Tune Sleuth 3: Steiner - Twice Upon A Theme

[@redmatter]

An interesting footnote... this Romulan motif hadn't been used in Star Trek in I think 54 years... but then actually made an appearance again in Picard season 1 at the very end of episode 1 when the Romulans make an appearance. Similar to Balance of Terror the dialog goes away and its all music during the sequence. The motif also makes an appearance during the season 1 finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. This was always one of my two favorite Star Trek motifs (the other being the one from Amok Time) and I'm really happy to see it being reused occasionally in today's modern Star Trek.

[@barneshomestead1240]

I grew up listening to this series in syndication. The music of the series held my attention & I love how you break it all down.

[@RWSCOTT]

12:14 - harmony woodwinds.. nobody does this anymore and it's such a great sound. reminds me of the 'Batgirl break' from the season 3 fight music from Batman where the main vamp is played on saxes in harmony. really distinctive sounding and again, unused nowadays.

[@Regulus000]

Thank you, David, for this informative, erudite, and entertaining exploration of Fred Steiner's brilliance and craftsmanship. This was real treat!

[@cbspock1701]

I love these videos. This was really interesting. It’s cool how the themes are the “same”but slightly different

[@funkjunky2]

Very well put together David. You put a lot of time, creativity, and effort into this and it shows in the great quality. Fantastic !

[@davidpage9355]

Thanks for checking it out!

[@michaelmorgan7893]

A bit of trivia few people know: in 1958, Fred Steiner penned and performed the music score for a low budget sci Fi movie called Teenagers from Space. Ten years later, George Romero and Spencer Moore remixed that music, and it became the theme for the original 1968 Night of the Living Dead.

[@fredklein3829]

This is giving me the taste for rewatching Mirror, Mirror.

[@davidpage9355]

Not a bad move!

[@fredklein3829]

@@davidpage9355 Maybe there's an ''Evil David Page'' there, playing Star Trek themes on accordion and vacuum cleaner!

[@davidpage9355]

@@fredklein3829 😆 you know it!

[@bettyleeist]

Oh,this music 🎼 had me romanizing over the scene’s of Star Trek!If this make’s sense,here!And,Star Trek was;’good at love scenes!’Or,maybe,the writer’s were?After all,they wrote the scripts,and the composer’s write ✍️ and play the 🎵 music.Or,rather,the musicians do.I think,I’ve finally had the last word!As Doctor McCoy would say.

[@davidpage9355]

Ha ha!

[@dressinggownsessions7296]

When you call this one of the most memorable motifs in the whole of Star Trek, you're not exaggerating any. Apart from the "fade to black" end-of-act cues and the Enterprise establishing theme, in all its different arrangements, the only bit of incidental music that is as memorable as this is the Kirk-Spock fight theme from Amok Time, which, like this, got a lot of different arrangements all within the one episode. Steiner's cues in "The Corbomite Maneuver" and "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" did the same thing after all, especially the latter which uses the same melodic content for both Ruk and Andrea, with radically diverse arrangements. I guess a lot of the composers used versions of the same theme within episodes, it's how we recognise their fingerprints after all. It's how when, after becoming familiar with the season 2 incidental music, I watched the season 3 opener "Spock's Brain" with a whole new score, and said to myself "that sounds like Fred Steiner's composing style". - Liam

[@mroberts1839]

Thank you so much for this wonderful analysis! One of my fave TOS themes. I always vaguely felt there was some connection between the "Blackship Theme" and "Meet Marlena" but you've really made it clear exactly how it's happening. One thing I wonder about is in the "Mirror Mirror" (M12) cue that just precedes the "Blackship Theme" (M12A)... There are motifs with horns at kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJivh4CPaq57e5Y and kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJivh4CPaq57e5Y that seem to announce the U.S.S. Enterprise, through slightly different from the "Enterprise fanfare". The first is the same theme that Steiner used in the opening of "Mudd's Women" ("Distant Spaceship"). Is there some thematic development between the first and second, perhaps to anticipate the "Blackship Theme" of the I.S.S. Enterprise?

[@ChromeJob]

HA! I see your beautifully packaged DVD sets back there. They really are great for displaying, aren't they? (Red Letter Media has them in their "RE:view" series title, too.) I just jettisoned 100-150 DVDs and a few kiddie BDs to make room for Criterion Collections titles kept in my (about to be jettisoned) old media cabinet. I winced and packed up a complete The Prisoner set along with LOTR Extended Edition collectors sets, all going to my local "Friends of the Library" group ... BUT NOT my S1 and S2 DVD sets!. Can't let those go, no. I'm thinking of putting my BD versions into these cases, as I've done with a few other things (putting a 4K UHD remastered JAWS into a 30th anniv. slipcase with booklet). Fingers crossed. Also: LMAO! at your image use for the "Mirror, Mirror" stinger. Brilliant.

[@ChromeJob]

Also: the reuse of the theme has thematic (sorry) relevance here. Paul Schneider based the villains of "Balance of Terror" on the Roman Empire, which IIRC his son was studying in school. The Roman soldiers' code of honor, duty, devotion worked so well for this alien aggressor testing a first-strike weapon on Federation outposts. In Jerome Bixby's "Mirror, Mirror," now it's the alternate universe Enterprise and Galactic Empire that seem to echo the Roman Empire's ruthlessness and disregard for weaker civilizations. I doubt that Bixby intended it, but Steiner is almost saying (musically), "Shoe's on the other foot, now, Kirk. Muahaha."

[@davidpage9355]

Good one! Never thought of it that way.

[@Russell_Huston]

David, I'm pretty sure you have heard of the LaLa Land cd release of the complete music cues from the original series, and that it sells now for over a thousand dollars. Do you know of another way to get all that music?

[@davidpage9355]

Yep heard of it. Came and went before I knew about it! I have used the LaLa Land website listing as a sort-of reference. It has each title from every disc with the cue name and time duration. And each score listing has one track that is a link to the audio file for that cue, which is nice. Other than that, I'm working off the episode audio because I for one don't have a spare $1,000!