I lied of course. The biggest complaint so far has been against the choice of title music. Where Alexander Courage, Jerry Goldsmith (twice) and Dennis McCarthy have boldly gone, now, erm, Diane Warren makes her mark, with Russell Watson to perform. If I were to be perfectly fair, Where My Heart Will Take Me is not especially bad as power ballads go (not saying much I admit), and Russell Watson's performance is good, even if his regular operatic singing has been replaced by imitation Michael Bolton. It's just wholly inappropriate for Star Trek and is entirely at odds with the feel of the rest of the show. The album contains both the original version and the mercifully brief TV version. Because it's so earnestly over the top, the original version gets wearing very quickly and the TV version (which covers the gamut of musical, if not lyrical, material) is infinitely preferable and on its own, mildly diverting.
Un/Fortunately for us, the loyal listeners and viewers, Berman hasn't made any drastic changes to the general underscore. The chance for some rock or synth based scoring might have seemed appealing and while some of the recent Trek scoring hasn't always been terribly exciting, it's at least in the hands of capable composers, even if they are limited in their creativity. That having been said, Enterprise or more specifically the pilot episode, Broken Bow has gotton off to a good start musically. It's not especially original stuff, but does have one decent theme and some passably exciting action. The first flight of a Star Trek ship is invariably greeted with enthusiasm by composers and while McCarthy's isn't all that memorable, the use of his noble (Captain) Archer's Theme works very well indeed. Indeed Archer's Theme gets quite a reasonable amount of mileage at various points throughout the score, although the electric guitar arrangement for the end titles is terribly cheesy and quite disappointing given how good the brass renditions are.
As Star Trek pilots go, Broken Bow is perhaps the best to date and certainly contained a decent level of action and adventure, which is mirrored in the scoring. There is nothing overtly complex about most of it, but with plenty of brass and percussion pounding away, it has its moments. The rest is divided between suspenseful which quite quickly becomes unappealing and noble, the latter mainly bookending, first for the Enterprise's departure and closing with the crew boldly going. For all that, it's a fairly average Star Trek TV score, but like most of those with full length releases, it isn't really involving enough to warrant its running time. Still, anyone who enjoys McCarthy's work will no doubt find plenty to enjoy.
Rating ~ 