I had the occasion to respond to an e-mail from a reader of the site this week who was inquiring about any possible news of new Star Trek TV soundtrack releases, and the more I thought about it, the more I thought it was a really good idea. The worst we can get is a “no, not gonna happen.” Feel free to pass the URL for this entry along to your Trek-music-hungry friends. Here’s an excerpt from my reply to the e-mail.
To make matters even more complicated, there’s the current status of Trek (not exactly the most favorite Paramount property ever under the current regime at Paramount/Viacom/CBS) and the status of the label that used to do virtually all of the Trek TV soundtrack releases. Quite a few of the staff at GNP Crescendo seem to have defected in the past few years to a newer indie label, La La Land Records, which does not have the Star Trek license; Crescendo no longer has the license to pursue new soundtrack releases, from what I understand, so we’re stuck between a studio that doesn’t give even the tiniest fraction of a flip about Star Trek right now, and no label in place to release stuff even if they could license it.
My best advice for right now is to write a nice e-mail or letter to La La Land Records and try to stir up some interest in a possible series of Star Trek episode score CDs, very much like their current “Farscape Classics” series, which gather every cue from two individual episodes on a single CD. (I’ve gotten the first one of those Farscape CDs, and I have to say, they’re really nice.) With the 20th anniversary of TNG coming next year, I’d like to think that maybe we could put a bug in their ear about this idea and start getting some TNG episode scores released – I’d personally love to have Q Who, Skin Of Evil, The Child, Peak Performance, 11001001, Datalore, and The Emissary on CD…and that’s just from a cursory glance of the first two seasons.
Give ’em a shout at www.lalalandrecords.com – the worst they can do is say no.
Upon further reflection, assuming two CDs per season, I came up with these “dream teams” for TNG Classics soundtrack releases, based on the quality of the music, not necessarily the popularity of the episodes, and divided up by composer where possible to simplify the royalty madness. I have also omitted those scores which have also seen a fairly substantial release as part of existing GNP Crescendo compilations.
Season 1:
Where No One Has Gone Before (R. Jones) / 11001001 (R. Jones)
The Big Goodbye (D. McCarthy) / Conspiracy (D. McCarthy)
Season 2:
The Child (D. McCarthy) / Contagion (D. McCarthy)
Q Who (R. Jones) / The Emissary (R. Jones)
Season 3:
Evolution (R. Jones) / Booby Trap (R. Jones)
The Survivors (D. McCarthy) / Sins Of The Father (D. McCarthy)
Season 4:
Family (D. McCarthy) / Redemption I (D. McCarthy)
Night Terrors (R. Jones) / The Drumhead (R. Jones)
Season 5:
Redemption II (D. McCarthy) / Time’s Arrow I (D. McCarthy)
Darmok (J. Chattaway) / I, Borg (J. Chattaway)
Season 6:
Time’s Arrow II (D. McCarthy) / Timescape (D. McCarthy)
Chain Of Command I (J. Chattaway) / Face Of The Enemy (D. Davis)
Season 7:
Gambit I (J. Chattaway) / The Pegasus (J. Debney)
Masks (D. McCarthy) / Genesis (D. McCarthy)
Anyway, those are just my faves, if I can only pick four per season; don’t feel like you have to suggest these to La-La Land. Just let ’em know you’d be interested in a TNG Classics series. Maybe another time when I’ve got more of your time to waste, I’ll walk you through my four-scores-per-season suggestions for DS9 and Voyager.
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