The first two Space & Beyond albums by Silva were both fine albums and if it's ain't broke, don't fix it. At least that's the theory, although far too often you end up with a Return of the Jedi, Alien 3 or The Godfather III on your hands. Fortunately, Silva are canny enough to be able to pick a good selection of sci-fi (kind of) music to fill out another great double album. Perhaps even more than the first two albums, this contains a few more off the wall selections as well as the predictable mix of Star Trek and Wars.
Starting with the predictable. Star Trek gets a good and slightly less conventional selection, starting with a good suite from Courage's score to The Menagerie, which plays well and includes an excellent, fleshed out version of the classic Trek theme the highlight of which is a cello version, which I think works much better than the vocal interpretation it was originally written as. Ron Jones has always been a point of contention in the modern Trek era; he created some of the best and most interesting scores for The Next Generation and because of that, Rick Berman fired him. I wish to avoid libel and so suffice to say, I don't agree with Mr Berman's decision. The cue here is taken from Star Fleet Academy computer game and is the opening prologue which Jones thoughtfully arranged for full orchestra especially for this recording. It may not be a classic Trek opener, but it makes good use of the Courage fanfare and it's certainly nice to hear some more good Jones music. Jerry's end title to Insurrection cuts in the lovely plinky harp theme in the middle of his original Trek march. Star Wars gets its outing with Williams' official concert suite from The Phantom Menace, which gets a robust performance with enough dynamism to make up for the occasional performance error.
Other sci-fi favourites include a loud bit from Horner's loud Aliens, a well arranged suite from Poledouris' Robocop and a couple of Silvestri favourites, Judge Dredd and Back to the Future. Horner also gets a slice from one of his more tedious recent scores, The Wedding from Deep Impact. Nice, but not nearly as good as the wonderful finale choral track, but never mind. Broughton's original end title from the ill-fated Lost in Space (the film is ill-fated, not the superb score) which is played with remarkable attention to detail despite the break-neck pace and furious brass and string writing. In case you weren't able to acquire David Newman's delightful score for Galaxy Quest, the suite here almost certainly a few of the best cues and his particularly articulate choral writing is quite wonderful. Craig Safan's The Last Starfighter seems to be eternally popular, but I would best and most charitably describe it as third-rate, imitation John Williams. Not his fault, I would suggest, since the producers would probably have hired Williams had they had enough money. I haven't quite worked out exactly why Anything from Possible from The Matrix is longer than the original, but whatever the case it is given a good performance here. The five minutes from Trevor Rabin's Armageddon are more than enough for me.
Perhaps I am naturally biased towards the music I know best, but the more obscure entries on Silva compilations are never terribly satisfying. Henry Mancini's fairly naff, cod-Bernard Herrmann It Came from Outer Space is just the kind of cheesy sci-fi music people remember from the era and is certainly leagues behind his superb score for Lifeforce. Some of the inclusions have a distinctly non-genre sound to them. Arthur Bliss' music from Things to Come is good, but doesn't really suggest the film it is from (at least based on the description of the film anyway). Others such as Garcia's The Time Machine and the exceptionally generic, yet passably pleasant Main Theme from John Debney's The Cape just pass virtually unnoticed against the dynamic backdrop of the more well known pieces. It has to be said that Laurence Rosenthal's End Title from The Meteor is quite a knockout and was definitely one of the nicest surprises on the album.
The performances are typically varied, but this time vary between good and very good. The City of Prague brass playing is improving tremendously and only in a couple of places does it faulter, with only a minor impact on the overall quality. Probably a must for any sci-fi fan since it is almost track after track of classic sci-fi themes, but with a few rare moments for the more serious collector. Recording is typically detailed, although this does result in the occasional harshness that isn't quite so enjoyable at higher volumes. Liner notes are useful and provide enough detail on each film, even if the graphic design is pretty unappealing otherwise. However, for the music, worth anyone's money and almost certain to include something you don't have.
Rating ~ 
Disc 1 ~
63:06
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Disc
2 ~ 68:17
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