#Notevember
A Favorite DSC Track
A Brief Editorial
Feel free to skip to the actual selection to today’s prompt.
I feel the need to express that it is beyond my comprehension, that in five seasons of music releases for Star Trek: Discovery, including three separate releases for season one, Jeff Russo’s theme for the spore drive has never been made available on a single solitary cue1. It’s certainly one of, if not the most recognizable piece of music from season one, and has appeared many times since. In fact, I am baffled by many of the cue selections that were made during the production of the Discovery soundtrack albums, particularly the ones from Season One.
Ok, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way…
“Ready” by Jeff Russo
I’ve talked a number of times about how season two of Star Trek: Discovery is my favorite, both from a storytelling standpoint and also from a music standpoint. I’m pretty sure I’ve already cited “Pike on the Bridge” as a favorite cue, and and Russo’s theme for Captain Pike is also featured in “Through the Valley of Shadows” in a moment I called out in a previous Notevember.
The other standout theme from this season is the one Jeff Russo wrote to represent Michael and Gabrielle Burnham and their connection to the Red Angel. This particular cue plays over Michael’s running leap from Discovery during “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2.” This is just my opinion, but I’ve always found Russo’s thematic writing to be much more interesting than his general approach to underscore in Star Trek, and this track certainly highlights his abilities as a composer, even if those abilities aren’t always reflected in the occasionally repetitive music we got for the series.
Cheating Time
With apologies, I’m going to talk a little more about this theme, because Russo uses it in various guises throughout the latter half of Season Two, often to great effect. I’m going to highlight two more examples here.
While “Ready” features the “Red Angel Theme”2 in an action mode, it is adaptable enough to other emotions as well.
The cue “Failure” plays over the alternate timeline Burnham sees at the beginning of “Such Sweet Sorrow” as Control/Leland comes onto the bridge and slaughters the crew. It’s a shockingly tragic moment3, and this rendition plays the theme in an almost elegiac mode.
The first4 instance of this theme appears in “Perpetual Infinity,” as we cut between Michael fighting to keep Gabrielle tethered to their time and a fight between Georgiou and Leland. This cue, appropriately titled “Gone,” uses the theme to emphasize the grief felt between mother and daughter as Gabrielle is pulled away.
If I am wrong about this, PLEASE tell me…↩
At least that’s what I’ve always considered it to be. It could be a Burnham theme, a Gabrielle Burnham theme, or just a theme Russo likes but didn’t really attach to anything specific. He annoyingly reused the Pike Theme in Season Three when Michael is reunited with Discovery, but that could just be an example of a cue being tracked in in postproduction.↩
Though I cannot watch it without thinking “Computer: activate the Omega-13!”↩
I think?↩
