Tom Guernsey

For Amazon shows that come with adds (like Babylon 5 which I recently started watching), we only get the very occasional Alexa/Amazon ad, but nothing else. The same for Channel 4's 4OD service - we get the sponsorship idents and trails for other shows, but no other adverts. I think this is because Guernsey doesn't register for the algorithm which works out what ads to play so it doesn't play any. It's a loophole I'm sure they will fix sometime, although for 65k people (Guernsey is a small island) it may not be worth their while. Then again, our crappy, tiny local cinema plays the standard Pearl & Dean package which is almost entirely for supermarkets we don't have here or financial products that specifically exclude the Channel Islands/Isle of Man. So not only do we have to sit through the tedious adverts in the world's shittiest cinema, we can't even buy the products. Winning.

It seems pretty similar in its level of brutality and darkness as the other mirror universe episodes as far as I can tell, this just showed yet another nasty side to it. I had to let out a little groan at yet another mirror universe story. I never much liked them, but as an occasional sidestep allegory from the utopia of the regular Star Trek universe, they're fine, but the Disco/Picard people seem obsessed with it. Disco must surely have the highest proportion of its entire running time set in the mirror universe and they seem keen to try and ensure Picard runner up. A little goes a long way and the longer you spend in it, the more you realise that the entire premise doesn't really stand up - you're not going to achieve interstellar civilisation with everyone scheming and murdering their way to the top. There'd never be enough cooperation to reach orbit, let alone warp powered travel. That having been said, Patrick Stewart doing a bit of a Richard III and looking (if not being) evil is a lot of fun and I'm enjoying this series more than the last one, but it's pretty marginal. I'm afraid I'm in the "imagine them going off into happy retirement" camp than wanting to see characters' lives turn into some depressing future where it's all much more grim than pretty much anything they face in the original show.

Again, with apologies that I can't credit the designers, but these are great too...

Super, looking forward to this! And yeah, it's a shame the art is so lame... there are some terrific custom covers lurking around the internet. I have no idea who did this one, but it's lovely:

Having rewatched JP3 this week (the Rocketeer too, it was a Joe Johnston fest this week), I was reminded how much closer in done and style DD's score is to the original JP. Right down to quoting bits of some of the more incidental motivic material - notably the idea that plays when Ellie etc. find the wrecked cars before being chased by the T-Rex. Davis uses this idea as a nice tension building idea a few times in JP3 very effectively. I guess JW could have ended up with a string of scores that, like Indy, had some common ideas, but weren't telling a continuous story. However, the possibilities for story, character, magic and action in the Harry Potter series seem far richer than the fairly repetitive nature of people being chased by dinosaurs in lots of slightly different ways.

I don’t think Hidden World is missing much and certainly nothing critical missing from what I recall. Just a few more incidental cues. Think it benefits from the several longer set pieces cues which all appear in their entirety (Third date, exodus, the waterfall sequence and the exceptional finale cue). I mean I’ll still buy an expansion!

Great post... but seriously, you don't want to know how Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes came together? Shame ;-)

Hopefully it'll have flashbacks to his childhood Bantha farming or whatever.

Girlish squeal!

I’d still love it to be John Powell but I think it’s unlikely. Whoever I want to score it probably won’t be scoring it!

If you don’t watch it you’ll be the head in a box. Yeah it’s getting annoying now haha

That’s fair enough. Sometimes there isn’t enough story to maintain your interest. I just think they need to move round the Star Wars universe way more. When half of it comes down to laser fights in dusty towns it’s kinda missing the possibilities of being set in a time and place that isn’t our own.

I would counter with being more disappointed that they don’t seem that great at exploring the Star Wars universe in interesting ways. If there’s scope for endless Star Trek or Marvel movies and shows of various styles then really the same should be true if the Star Wars universe. However they seem to end up gravitating towards the same planets, tropes and endless fan service so it kinda feels tedious when in fact it need not be. Sadly there’s almost too much riding in it so they don’t seem to want to risk it. Of course you might feel entirely the same about Star Trek and Marvel…

Aha cool. I must have missed that one. Thanks. I will probably get HTTYD2 on cd if the option is available. However I’ve been hanging on for digital version of Dante’s Peak so am also surprised it hasn’t appeared yet. I was fairly marginal on the original score so was happy to wait but now I’m getting impotent! Might have to order on cd with these new items. No doubt I’ll end up with three copies of the same thing. Their U.K. distribution people are lovely but a teeny bit hopeless!

I enjoyed the use of the music in the trailer. At least it wasn’t just the usual one finger epic version of the force theme in the style that seems to plague so many trailers these days. Sounds like just a little amping up. Just hope it’s not all set on Tatooine… I’m as bored with sand as Anakin… still can’t believe the composer’s not yet been announced.

Exciting. Even more so for the two little cd images below…

Is there actually much missing on Iron Giant? I don’t recall. I’d be up for that if it is as it’s one of my favourite Kamen scores.

The sequel is on a double decker... the third on a triple decker (like the Knight Bus from Harry Potter). The disappointing fourth instalment on a bendy bus.

Murder on the National Express (when your life's in a mess, it'll make you smile).

Haha yes! Thank you... I don't remember the JJ head slicing moment but still hilarious.

I would add that my comments on Signs are very much relative and more an indication of how great those cues are rather than any deficiencies elsewhere. It’s still one of his best. I did that thing of pointlessly singling out a score negatively without really meaning to sound quite as down on it! I don’t quite know how to articulate what I mean about his bigger scores but agree with your comments. It’s also the orchestration which isn’t always as interesting for the bigger moments so it can sound a bit thin (as opposed to just having clarity). However it’s more nitpicks than genuine complaints!

I'll add to the list of Harry Potter voters. And I don't say that lightly, Jurassic Park was the first soundtrack I ever bought but given that character development isn't really a critical part of the JP/JW franchise, they wouldn't really have built on each other in the way that Harry Potter scores would have done. I mean, The Lost World is already an entirely different score from Jurassic Park the tone, style and thematic material is almost entirely unrelated. It's a great score, but it's not building on the original in the way that subsequent Potter (or Star Wars or even Indy) scores did. Having said that, I'm glad to have Patrick Doyle's entry and don't actually mind the Nicholas Hooper scores, but I never really got into Desplat's efforts despite being a big fan.

And the low budget British remake. BACS.

I like, JNH but I always think of him as being one of those composers where I'll like every third score or so (I actually put Hans in that category... having to wade through a Dunkirk or something to get to a WW84 etc) but his best stuff is great, Waterworld was an early favourite, as well as Dinosaur, Atlantis, Wyatt Earp, King Kong, Snow Falling on Cedars and most of his Shyamalan output although I reluctantly agree with the comments that Signs doesn't live up to the high watermarks of its beginning and ending. I don't know if it's the orchestration, the recording or just his style of writing, but his bigger stuff can get a bit hollow and blustery - the two Fantastic Beasts scores feel a bit like this, enjoyable though they are. I am really enjoying his Violin Concerto, not perhaps as interesting as Danny Elfman's (which is bloody marvellous) but more accessible than JW's.

Could someone repost that brilliant animated meme of JW conducting, firing lasers at the orchestra?! Thanks!