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Colorado Symphony program 'Trek: The Concert' aims to get Trekkies to boldly go to concert hall

Symphony has it all: TV stars, story, lyrics

By Marc Shulgold, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 31, 2008 at 3 p.m.

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Cast members of the original Star Trek series pose on the Enterprise set.

Cast members of the original Star Trek series pose on the Enterprise set.

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OK, Trekkies: Anyone know the lyrics to the theme music for the original Star Trek TV series?

Lyrics? Yes, said Robert Picardo, words accompanied the famous tune composed by the late Alexander (Sandy) Courage.

"And they were appallingly bad - they're all about searching for a 'Star Woman,' " said the actor who portrayed the Emergency Medical Hologram (aka the Doctor) on Star Trek: Voyager. Picardo even will sing them as part of today's Colorado Symphony program, "Trek: The Concert."

But who wrote the lyrics?

"The words were penned by (series creator) Gene Roddenberry," he said. "And for a simple reason: Gene knew he'd collect royalties each time the theme was played, even though it would remain an instrumental." (Soprano Loulie Jean Norman sang that famous, wordless tune.)

In addition to crooning - something he'd done in Voyager - Picardo will serve as narrator on Saturday, teaming with actor John de Lancie (Q in Star Trek: The Next Generation). Interspersed with musical excerpts from four TV series and seven films, conducted by Erich Kunzel, the actors will tell the Star Trek story.

De Lancie (named after his father, the famed Philadelphia Orchestra oboist) hooked up with Kunzel to create this tribute at gala concerts given by the Dallas Symphony in June 2007.

"They sent me the music," the actor recalled, "and I thought, 'What am I going to do with all this?' I felt we should go right back to the start and give the chronology. And then, I thought of working with Bob (Picardo)."

An easy choice, since the two longtime friends are neighbors in Pasadena, Calif. "The intent," Picardo said, "was that John would write the script - but we ended up doing it together."

To get their facts straight, the pair consulted Richard Arnold ("the ultimate Star Trek geek," de Lancie said), who was there from the get-go with Roddenberry. A script took shape, laced with humor.

"We can poke fun at the series and the films and each other," Picardo said. "But you can never poke fun at what the show means to fans. We do honor them, and we honor the show - and Gene, of course."

And it shouldn't be hard to spot the true believers on Saturday, because fans are encouraged to come in costume.

"We will salute those who do," Picardo said. "And any Andorian women with blue cleavage will be celebrated." Trekkies need no explanation.

Some of them may quietly hiss at Picardo, who has jumped ship, so to speak, by appearing as Richard Woolsey in the non-Star Trek sci-fi series, Stargate Atlantis. "I straddle two franchises like a colossus," he quipped.

Though their presence adds a touch of celebrity, both men insist this program is all about the music.

"Audiences have only heard (the TV series theme) through 2-inch speakers," de Lancie noted. "A show like this will get people into the theater to really listen."

"If you watched the shows or the movies without the music, the excitement wouldn't be there," Kunzel said of the works of Courage, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner and the other Star Trek composers.

"Now, when you're hearing the music only, you're really paying attention to the sound. Meanwhile, your mind creates the visuals."

As longtime conductor of the Cincinnati Pops, Kunzel has made numerous space-themed recordings for Telarc. He has released two Star Trek CDs. Then came Symphonic Star Trek, which led to the concert-with-narration.

"I had done a Star Wars concert with Anthony Daniels (who portrayed C-3PO) and it was a success. Then Dallas called. I had the (Star Trek) scores in my Cincinnati library, so that was easy. What was tough was making the music selections. You can't rattle them off one after the other. It would leave an audience in outer space."

De Lancie selected the music. "I have a reputation of working with orchestras," he said. "It started at Aspen, where I narrated concert versions of (Beethoven's) Egmont and (Strauss') Bourgeois Gentilhomme."

Don't be surprised if the actors do a little acting in between the music. "We do get into character when we get around to our own involvement in the shows," de Lancie said. "It's not that hard - just a wink and a nod and a sidestep, and you're there."

'Star Trek' composers

* Alexander "Sandy" Courage (1919-2008): Composer of the original TV series theme and the soundtrack to the series' pilot, The Menagerie (also known as The Cage). Also wrote for such shows as The Waltons, Eight is Enough and Lost in Space.

* Jerry Goldsmith: An honored composer of numerous film and TV soundtracks. A perennial Oscar and Grammy nominee, he wrote the score for the Oscar-nominated Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek: The Final Frontier. He won the statuette for The Omen (1976).

* James Horner: Nominated for seven Academy Awards, winner of two (song and score for Titanic in 1997), he composed the scores for two Star Trek films: The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock.

* Leonard Rosenman: The former student of Arnold Schoenberg has become a respected film and TV composer with two Emmys, plus Oscars for Barry Lyndon (1975) and Bound for Glory (1976), along with nominations for Cross Creek (1980) and Star Trek: The Voyage Home (1984).

* Dennis McCarthy: A longtime collaborator with Glen Campbell, he penned scores for TV shows and theater productions, and won Emmys for scores to a pair of Star Trek series: Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation.

* Cliff Eidelman: Los Angeles-born film composer, who wrote the soundtracks for such films as One True Thing, Triumph of the Spirit, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and, in 1991, Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country.

Trek: The Concert

* When and where: 7:30 p.m. today, Boettcher Hall, 14th and Curtis

* Cost: $15 to $73

* Information: 303-623-7876

Comments

  • November 2, 2008

    11:49 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    CaptainClayCrash writes:

    Beyond the rim of star flight
    My love is wand'ring in star flight
    I know he'll find in star covered reaches
    Love, strange love a star woman teaches
    And I know his journey ends never
    His star trek will go on forever
    But tell him as he wanders his starry sea
    To remember, remember me

    And there you go.