Though the movies themselves have faded into that special pocket of semi-obscure hell reserved for stuff produced by Roger Corman, Battle Beyond The Stars and Humanoids From The Deep hold a special place in the hearts of soundtrack fans as the big-screen debut of a promising new young talent, James Horner. Hired with a mandate to try to duplicate the sound of – ironically – Jerry Goldsmith’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture score, Battle is basically the calling card that brought Horner into the Trek fold proper. I know I’ve jumped all over Horner in the past where originality is concerned, but let’s give credit where it’s due and give the guy a break: for this first movie scoring project, he was told to mimic Goldsmith. Say it with me again: Goldsmith. No pressure, eh? And then, on the strength of Battle, Horner was hired by Nicholas Meyer and asked to emulate himself. It’s no wonder Horner used and reused this basic material throughout the 1980s.
The nautical woodwind motifs that Horner refined in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan can be heard here in a slightly more primitive form, and his rapid-fire bursts of heroic brass can be heard here too, though with a rhythm that’s almost jazzy. What you will hear a lot of is the Blaster Beam, that unearthly electric stringed instrument that Goldsmith put on the musical map with Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Its appearance here doesn’t sound quite as graceful as it did in that first movie, but with marching orders to copy Goldsmith’s style, Horner makes abundant use of it. In that respect, if you’re a fan of that rarely-used instrument, this soundtrack is a treat.
To be completely fair, while there is indeed blatant copying of such Goldsmith cues as “Spock Walk”, there’s enough originality within this score’s context that one can hear where Horner would have been labeled an up-and-coming young composer to keep an ear out for. Unfortunately, in later years, Horner would seem to have taken the instruction “Make it sound kind of like the music from…” a little too literally, and a few times too many.
Humanoids, though commissioned, composed and recorded at around the same time (and it actually hit the theaters before Battle), sounds altogether more assured and mature, with Horner developing some if his more “scary” motifs in their earliest form – much of Trek II‘s Mutara Nebula music can be traced back to this score. For his first major horror scoring assignment, Horner isn’t shy about borrowing from the masters, with plenty of Hermann-esque “stabbing” strings on display.
Put together, Battle Beyond The Stars and Humanoids From The Deep are a debut that, even despite the rough edges, would’ve done any Hollywood 
newcomer proud. And even if I’m not Horner’s biggest fan in the world, I’m even less of a Corman fan – his greatest contributions have really been in the area of bringing top-notch talent into Hollywood that eventually turns out better material than he himself could ever manage – and these may be among the very finest scores ever to grace a Roger Corman movie (or two).
Battle Beyond The Stars
- Main Title (2:00)
- Malmori Read Guard (3:52)
- The Battle Begins (4:33)
- Nanella And Shad (1:27)
- Cowboy And The Jackers (3:36)
- Nanella’s Capture (1:29)
- The Maze Battle (3:11)
- Shad’s Pursuit (3:23)
- Cowboy’s Attack (1:46)
- Love Theme (3:52)
- The Hunter (1:40)
- Gelt’s Death (1:30)
- Nanella (1:32)
- Heading For Sador (1:00)
- Destruction Of Hammerhead (2:36)
- Epilogue And End Title (5:02)
Humanoids From The Deep
- Main Title (2:27)
- The Buck (3:45)
- Unwelcome Visitor (2:03)
- Night Swim (1:48)
- Jerry & Peggy (0:57)
- Trip Upriver (1:59)
- The Humanoids Attack (2:54)
- Jerry’s Death (2:04)
- Search For Clues (1:55)
- Strange Catch (1:07)
- The Grotto (3:22)
- Night Prowlers (2:08)
- Final Confrontation (3:05)
- Aftermath & New Birth (2:22)
- End Titles (2:10)
Released by: GNP Crescendo
Release date: 2001
Total running time: 76:35
