A decade after first boarding the Starship Enterprise with his classic Star Trek: The Motion Picture score, composer Jerry Goldsmith returns to the franchise for its ill-fated fifth outing, directed by star William Shatner. Goldsmith seamlessly expands his earlier score with a series of lush new themes that communicate both the cosmos-spanning drama and the humanism of the Star Trek mythos. Entries like "A Busy Man" and "Life Is a Dream" marshal dynamic brass, ethereal strings, and interstellar electronic elements to strikingly evoke the larger-than-life scale of creator Gene Roddenberry's vision. But like the film, Goldsmith's score suffers from been-there-done-that malaise. For all of its complexity and craft, Star Trek V doesn't reinvent Goldsmith's earlier soundtrack so much as it refines it. ~ Jason Ankeny
