All 5 Gerald Fried Star Trek scores ranked
By Mike Poteet
![Nov. 2, 2015 – CBS Television Studios announced today it will launch a totally new “Star Trek” television series in January 2017. The brand-new “Star Trek” will introduce new characters seeking imaginative new worlds and new civilizations, while exploring the dramatic contemporary themes that have been a signature of the franchise since its inception in 1966. The new series will blast off with a special preview broadcast on the CBS Television Network. The premiere episode and all subsequent first-run episodes will then be available exclusively in the United States on CBS All Access, the Network’s digital subscription video on demand and live streaming service.Pictured: Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock in STAR TREK (The Original Series)Screen grab: ©1967 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Nov. 2, 2015 – CBS Television Studios announced today it will launch a totally new “Star Trek” television series in January 2017. The brand-new “Star Trek” will introduce new characters seeking imaginative new worlds and new civilizations, while exploring the dramatic contemporary themes that have been a signature of the franchise since its inception in 1966. The new series will blast off with a special preview broadcast on the CBS Television Network. The premiere episode and all subsequent first-run episodes will then be available exclusively in the United States on CBS All Access, the Network’s digital subscription video on demand and live streaming service.Pictured: Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock in STAR TREK (The Original Series)Screen grab: ©1967 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/26397117296c35921dd55540ee1c47792c127c32987854cfea1e81c58edf7d1a.jpg)
“The Paradise Syndrome” (season 3, episode 3)
It sounds to my ear as though Gerald Fried borrowed freely from himself when scoring “The Paradise Syndrome.”
Like “Friday’s Child,” this episode takes place on a “primitive” planet, among “primitive” people—in this case, Native Amercians removed to a far-away world by the enigmatic Preservers. So much of Fried’s material sounds very similar to what he composed for the earlier episode. And, yes, some of it sounds like Hollywood’s idea of what Native American music should sound like.
But Fried also creates exciting new material for the sequence in which the Preserver’s obelisk zaps away Captain Kirk’s memories, turning him into the tribe’s long-expected “Kirok.” He again quotes Alexander Courage’s fanfare to fine effect in moments when Kirk is struggling to remember his former life.
Most of all, the love theme Fried wrote for Kirk and the doomed Miramanee is exquisitely beautiful. Fried takes it through several effective variations during the episode—tender, playful, even ominous. It is devastatingly gorgeous in its final appearance, as Kirk says goodbye to the dying Miramanee, and is no small part of the scene’s heartbreaking power.