Vid: The Doomsday Machine's Excellent Epic Scoring

"The Doomsday Machine" Music Revealed from Shem von Schroeck on Vimeo.


Last April I posted an article on how I discovered the world and film and television scoring. When one watches a lot of television, as kids are prone to do, one notices after constant rewatches of the same series episodes that part of the attracting might be the music — those repeated melodies, or stings, that slowly embed themselves in our dramatic unconscious. Steve Austin running to save someone, or battling an even-more-expensive man; Gilligan screwing something up again, or carrying that enhanced native girl; Will Robinson not listening to his robot companion's oft-repeated warnings; the IMF crew setting up and carrying out a covert setup while racing against the stopwatch; Marcia Brady taking one right in the nose for the Gipper... anything needing help from the studio scoring stage to help set the dramatic or comedic stage for the viewer to feel and believe in the, sometimes unbelievable, onscreen proceedings.

Very often the best scoring in television comes about when a given show's producers understand, appreciate, and, most importantly, support their show's musical track and its importance to the stories their writers have told. ("Don't mention 'Star Trek the Next Generation'.") The viewer is manipulated by the underscoring, whether it's subtle or over-the-top. Music is powerful on its own, but when melded with picture, even television picture, it becomes something more.

'Scoring', unfortunately, is one department in the production chain where the artist is one his or her own. Part of this curious phenomena is drawn and bound by the insanity of series television production. Producers have enough problems to deal with, besides, the discipline of music scoring is alien to many show runners. Unless something objectionable is revealed in the score in the final cut, it stays. Besides, that airdate is right around the corner. Technology helps any fixes that may be vital, and complete episode scores have been dumped over the years, but generally speaking, that last link in the production chain is left alone.

Sometimes: "The music was the best thing about the episode."

One book I would highly recommend to anyone interested in the art, craft, and history of television music scoring is Jon Burlingame's excellent bound document, Music for Prime Time: A History of American Television Themes and Scoring. He spends time on programs long forgotten, and the television documentary, a form from television's earliest days, those fondly remembered, like Peter Gunn and Route 66, popular series at one time of a special title, like Superman and The Lone Ranger, and on those that have become television legends, such as The Twilight Zone and....

(For me the most interesting chapters of Burlingame's book are those covering television scoring's earliest days: the use of library music, writing music for music libraries, and music for drama and documentaries. He loves his subject, which makes this book such a terrific read for those interested in his subject, and subjects. Stanley Wilson, Johnny Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Lud Gluskin, Henry Mancini, Pete Rugolo, Nelson Riddle... they're all there. I had not realized that Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman scored so much television. Two series with the highest level of episodic scoring: The Twilight Zone and Star Trek, the original incarnations. Author Burlingame rightfully gives them a few pages each.)

Which brings me to the subject of this piece....

As any Trekker can tell you, one big reason for Star Trek's success is due to the varied and outstanding music scores. That stellar program had so many big hitters in the various production departments: cinematographer Jerry Finnerman, designer Walter "Matt" Jefferies, and associate producer Robert Justman, to name a few. We fans know and love the cast of characters, of course, but the "Tech Credits", as the industry papers label them, impress also.

The music department scored big time.

Some episodes with standout scores:

"The Naked Time" (Alexandra Courage)
"The Conscience of the King" (Joseph Mullendore)
"Who Mourns for Adonais?" (Fred Steiner)
"Amok Time" (Gerald Fried)
"The Trouble With Tribbles" (Jerry Fielding)
"Metamorphosis" (George Duning)
"I, Mudd" (Samuel Matlovsky)

Sol Kaplan's "The Doomsday Machine" rocks, rolls, and blasts in brilliance. Its brass section blazes with 4 trombones, 3 trumpets, and 4 French horns. Those crackerjack session players ("West Coast musicians") plied their trade in Paramount Pictures' Stage M that day, with composer Kaplan conducting them through the charts.

American composer/musician Shem von Schroeck produced the above 60-minute video. He starts off by breaking down the score's essential parts — there are many — then runs "The Doomsday Machine" with onscreen text denoting what instruments and instrumental groups are playing at any given moment. His method is academic but easily understood by those folk who can't tell a kettle drum from a double bass, or a bassoon from a cello.

Schroeck's affection and admiration for Star Trek and its scores is evident, and infectious.

Outstanding. The instructive video reminds me why I got into the business.

My Three Favourite Star Trek Episodes (Today)

1. "THE CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER" — So much has been said about this episode that I can only repeat where others have gone before: brilliant; moving; "gold" (as one film school mate of mine said).

"A question. Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question."

The Guardian of Forever is one of the most remarkable characters from the entire series, in addition to being a strong and unforgettable image ("the doughnut"). Actress Joan Collins is not reading lines for some tv show, she is Edith Keeler; sweet, noble, and strong. William Shatner, as Captain Kirk, proves he is an outstanding actor. He makes you believe that he has fallen for Keeler, and somehow, with a little help from the various production departments, does it all in much less than fifty-minutes. Kirk's pained expression at the story's end is a Master-Class Moment... he says not one word. (Screenplay students, take note.)

Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, who enjoyed many fine moments as a team throughout the series, have never been better together than they are here. The interplay is that of the kind expected between friends caught in a hole, but the dynamic of Commanding Officer and subordinate is never lost or misplaced.

Director Joseph Pevney guides everything with an experienced sure hand (it does not hurt that the man started out as an actor). Composer Fred Steiner wrote an affecting score, at key moments weaving his own music with the old penny arcade song "Goodnight Sweetheart".

Special note: Harlan Ellison wrote the original script, and if you are aware of the seismic events of the behind-the-scenes story, you know that the feisty writer was upset that his work was rewritten (by several people). My take on the subject is that Ellison's teleplay was so good that it was almost impossible for someone to screw it up. It's a gem of a story. (Ellison's original script went on to win a Writers Guild of America award, and the filmed show went on to win a Hugo Award and to be regarded as possibly the fairest Trek of all.)

Punchline: This episode is one of the greatest examples of hour-long dramatic television that I have ever seen. Period.

"Let's get the hell out of here."

2. "BALANCE OF TERROR" — We have a cool-looking and iconic alien spaceship (the Romulan "Bird of Prey"); three-dimensional 'baddies'; Enterprise crew-members we grow to like, and not so much, in a very short time; a great musical riff; affecting and dramatic space action (with spaceships firing at each other from positions thousands of miles apart, the way it should be); a superb script; and a moving denouement.

It all starts with a wedding....

Basically a retelling of The Enemy Below, a fine and exciting film from 1957 starring Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens, "Balance of Terror" throws, seamlessly, a love interest into the greater picture in addition to replacing a destroyer and a U-boat with two mighty starships ("The Praetor's finest and proudest flagship...").

At the risk of over-simplifying an arguable point I will say that only Star Trek could pull off a story like "Balance of Terror". Conjuring up space-battle-action on the script page is easy (and relatively cheap to render visually, today), but to fuse it so impeccably with a people-story that matters seems to be the great unsolvable equation for many a filmmaker; especially these days. Firing phasers and photon torpedoes mean nothing, except to the worst of the geeks, if you don't underlay science fiction-type artillery with a narrative of emotional weight — otherwise, it just ends up a story of procedures and protocols.

The Romulans manning the great Bird of Prey are not given short shrift here. The anguish of doing the right thing for home and country, and the Praetor, while at the same time wondering what it all really means at the end of the day, injects the 'enemy' scenes with more than the typical shallow stock bad-guy shenanigans. The Romulans have emotions, too; a vital lesson in today's political climate of readily labelling any opponent as "scumbags".

The bookends to this technically and tactically oriented tale are basically that of love and loss. ("Spoiler Alert", all decks!) Captain Kirk has another job responsibility, outside of giving the expected orders necessary in running a ship-of-the-line; one of consoling a bride who lost her loved one in an aimless and unnecessary war ("It never makes any sense. We both have to know that there was a reason.").

I suppose the theme of "Balance of Terror" is loss: machine; pride; integrity; self; and humanity. A story for the ages.

"In a different reality, I could have called you 'friend'."

3. "MIRROR, MIRROR" — As my brother said to me a few years ago with rolling glee, after watching this episode earlier that day, "('Mirror, Mirror') has to be one of the most entertaining pieces of television ever made". Rarely has a television series' regular cast had such an obvious field-day playing, and with great aplomb, a step or two outside of the usual sandbox.

Jerome Bixby's script is from teleplay-heaven. It should be studied in screenwriting classes. I'm serious. Every word of dialogue, every scene, every motivation, counts and drives the story forward. There's a plate-full of tasty dialogue ("Indeed, his act warrants death."); the 'other' Spock is delectably dark, but still Spock; there are memorable characters who are essentially just walk-ons ("Yes!, Sir!"; "Smart boy, switching to the top dog."); and as evil as this alternate world is, everyone, bad guys included, has a sense of humour — even if they don't mean to be funny.

Fred Steiner's score is classic, full of memorable and standout themes for tension, romance, and horror. Cinematographer Jerry Finnerman turns the lights down a wee bit lower to enhance an off-kilter world featuring a ship-load of cutthroats. Series costume designer William Theiss clearly had fun developing less "conservative" Starfleet attire for the I.S.S. Enterprise crew.

My most personal admission for "Mirror, Mirror" is that it did not resonate for me, really, until my teens. I remember watching it one weekend afternoon when I was seventeen, and suddenly the episode exploded into 3-strip Technicolor. Sure, I loved it as a kid ("Spock with a beard"), of course, but a little life experience was needed to process and fully appreciate all its themes; and to 'see' its deliciously ripe sense of humour.

This line, more than any other perhaps, in a script which is loaded to begin with, may illustrate the overall tone of the alternate universe Enterprise perfectly....

"And my Sickbay is a chamber of horrors. My assistants were betting on the tolerance of an injured man. How long it would take him to pass out from the pain."

Star Trek: A Celebration in Large-Format Book Form

This book has been sitting on my shelf for more than five years. After buying Star Trek: A Celebration, I gave the colourful and informative document a quick scan before filing it. Typical. With Star Trek celebrating its 60th, there's good reason to crack it open again.

The chapters are varied and interesting. Many of us love the cast, and the characters they played, but I thought I would not cover their respective chapters, as most fans know all about them. For this post I decided to capture a few of those fascinating behind-the-scenes sections. A small sampling....

Art Department — Making Strange New Worlds

Designing for the Future — Unexpected Exposure

Makeup Department — First In, Last Out

VFX Department — Making the Impossible Real

Music Department — Opera in Outer Space

The music! That magnificent music.

USS Enterprise at Film Effects of Hollywood in 1966

The eleven-footer at Film Effects of Hollywood.

The days of large-scale miniatures: the above picture is a sample bluescreen shot from a television series called Star Trek. Linwood Dunn's company, with Dunn himself behind the camera, photographed lots of "beauty-pass" material of the USS Enterprise, including this original footage for the first season episode "Space Seed". (The Howard Anderson Company had the model for the two pilot shows and the first few episodes, before it was shipped to Dunn.)

(I worked in 'opticals' as a compositor. While I didn't do billing, I know how much work like the above cost a production company: a lot. The stage work was just the beginning.)

Star Trek's Magnificent USS Enterprise Returns

In 2022, Star Trek's restored eleven-foot Starship Enterprise studio filming model went back on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, after the museum underwent some major renovations.

NCC-1701 is a work of beauty, and is still, in my opinion, the greatest of all fictional space vessels. (Its designer was the brilliant Walter Matt Jefferies.) As an old friend of mine said: "It just glows."

Star Trek: A Special Television Episode T-shirt

"The City on the Edge of Forever" is one of television's finest hours. It's an episode of Star Trek (1966 - 1969), one of television's finest-ever series.

Now to the T-shirt.

A few years ago, my brother contacted me saying he was going to order a few Trek T-shirts, and asked me if I wanted one... take my pick. I checked the catalogue and was impressed. An artist in the States had produced designs for all 79 Trek episodes, with each being his own unique interpretation of that particular story.

Postscript: No doubt the shirt looks even better when hugging my somewhat Hemanic chest, but I elected to take the picture with the shirt lying flat.

Toronto Star Photographer on the Star Trek Set

On Tuesday, September 6, 1966, Star Trek had its 'world premiere' on Canada's CTV network, and on the following Thursday the series debuted on its home network, NBC.

But, before the series hit the airwaves....

Reg Innell was a photographer who worked for the Toronto Star. His assignment in June of 1966 was to visit Desilu Studios stages 9 and 10 (now Paramount 31 and 32) and cover two Canadian actors who were starring in a new science fiction dramatic television series. William Shatner and James Doohan were busy jobbing actors before that time and space, but it was Star Trek that shot them to some fame.

After Innell's death in 2018 his negatives were donated to the paper, and were rediscovered by Toronto Star video producer Kelsey Wilson.

As was the case with anybody who visited the Star Trek stages before the show had even aired, they had no idea what would become of the show in the years to come.

The episode in production when Mr Innell visited Desilu's Stage 10: "The Man Trap"

They're Canadian, eh?

Los Angeles Times on Star Trek — September 1966

In September of 2015, the Los Angeles Times reprinted a story that it had first published on the 21st of September, 1966....

"Star Trek is Costly Sci Fi Epic"

In the semi-darkness of a massive sound stage on the Desilu-Gower lot, strange creatures dart about through web covered catacombs.

In a far off section, where it gleams eerily, grotesque screams penetrate the air. Above it, a rather sarcastic and unmistakable human voice shouts, “Hold it! Let’s take it again…”

I find articles like that fascinating. Yes, what did they think back then of a given show, especially one that would go into the history books, and endless reruns?

For the piece, then LA Times staff writer Don Page visited the Desilu sound stages. Star Trek had started regular series production that May, and only two episodes had aired ("The Man Trap" and "Charlie X") by the article's date of publication, so history hadn't yet decided if the whole enterprise to that point in time was big money well spent, or if yet another television series in the era of "deficit financing" would dig a big loss for its producing studio.

Star Trek in Animation Filmation Form

Further to a post of mine from yesterday, another Star Trek series premiered on September the 8th: a Saturday morning Star Trek, commonly referred to as "The Animated Series". Produced by Filmation Associates, the ink & paint Trek went where a live action show could not boldly go: the imagery was creative and bold.

On the morning of September 8, 1973, I sat in front of the colour Zenith television to watch a series that I had only learned about the evening before when NBC aired an hour-long 'sneak preview' for their Saturday morning kids' shows. The premiere episode, "Beyond the Farthest Star", was exciting stuff to a preteen fan of the live-action Trek.

I don't have any physical-media copies of this program, although it is available on Paramount Plus. Tonight might see me chilling with a glass of wine in front of the flatscreen, watching a certain series premiere. (Wine is not something I would have enjoyed on a Saturday morning in 1973. Although, my bowl of Shreddies did taste kinda funny, now that I think about. I remember the strange imagery taking hold, becoming more and more strange and far out with each spoonful of cereal.)

What separated animated Star Trek from its competing kid-fare, was the scripting. Writers of note include: DC Fontana, Larry Niven, David Gerrold, (original-series director) Marc Daniels, and Samuel A. Peeples, who wrote "Beyond the Farthest Star".

Star Trek Premiered on NBC 60 Years Ago Today

September the 8th, 1966, is a date known to many Trekkers.

I'm just old enough to have remembered Star Trek first airing but I must have missed it. Maybe my parents saw the trailer on CTV for the opening episode, "The Man Trap", and its great and scary monster, and made the decision to make sure I missed it. (It was Canada's CTV network that actually opened the series — on Tuesday, September 6th, 1966.)

The charade had to last but a few weeks: In October we left for West Germany, and I did not see the series on ZDF, ARD, or the two French channels. (However, I did watch the telefantasy series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Invaders, and The Prisoner on French and/or German television.) ZDF began running Trek in 1972, which I found out about three years ago.

I first saw Star Trek in June of 1970. My British cousins were watching it on BBC2 ― in colour ― and I joined them in silence while visiting.

Back here in Canada, CTV's flagship station, CFTO, began its long run of "stripping" Trek. In September of 1970 a regular Monday to Friday at 5 p.m. screening schedule started the magic for many of us. "What is this exciting, striking, beautiful, and colourful show?", I must have pondered at the beginning as I got lost in its vortex. This was a communal experience for many viewers, for in the syndication market it was a true "water cooler" (and "water fountain"!) television series.

My own private joke regarding my own fandom: It was nine years ago that I bought the complete series on Blu-ray. Before that I had just odds and ends on VHS and DVD. As for the Blu-ray format, I've watched just one episode.

But I am a fan.

How many dramatic television programs are, or will be, remembered sixty years after they hit the video airwaves? This week I'll be taking a look back at the one and only Star Trek.

Five O O O O O O

Late yesterday afternoon this website's hit counter hit 5,000,000. It was a flurry of recent traffic from the USA, of course, and Brazil that put me there. And, at this very hour, it's "Brazil" that's continuing to spearhead the visits.

Perhaps I should write pieces on Brasil, and, visit that country....

Picturing: TTC Spadina Station, Thinking, Planning

A rare early Sunday morning trip, waiting for that first northbound train....

For the Love of Star Trek on TVO

This TVO Supporter received an essential reminder that a new TVO (TV Ontario) documentary premieres today at 8:00pm (EST) on that network. 

For the Love of Star Trek, indeed!

The program can be streamed from TVO.org if you're not from this quadrant.

I should probably make a point to tune in. That would make sense as yesterday I posted a piece on Star Trek's world premiere.

Brilliant series!

Picturing: How I'm Feeling These Days

Just kidding!

There are those days, however....

I wonder if that fence was electrified. If it was, there's a joke in there somewhere.

Star Trek Premiered on CTV 60 Years Ago Today

Star Trek had its world premiere, not on September 8, 1966, on its home network of NBC, but two days earlier on Canada's CTV network. Canadians, and Americans living in 'border States', would witness the first steps of, what would prove to be, a television legend — one of the greatest of all hour-long dramatic series, and one not needing the umbrella of "greatest science fiction television programs" to promote its ultimate historical ranking.

"The Man Trap" was the first episode aired in the show's original run (1966 - 1969), though not the first one produced. It was a fine introduction.

Tune to this channel on Tuesday the 8th.

Tuesday, September 6, 1966: What civilians first saw of STAR TREK....

Quote: Gloria Steinem on Potential Paper Power

"It is more rewarding to watch money change the world than watch it accumulate."

(Gloria Steinem, 1934 - 2026)

Athot for the Day: A Perfect Symbiosis

What does it matter?

It matters not.

Picturing: The Toronto Sky Would Soon Open

Today we had a tornado warning here in southern Ontario. While I was relaxing reading, I realized the sky had suddenly turned dark. I grabbed my trusty Canon and fired away. By the way, that is not a bird in the sky, but a plastic bag. There was an updraft pulling aloft pieces of plastic. Then the rain hammered down; the wind carried it almost horizontally. It was that kind of fifteen minutes!

Picturing: State Street Financial Centre (Toronto)

This afternoon I met a colleague for lunch in downtown Toronto. While waiting I decided to take a snap of a building that towered before me. In many ways, this city is so 'chill'. The atmosphere, even with the usual city vehicle traffic, was pretty relaxing today.

But.

But, that humidity! It's off the scale!

Picturing: RCAF Canadair Sabre at CWHM

That's one beautiful former Royal Canadian Air Force machine at the inviting and impressive Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario. During his earliest days serving with the RCAF, my dad worked as an armourer on these great fighting machines.