Star Trek: the Next Generation the Ron Jones Project Supplemental Liner Notes

FSM Box 05 Star Trek: The Next Generation The Ron Jones Project Supplemental Liner Notes Contents The Defector . 28 The High Ground . 29 Foreword 1 A Matter of Perspective . 29 The Offspring . 30 Season One 2 Allegiance . 31 The Naked Now . 3 Menage´ a` Troi . 32 Where No One Has Gone Before . 4 Lonely Among Us . 6 Season Four 33 The Battle . 6 Brothers . 36 Datalore . 7 Reunion . 37 11001001 . 8 Final Mission . 38 When the Bough Breaks . 9 Data’s Day . 39 Heart of Glory . 10 Devil’s Due . 40 Skin of Evil . 11 First Contact . 40 We’ll Always Have Paris . 12 Night Terrors . 41 The Neutral Zone . 12 The Nth Degree . 42 Season Two 13 The Drumhead . 43 Where Silence Has Lease . 14 The Best of Both Worlds . 43 The Outrageous Okona . 15 Afterword 44 Loud as a Whisper . 16 A Matter of Honor . 17 Additional and Alternate Cues 45 The Royale . 18 The Icarus Factor . 19 Data and Statistics 46 Q Who . 19 Up the Long Ladder . 21 Interplay Computer Games 48 The Emissary . 22 Starfleet Academy . 48 Shades of Gray . 23 Starfleet Command . 48 Season Three 24 1992 Ron Jones Interview 49 Evolution . 25 Who Watches the Watchers . 26 1996 Ron Jones Interview 55 Booby Trap . 26 The Price . 27 2010 Rob Bowman Interview 58 Liner notes ©2010 Film Score Monthly, 6311 Romaine Street, Suite 7109, Hollywood CA 90038. These notes may be printed or archived electronically for personal use only. For a complete catalog of all FSM releases, please visit: http://www.filmscoremonthly.com Star Trek: The Next Generation P 2010, ©1987–1991, 2010 CBS Studios Inc. Starfleet Academy P 2010, ©1997 Interplay Entertainment Corp. Starfleet Command P 2010, ©2010, ©1999 Interplay Entertainment Corp. Star Trek and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. FSM Box 05 • Star Trek: The Next Generation • Supplemental Liner Notes Foreword The 1987 launch of Star Trek: The Next Generation effects had been largely inherited from the Star Trek was one of the most daring experiments in the history movies, yet the story clearly called for an acknowledge- of television. TV series had been revived in one form or ment of the original ’60s television series. Addition- another before, but never one with the history and fan ally and crucially, the decision had been made that the base of Star Trek (1966–1969). Gene Roddenberry and main title music for Star Trek: The Next Generation would Paramount had come close to resurrecting the series in reprise Jerry Goldsmith’s popular theme from Star Trek: the 1970s with Star Trek Phase II, designed to launch a The Motion Picture. Add to that the fact that syndicated new Paramount television network, but that concept repeats of the original series had drummed the show’s morphed into Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and a music scores and themes into the heads of fans for over successful theatrical film franchise. The box-office clout 20 years, and the challenge Jones faced becomes clear: of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) helped pave the Somehow he had to acknowledge both the Star Trek way for a new television series that Gene Roddenberry feature-film aesthetic and the bold, distinctive approach designed to take place well after the events of the origi- of the original series—yet bring both sensibilities for- nal Star Trek. ward to a modern era for contemporary audiences, and From its inception, Star Trek: The Next Generation on a weekly television budget. faced the challenge of pleasing both fans of the origi- Jones succeeded, melding symphonic orchestration, nal television series and a new audience of television echoes of the original television series music (especially viewers. Roddenberrys conception for the series was Alexander Courage’s “Theme From Star Trek,” also used highly pacifistic, decreeing that there not be character in TNG’s opening credits), and an array of synthesizer conflicts among the crew of the new U.S.S. Enterprise, tones to give the music a more futuristic quality. Jones the NCC-1701-D. He placed a teenaged character (as typically alternated episodes with Dennis McCarthy, well as families of crewmembers) aboard the ship, and scoring nearly half of them during seasons one through declined to reprise the original series’ characters or vil- four. Throughout, Jones sought to give each episode lains. A lone Klingon, the Federation’s old enemy, was a distinctive sound and often a highly intellectual ap- instead an ally on the bridge, and a bald, middle-aged proach, while carrying forward and developing themes captain—Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart)—sat in the for the Enterprise as well as the show’s signature alien command chair. races: the Klingons, the Romulans and the Borg. In the Clearly this was a radically new series, unlike the first two seasons, Jones’s music provided the show a ’60s Star Trek in many respects. Paramount sold the consistency and dramatic grounding that its storylines show directly to syndication, giving Roddenberry and sometimes struggled to achieve, while in seasons three company more control over its creative content. But and four his scores became more internal and psycho- its “shakedown cruise” lasted for the first two seasons logical, befitting the series’ burgeoning maturity. But as the series often struggled to find a tone, shifting be- when the show needed symphonic scoring in the grand tween adult themes and juvenilia. Nonetheless, during “space opera” tradition, Jones rose to the occasion: his those first years many of the program’s core themes epic score to the series’ first cliffhanger and resolution, and characters were developed, and the series boasted “The Best of Both Worlds,” helped kicked TNG’s popu- strong ratings and began to generate a devoted fan base. larity into the stratosphere. By its third and fourth seasons, it was a phenomenon Ron Jones’s Star Trek musical universe is a remark- in its own right, with a new legion of devoted Star Trek ably fleshed-out world unto itself, with electronic mu- watchers. sic that is hypnotic, disturbing and sometimes wist- From the very first episodes of the show, one of fully touching; action music that is always martial and the most consistent and ambitious behind-the-scenes thrilling; and some wonderfully daring and evocative talents was composer Ron Jones. Although he did not approaches to individual episodes, from the Celtic jigs score the series pilot, “Encounter at Farpoint” (that was of “Up the Long Ladder” to the alien-orchestra mental- handled by Dennis McCarthy), due to post-production ity of “First Contact.” Almost as fascinating as Jones’s scheduling Jones was the first composer to go onto the music itself is the man’s perspective on the series and recording stage—to score the first weekly episode, “The his work, his often symbolic approach to the show’s Naked Now.” The story was a sequel and in many ways science fiction and cultural concepts, and his sense of a remake of an early episode of the original series, “The humor, metaphor and irony, all of which you will expe- Naked Time.” The look of the show’s sets and visual rience in his comments on his individual episode scores. ©2010 Film Score Monthly 1 FSM Box 05 • Star Trek: The Next Generation • Supplemental Liner Notes Season One In 1987, when The Next Generation went into pro- Jones was adamant that a keen understanding of duction, 33-year-old Ron Jones was already a veteran of the storytelling of each episode was vital to his ability the Hanna-Barbera and Mike Post music teams and had to score the series. “I would read the scripts early and I scored a number of independent films (Naked Vengeance, had a list of what I called the ‘Star Trek Questions.’ I kept The Fighter, Return of the Kickfighter and Warlords of Hell). saying, who are the main characters? What’s the story He had begun work on Disney’s animated series Duck- about? If this character was an instrument, what would Tales when he heard from drummer Steve Schaeffer that it be? If this character was a harmony, what would it Paramount was working on a new Star Trek series. “He be? If the overall theme of the show was a melody, what said, ‘Why don’t you get together a demo and bring it would it be? I’d ask myself all those questions to bring it down to Paramount where [music consultant] Harry Lo- from the story structure into musical material. And then jewski will be and I’ll give it to him right there,”’ Jones when I have all that material it’s like Wagner—I have remembers. “I put together a demo of things I thought all these motifs, leitmotifs, scales, and I had it serialized would work for Star Trek and I asked my wife, Laree, down to that level. I was meticulous in the design of for her opinion and she said just go for energy—forget the themes and I would spend the first season writing sci-fi and all that stuff. I had things from independent a cue, let it sit and before I turned it in I’d go back and movies that were spooky but I just put together a bunch redo it because I wasn’t happy with it. I’d score the first of ‘energy’ cues, and we went over and Steve grabbed act two or three times until I got it the way I wanted it. Harry on a break and he said, ‘This is the guy to do your I’d spend four days on themes—that was after I’d done show.”’ all the Star Trek Questions.” After listening to several of Jones’s cues, Lojewski Jones and McCarthy—ten years Jones’s senior— got on the phone.

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