Symphonic Star Trek

[Bren]

This album is wonderful, the reinterpretations of the Alexander Courage music are rousing and exciting! I really wish CBS had remastered the music with creations like this too, purists would have been driven mental, but just think of how enriched the experience would have been!

The downside is the terrible home-made sound effects albums of this type always seem compelled to include.

Check it out: http://www.amazon.com/Symphonic-Star-Trek-Erich-Kunzel/dp/B000003D0M

Use the soundtrack sampler to get a taste of some of it.

[Kirk]

Yeah these do sound pretty nifty.

[LordReserei]

Yeah, I've had this CD for a while now, wasn't a big fan of the sound FX either but since I listen to them via wmp I just leave 'em out of the playlist...funniest to me is humpback whale song, sounds like Chewbacca after being kicked in the nuts.

[baz1701]

Yeah I got this when it came out. Nice voice over by Leonard at the begining.

[undedavenger]

I've had it since 1999, and most of it is SUPERB. The TMP theme is the best version I've ever heard, a little faster tempo, more military-style drums, and it's so much clearer than than the one on the TMP soundtrack. The little computerized "zot" noise at the beginning is annoying. The Klingon Battle track is also superb, except they felt the need to dub LOUD and CHEESY lazer sounds over it. The TWOK suite is very good, but the place it really shines are in the overtures to Generations and ST6. They appear back to back, and due to their similarity, it almost seems to blend into one track.

There is another one Telarc did called "Bond and Beyond" with great TV and movie theme renditions. The medley of '60's show themes is awesome, as are the renditions from Terminator 2, First Blood, and of course, James Bond.

[Bren]

I still maintain my absolute favourite tracks are the Courage reduxs, the suite from The Menagerie is worthy of John Williams (the orion stripper scene puts me in mind of the scene in The Lost World where people get picked off one by one by the raptors in the long grass), and the other version is like Danny Elfmann smoked a huge pile of crack and recomposed it in the most flamboyant way possible.