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"Bushmaster" (Randy Edelman)
A nice opening cue. A fun little paced piece when MacGyver is flown to another country. The cue after the captive is told what will happen to him, followed by the snare and cymbal piece that continues the piece. The cue as MacGyver and Kelly escape the new regime police.
"Friends" (Dennis McCarthy)
I only mention this because the original score in it is incredibly short, since over half the episode is a clip show. Tehre were a couple nice bits of original material and if a season two score set is released, if there's room, a short score like this could round it out.
"D.O.A.: MacGyver" (Randy Edelman)
The outro to commercial when MacGyver says he can't remember his name. Then there's a dramatic cue leading to the outro when MacGyver knocks an empty boat onto a bad guy. And a nice uplifting cue for the end of the episode.
"For Love or Money" (season two finale; Dennis McCarthy)
A tense and long action piece as MacGyver breaks Dubcek out of the psychiatric ward. A nice, albeit short, cue as MacGyver rescues Dubceck's wife. There's also this action cue at the end that reminded me: I've heard two or three similar cues before and they all have this repeating synth line that sounds like the line from the theme to "Airwolf"; I keep expecting to hear the theme from that show.
Well, on to season three, which is promised to be better and yield better scoring.
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"Lost Love: Part 1" (Randy Edelman)
There are some decent cues in here (soudns like it might be appreciated mroe apart from the SFX), but I got to say it again -- and I hate to put the composer down -- McCarthy does this better; his scores sound fuller, more professional, and aren't laced with as many cheesy sounding synths (for the most part).
"Lost Love: Part 2" (Randy Edelman)
Same thoughts, though some of the cues are better.
Special mention to actor James Hong, who had a great acting exchange with Pete Thorton.
the re-use of some character actors, has been a little annoying. It's not like some shows where an actor you saw one year, would appears years later in another role. James Hong was just a year or less ago playing a bad guy. I remember one instance in the first season where the same actor apepared in one episode, then played a different character in the very next episode.
"Ghost Ship" (Ken Harrison)
Harrison's first score for the series. It fits right in with the style established.
There' a nice peice as MacGyver sees the ship in the shore and then makes his own make-shift ore to sail out to it. And a good closing cue which has a nice ominous theme for Big Foot.
Overall I found it a bit disjointed; good cues here, there, but it just keeps moving as one whole piece a lot of times. And sometimes the music was too heroic for the on-screen happenings and was out of place.
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"Fire and Ice" (Randy Edelman)
A nice opening cue. A moderate heroic action piece as MacGyver finds a way to sneak into the mansion. An interesting cue as Nikki pulls up to the mansion. An exciting bank heist cue.
Overall, perhaps one of the best efforts Edelman did for the show.
The writing hasn't dramatically improved and I'd say the show hasn't hit any special mark. It's only a tad bit better than the last few episodes of season two. There has been some improvement with the guest actors/actresses. There was some terrible acting from some gues people in the first couple of seasons.
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"GX-1" (Dennis McCarthy)
A wonderful, but unfortunatelt short, cue at the beginning when MacGyver and his lady friend are in the hot air balloon; what sounds like a Copeland-esque bounce, then transitions into strings and woodwinds. The dramatic cue leading to the secret Russian building with the psychic. Another dramatic cue as MacGyver runs after planting the explosive and the Soviet Red's are firing on him.
I knew when I saw a description about a crashed secret plane in Russia with the Red Army in chase, and McCarthy listed as the composer, it was going to be a treat.
Unfortunately, this appears to be all the time I'll probably have for the show until the weekend.
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"Jack in the Box" (Ken Harrison)
A delightful cue as MacGyver travels by car; the kind of thing you don't hear anymore in TV.
The score also features some country-style flavor; there have been previously a couple scores, at least, that tried to add an extra flavor to them, but it never fully meshed; I think this one does for the most part.
An interesting country-styled cue with some synthy sounds and a beat as MacGyver is transported to the correctional fascility; another similar styl;ed cue as they are driving to the mine shaft, which stoped a few seconds but then picks back up as they go into the mine. And a plesant enough closing cue.
Too bad it's such a terrible episode. Apparently Hollywood writers think the south is full of cliched rednecks (one character even calls the towns people "rednecks") and power abusive cops.
"Widowmaker" (Ken Harrison)
A dramatic cue as one of MacGyver's old friends dies; unfortunately the death wasn't as powerful as it could have been, because we only saw the character once before and were told they'd been friends for years and we never got any further episodes to build that friendship, and they also recast the character. Some tense music as MacGyver and Nikki try to escape and get stuck in her truck. The cue after MacGyver says there's one place left to go, "up", followed by the mystery music as Pete goes into MacGyver's boathouse (remeniscent of the bigfoot music), which eventually leads to the burst of music when the mountain face peak is shown and then the robost continuation as they freeeclimb down the mountain. And then a dramatic piece as villain falls off the mountain side to his "death".
"Hell Week" (Dennis McCarthy)
A nice plesant cue as MacGyver walks into the college. A fun piece as a safe timer clock counts down faster. The unusual outro cue as MacGyver says, "We're the bomb squad."
The tense cue as they try to get the bomb to the elevator (one of my favorite cues so far).
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"Blow Out" (Dennis McCarthy?)
A quiet suspense cue as the power is cut in Nikki's apartment and she wonders in looking out for an intruder, followed by some action as MacGyver and the intruder struggle. c The subdued drama piece as they pull into the explosive plant, and the sneaking around material which is like his ST: TNG work. And a lightly thrilling piece as MacGyver tries to drive the comb away.
Even though no composer is credited, and I don't recognize any re-used pieces, there's no mistaking McCarthy's action pieces. Maybe it's a mixed bag of new cues and re-used stuff and he didn't take credit for some reason.
"Kill Zone" (Ken Harrison)
There's a nice (but overpowering in the episode) fanfare piece as Pete arrives at the Phoenix Foundation, with brass and snare drum. A few minutes later, it picks up again, with softer brass and a moderate driving strings carrying the rhythm; this could be put into one cue without editing out the trail end or opening of the next cue and without shoehorning in two seperate cues, it sounds. A good closing cue.
"Early Retirement" (Dennis McCarthy)
A tender cue as MacGyver speaks to Pete at Pete's house, trying to get him to reconsider.
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"Blow Out" (Dennis McCarthy?)
A quiet suspense cue as the power is cut in Nikki's apartment and she wonders in looking out for an intruder, followed by some action as MacGyver and the intruder struggle. c The subdued drama piece as they pull into the explosive plant, and the sneaking around material which is like his ST: TNG work. And a lightly thrilling piece as MacGyver tries to drive the comb away.
Even though no composer is credited, and I don't recognize any re-used pieces, there's no mistaking McCarthy's action pieces. Maybe it's a mixed bag of new cues and re-used stuff and he didn't take credit for some reason.
Yes this is one of the episodes with no original score. Quite a bit of the material is from GX-1, Hell Week, the somewhat militaristic piece where MacGyver attaches the paint can to the bad guy's Jeep is from season 2's Friends. The suspense cue in Nikki's apartment is from Ghost Ship (Harrison) and the following action cue is from the GX-1 scene where Mac detonates the plane wreckage. Generally in these recycled-score episodes they credit the composer who has the most minutes of music in the episode, in most cases that's McCarthy. "Lost Love" as you may have noticed also had a few McCarthy cues in it, even though Edelman wrote original material for that episode. Not sure if the producers didn't like some of the material and replaced it or if there's a different reason.
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"The Odd Triple" (no composer credited)
This time I think I'm recognizing cues from other episodes, McCarthy and Harrison. I wonder why season three is suddenly having episodes with no original score? The show moved to Canada because it was cheaper to film there, so maybe the Canadian Musician's Union doesn't require every episode to have a new score, so they're saving by tracking some. Just a theory.
I skipped the previous episode. I just don't give a crap about seeing MacGyver help an angry young hockey player calm down to play hockey better. That one was scored by Harrison.
"The Negotiator" (Dennis McCarthy)
A nice opening cue. Some light suspense music as MacGyver is almost killed. Some moody stuff as he's secretly being photographed and continues as his houseboat is being gone through. A nice feel-good piece mainly for acoustic guitar as MacGyver falls in love in a montage (it's about 99% SFX free in the episode, about 19:00 minutes in). The dramatic music as MacGyver is unknowingly being driven to his death and then the tense music as he tries to avoid it. A strong score. Too bad it was likely recorded in Canada.
The episode if you want to hear the montage music (rights issues may block it in some countries):
http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi2495719193/
I think it's rather ironic that one of the better episodes of the series, features the actress who plays Hope Brady on "Days of Our Lives". And she's a better actress than you'd know from that soap.
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"The Spoilers" (Dennis McCarthy)
A nice sneaking around cue at the plant at night (first half before commercial break). That was about it. It was a little bit of a mixed bag.
"Mask of the Wolf" (Ken Harrison)
A good opening cue. A fun cue as MacGyver drives Jack back to his rental house. Some catchy music (brass, strings, shakers) for when Jack and MacGyver travel over night. Some more good stuff as the bad guys drive around Two Eagles. A moody piece as Two Eagles leads the bad guys to the mask. An adventurous cue as MacGyver and Jack dog sled. In fact, most the scoring from this point on is fun.
I was taken out of the music for two or three seconds, because there was suddenly a synth sound used that I've heard before, in Goldsmith's score to "Explorers".
I disagree though with earlier statements in the thread. I find McCarthy's scoring to be better, and often while Harrison's scores were good, they would overpower the episodes. And I see nothing more special about season three than the previous. The writing is a little better, the guest actors are better cast, but the cohesion of the main characters, hasn't gotten noticably better and if anything, it seems to have lost some of the spark.
Season two started putting in some Left-wing stuff, but it was sparce and barely noticable, but season three is shovign it in more and with a little more in-your-face approach. If MacGyver is going to turn into some Left-wing crapfest, I'm not going to make it threw the show and dump it. I hope the show gets better. It's not terrible, but it could have been so much more.
I jsut learned the other day that Dana Eclar's occassional stunt double was ... drum roll ... Don S. Davis! Richard Dean Anderson's boss on two long-running shows have a connection. But it's pretty sad that both actors are dead now. If RDA's health ever gets better and he takes on another show, don't cast any likable fat bald guys as his boss.
I see on IMDb on RDA's page an in development MacGyver project. Since his health isn't what it used to be and he gained a ton of weight because of it, I imagine he won't be going around the world as the adventerous MacGyver in it, they'll probably make him boss (now in the roll of the likable fat guy, sans a bald head) and hand it off to some young guy.
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"Rock and Cradle" (John E. Davis)
Some fun action music in the opening as Jack barely gets his plane down, and some fun presentations of Edelman's main theme (the action material, is remeniscent of McCarthy's TNG material). A nice jazzy piece (played as source music) at a bar. A good short quiet drama piece, followed rousing adventure theme as Jack is playing with the baby in the plane (good stuff). A nice tender piece as MacGyver and Jack discuss the baby as it falls asleep. Another nice cue as Jack talks to the mom of the baby. Some miscellaneous other cues of varying interest throughout.
A refreshing change in composers. I miss the days when a show had more than two composers over its run (and I don't mean when one season ends and a new composer comes on for the next). Davis certainly did better than Melvoin did (he did two, and I didn't mention either of them).
"The Endangered" (Dennis McCarthy)
A nice tender piece as the plane pulls up to the water dock.
I think I heard a cue from another episode in here.
A mixed bag score. In this we get a drum machine with a handful or less pieces of real instruments playing, as MacGyver prepares in the wood. A cold comparrison to what Goldsmith did in a similar situation in "First Blood" about three years earlier.
Of note, we have a Stargate triple whammy here: Richard Dean Anderson, Don S. Davis, and Dennis McCarthy (who scored during the first season of SG1).
Well, this concludes season three. The last episode didn't have any cues worth mentioning.
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"The Secret of Parker House" (Ken Harrison)
There were some nice cues in here and a very plesant theme which was heard a few times, like in the music box. Penny says at one point, "Where have I heard that before?"; I wonder if that is an exsiting theme from elsewhere.
Even though actgor Ray Young's lines and scene were breif, I thought he did an especially convincing performance, enough to point it out.
Thankfully the cliched screaming cat out of nowhere schtick wasn't used.
"Blood Brothers" (Dennis McCarthy)
There some unusual action/chase music early on (with some synth percussion), that's atypical for McCarthy, that's kind of interesting (broken into two seperate pieces). And there's a strong dramatic pice heavily using brass, as one of the characters almost gets shot. There's a lengthy paced action cue which is a cross between some of his style for this show and ST: TNG.
It's a shame this episode was nothing more than a vehicle for bullcrap about guns. And a fairly routine and boring one that wasn't very well written. This crap is almost every other episode now. If this keeps up, there's no amount of paper clips and rust shavings that are going to save this show. It seems like everythings gone wrong since Canada came along.
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"The Survivors" (Ken Harrison)
There's a nice fun cue as MacGyver leads Pete to, then demonstrates what to do, in "MacGyverland"; the repeating counter point has been used before, but based on the playful woodwinds over it, I'd say it's not a re-used cue but a new cue (though the first cue in the episode sounds like it's tracked). Another short burst of similar composition is used later in the episode.
There's a really nice piece as MacGyver and Pete talk at the campfire about Pete's future, which transitions seemlessly into a spirited emotional high, then as they go int othe woods and find the wreckage, again transitions seemlessly into mystery. I'd say this is one of the best cues of the last two seasons, if not the whole series thus far. Too bad it was likely recorded in Canada.
Another nice cue as the drug smuggling plane touches down, with some brass spurts for some drama, and some nice search music.
There's also a fun action with with brass and I think congas, after Pete is spotted in the cave with a flashlight.
Overall, one of Harrison's best so far. Unfortunately, since the Canadian musician's union won't play ball, this would make nothing more than a good promo (if it ever got out).
Hey, who'd pay to go on a ride in MacGyverland, huh? I can see the gift shop now: Swiss army knives, rope, paper clips, rust shaving in a can, and clip-on mullets.
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"Deadly Dreams" (Dennis McCarthy)
An interesting cue as MacGyver searches an escaped prisoner's cell. And a some what frantic action piece for the climax at the end.
While nothing special as an episode, it's interesting because of what it was about, in relation to a famous book series. Taking place after Red Dragon was released, but before Silence of the Lambs was released, yet the film -- while having some slight overtones of the first book -- has more than passing coincidences to the next book about four years before it even came out. I wonder if there was any inspiration. Even the prisoner, Dr. Zito, reminds me of Dr. Lector. Kind of makes you wonder. Unless I'm missing pieces of information.
I think they've changed the opening credits music arragement three times in just six episodes. Is that some kind of record for a TV series?
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"Ma Dalton" (Ken Harrison)
There's a ncie cue as MacGyver & Jack stop at the bailbomdsman business. There's also a short kind of western-flavored cue for a bounty hunter in the bondsman's office. And a short, although breif, cue as they pull up to the bar (with thematic material heard before from Harrison's other scores from the series). There's an exciting cue as they race back to the bar to stop a phone call.
It's a shame that there's still three and-a-half season left to go, but few episodes left with Jack.
"Fraternity of Thieves" (Dennis McCarthy)
There's an interesting cue with edgy electronics in it, though breif, in the opening when MacGyver is about to hop behind a bar. There's a short moody cue as MacGyver says who ever did the computer virus, was good. Then there's a nice father & son piece. There's a quiet dramatic piece as Pete's son enter's the lab. The episode closes out with a nice soft cue as Pete speaks with MacGyver and then his son comes in, though I think the end is ruined by a forced upbeat outro; a similar thing was done to a ST: TNG episode where the outro was changed to be more upbeat.
I was surprised to be the KBG weapon used; that's actually based on a real weapon the KGB used that had almost the exact same affect, though the chemical used was different, as I recall. The results was death in seconds and it disappated so quickly in the body, decades ago the trace results couldn't be found in an autopsy, unless you knew what you were looking for and did it quickly enough. Scary to think what I'm describing was back at least as far as the 1970's. Imagine what can be done now.
Point of interest, the abbreviation "KGB", was just one of something like ten or so different name the agency change to over a few decades. KGB was just the most popular that stuck. It never went away, just changed names, structural system, etc.
"The Battle of Tommy Giordano" (Ken Harrison)
There's a nice piece with strsings and woodwinds and a light hint of something you might expect to hear from Delerue, when dad says good-bye to his son outside the court house. There's a nice cue as the family leaves the house to go to Canada. It picks back up and then there's some nicely paced traveil music; Harrison has a number of these nice travel cues in passed episodes. There's a fun dramatic cue as the mother takes off from the motel to rescue her son. And a surprisingly film-like cue when MacGyver sneaks up to and quietly enter's the lodge. As well as some interspersed dramatics in a long climax cue, which gives way about half way in to a neat drum-ticking line with synth instrument (some kind of weird keyboard sound) and strings underneath as MacGyver builds a device to buy them time.
There are a few plesant cues in the score, with a nice theme for the crime family, which share a familiar first six notes with the Godfather theme.
"Runners" (Dennis McCarthy)
This is halirious -- what a dramatic score from nothing more than a filler episode about a young prostitue and her cliched pimp. But I guess McCarthy wanted to have some fun.
Dramatic music for when the young lady is escaping hotel sucurity. Dramatic music for a quick confrontation with her pimp where he sets the pimp's car into drive and it rolls away. More dramatis music as "Snake" and his associate get in his car and chase after MacGyver, but realizes he has a dumpster trailing him. All, so far, have heavy ST: TNG influences.
There's a fairly plesant cue as MacGyver drives the young lady to see her father (with a nice trumept solo of the theme), which has a nice turn into uncertanty when she enters the room her father is in. There's also this weird kind of percussion piece with a sax' playing over it as MacGyver tries to find a way into Snake's place.
"Gold Rush" (Ken Harrison)
Harrison repraises material he's used before: the bold heroic music. There's one particualr use here where he adds on to it some flutes, which is a nice compliment.
There's just so many good stand out cues, rather than speak of each one individually, I would rather point out that this is one of his best efforts for the series. Again, too bad it's likely recorded in Canada and likely not to get a CD release any time soon.
My how this show has fallen. We started out with inventive man who could do near anything with a paper clip and water, to a show where he's reduced to a situation where he helps somebody, they get caught, he helps them out, and the inventiveness is all but gone -- this could be any other show. Then for a few episodes they experimented with a "Miami Vice" vibe, but dropped it, and now with this last episode and some plot outlines I've read for future episodes, it appears they're experimenting with a Indiana Jones premise, finding lost treasures (though this episode does have one good inventive moment). But if they nuke the fridge or have ancient aliens, I'm outta this TV series.
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"Easy Target" (Dennis McCarthy)
There's some nice full-sounding dramatic music throughout the espisode, especially during the long action sequence when the terrorists charge the EMP device and in the opening when one of the terrorists unloads on the two men who are trucking the EMP device.
"Renegade" (Dennis McCarthy)
There's this quiet cue that builds throughouyt the opening of the episode (probably somewhere over twelve minutes long) as a man steals a vile of Anthrax from the Phoenix Foundation. I'm not sure how interesting it would be alone and to others, but I'd like to hear it apart.
"Unfinished Business" (Ken Harrison, season four finale)
There's some nice tense stuff in the opening when somebody is released from prison and immediately set out to kill MacGyver. Then some nice kind of tender stuff after another one of Jack's short cut dreams is cut short.
It sounds like most, if not all, of the flash back scenes have been rescored. This could possibly be because of some issue with gettigns the rights to the scores recorded over in Los Angeles.
I hate what Hulu does. I don't know how they do it and I don't care, but after a certain amount of videos and/or time, they start telling you you have a certain amount of days to see some episodes and then they "expire". Of course this is nothing more than a trick. A clever person can still find them hiding on the Hulu website. And an evenb more cloever person can simply go to another video site and avoid the jumping and freezing that damned Hulu site does, and watch the episodes without that and the ad nauseum repeated ads.
"Legend of the Holy Rose: Part 1" (Dennis McCarthy)
There's a very nice cue as the plane lands in London and continues as they ride around (with an also nice inclusion the MacGyver fanfare). And another ncie one as they pull up to the Torture Chamber museum.
A wonderful, albeit short, orchestra and choral piece as MacGyver and his friend find the sepctors.
And unfortunately, this ends my viewing of the series, as the episodes from this point on are Hulu Plus member viewing only. So, this is it for me. I read that the TV movies are terrible, so I'll skip them. If only I had heeded the forewarning about the "Hunter" TV movies, I could have spared myself some crap there, too.
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Oh, some kind person snuck some episodes onto one of the sites I go to, so I'll be continuing (I don't know if in full capacity) to review good episode scores like before!
So, continuing Season 5 (and skipping part two of the season opener, since Part one was no great shakes and in fact one of the worst episodes of the show):
"Cease Fire" (Dennis McCarthy)
There's a wonderful opening majestic cue for a mountain and a cable lift (this would make an even better cue if, as an alternate, the breif drunkit sounds were removed).
I have mixed feeling about the two or three long final act cues, but maybe they work better apart from the SFX.
"Second Chance" (Ken Harrison)
There's a nice bold opening cue with light oriental flavor underneath that immediately stands out. Once again Harrison's familiar travel music makes an appearance (as MacGyver and Willie are in the jeep looking for Jessie), but unfortunately the music doesn't stop and goes into other material, which is hit & miss (as well as the episode scoring as well).
"Children of Light" (Ken Harrison)
There's an exciting action piece as MacGyver and Mei Jan try to escape from the Chinese consulant.
And, once again, the familiar travel-by-jeep music.
This is a pony-free posting. ;-)
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I had to skip the following because I could not find them:
"Black Rhino"
"The Ten Percent Solution"
"The Madonna"
"Log Jam" (and it's a shame, because the composer credit for this one is missing from IMDb; EDIT: the composer is Ken Harrison and I've submitted it)
EDIT: I found out why all the episodes have finalyl disappeared from Hulu -- cbs.com now has them, including the missing episodes above, so I'll cover those later.
"Two Times Trouble" (Dennis McCarthy)
About twelve minutes in we finally get the first score cue of the episode: a tense action piece as MacGyver and his friend (who he's been friends with since he was a kid, but has failed to ever mention in over four seasons...) are free-climbing in an elevator shaft since the lift crashed. This piece, except for the MacGyver fanfare statements, could easily pass for a ST: TNG piece.
"Serenity" (Ken Harrison)
MacGyver takes a break from its standard formatting and does a special episode: MacGyver falls alsep while watching a western and dreams he's in a western, with some of the most popular reoccurying characters present. which gives an oppritunity for a slightly different kind of score.
Here we are introduced to some western sounds. Immediately as he falls alseep, the music begins: a very nice soft cue wih harmonica, strings and guitar taking the lead, with a theme that is very similar to Horner's main theme from "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan".
There's a lot of good music in here. I particularly liked the plucky music as MacGyver sneaks up and around the roof of a building during the final act. And even better -- this episode didn't end with the regular MacGyver end credits music -- it had special new music composed in the style of the episode score.
It could be my imagination, but I think there's a slightly bigger orchestra at work. And the effort sounds more like a film than an episodic work. It seems some more work was put into this special episode. One of the show's best scores. I wonder if it was recorded in Canada...
Coincidently, Richard Dean Anderson would later go on to star in a short-lived western series with episode scores by Ken Harrison, called "Legend". I've not seen it, but a board member here suggested it wasn't very good.
"Live and Learn" (Dennis McCarthy)
The composer credit for this episode was missing from IMDb; I've submitted it.
There's a plesant uplifting cue as MacGyver walks through the school hallway.
And there's some of that creepy (for lack of a better descriptive word) unsettling music that McCarthy does so well, for the bribery scene.
And we have a special guest star: Christopher Judge, who would later become famouns for his role as Teal'C on "Stargate: SG1". Here's in his twenties here, and has quite a presence. It's a SG1 double whammy: Judge and McCarthy (who also scored on the first season of SG1).
"The Treasure of Manco" (Ken Harrison)
Nothing particularly wrong with the score, I just don't think it's strong enough to stand out. Though there's a really nice piece as MacGyver and company explore the sealed Inca treasure cave.
"Jenny's Chance" (Dennis McCarthy)
There's this wonderful lush opening cue with Jenny riding her horse that stnads out, and has a nice transition into uncertainty, then some darkness right around the end when MacGyver is investigating a horse stall her.
It's a shame. I don't know what happened to the Jack Dalton character -- this is his second-to-the last episode. He won't appear again for anotehr two years, in the final season.
"Passages" (Dennis McCarthy)
A nice and touching soft score with moments of lush sound, for an important episode in the series. And only in a show like this could the lead actor escape his way from going to Heaven.
Thankfully it appears the small orchestra scores with heavy use of drum machine, are over and bigger and more lush scores have taken their place. Somebody in charge came to their senses. The better scores really uplifted the show.
And it appears the script writing has gotten better (after the two-parter season opener, that is).
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"The Gun" (Ken Harrison)
There's a nice slightly more punchy version of the travel music in the episode that begins with a nice airy and prominent string work, then the travel music, and a nice outro with the fanfare.
The episode itself is garbage.
"Lesson in Evil" (William Ross)
While there was nothing particularly wrong with the score, it just didn't stand out. But I brought it up since it was the first episode Ross scored. It also marked the return of the seriel killer Dr. Zito. Too bad the episode is nothing special, and is not helped by the wooden, lifeless acting of actress Lynne Moody.
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"MacGyver's Women" (Ken Harrison)
Another big western score for yet another episode where MacGyver falls asleep and wakes up in the old west. Same town, Serenity, and same character. Too bad they're apparently playing Pete as a different person in this episode as he's never heard of MacGyver; hard to buy after his major role in the first western fantasy episode and considering it was only a few episodes ago.
The theme very similiar to the main theme from "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", is back. And once again the end credits have a special piece of western music composed for it.
"The Wasteland" (William Ross)
There's a fairly exciting piece as MacGyver rescues Willis in the opening.
And another fairly exciting cue, in two pieces (commercial break) for the van bombing and escape.
Then around the end when MacGyver is setting something up, Ross does his McCarthy impression. Reminds me of a short moment from the movie score "Star Trek: Generations", a score which Ross was an orchestrator on a few years later.
And then there's some mroe preparation scoring similar to that Trek film score. I'm wondering now if maybe McCarthy had a hand in this episode score or if maybe Ross had more involvement in Generations than simply orchestrating.
Then there's some more exciting music as MacGyver launches off and flies away in, well, let's just say the more time they give the character to tinker, the more complex and wild the shark jumping gets.
The score is a little disjointed from the cuts in scenes, but I might rank it overall as one of the better secondary efforts of series.
I had to skim through the episode, only stopping periodically to find score cues. The show has been come more & more environmentally Leftist, moving away from what made the show interesting to begin with. The episode centers around a returning character who is studying land polluted by man and a development company that wants to devlope a new city.
Lets face it, most of us care about animals and don't want to intentially do something to ruin an area and have our own versions of feel-goodness in regards to such things, but the writers don't deal with it like that: they become preachy about, shove it in your face, use the same ol' environmental boogeymen, and the writing, quit frankly, is subpar and uninspired. There are certainly real life stories to tell, but they're always the see, we told you so cliched bunk so far. I came here to watch MACGYVER, not some Captain Planet shit.
"Blind Faith" (William Ross)
Just one cue stuck out, aroudn the end a tense action peice as MacGyver, Pete and a woman Pete used to know who looks posed to become the leader of another nation, are trying to be murdered by three men.
Special mention made to the episode. I had read in real life the late Dana Eclar has developed glaucoma; that must be why he was absent for a few episodes. They worked it into the show with Pete having glaucoma. It was done well and totally belivable. It also greatly helped the friendship between MacGyver and Pete.
And a freakin' bomb went off in MacGyver's face. You always expect him to come through at the last second, but this time boom, in the face right before he got away, temporarily blinding him and burning him real bad. I wonder if it was just good editing and effects or if that cheap flash bomb actually went off in the Richard Dean Anderson's face. It looked pretty damn convincing.
"Trial of Tears" (William Ross)
Some more exciting music at the end of the episode, with again more hints of "Star Trek: Generations" in it, when MacGyver tries to get to the bomb to disable it and Whiteclud confronts the energy company head.
Another in-your-face fucking preachy episode. And again, subpar and uninspired writing. I've seen preachy crap before that was better written than this. I ended up once again skimming portions of the episode.
Kind of funny to see Cancer Man from "The X-Files" playing a judge.
"Hind-Sight" (William Ross, McCarthy, Harrison; season finale)
There's a tense dramatic cue as MacGyver tries to get to Peter in the hospital, thinking Murdoc might be about to kill him.
There's no much original scoring as half the episode is essentially a clip show. I suspect Ross did the original scoring and McCarthy and Harrison are credited simply because their music is in the clips used.
Richard Dean Anderson does a quick little PSA at the end of the episode in regards to Dana Eclar's glaucoma.
I think season six has the best arrangement of the main title theme.
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