STAR TREK: NEMESIS
Music by Jerry Goldsmith

Remus (1:58)
The Box (2:20)
My Right Arm (1:02)
En Route (:26)*
Positronic Signal (1:23)*
The Argo (1:05)*
Odds And Ends (4:37)
Brothers (:51)*
New Course (:27)*
Repairs (6:26)
The Knife (3:09)
Allegiance (4:26)*
Shinzon's Story (1:26)*
Ideals (2:15)
Suspect Data (1:13)*
Violation (:50)*
No More Time (:34)*
Abduction (1:11)*
The Mirror (5:21)
The Scorpion (2:21)
Sins (:41)*
Deactivation (1:33)*
Battle Stations (2:34)*
Evasive Maneuvers (2:13)*
The Hologram (:23)*
True Nature (1:21)*
Let's Get To Work (2:47)*
Lateral Run (3:54)
Hull Breach (:29)*
Engage (2:12)
Full Reverse (1:28)*
Deploy The Weapon (2:53)*
The Corridor (:26)*
Final Flight (3:47)
Firing Sequence (:51)*
A New Friend (2:36)
Returning Home (:46)*
Honor (:29)*
A New Ending (6:08)

All told, roughly 75 minutes of music, which is consistent with earlier reports. After thorough consideration, I've decided I'm more than happy with the album. Most of the unreleased cues are short and unremarkable, and the longer ones are mostly atmospheric or redundant. Nonetheless, there are a few points of interest:

1) They're still separate tracks, but the album blends "Remus" and "The Box" for a longer, more coherent opening.

2) "New Course" is essentially a very brief quote of drydock material from Goldsmith's original ST:TMP score.

3) "Battle Stations" is one of the more unique unreleased cues, in which Goldsmith puts his main Star Trek theme through a heroic martial build-up similar to what Horner did for a parallel scene in TWOK.

4) The dramatic ostinato introduced in "The Scorpion" comes into play again in "Evasive Maneuvers." (It also runs through the later action sequences.)

5) Take special note of "Let's Get To Work" ... that ascending horn figure is a development of the "B-section" of Shinzon's theme as presented in the end credits. Some people have claimed that this figure never appeared in the film!

6) "Returning Home" condenses Goldsmith's original "The Enterprise," one of his finest cues ever, into about twenty seconds. Some people are complaining that this was left off the album, but my take is: Who would want it? It's depressing and anachronistic. Listen to the original. It's better. (And don't give me any B.S. about "continuity" or "coming full circle," because I don't want to hear it. Lush, romantic treatments of Goldsmith's original theme are out-of-place in this ugly, jerky film, and that's the end of it as far as I'm concerned. Tell me it doesn't sound like Goldsmith's trying to hurry through the theme real quick, before the shot cuts away!)

STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE
Vejur is about to annihilate Earth.

STAR TREK II
Khan is about to blow up the Mutara Nebula (and everyone in it).

STAR TREK IV
The Probe is about to annihilate Earth.

STAR TREK: GENERATIONS
Soran is about to blow-up a star system.

STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT
The Borg Queen is about to destroy Cochrane's ship (and thus the future).

STAR TREK: INSURRECTION
Ru'afo is about to deploy the collector, thus destroying a planet.

STAR TREK: NEMESIS
Shinzon is about to activate the Thalaron Radiation Beam, thus destroying the Enterprise (and then Earth).

(Side note: marketing for the novelization of "Nemesis" described the potential destruction of Earth as an "unimaginable threat." LOL!)

The remaining three films escaped this predominant science-fiction cliche. They have other cliches: Duel-to-the-Death (ST:III), Escape-from-the-Monster (ST:V), and Prevent-the-Assassination (ST:VI). I guess "First Contact" might fit more easily into this latter category.

The Bond series also has a predilection for megalomaniac villains on the verge of unleashing superweapons. Interestingly enough, in five films (to date), Star Wars has only done it once (with the Death Star). Death Star II doesn't count ... though that one does fall under the Let's-Get-Out-Of-Here-Before-This-Place-Explodes cliche.

quote:

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Originally posted by Wedge:
By the way, has anyone else noticed that 7 out of the 10 Star Trek films (and ALL of the NextGen films) climax with the antagonist on the verge of firing some sort of terrible weapon of mass-destruction?

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quote:

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Originally posted by TV's Frank:
Well, if you want to be technical, they all make trips to Earth in the films except INSURRECTION, true. But Earth is not threatened in all the films, so they're not entirely Earth-centric. I kind of found it appropriate for the Kirk-era films. We never saw Earth during their 5-year mission and so in the films, when they are reaching the autumn of their careers, they get the chance to reconnect with Earth culture and their pasts.

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This isn't a bad thing at all. As long as the story itself is compelling enough, it doesn't matter to me whether Earth is the threatened planet or not (though it is nice to shake things up every once in a while).