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A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

When Star Trek translated to the big screen in 1979, there was much anticipation.  Everyone was on a high with space-based science fiction movies after Star Wars, the Star Trek fan base was huge and people thought that all the best qualities of the original show could be made even better with the gargantuan budget (it was one of the most expensive movies ever made at that time, and even today its budget wouldn't be thought inconsiderable).  People queued up in excitement, went into the cinema, watched... waited... the movie started... went on and on... OK, something will happen in a minute?.. no... two hours later... still not much has happened... oh dear... go home.  But one thing did happen - they were, perhaps unknowingly, experiencing a Jerry Goldsmith symphony - one that just happened to be accompanied by images.

In truth, time has probably been quite kind to the film - compared with today's blast-em-up science fiction movies, its restraint seems admirable, its lethargic pacing something of a welcome reprieve and its special effects are done artfully and with imagination, rather than trying to push the envelope of what computers can generate all by themselves.  And its score - well, its score seems just as good today as it ever did.

Before the movie started, it featured a full, three-minute musical overture - hearkening back to the golden age, it was actually the last ever movie to feature such a wonderful opportunity for the composer.  Goldsmith chose to present "Ilia's Theme", his beautiful, longing theme of love and regret, culminating in the briefest of hints of his Star Trek march.  It's a pity really that it was used, in a considerably watered-down form, as the main title for Star Trek: The Next Generation over so many years, because the sheer raw power of the theme has probably been diminished as a result - but it is a remarkable piece, almost certainly Goldsmith's finest theme, and hearing it for the very first time over the opening titles must surely have served only to push the expectant audience's hopes up yet further into the stratosphere.  Following the main title comes "Klingon Battle", another extraordinary piece with a terrific mixture of percussion, brass and a "blaster beam", which would certainly rank as the finest piece of action music heard in a Star Trek movie; it also introduced the now-familiar Klingon Theme for the first time, which has also been a victim of watered-down overuse, this time by Goldsmith himself in his subsequent Star Trek assignments.

"Total Logic" underscores Spock's failure to complete a Vulcan ritual when his human emotions are stimulated; the evocative, impressionistic, avant garde music for the first half of the sequence is suddenly interrupted by a gloriously upbeat presentation of the main march theme as Captain (or, in this instance, Admiral) Kirk's first appearance is noted.  Then comes the wonderful, if brief, "Floating Office", a graceful and slight piece which works in a distinctly 2001-ish sequence in the movie.  

The score's pièce de resistance is "The Enterprise", a six-minute masterpiece that is surely the best piece of film music Goldsmith's ever penned.  A majestic, rhapsodic piece, it is essentially a fantasy on Goldsmith's main theme, underscoring a sequence in which absolutely nothing happens (we just get repeated shots of the ship from a variety of angles); this is film score as ballet.  It can never fail to send a shiver down the listener's spine.  "Leaving Drydock" continues the theme, with another portentous presentation of the theme as the starship clears moorings and heads out into the great unknown.  

"Spock's Arrival" is a change of pace, as the popular character's reunification with his former colleagues is scored in an almost sombre way, reflecting the complete change in the character in the film (they managed to remove all of his redeeming features and turn him into a grumpy, annoying, colourless automaton - fortunately this was reversed again in subsequent movies).  Then come a few pieces of less melodic, more mysterious music as the crew of the Enterprise investigate the strange energy cloud in which they find themselves.  "The Cloud" features a distinctly Vertigo-like "mystery motif", and it also introduces some distinctly new age stylings which presage, in a strange sort of way, the composer's revolutionary music for Total Recall's non-action sequences.  "The Force Field" focuses more on the Vejur theme, a trumpet motif that manages to be both noble and mysterious.  The blaster-beam makes another appearance in "The Force Field", an outstandingly atmospheric piece full of wonder and dread, with modal writing for strings and brass accompanied by the mystery motif performed this time on flute.  "Games" opens up with a brief, somewhat restrained performance of Ilia's Theme before some low brass and percussion usher in a darker sound, almost immediately contrasted by a soaring burst of Ilia's Theme and then some more of the magical wonder heard in the previous few tracks.

As the movie plods towards its conclusion, the final act is introduced with "Spock Walk" as the Vulcan science officer leaves the ship and goes off for a look around the interior of the cloud.  It's a particularly busy and sometimes aggressive cue, probably the closest the scores gets to horror music.  "Inner Workings" presents more of the slightly cold music for Vejur's interior.  It's actually one of the lesser-interesting cues, though the low-end brass material and echoing horns (later appropriated by James Horner both for Star Trek II and Aliens) are a superbly imaginative suspense-generating device.  "Vejur Speaks" is a quiet and slow piece that, in truth, adds little to the album, though in most scores it would admittedly stand out as a superb piece of suspense music.  On the other hand, "The Meld" is one of the outstanding pieces on the album, gradually building to a kind of religious frenzy as the crew finally saves life as we know it once again.  Goldsmith's writing is actually not at all dissimilar to that he would later employ to underscore the second coming of Christ in The Final Conflict!  "A Good Start" then presents a rapturous, dynamic variation on the main theme as the film ends on an optimistic note.  The end credits piece sandwiches Ilia's Theme in between two versions of the main theme in what has become Goldsmith's now-familiar practice on his subsequent Star Trek assignments.  Arguably none of the subsequent versions would have quite the same power and energy as this one, energy which seems arguably even greater with the abrupt opening (lacking the later addition of Alexander Courage's 1966 Star Trek fanfare).

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is an extraordinary score; it would be easy to argue that it is Goldsmith's finest.  Goldsmith was at the pinnacle of his creativity when he wrote it and there are so many facets that make up the score as a whole, I can't think of any other film composer who could write a score with this depth.  The composer truly takes the listener on a musical journey from point A to point B to point C during the score; the film was so limp and plodding that it needed a truly vibrant and exciting score to completely carry it along, and Goldsmith more than delivered.  Don't let what you might think is over-familiarity distract you from it at all; even after thirty listens, there is always something new to discover.  From the core of outstanding themes to the imaginative orchestration to the emotional and moving finale, this is a first-rate film score.  Beam it up without haste.

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Tracks

1. Ilia's Theme (3:01)
2. Main Title (1:23)
3. Klingon Battle (5:27)
4. Total Logic (3:44)
5. Floating Office (1:03)
6. The Enterprise (5:59)
7. Leaving Drydock (3:29)
8. Spock's Arrival (1:58)
9. The Cloud (4:58)
10. Vejur Flyover (4:57)
11. The Force Field (5:03)
12. Games (3:41)
13. Spock Walk (4:19)
14. Inner Workings (3:01)
15. Vejur Speaks (3:50)
16. The Meld (3:09)
17. A Good Start (2:26)
18. End Credits (3:16)