BAN #308: Trek music, Debunking with the NCSE, Bald eagle loitering

Music of the Spheres

An occasional glimpse into genre scifi music I like

The first Trek movie, “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” is much maligned. And hey, I get it; parts of the movie are overly dragged out, and some of it comes off as stiff. I won’t argue too much over that, but I’ll say I rewatched it a year or two ago and enjoyed the hell out of it.

The scene where Scotty brings Kirk over to Enterprise in a shuttle is one of my favorites. Yes, it’s long, but it’s a love letter to the ship, the central character in the show. And the music… oh my, that music. It’s just beautiful.

But I was surprised to learn it wasn’t composer Jerry Goldsmith’s first stab at it. Director Robert Wise didn’t like the first cut, and wanted another version. That story is told in this short video, and for a Trek and classical music/soundtrack nerd like me this is fascinating. It also dubs the first version of the music onto the scene, which is… interesting:

The music is pretty, but somewhat forgettable. You can hear the nascent themes used in the final piece, but they lack a coherent narrative.

Goldsmith says as much after the clip; Wise told him it lacks a theme. And while Goldsmith may have been “crushed” to hear that, what happened next is just absolute magic. The music he wound up writing for that scene is wonderful, among the finest pieces in the entire Star Trek movie franchiser. It’s lyrical, it builds anticipation, it’s sweet, and nostalgic, and then, when the Big E is shown, it soars.

Here’s an excellent live recording of it without the movie footage; it also shows the orchestra playing it.

You can make fun of Shatner’s acting all you want, but when Enterprise is revealed and the camera shows Kirk’s face, you are very clearly seeing a man in love.

The soundtrack is available online; you can buy it here if you like (affiliate link). I listen to it around once a month or so. It’s great to write to.

Link o’ the ‘letter

Just a fun link I found or someone told me about

On February 14, 2021 I was on a couple of panels for PlanetFest, a weekend virtual convention run by The Planetary Society to raise funds for them and awareness about our Mars exploration efforts. One of the panels was on tackling bad science, and also on the panel was my friend astrophysicist Katie Mack and Ann Reid, the director of the National Center for Science Education, a fantastic organization that works for better science education both in the classroom and in society.

I’ve been a big fan of the NCSE from back when my pal Genie Scott ran it, and they were at the forefront of the “evolution wars” when creationists were aggressively pushing somewhat (or massively) suspect science textbooks just chock full of nonsense about evolution. So I was pleased Dr. Reid was on the panel.

During the panel I found out the NCSE is doing a new feature called Misconception of the Month, which is a great idea! They dive onto one erroneous idea every month, going over it in detail with the info you need to understand the issue better.

Their first one, appropriately enough, is about evolution with a specific example of COVID-19, and how variants take hold. It’s an interesting read, and I’m looking forward to seeing what else they’ll cover in the coming months.

I don’t do nearly as much of that sort of thing as I used to. I don’t actually miss it, since it’s one of the most aggravating things I’ve ever done. It’s just an unending stream of maddening nonsense that after a while felt like it was shortening my life and was certainly lowering the quality of it. So I backed off doing that all the time, though I’ll dive in when there’s something big enough to be worth tackling, like whatever near-Earth asteroid that’s going to miss us but nevertheless is being played up by the tabloids, or whatever flavor of Doomsday-of-the-month is popular.

I’m glad to see so many other folks taking up that mantle. I’m happy to let them do it! And I’ll still jump in when I have the mental wherewithal to handle it.

Colorado

Because my home state is pretty

I saw this bald eagle sitting on the ice at the edge of a pond, just looking around. I’m guessing it was debating on whether to go fishing or not.

I was able to get a few shots before it decided to look for another spot.

Given the opportunity to sit by a half-frozen pond with nothing more to worry about than if I want fish for dinner sounds nice about now. I’m sure the eagle wouldn’t agree, but still I’d be willing to trade for an hour or two.

Et alia

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