For my active listening film activity, I chose Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The film was produced by Gene Roddenberry and directed by Robert Wise; the director of another science fiction classic released earlier with Bernard Herrmann as composer on The Day The Earth Stood Still. Jerry Goldsmith composed and conducted this lovely euphonic score for a visually stunning movie. Music Editor Kenneth Hall finely tunes the soundtrack with precision. Goldsmith's musical score for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, would eventually be nominated for "Best Original Score" at the 1979 Academy Awards. The score lost to Georges Delerue's A Little Romance.
Goldsmith provides Star Trek with a new theme song, that would later become the theme song for the famous spin off series. A full 90 piece orchestra, with brass chorale, kicks off the memorable main title at the start of the film. This isn't the last time we hear the main title. We hear it again in the beginning of the film after we see Spock, when the first appearance of Starfleet headquarters in San Francisco and of Captain Kirk in the movie arrives. The final time we hear it again is in the end titles. It would seem the profound heroic motif song represents the epitome of Starfleet. This is made very evident the third time the theme song is heard. As in the middle of the film in a scene involving Captain Kirk and Scotty flying in a shuttle pod. Slowly as they reach the starship Enterprise we hear it again-this time with a more romantic tone as it is soft in volume. A violin is used for this. It builds a certain amount of suspense as only glimpses of the ship is seen through the drydock. Here the main title theme is meant to set the mood of sweet, yet subtle nostalgia. Not only does Captain Kirk's facial expressions change as they get closer, so does the music as it gets less subtle and more loud in timbre. The rhythm is more present. Once the ship is in full view, the theme returns back to the original volume and tone as a release.
