OK, a day late, but thought I should finish (probably) this particular column stream.
Not only do film serials get rebooted, but so too do TV shows and where better to look than two of the longest running TV shows in history and, in one case, the longest running sci-fi show in the world.
When Doctor Who started in 1963, I doubt anyone would imagine that Daleks would be running amok at the Royal Albert Hall while a symphony orchestra blasted out a ramped up version of Ron Grainer's ghostly theme (originally produced by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in a version that changed little for almost 20 years). For all the protestations that Doctor Who was a bit of a cult TV show, the original series actually had MORE viewers than it does today. Yet the BBC rarely considered it more than a show for kids and gave it a budget of about 49 pence per episode until being cancelled in 1989. Even then it regularly received as many viewers as the show does today but in 2011, it's deemed a smash hit.
Fortunately, the good Doctor made a return in 2005 with Russell T Davis rebooted Doctor Who after 16 years off our screens, save for the 1999 movie. Although I am not a fan of Debney's score to the TV movie, it did at least set some kind of precedent for Murray Gold when he took over scoring duties for RTD. The original Doctor Who went through an eclectic mix of composers, some independently engaged by specific directors, but often from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop when an electronic score was called for (or, perhaps more accurately, all they could afford). The original scores often seem rather hokey these days. If acoustic, the ensembles were small and the music fairly terse and unmemorable. The same goes for the electronic scores which were often difficult to separate from the sound effects.
However, Davis decided that in 2005, only big scoring would do, although I suspect few remember that the first series of the rebooted show was almost entirely electronic, albeit more synth orchestra than the kind of eerie bleeps of the original show. However, a small chorus for the first Dalek episodes gave a taste of things to come and by the first Christmas special, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales were performing a full orchestral score. If one had to imagine the opposite of the original show's music, Murray surely provided it. Bold, epic, tuneful, not to mention loud - indeed, loud enough to be spoofed for its occasional intrusiveness. However, it was just one element the show had always needed, although I grant that had the original episodes been scored in the same way, they would have come across as ridiculous, but with RTD's grand vision, it all seemed perfect. So it continues as Gold continues to score the show for Stephen Moffat.
While Doctor Who is going strong, Star Trek has stumbled badly and is only just picking itself up again after JJ Abrams' exciting new take. I'm not a massive fan of Abrams' film, at least not a fan of it as a Star Trek film; it doesn't seem to quite get the point of Star Trek, but on its own terms, is a thrilling ride. The franchise has had many reboots over the years, most notably when Jerry Goldsmith scored the first film and made Star Trek grand, but also reflected the mysteries of existence with his thunderous V'Ger music. The films and their music have felt rebooted over and over in some ways. James Horner took an entirely different approach for an entirely different type of Star Trek film in the Wrath of Kahn, although The Search for Spock retains more continuity.
Each subsequent film has felt a little different, until the final three Next Generation movies that almost seemed to undo what Goldsmith originally did with The Motion Picture, making Star Trek progressively less and less grandiose, rather more and more of a standard action/adventure in space. Goldsmith was only reflecting the movies he was given, but the rush of imagination that created The Motion Picture, or even Star Trek V. The latter may have been a terrible film in many ways, but Goldsmith was still composing for the film it should have been and the endless possibilities of existence rather than the disappointing action/adventure film it was. Michael Giacchino's first Star Trek outing was perhaps more successful than Goldsmith's last, Nemesis, but is still more firmly rooted in action and adventure rather than ideas, possibilities and the human condition. However, it'll be interesting to see what he does next. Here's hoping for a more memorable main theme, at least.
One thing Giacchino did with his score was bring the main theme full circle by including a sweeping version of Alexander Courage's original TV series melody. It made me think that Courage's tune wouldn't seem so hokey these days had it been arranged rather differently. It certainly feels a lot more adventurous, soaring between the stars than the bongos and soprano original. The original TV show had some of the best TV music of the 60's, orchestral and in striking contrast to the bleepy Doctor Who music of the same era. While somewhat of its time, it still stands up today and is certainly strikingly different to the broad washes of orchestra that characterised a lot of the Next Generation and early Deep Space Nine scoring.
Fortunately, the producers eased up on the Star Trek composers and some of the later Deep Space Nine and Voyager scores are genuinely rather exciting, although they don't match the best of the early Next Generation scores. Little beats Ron Jones' thrilling music for the classic two hander, the Best of Both Worlds. Should another series ever make it to our screens - which seems unlikely for the foreseeable future, Paramount are clearly happier letting the new film series bed down and make it a nice chunk of cash, more than any of the previous films - one wonders whether maybe it'll be more like Bear McCreery's music for the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica which went in a different direction to Stu Phillips' Star Wars Lite score for the original and replaced it with percussion loops, string elegies and even a little Celtic lilt here and there. It's certainly some of the most accomplished and effective scoring of the 2000's.
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