McCarthy Discusses 'These Are The Voyages' Score

See Also: 'These Are The Voyages' Episode Guide

Just over a week ago, veteran Trek composer Dennis McCarthy finished recording the final score of the Star Trek franchise, for the Enterprise finale "These Are The Voyages..."

"I hate to see it end," McCarthy told Jon Burlingame at the Film Music Society. In a sense, Star Trek -- I consider all the shows to be just one arc, with different faces -- defined me musically. I've been listening to all of the stuff I've done, and I can honestly say that this is the show that came the closest to what I've wanted to do."

For the final Enterprise episode, McCarthy revealed he composed a piece that combined elements of Alexander Courage's original TOS theme, Jerry Golsmith's Motion Picture fanfare (and TNG theme) and his own Enterprise music. Presumably unintentional, his final Enterprise theme continued another nod to Trek lore, by ending up at exactly 47 seconds -- as the result of a writer in-joke, the number 47 has appeared a large number of times in Trek stories. "This has just been a joy for 18 years," McCarthy said to his musicians after they finished recording the finale score. "Thank you, guys, it's just been brilliant."

McCarthy is one of only 14 crew members who have been with Star Trek since the launch of The Next Generation. Looking back over that period of time, the composer praised the show's producers for their "flat-out loyalty", and said that he had always been given "total freedom." He said that some of his favorite episodes were TNG's "Yesterday's Enterprise," but also the recent Mirror Universe two-parter on Enterprise. "It was like Star Trek meets Joan Collins," he said of those episodes.

More thoughts from McCarthy, as well as a report and photos of his final scoring session, can be found in the full article at Film Music Society's web site. Thanks go out to Ford A. Thaxton for this!

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