karelm

Looks great! The story lines are quite good and score/sfx are fantastic! Interestingly, the show has already surpassed Battlestar Galactica (1978 series) which had 24 episodes total (first 3 were the 3-hour premiere movie) and 12 episodes as part of the ill-conceived Galactica 1980, yet that show garnered a cult following and was popular with fans to be reborn decades later. I hope season 3 of orville dives deeper into the characters and stories it established. Like you, Jay, I way prefer Alara to Keyali.

Thanks! Are the harps in here?

My Star Wars suite. JW Star Wars Suite - Clyp

The ending was a bit weak, but I liked it! Nice nod to TOS. I haven't yet seen any episodes but hope to very soon.

Our friend and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra trombonist, @jimnova, posted this charming account of hanging out with Johnny the past few days. What an absolutely amazing time it was to have John Williams in town with the PSO these past few days… My heart is bursting, especially since I had the chance to sit and visit with him one on one after a rehearsal. Some highlights from our conversation: He warmly scolded me for asking if he remembered me Confirmed he was a trombone player as a kid Said he loves the trombone and wants a score (if I have one lying around ) to my Star Wars album (which he never received) to look at while he listens to it He congratulated me on finishing such a big project And finally, despite being booked out for 3 years, would consider writing a trombone choir piece… I’m over the moon! I can’t believe it’s been 25 years since I first had the pleasure of sharing a stage with this amazing man.

Barely the story of ST: TMP. Glad ADF stood up to Roddenberry. Roddenberry was known to take credit for the writer's work...DC Fontana said. Roddenberry did the same with the music. He claimed cue sheet credit as writer of lyrics for the Star Trek theme which was never played but gave him ASCAP cue sheet credit to half the royalties that should have gone to Courage. Courage was quite bitter about that overt theft.

I don't think it's a ghostwrite, he's credited in the movie, wasn't he? I thought it said Story by ADF (but going off memory). FYI - here is an email exchange I found with him where he mentions it: "When ST:TMP became a big-budget film, I was shut out of further participation. It still rankles me, but…that’s Hollywood. The first five minutes of the film are exactly as I wrote them, however as for the rest... I only ever met one movie bigwig who understood anything about classical music, and that was George Lucas. When we were discussing my work on the Star Wars books, I once asked him if he had given much thought to the music for the film. “I’m going to use an overture by Dvorak, and some other stuff,” he told me. He was inspired by the use of classical music in 2001. I was full of suggestions, but later, of course, John Williams talked him into commissioning an original score, and the result we know. Arthur C. Clarke once told me he used to put the music on when he needed a bit of inspiration. The film business was why we moved to Prescott, and why I decided to focus on writing books and stories. In Hollywood, everybody thinks they know everything about everything…especially writing. And music. When King Kong (1933) came out, the pianist and wit Oscar Levant declared that the film was actually a music concert accompanied by some moving pictures. You don’t get that today. I do admire certain contemporary scores. I think Michael Giacchino’s work on Ratatouille was just brilliant…we had a nice chat about it. Him evoking Gershwin’s “American in Paris” and such. And Tuomas Holopainen’s work for Nightwish is wonderful (also, you get to listen to and look at Floor Jansen). Take care and be well."

Star Trek TMP story was written before the film by Alan Dean Foster. He hated the film version of his story. I have several conversations with him on this topic but forget exactly why he hated it or how his story differed from what was filmed. Does anyone else know? I love the film and the deeply mysterious story which I think is probably Star Trek at its most cerebral. This was a very major characteristic of the show at the time. Current incarnations are really nothing like what Star Trek was originally revered for. It's very hard to explain what Star Trek meant before Star Wars 1977. To me, that is the soul of Star Trek and I think that's not at all recognizable to modern audiences. I like TNG but even this morning saw an episode on TV that I thought this isn't Star Trek. It was TNG season 7 episode Genesis. To me, TMP has so much of what made Star Trek great. Though the story might not live up to what the original team had hoped for, it's vintage Star Trek.

What a fantastic surprise! Great news and I've blocked my calendar! I can't help but mention how sad I still get as his loss. He should be 69 now and still productive.

He probably still practices today. He was obsessive so the title of this thread is at best, misleading. Conrad and Johnny's brother both said he spent an entire year in high school playing with his left hand only. Generally, right hand plays melody and left hand plays harmony which is more static (like accompaniment). Young pianists struggle with music like JS Bach where right and left are treated equally and have to switch during a canon or fugue who has the lead line (or the primary voice) and who is the accompaniment. You basically have to train yourself to be somewhat ambidextrous. When I was a piano student, I recall when a melodic line switches from the dominant hand to the other hand, you have to slow the tempo way down to play the right notes because it is so unnatural to use your less dominant hand that way. Teachers will tell you to play the tempo consistently so you have to play the right hand much slower than you want so the left-hand tempo can keep up. So, what JW did as a teen is spent an entire year playing everything only with the left hand to fix this issue at the start. This shows a phenomenal level of practice and self-discipline. He didn't have to do that, he chose to do it the harder way to get better with the weaker hand. All indications including his attitude to this day is he was disciplined and obsessive about practice. Totally agree with this post. Don said even to this day, Johnny studies and works at his craft and Don doesn't even understand where that urge in him comes from. One other comment from Conrad, he once said he's "never seen anyone work on a problem harder than John". I'm sure that applies to his practice too. I also would add, JW might have *thought* he was a slacker but he might define hard worker as someone spending more time than he did in practice. His work ethic is legendary.

There are lots of TOS episodes that are similar in story to TMP. The Immunity Syndrome has them entering a dark cloud of unknown origin that killed another starfleet ship and the episode is basically them trying to figure out the unknown object which is discovered to be an intelligent entity in a form they've never encountered. It also has loads of "awed" reaction shots. I think "The Corbomite Maneuver" is another plot line blueprint.

Stuff like this makes me think this wasn't a labor of love but a cash grab. A bit like the very mediocre Star Wars remaster. Which implies this is not the definitive edition but later someone else who actually loves this stuff will release a revision.

What about my point of "Also, there was some bizarre masking (very noticeable in the "will you please...sit down" sequence) anytime the characters walked past the stars in the window? It was surprising how poor that looked. Way better in the 2001 version." I don't get how twenty years ago they outdid this update? @Tallguy since you can post clips of the 2022 version, can you post a comparison between the two scenes? It might not be that noticeable on a single frame by the video sequence was...wow that looked dated...but for the 2022 version!!

Sorry, wasn't sure how to describe it but it was this scene. At first, I thought it looked great but when they turn the enterprise to see a back view, just thought it was excessive...unnecessary addition and takes you out of the film and into some animator working on modeling and masking out the old enterprise for this one to flip to show a rear view.

I was disappointed in the vfx. On my tv, there was so much noise, and over saturation in the very dark scenes like vger ship flyover. It reeked of over processing. In 79 and 2001, I liked that vger ship faded into the background not letting you fully see the details...just hints of it. Now in 2022, you see the whole thing in detail, is that a good thing? Why not leave a sense of mystery the original had or at least update it rather than over saturate it? Also, there was some bizarre masking (very noticeable in the "will you please...sit down" sequence) anytime the characters walked past the stars in the window. It was surprising how poor that looked. Way better in the 2001 version. The enterprise flip after the vger flyover was useless. Reminded me of Lucas adding Vader's "Take me to my ship" then showing him fly his ship to the Executor. Just not necessary...actually quite stupid. It is just a rear camera like many cars have...a Tesla has 8 cameras to give the car 360 degree view, so the Enterprise only has one forward camera so if they want to look in the rear, they have to point the ship that direction? Very silly and unnecessary addition. The higher resolution details of characters looked very good but also highlighted odd issues I wish they had fixed. For example, there are several scenes like this that just look strange. Decker and Kirks face are in focus, but Kirk's arm is way out of focus. I get that the original has the same issue but think they could have done some type of fx to fix issues like this because in higher res, they are even more pronounced. Overall, enjoyable to revisit the film. I would rate the sound and score 10/10, the film quality upgrades (dust, scratch removal and high res) a 10/10 and vfx 6/10. Since I'm a sound guy, that weights this version as my go to version but feel the vfx had some missed opportunities.

I got to hang out with Peter when he visited my school's orchestra (Elmer taught there only a few years before). I remember him being a very kind man and his sister/Elmer's daughter is now a Pilates coach in Santa Monica. She's also super kind and gentle soul. Lovely family. The concert Peter conducted was a tribute of his dad's music - most of which I never heard live before. MOV01406.MPG

Was this good or bad for Smith's career? This is literally the only thing everyone is talking about.

Wow, great job transcribing and mocking up a great scene from a great film with a great score!

Pyschonauts 2 vol 2 now available with many more great cues, these are jazz and rock. Lots of groovy tunes including Cosmic 1, sung by regular castmate, Jack Black.

2007. This reminds me, we should have a sister thread to this one being "Video recordings of John Williams' rehearsals" because that's a unique perspective most of us don't get a chance to see, the Maestro at work in sculpting the performance and his rehearsal etiquette. Unfortunately, it is very hard to get footage of this because it's generally not allowed, and I got mine by sneaking it. Still, a treasure trove to be mined from his rehearsals because he also sometimes tells a story of an event that to him, was just an amusing anecdote, but to us, adds details to a pivotal part of our childhood experiences.

This was Johnny at rehearsal with my school's orchestra.

When he's on a family vacation, yes, he requests a grand piano in the room. It's his version of "vacation" to play music. This was described by his family members and the Newman family who are family friends. His version of a vacation is writing music.

What film composer do you think has the most sophisticated tonal harmony in their musical vernacular? I'm not talking about tone clusters because that's an absence of harmony. An example is how JW frequently uses quartal harmony (harmony based on fourths instead of thirds), and dominant 7th, flat 6, Neapolitan Chord, etc. But does that make JW the most sophisticated harmonic composer or not, who else do you suggest?

I always felt this cue was an homage to another blockbuster spectacle arena parade sequence, Ben Hur's Parade of the Charioteers. So, I felt this had to be written for this sequence specific arena parade sequence.