Tag: Dennis McCarthy

Dennis McCarthy saved the day by rescoring V: The Final Battle for Warner Bros. and NBC, so when the time came to bleed the well of ideas dry for a short-lived weekly series, Dennis was called to compose music for invading lizards once more.

In retrospect, I think his music may be one of the classiest things that V: The Series had in its favor.

Opening up with a much more quickly-paced version of the V: The Final Battle theme as the series main title, the album proceeds quickly into the first episode, where McCarthy pumps things up in an energetic chase sequence which refers to the main title frequently. After the second track, the music slows down and McCarthy begins to display some of the scoring style that has become a mainstay on the various Star Trek spinoffs.

Some of the standouts include the minute-long “Star Child” track, which introduces a choral motif for the now-grown-up Elizabeth, and the following track, “Lift Off Into Space”, jumps back and forth between this choral theme and some nice action segments.

If there’s any one thing which turns me off about McCarthy’s scores for the weekly series, it’s something over which he may not have had any control. The studio handed the man a decent-sized, well-trained orchestra to use…and then he winds up with a lot of suspiciously synthesized-sounding drums? Give me a break!

Like the V: The Final Battle CD, this composer promo may be worth the search for any big V fans, or fans of Dennis McCarthy’s musical style.

1. V: The Series main title (4:18)

   Liberation Day

2. Space Chase (1:06)
3. Martin’s Death (4:55)

   Dreadnaught

4. Elizabeth’s Rebirth (1:50)
5. Enter Diana / Elizabeth Grows Up (1:55)
6. The Star Child (4:00)
7. Lift Off Into Space (0:59)
8. Farewell / Dreadnaught (2:23)

   The Sanction

9. Elizabeth’s Theme (5:30)
10. A Sunny Day (2:39)
11. Kyle and Elizabeth (2:13)

    Visitor’s Choice

12. Lounge Lizards (1:20)

    The Deception

13. Seductive Dream (3:08)

    Reflection In Terror

14. Doppelganger’s Demise (1:57)

    The Conversion

15. Rats R Us (2:52)

    The Betrayal

16. Nathan’s End (1:04)
17. Lizard Courtship (4:35)

    The Rescue

18. Wedding Fanfare / Banquet Music (4:13)
19. Reception Music (3:26)
20. Adios, Charles (4:09)

    The Betrayal

21. Finale (2:57)
22. V: The Series end credits (1:57)

Released by: SuperTracks
Release date: 1998
Total running time: 59:13

A few years before Star Trek: The Next Generation hit the air, composer Dennis McCarthy was recruited literally at the eleventh hour to rescore V: The Final Battle for Warner Bros. and NBC. The highly anticipated SF mini-series had already been tracked with a synthesizer score which met with the producers’ disapproval – not a welcome problem since they were still scrambling to complete the project after V (and later Alien Nation TV series) creator Kenneth Johnson divorced himself from the project over creative and commercial decisions. McCarthy had to re-score the entire show – and fast, with the broadcast scheduled for less than a month away. The result earned him the assignment to score the entire V weekly series which followed – which, as it turned out, didn’t even last one full season – but also earned him a reputation for turning out good work quickly. The rest is history when Gene Roddenberry and his army of producers started working on Next Generation in 1986.

McCarthy’s music from V: The Final Battle is very much what one would expect from having heard his Star Trek work, though the mini-series producers gave him much freer reign. Percussion is actually heard here. But in the same vein, it’s almost hard to believe how much this music sounds like McCarthy’s Trek work – one motif which begins to appear in “Aqueduct Attack” was actually recycled nearly ten years later – or, to give him the benefit of the doubt, very closely approximated – as McCarthy’s fanfare for Star Trek: Generations! On the one hand, I really do like McCarthy’s style a lot of the time, and I understand the constraints of time weigh heavily on the composer of episodic TV. But this degree of re-use of material almost puts him in a category with Christopher Franke, who slavishly recycled samples, sequences and entire cues in Babylon 5’s later seasons.

On the other hand, there are quite a few good cues, including one scene which everyone is bound to remember with either a fond smile or a groan, the balloon liftoff scene as the Resistance members take to the air with a Visitor-repelling toxin to drive the reptilian invaders back to the safety of their motherships.

All three of the V soundtracks are hard to come across, since they’re composer promos. Composer promos are barely-semi-official releases, more likely to appear on eBay than your local store shelves (I bought these directly from the now-defunct Supercollector.com, who pressed them originally). But for fans of McCarthy’s work, as well as V fans (and we know you’re still out there), this might make a worthwhile investment.

1. V: The Final Battle main theme (2:04)
2. Lizard Raid (3:48)
3. New Headquarters / Ruby’s Final Curtain Call (2:09)
4. Memorial For A Heroine (1:22)
5. Aqueduct Attack / Planting The Charges / Brad’s Sacrifice (7:18)
6. The Balloon Theme (1:50)
7. Maggie Mourns / Maggie And Brad (2:58)
8. Pop Goes The Lizard / The End Of Father Callahan (3:50)
9. His Father’s Looks / Lizard Twin Dies / Elizabeth Spits Venom (3:47)
10. Robin’s Revenge (4:28)
11. Donovan Really Pissed / Donovan And Tyler Debate The Issue (2:07)
12. Love Theme (1:16)
13. Into The Lizard’s Lair / “They Haven’t Got A Chance” (3:34)
14. V-Day (2:54)
15. The Doomsday Weapon / Diana Rants And Raves (2:08)
16. Elizabeth Saves The Day / Diana Escapes / Finale (6:08)

Released by: Super Tracks Music Group
Release date: 1996
Total running time: 52:26