STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE (1979) / STAR TREK, Volume Two (1966)

Following the welcoming friend into the STAR TREK universe that was THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK, the next two albums I picked up really became the primary soundtracks underscoring the adventures of my younger sister Meri and me, during that final year we lived in Durham, NC.   Jerry Goldsmith's music for STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE had impressed me early on with its stellar qualities, especially since it is allowed to carry so much of that film.  The other purchase, "STAR TREK: Volume Two" was a re-recording of music from episodes of the original 1960's series.  Four episodes were represented, arranged in lengthy concert suite format and all entirely new to me as I had seen so little of the original series by then. 

As with the STAR TREK III album, there was initial disappointment in what music wasn't included on THE MOTION PICTURE LP.  Even my dad, who I initially thought didn't take notice of such things when I played soundtracks in his presence, noted the absence of certain cues.  On one road trip, as side two of the cassette wrapped up, my dad actually asked where the music was from a major sequence late in the film, a long, fateful walk Kirk and company take towards the film's antagonist.  Oddly enough, I didn't have the heart to tell him it wasn't on this album.  Not wanting him to be disappointed with the listening experience, I simply lied and said it was there.  He replied that he must not have been paying enough attention.  I still find it strange that I did this, but it was my own inability to handle any frustration he might exhibit towards something I presented him. Eventually, the entire score became available recently in a deluxe CD set and it's a listening experience I wished I could have shared with my father.

 

During that last year in Durham, Meri and I spent many fun weekends crafting our own customized corner of the TREK-verse, one populated with new characters taking life in radio-play formats recorded to cassette. My new stereo with dual cassette capability, a marvelous birthday gift from the year prior, allowed us to score our audio adventures with quality film and TV music, along with dialing in sound effects, while our amateur voice work attempted a variety of dialects.  Soon enough, we discovered that retaining within these endeavors the usual laughs and silliness endemic to our time together meant they were that much more fun to revisit later.  Honestly, I hope I didn't prevent Meri from spending more time with her own friends at that age.  These particular memories are amongst my favorites from those handful of middle-school years.

Our series was titled STAR TREK: A NEW SAGA.  Meri and I each played around seven or eight characters, mostly distinguished by terrible Russian accents, terrible Australian accents or terrible British accents, all accompanied by our best head voice and guttural tones.  Naturally, my story ideas often developed based on wanting to use music from my favorite soundtracks.  So for better or worse, the early episodes pretty much restricted themselves to what could be scored with music found on my first three STAR TREK albums.  Weirdly, this translated to stories of a deadly computer virus threatening to control our starship, the Executive, on three separate occasions.  

Jerry Goldsmith's multi-faceted score for STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE features a proud, but not haughty, martial main title, a sonorous love theme and awe-inspiring yet spooky cues coloring the Starship Enterprise's strange journey throughout the latter half of the film.  Alternately, the styles found on the original STAR TREK series album run the gamut from lyrical, gushing string-led cues, to brash and brassy action, quirky instrumentation and dry, percussive music in the mold of an old Western movie.  Woven together, these disparate elements magically imbued our home-made ramshackle adventures with a sense of excitement and importance.

In all, we created around twenty-five episodes, wrapping up the series in 1990 with three 90-minute "movies", after we had moved to Rocky Mount, NC.  Life changed by then, as a new town and new school provided me with a great group of friends and a proper stage on which to scratch my performing itch, through those awfully endearing comedies and musicals high schools always produce.   The bond developed between Meri and I never diminished, however.  We didn't outgrow each other.  The same movies and pop culture items managed to engage us both and there wasn't much I couldn't share with her.

Those final three productions of our STAR TREK series unfortunately are the sole survivors, the other cassettes now misplaced and lost over the course of multiple relocation in the subsequent years. Thankfully, the detail-oriented side of my nerdiness had gleefully, painstakingly and annoyingly typed up a two volume episode guide (dated 6/27/88).  This included story synopsis, character profiles, ship specs and surprisingly caustic reviews.  I held no compunction for tearing down my own work, apparently.  Seen here are the covers I created for each volume, plus a page from the story treatment of the first 90-minute episode.

With luck, one of these days I will digitize those remaining episodes, at least for posterity, if not to share.  While the plots will be found to be contrived and the performances broad, thank goodness the music by Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner and other composing talents really brought the class and polish.

In this day and age, when ever-prevalent mobile technology allows us to record any and all activities, whether mundane or red-letter, the fact that these 25-year old audio efforts still exist I find heartwarming.  They capture and present glimpses of a unique and special time for me and Meri, which otherwise would only exist as memories.  In that day, we kept each other amused and just let our imaginations rule the day.  Plus, she made a damn fine First Officer for a starship!