In regards to music, it started as it meant to go on (at least in the beginning) with Dennis McCarthy as the primary composer for the series. However, the material on this album is vastly different to that he penned for later episodes of The Next Generation as well as Voyager and Deep Space Nine. At this point, Gene Roddenberry was still in charge and wanting his show to have some above average television music. While it doesn't quite match the music of Jerry Fielding and co from the original series, McCarthy's music shows vastly more imagination than the homogeneous sound that Rick Berman later imposed after Roddenberry passed away. Having said that, the wealth of ideas don't really combine terribly well and the album is somewhat incoherent.
McCarthy attempts to combine a more epic spare faring sound with more "modern" electronics and while they haven't dated too badly, aren't always as pleasing as they might be. Then again, the necessity to augment a smaller television orchestra does mean that they sometimes perform the useful function of filling out the texture as well as create a more mysterious atmosphere than might be conjured with a smaller ensemble alone. Having said that, the more exciting sections are orchestrated and recorded in such a way as to make full use of the available resources and segments such as First Chase are genuinely quite exciting. A greater use of the Courage fanfare is quite welcome and together with McCarthy's own ideas certainly lifts the music to more interesting levels than he was able to achieve in later episodes, even if none of them are sustained long enough to have any real lasting impact.
Although the watered down Goldsmith theme from the big screen adventures was eventually used, an alternate theme by McCarthy is featured at the end of the album. It is a little on the cheesy side, trying to be swaggering and heroic, but not quite convincing. It's good fun, but predictably not a patch on Goldsmith's melody, although given the more cerebral nature of the show, neither are really suitable. Having said that, the arrangement for the smaller orchestra sounds considerably more impressive due to bold, yet simple brass writing where Goldsmith's requires much more counterpoint between the different sections and the overall effect is a lot flimsier.
The nature of television music is that it's done in even shorter segments than that written for film and so many of the cues start onto something interesting, but quickly move to something else. The result is incoherent at times, but fairly enjoyable even if it has little in the way of things to persuade the listener to return. While it has dated more than the recent Trek music, the earlier Dennis McCarthy (and Ron Jones) efforts are much more interesting. It certainly isn't as good as Jones' Best of Both Worlds, but not without a few good moments.
Rating ~ Total Time ~ 37:08
