All 5 Gerald Fried Star Trek scores ranked
By Mike Poteet
“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.