By GustavoLeao / 11:59, 10 December 2010 / Star Trek: Nemesis

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STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER (1989 / 2010)

Released by La-La Land Records

Reviewed for TrekWeb.com by Bill Williams

2-CD set / Running time: 132 minutes

ISBN # 826924115725

Date of release: November 30, 2010

The summer of 1989 was one of those great times when there were lots of movies to choose from at the box office. Among the most popular movies out that year, we got a third "Indiana Jones" installment, a second "Lethal Weapon", a third "Karate Kid", and a second "Ghostbusters", among others. Of course, all of these movies were eclipsed by the long-awaited cinematic showdown between Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson in "Batman", which was loud, dark, serious, at times campy, and exciting from start to finish.

Among the mix we had "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier", the fifth installment in the popular film incarnation of the classic series. Directed by William Shatner, it started out with lofty ambitions. Once "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" rocketed to theaters two and a half years before to outstanding critical and commercial acclaim, Shatner had announced his plans to direct his first big-screen feature film with a "wonderful world-renowned writer" he kept under wraps and a stellar story that would take the franchise to even bigger heights than before.

What we got instead was a mess. Instead of the "wonderful world-renowned writer" Shatner promised (later reports vacillated between Nicholas Meyer and novelist Eric Von Lustbader), we got David Loughery, a first-timer in the Trek universe who delivered a campy but competent story about friendship, religion, and mysticism. Instead of the witty dialog which greatly contributed to the success of "Star Trek IV", we got a bunch of cutesy jokes and pratfalls that could have come out of any segment of the Three Stooges. Instead of the top-notch visual effects from Industrial Light and Magic, we got a bunch of cruddy slipshod B-grade effects from Bran Ferren. Instead of the climactic ending Shatner promised of a descent into a Hell-like environment, the film's ending had to be severely revised due to budgetary problems. And instead of the promised high adventure, "Star Trek V" got lost in the summertime shuffle, earning a measly $52 million at the box office, less than half of its predecessor (by comparison, it wound up in the black as opposed to "Star Trek: Nemesis", which earned even less in its release).

One of the film's strongest and most acclaimed elements, however, was the rich score by Jerry Goldsmith, returning ten years after "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" to deliver a deeper yet warmer score than his predecessor. With "Star Trek V" Goldsmith cemented himself as the franchise's most definitive score composer, eventually developing the theme for "Star Trek: Voyager" and providing the scores to three of the "Next Generation" sequels in later years.

In 1989 Columbia Records issued a 43-minute album of tracks from the movie, and for a long time this was the only way people could enjoy Goldsmith's music. Now La-La Land Records, which has given fans all of the "Battlestar Galactica" soundtrack releases and this year's expanded "Batman" score, has issued the complete score to "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" in a sprawling two-disc set that brings Goldsmith's complete vision to life. Produced by Lukas Kendall, Mike Matessino (props to ya, good buddy!), and Didier C. Deutsch, this marks the third expanded "Star Trek" score CD this year, following on the heels of the "Star Trek III" and "Next Generation" Ron Jones box set from Film Score Monthly, and the first "Trek" release from La-La Land Records.

On Disc 1 we have Goldsmith's full score from the film, recently remastered from the one-inch digital masters, spanning 26 tracks altogether and running over 73 minutes in length. Here we get to hear Goldsmith's vision come to life in all its glory, which seemed to take a back seat at times to the on-screen action and dialog. We get the full version of "The Mountain (Main Titles)", which was truncated for the album release, as well as the full versions to "Without Help" and "Let's Get Out of Here", now divided into two parts to take advantage of Shatner's revision to the climactic ending. We have three lovely Americana-type tracks in "The Mountain", "Not Alone", and "Cosmic Thoughts", which provide a moving theme for Captain Kirk that defines his exploratory nature and his friendship with Spock and McCoy. In the tracks "The Mind-Meld", "Free Minds", and the newly released "Pick it Up" and "It Exists" we have the dissonant, mystical, and intriguing themes that form motifs for Sybok, Spock's radical and emotional half-brother on a search to find God. As opposed to the coldness of Goldsmith's TMP score, his STV score is warm, adventurous, and very reminiscent of the Original Series. It's a shame much of this score was left off the original LP 20-plus years ago.

On Disc 2 we have the original 43-minute soundtrack album from 1989 complete with the edited versions of "The Mountain" and "Without Help", as well as an alternate version of "Let's Get Out of Here" that provides a somewhat different ending to what was heard in the final film, and the album version of "The Moon's a Window to Heaven" performed by the Asian-American world beat group Hiroshima (and incidentally providing Goldsmith with his second pop hit - who would have thought that?). Also on Disc 2 we have a collection of alternate tracks and source music running an additional 16 minutes in length. First off is an alternate version of "The Mountain" that provides a slightly quieter, but no less punchy, version of the main title theme. This is followed by Goldsmith's original version of "A Busy Man" sans the unknown Klingon menace, emphasizing more of the nature of Sybok's vision quest on Sha Ka Ree (it was actually Harve Bennett who requested that the Klingon menace be added to the track). We then have two source tracks that play off "The Moon's a Window to Heaven", one of them the Paradise City saloon source music and the other of Uhura's Gypsy Rose Lee-like fan dance, recorded by Nichelle Nichols herself ("I always wanted to play to a captive audience.") This is followed by Spock's lyre-string version of "Row Row Row Your Boat" heard at the end of the film, as well as a collection of Synclaiver sound effects heard throughout the film emphasizing the Klingons, Sybok, and other noted characters and moments.

As with the scores for II and III, Kendall and Jeff Bond provide extensive liner notes on the music for the score, complete with quotes from Goldsmith (who is so sorely missed), Ron Jones (who offers up a couple of warm and humorous memories on Goldsmith), and other people involved in the score's development. It's interesting to see how the score evolved from its original version to its final form.

"Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" may not have been commercially or critically successful, but there's no denying that Jerry Goldsmith made the film sing. Thanks to La-La Land Records and Sony Music, we now have that chance to enjoy the score with all of its beauty, warmness, intrigue, action, and mystery that William Shatner had originally envisioned. I've got to admit, this CD completely caught me off guard not just in its quality but in just simply finding out that it was coming out! I read about it one day before its release - it came THAT suddenly out of left field! But you've got to hurry. With an extremely limited pressing of only 5,000 copies, it's sure to sell out very quickly (if it's not already done so by the time this review goes live), so what are you waiting for? Go get it!

Rating: 4/5 stars