Battlestar Galactica: The A to Z of Fantasy TV Themes [SOUNDTRACK]

Various Artists - Soundtracks - Television

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 25, 2000)
• Original Release Date: January 25, 2000
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Silva America
• ASIN: B00003OP0W
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #278,640 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK, but forget it if you're expecting the original TV music, October 5, 2000

By	Sean Breazeal (Mt. Pleasant, UT USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this CD hoping that the tracks included would be the original versions of the themes listed, or at least a faithful re-recording of them, since many are hard, if not impossible to find anywhere else. Instead, what you get is in some cases a close commendable job (Knight Rider, ST: Voyager). Others are, IMO, just plain awful. The Red Dwarf theme is stretched to almost 5 minutes and given a silly march/techno beat, then a very amateurish job doing the later season openings injecting weird riffs that are nowhere to be found in the traditional version. The plus of this Red Dwarf treatment? The inclusion of the very seldom heard second lyrical verse! The end is just lame again, though. Honestly, it sounds like someone at home playing with their keyboard and MIDI set. DS9 is similarly odd, nice overall, but far from traditional. Buck Rogers is just plain bad. It was short to begin with even on TV, so this CD just plays it twice with a somewhat ham-fisted segue between the two. The title track Battlestar Galactica is done well, but of all the powerful music in the series, why they chose to have almost 2½ minutes of slow, quiet woodwinds I couldn't figure out.

At any rate, some of these compositions are very enjoyable, others are hacked and pieced to stretch them timewise and the results are poor.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An extremely entertaining soundtrack, August 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: A-Z Of Fantasy Tv Themes Incl. Battlestar Galactica (Audio CD)

I've had this Soundtrack for a couple years now and I just can't get enough of it. From start to finish, it is packed with powerful and absorbing stuff.

Suites from THE LIVING LEGEND, WAR OF THE GODS, THE YOUNG LORDS, and THE HAND OF GOD are among the best it has to offer. Amazing work from the amazing composer Stu Phillips.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Not the Originals" does not = Not Good, August 29, 2007

By	English Pearson (MS, USA) - See all my reviews

I've read a few people complaining about this product and cannot think why. True, these are not the original soundtracks, but they are very well done nonetheless. As a person who has certainly been burned by similar collections before, where the orchestra consisted of a few guys overdubbing on various instruments backed by--save us--a synthesizer, A-Z delivers. My favorite is the well-deserving headliner. The new Battlestar Galactica series has some good things going for it, but the opening music is not one of them. The performance on this CD really shines, as does SeaQuest, Space: Above And Beyond. On the other hand, themes that weren't so orchestral, such as Red Dwarf and Dr. Who, are not as good, but still enjoyable.

To get an idea of how to regard this collection, forget about 'original' and think "A fantastic Fantasy TV-Theme performance of Boston Pops-style orchestra." If you like those (as I do) you'll love this.