"Star Trek" is 50 years old this year. (Talk about “live long and prosper.”) One way you can celebrate the golden anniversary of the beloved franchise is by hearing a live orchestra play music from five decades of movies and TV series. "Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage" is a 100-city concert tour, which docks in L.A. on April 1-2.
According to William Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk on the original TV series and in six feature films:
Think of the urge to go to the moon. Why the heck would you want to go to the moon? It’s there and it’s irritating us, ’cause we’re not there, and it looks like you can grab the moon, especially on those nights when the moon looms up, and you think, My god, I could just take a jump and I’d be on the moon. People want to go to Mars! Why? Why would you jeopardize your life? Burn up in a cinder, and be lost until the sun explodes? What is in us, human beings, to want to do that? And that’s what the themes of these great composers contain.
“These great composers” are the dozen or so who gave musical voice to Shatner’s fictional home aboard the Starship Enterprise. "Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage" was conceived of as a way to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the enduring and enormous galaxy that Gene Roddenberry created back in 1966.
“Now the audience is not only taken in by the scene,” says Shatner, “but all of a sudden they’re aware that there’s music behind what’s going on on the screen — which they may not have, and frequently are never aware. But the music sustains, supports, increases the emotion.”
This touring show celebrates all of it, from the exotica theme for the original series written by Alexander Courage, to iconic moments of score for the small screen both old and new, to the majestic, symphonic pieces written for the Federation’s adventures on the big screen. It’s a broad and eclectic spectrum of music, but if there’s one composer who really defined what "'Star Trek" music is, it was Jerry Goldsmith, who scored five of the feature films and main themes for two of the TV series.
“I would say he helped define it, and it became a template,” says Shatner, who hired Goldsmith to compose the score when he moved from the captain’s chair to the director’s chair on "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier."
"The Ultimate Voyage" is performed by a touring orchestra and conducted by Justin Freer, the founder of CineConcerts. He’s conducted scores to accompany screenings for, among other titles, "The Godfather" and "Gladiator," and this summer he’ll do so with the first "Harry Potter" movie at the Hollywood Bowl.
“With the advent of technology, it’s become a lot easier to present these types of things,” Freer says. “Whereas 15 years ago it was very difficult to synchronize an entire score-to-picture in a live setting.”
Freer had a special interest in "Star Trek," not just because he was a fan of the franchise, but as a one-time apprentice of Jerry Goldsmith.
“For [Goldsmith], it wasn’t about film music, it wasn’t about television music — it was about music,” Freer says. “And it was about form and harmony and melody. And with those tools you could approach a scene, and hopefully extrapolate the emotion, which is what was so important to him —always finding an emotional connection to what was happening onscreen that you couldn’t see.”
Freer says this concert isn’t just for Trekkies — it’s for anyone who enjoys great music. And Shatner agrees:
These very talented people, in another era, they would have written symphonies, oratorios . . . Their unique musical talent is the equivalent of any musical talent in the past ages, which didn’t have the conceit of writing it to picture. I’m sure you will agree with me when you hear it that it stands on its own as wonderful music.
"Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage" will be performed at the Pantages Theater on April 1-2.