Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

Composer(s):
Jerry Goldsmith, Joel Goldsmith (additional score)

Released in:
1996

Reviews

Best of the Next Generation Soundtracks
by Gavin Ellis (January 3, 2008)
This soundtrack introduces the beautiful new "First Contact" theme that is a wonderful addition to the Star Trek franchise. It is grand and peaceful and heroic and poetic, somewhat unusual for a movie that spends so much time fighting the Borg. But the theme catches so much of what Star Trek is supposed to be about. We also re-visits previous Star Trek themes in fun ways. The "Klingon" theme that first appeared in "The Motion Picture" re-surfaces. It has now become Worf's theme, and is used well as such. And of course, there is Goldsmith's re-use of his Enterprise theme from "The Motion Picture."

Favorite tracks are:
Track 1: Main Title/Locutus (though I wish they'd separated these) - Begins with a Star Trek Fanfare, then moves into the new "First Contact" theme.
Track 2: Red Alert - great use of the Klingon theme.
Track 10: First Contact - A longer orchestration of the "First Contact" theme. A true highlight.

An all around great soundtrack that sounds like Star Trek should.

Best of TNG era
by Michael Longstreet (December 5, 2006)
This is by far the best of the Star Trek film scores, in the Next Generation era. "Star Trek: Generations" was a good score, and "Insurrection" and "Nemesis" weren't bad, but this one is head and shoulders above the other three. Goldsmith's melodic opener is a great draw away from the signature march that Star Trek is famous for (established in "The Motion Picture"). "Evacuate" and "The Dish" are arguably the best tracks on the CD, but overall the soundtrack is good. If you go to trekcore.com, you can find some unreleased material that you can download is a great addition to this soundtrack.

Reviews from

Rushed at the recording studio...?!
First Contact was also a movie that was rushed through production, so was the music. You can not listen to it without getting a headace. Thankfully Jerry would score better music in Star Trek; Nemesis.

Come into contact with this score
Jerry Goldsmith is the voice of Star Trek and his next score in the Star Trek series showcases his incredible talents. "Main Title/Locutus" opens with the classic Star Trek fanfare. The fanfare isn't heard until the final score track, "End Credits". Goldsmith's Star Trek theme is heard in "Red Alert" and "End Credits". The rest of the score contains an absence of those 2 themes, instead allowing Goldsmith to utilize a new theme and other music. The First Contact theme is a noble, heroic tune played on horns with wonderful string passages. The action music is good, as usual with Goldsmith. Jerry's son, Joel, provided 3 cues in the score, "Locutus", "Retreat", and "39.1 Degrees Celsius". In these 3 tracks, he tries to mimic his father's sound with string rhythms and snare drums, but cannot quite do it the way he can. However, his cues do contain great action and suspense music. "The Dish" is a great suspense track in the cat and mouse fashion. "End Credits" contains all of the themes thrown into one 5 minute suite, which Goldsmith usually does at the end of the Star Trek films. Tailing off the soundtrack are 2 pop tunes, "Magic Carpet Ride" by Steppenwolf and "Ooby Dooby" by Roy Orbison. While these 2 songs are good, they do not fit anywhere in the score and should have been left off. The booklet contains photos from the film, commentary about Goldsmith's music, and even a picture of Goldsmith with some of the cast and crew. The multimedia portion of this soundtrack contains video interviews with both Goldsmiths, director Jonathan Frakes, and producer Rick Berman. All in all, a great score that continues the great music saga in the Star Trek films.

A Beautiful Score
Jerry Goldsmith is one of the best in the business. He's an Oscar caliber composer. He doesn't disappoint with Star Trek First Contact.

Like most Star Trek films the music is the same. You have the theme from The Next Generation. You then have the theme to the movie. The theme to the movie is then used throughout the whole film except it's played a little diffrently in the situations throughout the film.

The theme for First Contact is fantastic. It is absolutely one of the best songs I've ever heard. I think it's as good as the Godfather, Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Superman. As a Trumpet player I dream of playing a meolody like tho one on the theme of this movie. It's so crisp, clean, and pure. Everytime I hear it I just want to whistle and hum along with it. It's such an amazing song. Jerry Goldsmith has outdone himself here and I think it's the greatest song he's ever done.

I liked Steppin Wulf on the CD. There most famous song Magic Carpet Ride is included. It was funny when they used it in the movie and it's a great song. It's one of the catchiest songs ever written and it's got some great guitar work.

Obey Dobey by Roy Orbison is also on here. Roy has a fantastic voice that he could four octaves with. It's not one of his more well known songs, but I enjoy it a lot. Again it was well used in the movie and it's a nice additon to the soundtrack.

This soundtrack is a must for Star Trek fans, Jerry Goldsmith admirers, and fans of classical music. It's a well made album and would be a nice addition to anybodies home.

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