Customer Reviews

Star Trek: Newly Recorded Music From Selected Episodes Of The Paramount TV Series (Charlie X, The Carbomite Maneuver, Mudd's Women, The Doomsday Machine)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
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The most important thing to know about this CD is that, although it is newly recorded, it is extremely faithful to what you heard in the show. Fred Steiner re-created the original Star Trek orchestrations, especially for the tracks he composed back in 1966. You'd swear that The Corbomite Maneuver was from the original soundtrack, only with better audio quality. He was less precise in duplicating The Doomsday Machine by Sol Kaplan, but Steiner's version is good in it's own right. A definite buy for fans of the classic music.

I just want to recomend this c.d.I am a big fan of the orginal Star Trek series and recently started buying the D.V.D.s and when I heard the music for the Corbomite Maneuver boy I just had to have it.
All the peices are excellent and I would recomend this album to any classical music lover.
Sadly these tv composers where not really accepted by the classical crowd but all to their loss not ours as because if these composers where obscure 19th centuary finds they would be climbing over each other to hear them.

Trust me you will enjoy them.

When listening to this music you can almost see the episode unspooling in your mind. I don't think there is a Star Trek fan out there who wouldn't want these recording in their collections. Recommended.

These selections are not identical to what's contained in the actual TV soundtracks. However, these arrangements stand on their own for several reasons. First off, it's impossible to miss the fact that this isn't performed by a small (meaning cheap to fit a 60s budget) orchestra. This is, no pun intended, the real McCoy. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra has a really big sound with lush strings, powerful brass and great percussion. Yeah, real percussion! Just a little poke to post TOS Trek there. ;) Second, I enjoy Steiner's interpretation of his own compositions. This time, he holds things a little longer. Sometimes, the segues from one section to another are not rushed as they necessarily were in the show for a stinger or Act Out button. These are suites and I enjoy hearing them that way with little connecting passages here and there. Third, I get a huge kick out of the episode choices. The Corbomite Maneuver is in many ways a template for the entire series, better, I think, than either of the two pilots. For one thing, everyone but Chekov is aboard (Walter Koenig joined in Season Two) and for another so many character traits appear here. Kirk's ballsiness. Spock's cool analytical mind. (Yes, he does still yell in this one but not for much longer.) Bones' friendship with Kirk. Even Yeoman Rand. The episode is definitely a template musically because these pieces were used and reused throughout the show. This was also the case for the simultaneously creepy and heartbreaking Charlie X and the both funny and deadly serious events of Mudd's Women. Two good dramatic episodes. The early Trek shows were phenomenal because of how good they were right off the bat. And the same is true of the musical scores. The only episode from Season Two here contains probably the most recognized piece in all of Star Trek, other than the theme song. That's Sol Kaplan's score to The Doomsday Machine, which is a great Kirk episode AND a great Spock episode AND a great guest star episode (William Windom as Decker) AND Jimmy Doohan's favorite episode. It is absolutely impossible for me to think of the climax of this episode without that relentless and effective DUH-dut DUH-dut DUNH-dut DUH-dut repeated in the low brass and strings and this recording is just BIGGER. It doesn't have that crazy exciting out of control trumpet from the TV score but close. It's overall a different interpretation but it's the same music for the most part with a bigger sound and truly first class material. Star Trek would have been great with other music but nowhere near AS great or compelling. I will always love this show and I will always love this music. Highly recommended!

I was happy with the cd because I contained some of the star trek music from the original series that I did not have before and thought was unavailable.

Other than the spoken word intro by "Capt. Kirk" I don't care much for the opening theme music and it is included on every soundtrack recording of the original series by default.

I was particularly interested in the music from "The Corbormite Maneuver". It had most of the music from that episode, but I was disappointed that one of the most important arrangements (in my mind) was missing. It makes me wonder who put the soundtrack together and what they were thinking. Maybe they had the "good enough for goverment work" attitude. Anyway, the arrangement I refer to is where spock first gets the alien manequin to come up on the viewer. The music also appears in "City on the edge of Forever" when the guardian starts playing back earth history. It probably appears in other places, but the real star trek geeks ought to know the music I at referring to.

The Charlie X portion of the soundtrack was quite the treat for me also. Again, it included music that I really liked that later appeared in other episodes.

The Doomsday Machine music was redundant because it appears on another soundtrack in full. On this soundtrack you only get a small portion of that episodes music.

The Mudd's Women section also has music that I like alot. However, It is one of my least favorite episodes even though I have always like the Harry Mudd character.

The music compositions for the original Star Trek series are very artistic and more like first-rate movie scores ... this symphonic re-recording with the melodic themes and subtelties emphasized, finally brings this music into a form that can be fully appreciated ... highly recommended to any Star Trek or movie soundtrack fan ...

- Scriptor