Star Trek XI - The Music Begins...

Wow... I really am a lazy bastard, aren't I? It's been a few months, once again, since last I updated. I've returned because I've just come into possession of something truly fantastic.

How many of you have seen the newest trailer for the new Star Trek movie that opens this spring? Most fans are calling it Star Trek XI, as it's the eleventh feature film incarnation. Officially though, they're usurping the name of the classic 1960s series that began the greatest and most durable franchise phenomenon in the history of the entertainment industry. Which yes, makes me a little bitter. Give the film a subtitle and I'll shut up. Call it Star Trek: The Movie or something, I don't care. Just stop trying to get away with calling it just Star Trek. That name, my friends, is taken.

So anyway... I'm on the fence about the film. I don't know what I feel. I wasn't a kid when TOS (The Original Series, duh!) was on TV. So I can't well claim that this new film is "raping my childhood" as so many fan-boys are. Yet at the same time, it irks the hell out of me to see someone else in those pointy Vulcan ears calling themselves Spock! The fact that this film will also feature the original, true Spock, the great Leonard Nimoy is a big help in keeping me from going rabid-dog on things.

There is certainly a lot of energy about this new film. Weird thing is the energy is from outside the community of Trekkies. Normally, no one but us gives a rats ass about these films. Now it's sort of turned on it's head -- the outside world seems to give a frak, and the Trekkies are divided worse than ever. As if we needed more reason to be at odds with each other. TNG began that divide, and DS9 and VGR and ENT (if I have to explain all of those, you shouldn't be here!) only made the divide worse. That said I loved almost all of them and never got bogged down in those divides and arguments. Every show had it's merits and faults.

Now though... I don't know. I just don't know how this new film fits. How the idea of new people as Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty all fit into things. We've never faced this conundrum. In all of Star Trek history, there have been exactly two recasts. That's it. Considering there are 5 series, 10 feature films, and something like 700 hours of Star Trek... that's really saying something that only two characters have changed actors. Those beeing Saavik, originally played by Kirstie Alley in The Wrath of Khan and replaced (due to wanting too much money) by Robin Curtis in Search for Spock, and in Voyager, they brought in Susanna Thompson to play the Borg Queen twice, before returning Alice Krige to the role she owns in the series finale.

So why the hell am I rambling on about Star Trek? Right, back to the new third theatrical trailer. If you've not seen it, it's not hard to find. Try StarTrekMovie.com for starters.

OK, done? Heard that awesome trailer music, that reminds you a bit of the score for The Dark Knight?

It's from a trailer music company called Two Steps From Hell and the track in question is titled "Freedom Fighters" from (apparently) their ablum Legend -- that all said, the company released a statement in response to the overwhelming response to the music stating it has never been released commercially and that Paramount obtained exclusive rights usage to the track, but that they may still release it on an album. Confused? So am I. Especially since I've obtained the track in question.

I've also obtained the track from the second theatrical trailer. It's entitled, perhaps on purpose and perhaps ironically, "Down with the Enterprise" -- no I don't know if that means 'shoot them down' or 'down with my homies' as someone else asked me. I doubt it's coincedence though. Anyway, besides those two tracks, if you go into the movie website, you'll hear some background music. We don't yet know if it's a sample of the score to come or not. Either way, I've put all three tracks in one zip download for you all. Enjoy, and spread them around!

http://hyperfileshare.com/d/a254dcce

(PS: Yes, I know I've written this post in a larger font size than previously. I've decided squinting isn't a good thing.)