Search - Various Artists :: Star Trek 5

The More I Listen ...

Stephie Fryar | Chicago, IL USA | 03/11/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"to Jerry Goldsmith's orchestral score for STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER, the more I've grown to appreciate this marvelous thematic score which had the great misfortune to be attached to one of the weakest of the Original Series films (right behind ST: TMP).



Yet, this score stands out for a couple of my favorite cues. First, there's the beautiful and awe-inspiring "The Mountain" which opens the film. With its richly orchestrated strings and mellow brass notes, this song never fails to give me goosebumps every time I hear it. The effect is further enhanced if you're listening to it when you're driving through a hilly countryside or walking through a forest.



My second favorite cue is "A Busy Man". This cue also hits just the right notes of delight and awe as you listen, and it's interesting to note that this theme is echoed in Goldsmith's score for STAR TREK: NEMESIS. I was also pleasantly surprised and delighted to hear the theme for the Klingons (which I first heard in ST:TMP) reprised once more in the closing credits theme.



Once again, Jerry Goldsmith managed to raise the quality of a somewhat lackluster film (William Shatner's questionable "directing" talent notwithstanding) with a score that's powerful, rousing and filled with the kind of delightful and awe-inspiring music we came to expect from the Maestro."

"The Mountain" is truly the "peak" of this work!

Douglas W. Peschka | Olathe, KS USA | 06/27/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When I saw Star Trek 5 upon it's initial release in '89,

I saw three different stories attempting to be force-sealed into one:



Sybok's spiritual as well as physical search for God and Sha-Ka-Ree.

Spock's discovery of his long-lost half-brother, Sybock.

Kirk's attitudes towards death, and towards spiritual-healing "tricks".

["Faith-Healers" have never impressed me to begin with.

Give Kirk an "ATTA-BOY!" on that one!]!



[Somebody, in response to Kirk's cry of

"I don't WANT my pain taken away - I NEED my pain!

once made this interesting comment:



"No 'New-Age Easy Answers for Kirk, thank you!'"

I liked that. I'm no fan of New Age thinking myself.]



The new Enterprise-A being full of malfunctions, I felt, detracted from the story, for, in the end, the ship rose to the occasion, and carried crew and guests into danger and back as well as her predecessor had always done.



Roddenberry is said to have deeply felt this film was very apochryphal, and should not be regarded as official Star Trek "canon".



Having said all that, I was deeply moved by Goldsmith's fine compostion

"The Mountain". This piece of music, for me, stands very well

all alone in it's own right, in additon to being a part of this soundtrack.



When I and my wife have vacationed in Oregon, I played this music on our car stereo during one of our drives around Mount Hood, our favourite mountain in all the world. For me, especially, "The Mountain" has become my personal love song to the Pacific Northwest that we love so much.



"The Mountain" raises images and notions of new possiblities, as another reviewer of this CD noted, and it also captures, for me, the great majesty and great splendor that is the American Pacific Northwest.



I was very honored to see this great part of our country finally represented - albeit briefly - in a Star Trek production.



"The Mountain" is a piece of music that could - and should - have been used again in other Star Trek productions which followed ST5.



Goldsmith also brings new fresh excitement to the action sequences and his updated version of the Star Trek - The Motion Picture theme.

Here, the theme is more of an uplifting march.



While "The Mountain" is, for me personally, the highest point of this CD,

the entire collection here rises well above the film itself, and is the movie's saving grace.



By this CD - and go climb a mountain!

"

More exciting than it sounded in the theater!

Reginald D. Garrard | Camilla, GA USA | 12/19/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Obviously, the producers really wanted Goldsmith's composition to be a true "underscoring" because it could not be appreciated on the screen as it is here on the CD version. Of course, there are some missing cues but the ones featured on this release are still characteristic of the trademark Goldsmith sound: passionate, bombastic, tense, and poignant.



Besides familiar melodies altered significantly from Goldsmith's own music for 1979's "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", heard over the opening and end credits, the other highlights include themes made specifically for the film, the best among those are "The Mountain", "The Barrier", "Open the Gates", "An Angry God", and "Free Minds".



Actually, the music is infinitely better than the film but that's the mark of the late composer who managed to elevate even the most mundane of scripts to something special.



Thankfully, his music will "live long and prosper"."