Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

2 min read

Order this CDI’m always happy when a Star Trek movie comes along and breaks free of traditional or overused treatments. James Horner, in two Trek movie outings, recycled the same handful of themes over and over (somewhat excusable, since the second and third films in the Trek catalogue were very closely intertwined); Jerry Goldsmith reiterated his famous Star Trek: The Motion Picture theme in no less than three movie projects (and we won’t get into how tired that theme got after seven years on TV with Star Trek: The Next Generation). So when someone comes along and completely sheds all nods to previous Trekkie fare – though Eidelman and later Dennis McCarthy made brief quotes of Alexander Courage’s themes in their respective scores – I’m all for it. The sixth Trek movie is graced by a dark, rumbling, near-operatic reminder of menace, extremely appropriate for the movie’s events which threaten to break down into certain doom for all involved. Some listeners and 4 out of 4moviegoers – particularly those fans who are far too set in their ways – couldn’t grasp this very different musical treatment of what seems to be everyone’s favorite fictional universe at the time, but I still encourage anyone interested to go and give this one a second listen.

  1. Overture (2:57)
  2. An Incident (0:53)
  3. Clear All Moorings (1:39)
  4. Assassination (4:45)
  5. Surrender for Peace (2:46)
  6. Death of Gorkon (1:10)
  7. Rura Penthe (4:22)
  8. Revealed (2:38)
  9. Escape From Rura Penthe (5:34)
  10. Dining on Ashes (1:00)
  11. The Battle for Peace (8:03)
  12. Sign Off (3:13)
  13. Star Trek VI Suite (6:18)

Released by: MCA
Release date: 1991
Total running time: 45:18