I was unsure as to whether or not I should buy this CD since I already had all of the original soundtracks on CD. However, my good sense was replaced by my stupid desire for completism and so I bought it and glad I did. The performances of some of the pieces are very much more vigorous than on the original soundtracks, especially the end credits from Star Trek VI and Star Trek Generations. Some of them of course are not so good, especially the opening from Star Trek: The Motion Picture which is completely ruined by Telarc's annoying habit of putting sound effects on some of the tracks. That brings me onto a gripe. Why do Telarc put sound effects on their CDs, they don't enhance them, if anything, they are a turn off. I always program them out on my CD player, why do they bother? Anyway, allowing for the silly noises, this is a generally good CD and certainly a good staring block for those with an interest in Star Trek and want a sample of the music. "The Astral Symphony" which is a compilation of Star Trek music up to and including Star Trek V, is probably better (the better versions on Telarc's are from later films) since it features the original performances, but is now a little out of date, especially when this CD contains both the Deep Space Nine theme as well as the Star Trek Voyager theme. Incidentally, some of the pieces have slightly rearranged endings for some reason, these are generally not bad, although I don't see the point. (Note, tracks in Italics with - FX after them indicate a sound effect)
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