The beginning of  the Saga …. The Start of the Myth ….

  Rarescores Team is proud to present the 25^th Anniversary Special Edition of

STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE

Jerry Goldsmith talks about Star Trek:

“STAR TREK, the original STAR TREK, the television show, I was asked to do it originally, though that isn’t something that as Alexander Courage tells the story, he reminded me of it as a matter of fact one day. He had seen the memo that had come from, I guess, (Gene) Roddenberry to try and engage me for that. But I remember to this day, thirty some-odd years ago, getting the phone call to do it. I wasn’t able to do it because I had a conflict, I was doing something else at the time, so it’s rather serendipitous that years and years later I came back and did this project."

 (…)

 “But I think when it came to STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, although, I think that George Lucas’ vision of the music for STAR WARS greatly influenced not so much what I wrote for it but stylistically, the music rather ended up being rather avant-garde and being strange and he plays it very romantic. When you stop and think about it, space is a very romantic thought. It is, to me, like the Old West, we’re up in the universe. It’s about discovery and new life, and then when we came to STAR TREK, it’s really the basic premise of STAR TREK. I never really understood all the stories, to be perfectly honest, but I do know that it’s really about goodness, about a better world, that there could really be some tranquility with one another. It’s a lovely thought, and I think that’s why the universal appeal of it and musically you’re going to go that way, it was more or less that that was what was out there, and that was very successful, but it made sense."

 (…)

 “I subsequently got treated to all the STAR TREK movies that I’ve done, it’s more a musically romantic way rather than getting very avant-garde and making strange noises and all, but it is clearly the opposite of the score for PLANET OF THE APES."

 (…)

 “When I was asked to do the movie, I said, “I’d love to do it, but I don’t want to be saddled with the television theme.” And the producers said, “Fine, there isn’t going to be any association.” I mean, how can you do STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy and all the cast, and not have it be associated with the television theme? That’s where it came from, and subsequently we didn’t. There’s one quote of the original STAR TREK theme in the Captain’s Log, which they finally said, “We’ve got to have it somewhere in the picture,” so I had Alexander Courage actually do it himself, which was the right way to go. Subsequently, in all the other STAR TREK films that I’ve done, (five) of the films that I’ve done, I always start the film with the Sandy Courage fanfare from the television series, which was right to do, and then go into the theme I wrote.”

(...)

“The scene of the flying up to the Enterprise was a big, bombastic piece,” Goldsmith stated, “and it was... we all thought it was so wonderful, and we finished the sessions, and I’m patting myself on the back, and everybody’s telling me it was great and all that and...”

 (...)

Goldsmith fondly recalled when the new STAR TREK theme finally came together. “(Bob) had come over to the house, and he had a bad day with the special effects, and he says, “I’ve had a really bad day today. Nothing’s working right. I hope you’ve got good news for me.” So I remember the head of the music department at Paramount was there then. We had rehearsed this, and I had two pianos in the living room, and we played it for him on two pianos.” He says, “That’s it!” It was like, “Why didn’t you come up with that in the first place?”

 (...)

But the clock was against the film’s production, including Goldsmith’s score development. Rushing to meet the December 7, 1979 release date, Goldsmith worked long hours into the night and the morning to create not only the film’s opening signature theme for the Klingons but also the film’s climactic finish.

  (...)

“The last night of recording, which was, I know, I we finished 2:00 Saturday morning (December 1, 1979) and the picture opened, it fell on a (Friday), and that scene, I had recorded the opening Klingon scene and then the melding scene at the end -- I thought it was really quite good,” Goldsmith recalled. “I had stayed up the whole night before writing and I’d finished like at 11:00 that morning. It was like, we finished it and Bob says, ‘Can you do it one more time?’ I said, ‘Bob, I can’t, I don’t know what else (to do).’ Then I heard the next day on Saturday about 4:00, the phone rang, and it was Bob, and he says, ‘It works great, don’t worry about it, it works great in the scene."

And succeed it did. Goldsmith’s epic, sweeping score for STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE set the tone for all of the subsequent STAR TREK feature films to follow, including Goldsmith’s work on four of the follow-up films in the series. Goldsmith’s score would be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score and, like many of his previous film scores, take a life of its own beyond the film.