Nelson Au

I have a Star Trek question here regarding the soundtrack audio CD’s. I know this is the TV section, but the music section might not be knowledgeable on this topic. If it’s best to move to the music section, please do.

I’m curious if there are many here who are familiar with the Label X and GNP/Crescendo CD’s of newly recorded symphonic soundtracks of the original Star Trek TV series that came out in the mid 80’s and early 90’s.

I have a copy of Star Trek Volume 2 from Label X I recently unearthed in my collection and started to enjoy again. Clyde Allen arranged each suite and Tony Bremner conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. There are 4 suites on this CD, The Conscience of the King, Spectre of the Gun, The Enemy Within and I, Mudd. These are incredibly well done and recorded, I particularly find The Conscience of the King recording the best for it's content. They are as if they unearthed the real recordings from 1966-67. I wished I had picked up Volume 1, but I think its OOP.

Upon a search, I found on Amazon several Star Trek TOS and other Star Trek recordings on the GNP/Crescendo label with recordings also by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. I found no information on the arranger there, but I did sample some tracks on the Amazon site and they sound as authentic as the Label X recordings.

Perhaps someone may know the story here? I suspect the success of the Label X Volume 1 and 2 caused GNP/Crescendo to buy out the Label X rights, or they merged. Whatever the story is, I’m curious about picking up as many of these recordings as I can find as they are quite authentic recreations of the recordings for the original soundtracks for these episodes. Of interest is a boxed set that has all 3 CD’s of the TOS recordings on the GNP/Crescendo label. Titles included are: STAR TREK Original Series: The Cage / Where No Man Has Gone Before, STAR TREK Original Series: The Doomsday Machine/Amok Time, and STAR TREK Original Series: Shore Leave / The Naked Time. The GNP/Crescendo website still list these in their catalog.

If you are a Trek fan who is familiar with these CD’s, I’d appreciate an opinion on these CD’s. I’m focusing strictly on the TOS stuff. Too bad they didn’t do more of these TOS recreations, if they had the rights for City on the Edge of Forever that would have been cool. As polished a production the TNG and DS9 and even Voyager and Enterprise shows are, they just don't have the same quality when it came to their soundtracks, IMHO of course. Thanks.

Nelson

Eric Paddon

Only the scores from GNP Crescendo are the original soundtracks from the series, which they have (I think they still have) the rights to release. Sales figures though were not strong enough to justify releasing all of the scores they had access to and there was a decision not to release any soundtracks that had already been rerecorded by Label X or by Fred Steiner for Varese Sarabande. In the last few years, only a few more soundtracks have been released on CDs combined with additional scores from the Trek spinoff series.

This is a breakdown of what has been released.

ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACKS (GNP)
1-"The Cage"/"Where No Man Has Gone Before"
2-"The Doomsday Machine"/"Amok Time"
3-"Shore Leave"/"The Naked Time"
4-"The Trouble With Tribbles" (Star Trek 30th Anniversary CD)
5-"Balance Of Terror"/"What Are Little Girls Made Of?"/"The Corbomite Maneuver" (The Best Of Star Trek Volume 2 CD)


VARESE SARABANDE RERECORDINGS
1-The Corbomite Maneuver
Charlie X
The Doomsday Machine (partial)
Mudd's Women
2-By Any Other Name
The Trouble With Tribbles (partial)
Mirror, Mirror
The Empath

LABEL X RERECORDINGS
1-Is There In Truth No Beauty?
The Paradise Syndrome
2-Conscience Of The King
Spectre Of The Gun
The Enemy Within
I, Mudd


I have personally never cared for the Label X rerecordings because I do not like the "suited" arrangements and also the tempos are way off from what they sound like in the broadcasts. The Varese rerecordings are much better, except for the partial rerecordings of "Doomsday Machine" and "Tribbles" which thankfully are out in their original versions.

Nelson Au

Thanks for the background and clarification on what releases are real scores verses the re-recordings. This will help me alot!

I can understand from a purist POV that the re-recordings are not exactly true to the broadcast versions. I felt the one Label X re-recording I do own did a nice job of making each musical piece into a whole that flows well as a suite. I'll look into picking up the titles on your list. It will be interesting to compare to the Varese re-recordings. By the way, anyone know where I can find a copy of the OOP Label X Volume 1 CD? I've looked on the web to no avail.

Thanks again. Nelson

Greg_S_H

There was a cool Arabianesque "native exotica" sound in Friday's Child and maybe a few other episodes. It showed up in the NES game, too. Is this cue included on one of the GNP discs?

Eric Paddon

No it isn't since "Friday's Child" is a completely original score and wasn't comprised of cues originally composed for the other episodes that have been released or re-recording.

I believe the other scores that are still MIA in either original or rerecorded format would also include "Metamorphosis", "Plato's Stepchildren" and "The Enterprise Incident" (Fred Steiner wrote one snippet for "The Omega Glory" when the flag is brought in).

Greg_S_H

I assumed since it was used for the game that it was a common piece of music played in other episodes. I guess it made as strong an impression on the game developers as it did on me. I'll guess I'll have to spin the DVD to hear it.

Eric Paddon

It certainly is used in later second season episodes but episodes that were comprised entirely of cues written for previous episodes would never be released on CD under the title for those episodes in which they're used solely as recycled music ("Doomsday Machine" is another example of a score extensively reused again in episodes like "Immunity Syndrome" etc.)