Scoring choice in "The Best of Both Worlds"
Posted by Reasonable_Active577@reddit | TNG | View on Reddit | 58 comments
May I just say that I love how the Ron Jones's score for BoBW quotes the TOS fanfare at the instant Picard stands revealed as Locutus? I've always just interpreted it as a sort of mockery; like, "So you want to push into the unknown? Well here's where the unknown pushes back into you!" It's just so much subtext conveyed with so few notes.
Electronic_Lemon7940@reddit
The ultimate cliffhanger, it's never been topped
TolerancEJ@reddit
And this was back when we needed to wait an entire summer to learn the outcome in the fall.
htownAstrofan@reddit
I did. I was 6. And the wait was a killer. Plus seeing Locutus was super creepy at that age
jsonitsac@reddit
Lucky that that could predict that it would be back in the fall. Compare that to some of the hiatuses that we’ve gotten with Discovery and SNW.
Effective-Board-353@reddit
I remember that day very well. But it helped prepare me for the 2-YEAR gap between SNW's Season 2 cliffhanger and its resolution.
TroyTrekker@reddit
Agreed
TheTrivialPsychic@reddit
It's also got great cliffhanger music to go with it, though it feels slightly borrowed from 'Mars, Bringer of War' by Gustav Holst.
velo2b@reddit
Actually, the Klingon theme by J. Godsmith is also a Holst quote.
TheTrivialPsychic@reddit
Which one?
Recent-Pea-8141@reddit
Mr. Worf....fire.
Johnsendall@reddit
And then…. The TNG writers for the continuation:
https://i.redd.it/95stns5fo4uf1.gif
Significant_Pear_523@reddit
Because of how TV is now, it's hard to explain how scary this cliffhanger was, and the music was definitely part of it. It made it feel like we weren't ever getting Picard back. It left me with that "death in the family" type feeling in my chest when part I ended.
logicalparad0x@reddit
Anyone know the name of the song?
Significant_Pear_523@reddit
Check out a YouTube channel called Fluff 'n Custard (God, I hope that's not some kind of sexual reference) and search in the videos there for "Best of Both Worlds".
OlYeller01@reddit
In case you’ve never seen it, Sir Patrick has told the story that during the S3 & S4 break someone noticed him in traffic. They rolled down their window and yelled at him ”You’ve ruined our summer!”
Significant_Pear_523@reddit
I've never heard that before, actually. Appreciate the tidbit.
BrownBannister@reddit
The original cut just ended with ripping guitar! Back in black, I hit the sack I've been too long, I'm glad to be back Yes, I'm let loose from the noose That's kept me hanging about I'm just looking at the sky 'cause it's getting me high Forget the hearse, 'cause I'll never die I got nine lives, cat's eyes Abusing every one of them and running wild
velo2b@reddit
There is one Klingon theme, I think first to be heard in Star Trek I. The one that you can also hear in First Contact when Worf says: „Perhaps today is a good day to die“, just before the Enterprise arrives.
Reasonable_Active577@reddit (OP)
They also use it as Worf's leitmotif in Picard season 3.
imascarylion2018@reddit
Goldsmith’s Klingon theme from TMP starts popping up EVERYWHERE once TNG starts rolling.
My favorite use of it is in The Defector when the bird of prey’s decloak and you realize they’ve been there the whole time ready to fight the Romulans.
velo2b@reddit
That one should‘ve been a reply somewhere else 😃. I was commenting on similarities to Holst‘s Mars. The Klingon theme is a quote. Sorry for the disorder.
Firewalk89@reddit
It was the best soundtrack ever composed for a TV episode, and I'll die on that hill. He also made music for Star Trek games such as Starfleet Command 1 and 2 if you ever want to treat your ears to more. His Klingon and Romulan themes, in particular, are outstanding.
quintinn@reddit
Scoring some abs.
lifegoodis@reddit
You know, I have one simple request, and that is to have Picard with a fricking laser beam attached to his head!
Keepontyping@reddit
Don’t you love how they fired him for doing things like that?
Who_is_homer@reddit
The music in the later seasons is so bland and generic
lifegoodis@reddit
"The Inner Light" has entered the chat.
Anooj4021@reddit
While it is true that Ron Jones was let go due to creative clash about what the background music should be like, it was actually his own creative choice to stop quoting the TOS fanfare and Goldmith’s theme in the episode scores. He liberally used both during the first two seasons, but when the show finally hit the road in the third, he felt quoting these themes was a crutch that was not required onwards from there.
The TMP theme last appears in ”Shades of Grey”, and he retired the TOS fanfare after ”Evolution” (other than the single reappearance OP describes).
This is all documented somewhere in the online liner notes for the Ron Jones TNG box released over a decade ago on Film Score Monthly.
Keepontyping@reddit
That doesn't make sense - BOBW was end of Season 3.
Norsehound@reddit
Composer Ron Jones, who orchestrated the most badass score for BoBW that might as well be theatrical in quality, was fired by Rick Berman after scoring this episode.
Something I recall about making the soundtrack too interesting.
chiaplotter4u@reddit
On a side note - this is my least favorite Borg costume. It's obvious that it was made to be as little bother to Sir Patrick as possible, which is completely fine by me, but it just doesn't look as badass.
quitegonegenie@reddit
That laser more than makes up for the rest of the costume.
chiaplotter4u@reddit
Yeah, it's an awesome addition to the Borg outfits. Lasers are cool even today.
BrotherKluft@reddit
He was only partly assimilated at this time. In part 2 he had the full borg outfit
lavardera@reddit
I always wondered - one of Locutus' arms had some kind of drone device on the end. Didn't that mean they cut off Picard's hand?
jsonitsac@reddit
Dr. T’Ana regrew a few limbs why not Beverly?
SituationThen4758@reddit
I wonder what’s Sir Patrick stewards opinion on Locutus and wearing the outfit.
chiaplotter4u@reddit
Well, one I remember from the top of my head - the suit itched quite a bit.
That's one of the things I don't get about actors. How the hell do they endure physical discomfort 16 hours a day and still make it look like nothing is troubling the actor at all is beyond me. LeVar with his visor, Michael with the head prosthetics, Brent with his contact lenses...
TheTrivialPsychic@reddit
Perhaps we should prescribe and an analgesic creme.
Effective-Board-353@reddit
After all, we're doctors, not doorstops.
Electronic_Lemon7940@reddit
We're incredibly stupid for the most part
Reasonable_Active577@reddit (OP)
https://imgur.com/CEvS3Mq
I'm sure he one or two stories about that costume.
SituationThen4758@reddit
Link doesn’t work.
Reasonable_Active577@reddit (OP)
It works for me.
SituationThen4758@reddit
That’s weird.
VariousPreference0@reddit
Are you in the UK? The online safety act has caused imgur to block all content.
Flimsy-Blackberry-67@reddit
Works for me. It's a photo of Patrick Stewart in full Borg gear reading the "Suddenly Human" script.
Marquedien@reddit
Are you at work? I can’t find pen Imgur links on work Wi-Fi.
jsonitsac@reddit
I think the best part of that was the musical que they played of the off key Star Trek fanfare. At once familiar but very wrong.
burnitalldown321@reddit
We used to watch with my mom. When the final scene with SPS turning and saying I am Locutus we LOST it. omg, what does it mean? Then came the 4 months of waiting with NO news. This was the 90s. Tv guide was your real only news for tv stuff. We had to WAIT
Peas-Of-Wrath@reddit
I can see they got parts the Batman dilemma of having “nipples” or “no nipples” on the bat suit by giving him a rather fetching black sweater for his top half. I can imagine the drones knitting them with special attachments to their arms. 😆
le_sacre@reddit
That's very interesting! Can you clarify where exactly that theme occurs, like what instruments are playing it, and is it before or after the choral A-G-F#-Bb-A borg theme?
In that key, I would expect the TOS fanfare to be A-D-G-F#-D-B-E-A or some recognizable snippet or transformation of it, but I can't hear that in this moment. I do hear an ascending pattern in low brass, but it's just a straight fully diminished arpeggio.
Ragnarok345@reddit
No you may not. Whatcha gonna do now, huh? 😆
Reasonable_Active577@reddit (OP)
Cry.
Big-Rock-6814@reddit
I mentioned this in my music theory thesis as an example of how changing leitmotif can have an impact on the story ❤️ its pure genious
sinnops@reddit
The borg outfits looked so badass. Then you see them in HD, woof!
Pantless_Hobo@reddit
I love that the Borg are completely unemotional but are still like, "lets give him sick abs"
WorkingFellow@reddit
They may be unemotional, but c'mon, now; They don't want other species to think they don't lift.