Nope, I don't actually mean to pay homage of John Williams and the awesome soundtrack from "Jurassic Park". However, I am using the above video to reflect what a lot of folks including myself are feeling today on seeing that actor William Shatner, aka Captain James Tiberius Kirk from "Star Trek", became the oldest human being to make it out to (the edges of) space...the final frontier.
Up until today, it was Captain Kirk that worked in space, William Shatner that worked in Hollywood. Well, he can now say that he has at least touched space and experienced zero gravity...at the age of 90! I knew that he was old but still, he looks pretty darn spritely for a nonagenarian, and he has just gone where no nonagenarian has gone before. Somewhere, Sir Patrick Stewart is gnashing his teeth.
On this special Reminiscings of Youth, then, I give you Jerry Goldsmith's theme from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". I've already provided the theme from the original NBC TV show by Alexander Courage as a ROY, and it's difficult for me to choose which one I like better. Both of them are fine and heroic to me. The fact that I grabbed the soundtrack to the movie from the record store pretty quickly once the movie came out in December 1979 rather shows that I warmed up to Goldsmith's grand theme easily. Since then, the theme has been handed down to the folks at "Star Trek: The Next Generation".
Unfortunately, the movie didn't exactly live up to the same appraisal that I gave the theme song. When my brother and I caught it downtown on a rainy Saturday morning that month, we were pretty amazed for the first third of the movie (reintroduction to the characters, the renovated USS Enterprise, the wormhole and even the transporter accident), but then the whole thing about V'Ger frankly gummed up the narrative and I thought that the interplay among Kirk, Spock and McCoy seemed rusty and forced. My brother fell asleep for several minutes and I was on the verge myself.
Even seeing "The Motion Picture" years later again with the improved special effects hasn't really changed my mind. "The Wrath of Khan" in 1982 will always remain my favourite out of all of the "Star Trek" films. It got to the point where I was snarking off that the first movie should have been called "The Motionless Picture".
Still, no flies on that soundtrack by Goldsmith and that includes his take on the Klingons and Lieutenant Ilia. I remember during the Oscar ceremony the next year when John Williams performed a suite of theme songs and the first song up was the Goldsmith theme with the Enterprise flying by and it got some delighted applause (apparently a number of celebs didn't get a life). I tried to keep a Vulcan expression on my face but didn't entirely succeed.
Anyways, I found a couple of kayo that supposedly got released in November 1979 but for some reason, Showa Pops have them seeing the light of day in December. They are also classics of their genre.
Kaientai -- Okuru Kotoba (贈る言葉）
Miki Matsubara -- Mayonaka no Door （真夜中のドアー）
Morning, Brian. Yeah, it's a pity that she left this mortal coil way too early.
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