Star Trek Soundtrack Reviews

In this section of the Star Trek part of the site, we'll be bringing you a wide range of reviews of Star Trek soundtrack albums old and new, as well as other Star Trek CDs and audio works including audio novels and some of the more memorable (and less memorable) albums released by the Star Trek cast...

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Volume Two - "The Best Of Both Worlds"

One of the things that you do not really pay that much attention to whilst watching your favourite episode is the accompanying music.

Unlike one of the Star Trek directors at Paramount, who believes in keeping music firmly in the background, I think it is an integral part in setting the atmosphere in an episode just as much as the script and actors and actresses.

In writing the music to "The Best Of Both Worlds", Ron Jones has done an extraordinary job - just by listening to the soundtrack, you can tell where the action is, where the cliffhangers are and so on.

One of the better things of this particular piece of work is the use of a human choir when the USS Enterprise first engage the Borg.

My favourite tracks are the ones used in Part Two - "Cemetary of Dead Ships" where the Enterprise arrives at Wolf 359, and "Intervention" where Riker intervenes.

If you like instrumental work, then this is one to buy (right after Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, the best of them all).

Reviewer: Marcus Priddey

Star Trek: Insurrection

First off, I had better tell you that I very much enjoyed Star Trek: Insurrection to the point where apart from First Contact, the film is my favourite Trek film made thus far. As a result, upon the release of this soundtrack CD I duly popped down to my local stockist to buy it only to find they, and indeed everywhere else, had sold out, so I went on a two week waiting list before the disc was available to me!

The CD contains only 11 tracks and is described as a 24-bit digital recording and unlike First Contact's soundtrack CD, this hasn't got any multimedia extras on it for PCs or Macs.

Composed by the man who is now arguably the premiere Star Trek composer, Jerry Goldsmith, Jerry weaved in his unforgettable Star Trek and Klingon theme that he created for Star Trek: The Motion Picture 20 years ago with his freshly created music inspired by the Paradise like images of the fictional Baku Homeworld from the film to create, what is a typically Jerry Goldsmith score.

All of Jerry's trademarks are present from the aforementioned themes to the broad orchestral strokes so prevalent in much of the music for Insurrection. The use of strings, flutes and his usual mixture of the orchestral with the electronic to create an innocent sounding theme for the Baku, whilst the big pounding orchestral blasts of the Son'a theme makes the film's bad guys seem a lot more dangerous than may have been construed.

All in all, the soundtrack itself fits the film well, though a recording of the Gilbert and Sullivan number would have been a nice touch! Having said that, the absence of any extras is extremely disappointing. With First Contact, the CD contained some multimedia extensions, being an Enhanced CD (ECD) as well as the two songs from the movie, "Magic Carpet Ride" and "Ooby Dooby". The Generations soundtrack was blessed with several sound effect recordings from the movie also, and it's a shame nothing was added to this CD as under 45 minutes of the 72 minutes of a CD is used up. Even an audio advert for other CDs from GNP or even a deal to allow a track from the just released Star Trek: The Motion Picture 20th anniversary soundtrack CD pack to appear isn't outside the realms of possibility.

Another let down is the physical presentation from the cover image (standard film poster) to the poor image on the CD label side. It's a good soundtrack, but it suffers a little from GNP having missed opportunities to make the product better and better value.

Reviewer: Sven Harvey