When we recall the classic opening of the original “Star Trek” series, we’re not just remembering William Shatner intoning those immortal words “…To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before!”
We’re also recalling the cosmic chords and swelling symphonic starbursts of Alexander Courage’s theme music.
The first “Star Trek” series, starring Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, aired on NBC from 1966 to 1969, making this year the 50th anniversary of the Enterprise’s initial voyage. That’s the impetus for “Star Trek — The Ultimate Voyage,” a nationally touring orchestral concert of “Star Trek” music that goes boldly into The Bushnell Sunday, March 6.
Justin Freer, who conceived, co-produces and conducts the concert, says the project has given him “a newfound respect for this franchise. There are so many gems to discover.”
The “Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage” show contains more than 30 separate pieces of music. While the orchestra plays, scenes from the many “Star Trek” shows and movies are shown on a giant projection screen. Some of the scenes are scored with the music that originally accompanied them, only played live for this staging. Freer mentions an excerpt from “Amok Time” as one of those recreated moments. (That’s the episode from the second season of the original series where Spock returns to his home planet Vulcan for a mating ritual.) Other times, musical selections are used to accompany montages centered around certain prevailing “Star Trek” themes. There are a few sections — an overture and entr’acte, for instance — where the music stands alone.
“Each composer brings his own style,” Freer explains, “but the style everybody shares is the style of Gene Roddenberry,” the writer and producer who fashioned the original series and oversaw several other “Star Trek” permutations before his death in 1991. Freer contacted several of the composers to solicit their input for the program.
“They hoped certain things would be played,” he says, and he accommodated them. Freer had also worked closely with Jerry Goldsmith, who died in 2004 and whose score for “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” was nominated for an Academy Award and is up there with Courage’s original “Star Trek” theme as some of the greatest music associated with the franchise.
While the ’90s “Star Trek” films and the “The Next Generation” and “Deep Space Nine” series are particularly well represented, room is also found for a snippet from Michael Giacchino’s score for the 2009 movie reboot (starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto), and the concert’s second half opens with Ron Jones’ “Opening” from the video game “Starfleet Academy.”
The evening also features some pre-recorded narration by Michael Dorn, who played Worf the Klingon on two separate “Star Trek” series (“The Next Generation” and “Deep Space Nine”) and four of the movies. The text was written by Brady Beaubien, who with Freer founded the CineConcerts company which, besides “Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage” has presented orchestral concerts devoted to “The Godfather,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “Gladiator.” The orchestra for “Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage” tours in its entirety and doesn’t use “pick-up” players as many road shows do. The musicians are members of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, which recently recorded an album of music from the original “Star Trek” series with Freer.
Adam Matlock, a New Haven-based music teacher, musician and longtime “Star Trek” fan who plans to attend the concert, says that based on a list of the soundtrack excerpts being played in “The Ultimate Voyage,” the show looks “fantastic.”
“It’s exceptional for any kind of orchestral program to go for ‘the deep cuts’ in this regard,” Matlock said. “It’s a pleasant surprise to see them take that body of music seriously.”
As a composer himself (who plays accordion in the bands An Historic and Dr. Caterwaul’s Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps), Matlock is fascinated by “the links between fiction writing and musical composition.” He notes that the music for the “Star Trek” movies can differ considerably from the music composed for the TV shows.
“Film scores tend to underscore action,” he says, in the tradition of action/adventure movies and historical dramas. “It’s a nostalgia trip, except that the stories take place in the future. The TV scores are where these franchises had a chance to shine, with really new emotional reactions. It’s exciting that they have selections from ‘Deep Space Nine’ — it’s deeper and more complex than the other shows.”
Freer agrees. “There are some incredibly dark moments. One of my favorites is the scene from ‘Deep Space Nine’ where Capt. Sisko is basically admitting that he committed genocide in order to save the empire.”
Freer describes “Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage” as a sort of film unto itself, chronicling the many phases of the franchise and spotlighting its most popular characters and adventures.
“The biggest challenge,” he says, “is sifting through this vast universe of material. What helps is to focus on the story. We had to tell a unique story as if it was its own unique film.”
“STAR TREK: THE ULTIMATE VOYAGE” is performed 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 6, at The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford. Tickets are $19.50 to $125. Information: 860-987-6000, bushnell.org.
