Big Chance to Get Away From It All...

McCoy: "Where are we going?"
Kirk: "Wherever they went."
McCoy: "Suppose they went nowhere."
Kirk: "Then this will be your big chance to get away from it all."
-- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

That pretty much sums up where I've been at: nowhere. It's been two weeks since I last "blogged" simply because... well, I'm new to this, and I forgot. Call it attention deficit disorder, call it busy, call it lazy, or call me a procrastinator... any and/or all of those work and are apt to apply to me. Why? Well, why is the sky blue or the grass green? Ok, bad examples, as those actually do have answers when you get down to the science of it. Point is, asking me to explain why I am the way I am would be inviting a lecture. One you don't want to hear (or read as the case may be) and one I certainly don't want to supply. So... you'll just have to take some solace in the fact that I'm here, now, and come bearing gifts. Well, a gift actually. Singular. But it's a good one for all you Sci-Fi Score fans out there in the internet etherland!

In the fall of 1995, the FOX network did something they're well known for; they picked up a risky high-concept show that would become a cult classic. At the end of that season, in the spring of 1996, they would do what they're notorious for; cancelling said risky high-concept show due to a variety of reasons (idiocy, impatience, incompetence, arrogance). Still, like oh so many beloved-but-cancelled FOX shows, it was 'the little show that could'. Could do what? Survive. Even in the barren depths of cancellation, far from the cut-off point for standard syndication (24 out of a required minimum 75 episodes) the show would cling to the ribs of those who had inhaled it during it's run and eventually find some rebirth (or perhaps re-breath if we want to keep with the silliness) through the Sci-Fi Channel, and finally, years later, release upon DVD.

What was this show? Well, in internet short-hand, you might think someone is speaking about a car, but you'd be wrong. When someone says SAAB in a sci-fi context, it's not the automobile they're referencing, but dynamic duo Glen Morgan and James Wong's short-lived love-child, Space: Above & Beyond. Morgan and Wong, one of the best creative duos I've known of, are most-well-known for their work on The X-Files. SAAB was their baby, though. The aforelabeled risky high-concept of the show was simple on the surface; space marines. No, we're not talking Starship Troopers style of space marines. We're talking realistic and bold, fresh and unique. Something actual marines could be proud of. Set in 2063, the show followed the primary 6 members of the 58th Squadron, the Wildcards. Five of them team members and the sixth, their CO, Colonel McQueen. From various backgrounds, the 58th found themselves on the front lines of a brave new world; interstellar war with the first known alien race.

Now, I could sit here and lament how that, if FOX has simply shown some patience and flexibility, SAAB might have survived longer than a mere one season. In my opinion, if a show doesn't achieve ratings success in a particular day and/or time, the smart idea would be to move the show to another day and/or time to see if it achieves an audience there. Maybe even do that more than once before flushing such an investment down the toilet. This is FOX, though. Any genre fan knows from the get-go; if it's on FOX, don't get attached to it. Outside of The X-Files, no genre show has lasted on the network. Despite this, they've traditionally been the only network willing to give such concepts even a chance, so creators find themselves between a rock and a hard-place; have their show on FOX and give it a snowball's chance in hell, or have their show not produced because the 'big three' networks (traditionally) look at genre work as beneath them. After all, if it's not cops, lawyers or doctors, who the hell wants to see it?

Anyway... the score for Space: Above & Beyond was, to say the least, rousing and memorable. Then again, I'd expect nothing less from one of my top three composers of all time, the late great Shirley Walker (who, yes, also scored Batman: The Animated Series). That said, the score to SAAB, like the score to B:TAS, is beyond the term 'rare'. While it exists, you'll be hard-pressed to find physical proof of that. Like much of Shirley's scores, they received limited (if any) release for reasons beyond my understanding. Which is why sharing what little I have of her work is so very important to me. It's not easy to become one of my favorite composers, and it's even harder to do so when I can't just pick up a dozen scores of your composition at Wal-Mart. It's easy enough to do with the late Jerry Goldsmith, of course. Not so much with Shirley. Which has to say something about how great her work is; that while she toiled in relative obscurity next to giants like Goldsmith and (the often overrated) Williams, she still managed to break through to people with her work and make a lasting and appreciative impression.

So, without further rambling, I present to you Shirley Walker's score to the pilot of Space: Above & Beyond...



http://hyperfileshare.com/d/0c4e4b50