, ominous treatment of the V'ger theme played by the 20th Century Fox pipe organ. A strong variation of the rhythmic Federation material is played for suspense here as the Enterprise finally contacts V'ger

19. The Cloud

20. Vejur Flyover

21. **The Force Field

22. *Micro Exam - a brief cue mixing the V'ger blaster beam effect with Ilia's theme as the Ilia "probe" is examined in sickbay

23. *Theme From Star Trek (TV Series) (see #12)

24. **Games- contains "Spock pinch" moment and some, but not all, of the lead-in to Spock's walk

25. Spock Walk

26. *System Inoperative - a low brass version of the blaster gong effect plays as Chekov announces that Earth's defenses have gone inoperative; wavering flutes visually characterize V'ger's fiery "orbital devices"

27. *Hidden Information - slowly ascending chords from low and mid-range strings as Kirk and Ilia argue about whether or not Kirk will disclose the information V'ger needs

28. **Inner Workings

29. **Vejur Speaks

30. The Meld

31. **A Good Start

32. End Title

** - included on expanded Sony album, not previously available

* - still unreleased

1. Ilia's Theme. 2. Main Title. 3. Klingon Battle. 4. Total Logic. 5. Floating Office. 6. The Enterprise. 7. Leaving Drydock. 8. Spock's Arrival. 9. The Cloud. 10. Vejur Flyover

11. The Force Field. 12. Games. 13. Spock Walk. 14. Inner Workings. 15. Vejur Speaks. 16. The Meld. 17. A Good Start. 18. End Title.

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