Enterprise theme song changes

Come on, both theme songs suck.

First of all, the “musician” who sang this trite crap sounds like the best job he ever got was lead singer for a Bryan Adams tribute band.

There is more inflection in the ‘real american heroes’ parody ad.

Here’s the problem with the theme song:

1. TOO LONG! It clocks in at about 1:15. That’s one and a half less minutes to do things strongly lacking in enterprise – like developing characters and building plots

2. Its SCHLOCKY! Maybe the big orchestrations are passe – but Ron Moore’s excellent BS:G remake used a new sound for its theme that wasn’t cliche sci-fi, but wasn’t schlock either. He chose a very “world music” sound, with different instrumentations, which really carried the story well.

3. Its OBVIOUSLY CHEAP! This is supposed to be the flagship show of UPN, but all they can afford is a crappy little number? Why couldn’t they hire real talent, like Danny Elfman or Stewart Copeland, both of whom specialize in theme music? Or maybe, think outside the box and hire someone like Peter Gabriel?

Its odd, because these three problems also tell of the production problems that have plagued Trek since B&B ‘took the big chair’. Since Season 5 of TNG, the storylines have cheapened, continuity has been thrown out the window, and we have been subjected to abuse of in medias res, the holy reset button, so aptly parodied in Galaxy Quest, and static, poorly drawn characters.

With the exception of DS9, which Ira Behr did a commendable job with, most of Trek has been lacking because of a lack of on screen story development, an utter lack of character development, and to reiterate point number three – a complete lack of production values.

It all starts with Trek’s idealism that promotes every actor to director. While it might have worked on TNG, where you had very strong, established actors working on the show – Meaney, Muldar, Stewart, Burton, Wheaton and Dorn – working with the comrades was an easier exercise because “professional” directors had already defined their roles.

In Voyager and Enterprise, we see Dawson and Burton stumbling through episodes, and on the big screen, we saw uneven performances from Frakes (as director).

This smacks of cheapness. “First Contact”, lauded as TNG’s best feature, showed that Frakes did have the timing and perspective to fill the big screen. “Insurrection”, however, showed his TV roots.

Whereas TNG started off with two confirmed stars (Wheaton & Burton) plus two actual European stars (Meaney & Stewart) plus “regulars” like DeLancie & Whoopie, also stars – DS9, with the exception of Brooks, was largely devoid of “star” caliber actors, and its most recognizable regular characters where lifted from TNG. Voyager lifted promising actors from the franchise – McNeil and Russ, while Mulgrew, Ryan and Picardo all very talented, they were also very unknown.

Now we have Enterprise, and we only get one “star” – Bakula. Not to say Bakula isn’t a good actor, but he does not have the presence of Stewart.

What I want to say is simple: Modern Trek is the inverse of Old Dr Who. What Dr Who lacked in special effects, costumes, etc, was made up for in keen writing – people like Douglas Adams worked on the show for God’s sake! On modern trek, we see cash thrown at things like F/X and CGI effects, but little attention paid to the quality of writing, production values and hiring competent directors and star caliber actors.

THANK GOD FOR BATTLESTAR GALATICA! At least we’ll know that there will be decent sci-fi next year, and it won’t be on Viacom/CBS/UPN/MTV/Infinity

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I am sorely disappointed by this new, poorly thought out upbeat theme. What a serious error of judgement it was to allow this laughable, ridiculous version to be used.

I say go back to the original. This change has severely dented my view of the show’s credibility, and the judgement of its producers.

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I gotta say the new theme makes it sound more like baywatch than Enterprise!
Incidentally, for those going on about who they got to write it, its not a new tune for the show, but an old 70s song by Brit rocker Rod
Stewart (probably spelt that wrong).
If you enjoyed the 90 second opening credits, then check the original out on Kazaa or whatever. Its obviously much longer, more uplifting, and doesnt sound like some Bryan Adams Tribute.

Oh, and as for added star Trek to the name of the latest series, its obviously trying to appeal the lowest common demoninator in the US gene pool, ie trailor trash and TV execs, both of which cant work out the relationships in the ST universe without it being spelt out for them. 🙂

BTW Tucker reminds me of Bush. Texan (?) ignorant, thinks the world/universe should be run by his beliefs and doesnt care who knows it, always eager to fly in shooting even when he has no idea of whats going on around him, oh and blaming anyone even remotely connected or related to the death of his sister. “Lets kill all the Zindi” etc. thats should stimulate some good comments! 🙂

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The Enterprise theme music has always been a firm favourite of mine, to the point where I find myself singing along every week. I even downlo…erm..bought the full version. Russell Watson is a great singer, and if some of you guys took the time to do some research, you would realise he is one of Britains best classical music singers. “Where my heart will take me” (which is the title, “NOT Faith Of The Heart”) was actually a departure from the stuff he usually does. I really enjoy Star Trek: Enterprise, especially season 3. Im glad its been confirmed for Season 4 and I hope it runs all the way to the end, although I would like to see less time travel in Star Trek… the writers seem to use time travel far too often. The series should get back to its roots of exploration which a moderate dose of combat intermixed with it.

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Season 3 is definitely much better than season 1 or 2. I think most people (excluding Trekkies) forget about the ‘4 seasons’ rule of Star Trek TV series. The rule (I come up with this rule, BTW) says all Star Trek TV series only become exciting enough to generate good rating by season 4. Just look at TNG and DS9. Voyager is a bit of anomaly in that it is not until season 5/6 (depending on your taste) that it took off.

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