August 31, 2004
Few TV shows inspire as much fanaticism as Star Trek, and nowhere is that zeal more concentrated than in the music inspired by the revered franchise. From Andorian arias to Romulan rock and roll, the series has brought forth a veritable galacy of science-fiction songs, over a dozen of which are contained on the soundtrack to the direct-to-DVD documentary Trekkies 2. At once idiosyncratic and imaginative, the disc is a Constitution-class collection of alternately out-of-this-world and off-the-wall melodies.
Trekkies often view themselves as social outsiders, so it’s not surprising that the compositions aren’t mainstream. Pop paeans like Warp 11’s “Everything I Do, I Do With William Shatner,” which proclaims that, among other activities, it’s fun to join Captain Kirk doing laundry, getting drunk, and riding in a rodeo – abound with inside jokes, even as metal anthems such as Stovokor’s “For the Glory of Qo’noS” use guttural Klingon maxims. Spoken-word snippets, culled from both Trekkies movies and sandwiched between each cut, add candid and often inadvertently amusing insight into the fans’ collective mindset.
Most of the tunes are written and played by amateurs, a fact readily evident from the forced rhymes and rough performances. Nevertheless, each piece possesses engaging earnestness and enthusiasm, resulting in a CD that boldly, if sometimes bizarrely, goes where no soundtrack has gone before.
(3.5 of 5 stars)
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Few TV shows inspire as much fanaticism as Star Trek, and nowhere is that zeal more concentrated than in the music inspired by the revered franchise. From Andorian arias to Romulan rock and roll, the series has brought forth a veritable galacy of science-fiction songs, over a dozen of which are contained on the soundtrack to the direct-to-DVD documentary Trekkies 2. At once idiosyncratic and imaginative, the disc is a Constitution-class collection of alternately out-of-this-world and off-the-wall melodies.
Trekkies often view themselves as social outsiders, so it’s not surprising that the compositions aren’t mainstream. Pop paeans like Warp 11’s “Everything I Do, I Do With William Shatner,” which proclaims that, among other activities, it’s fun to join Captain Kirk doing laundry, getting drunk, and riding in a rodeo – abound with inside jokes, even as metal anthems such as Stovokor’s “For the Glory of Qo’noS” use guttural Klingon maxims. Spoken-word snippets, culled from both Trekkies movies and sandwiched between each cut, add candid and often inadvertently amusing insight into the fans’ collective mindset.
Most of the tunes are written and played by amateurs, a fact readily evident from the forced rhymes and rough performances. Nevertheless, each piece possesses engaging earnestness and enthusiasm, resulting in a CD that boldly, if sometimes bizarrely, goes where no soundtrack has gone before.
(3.5 of 5 stars)
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