Frakes on Goldsmith

By Peter Pelosi and Tony Buchsbaum

Its rather disappointing box office performance notwithstanding, the score for Star Trek: Insurrection is a rousing blend of orchestral bombast and tender melody. It boasts a seamless mixture of the vintage Trek television theme, newer Trek movie themes, and brand new motifs that bring genuine heart to a film that's concerned at its core with aging and wisdom. Surely, this is an interesting theme for a series that itself is aging (not that there's anything wrong with that); perhaps the filmmakers are trying to tell us there's more to Trek than meets the eye, and that we should look deeper than its surface for some hidden wisdom.

Or not. Whether you're a diehard fan or just a casual observer, you must agree that this ninth film in the series shows us a softer Star Trek, and it's all the better--which is to say, more interesting--for the new dimension this softness brings to the legend.

The venerable Jerry Goldsmith was the perfect choice to score the new film. Some might say he was the only choice, but in a film scoring community that sometimes seems hell-bent on experimentation for its own sake and frustratingly slavish mass audience appeal, he might not have been the obvious one. To director Jonathan Frakes, Goldsmith was the natural choice.

During a recent interview in New York, Frakes made clear his feelings on the subject: Goldsmith is the voice of Star Trek. He has come to embody so many aspects of the series that we, as film music enthusiasts, have come to love. "Jerry Goldsmith, I think, is, with John Williams... It's sort of them and then everybody else. [Goldsmith] gets Star Trek. He helped define [it]."

As the man at the film's helm, Frakes clearly must have a hand in every aspect of the film. But when it comes to the music, Frakes seems ready to admit he's out of his league.

"I understand some of the other crafts in movie making," he said, "how the editor works, how the cameraman works, the production designer. But what Jerry Goldsmith does is still beyond me. It's magic. I describe a shot, or what my intentions are for a scene, and he just gets it. He makes [the scene] so clear."

What's more, he's easy to work with. "He's also a gentleman," said Frakes. "He's from the old school."

When he speaks about the composer, Frakes sounds like a film music geek. He has reverence, sure, but also a refreshing sense of wonder. "He's 70, I guess. He's done how many movies? Thousands, I assume. He plays concerts. He's played Star Trek music in concert. And he loves the fact that I play trombone."

Aside from his admiration and plain affection for Goldsmith, Frakes knows, ironically, that there's more to the Trek legend than any movie can deliver. "Goldsmith has been approached to write a Star Trek opera," Frakes said, "which I think is a brilliant idea, because the tone and the themes of Star Trek are very operatic. I think he would do a fabulous job."

A Star Trek opera? Who wouldn't buy a ticket to that? But, really, what are the chances of it happening? "He wants to do it," said the director. "Unfortunately, he'd have to give up two years of his life, and he's got numerous scores to write and concerts lined up. But certainly someone should do it."

Sounds inspired. After all, along with Star Wars, is there any greater space opera than Star Trek? Maybe the ultimate Trek wisdom can be delivered only via something as inherently fluid as music. Perhaps Goldsmith and his music will truly give Star Trek the power to boldly go where no science fiction legend has gone before. Sounds like quite a pretty cool enterprise.

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