The power of music

[avevale_intelligencer]

We watched Space Rangers at the weekend too.

This series came out on CBS at about the same time as DS9 and B5, and suffered accordingly; it was cancelled after only six episodes. Shame, because it had a lot to recommend it. It uses a lot of the clichés, but in a knowing way which suggests that it was quite deliberate, and the characters were likeable and interesting.

What struck me most, though, was the theme music, which turned out to be by Hans Zimmer (now, of course, a big name, known for the second and third Pirates movies among others). Watching and listening to the opening credits, one fact struck me: the theme music has enormous power when it comes to shaping the way you will perceive the characters. Linda Hunt, who is a fine actress, plays the base commander in the series. So you have the images of the main leads, engaged in various strenuous and violent activities while the music surges and flows towards the climax, and then almost at the end you have crashing chords over held tremolando strings, and the image of this tiny woman in grey, standing perfectly still, speaking to the people around her and making little, precise gestures that match the crashing chords exactly. This, to me, does more than any amount of stirring speeches or flamboyant costuming to invest the character with an aura of power and charisma, so that when you see her in the episode you immediately flash back to that image and think "here is someone to be reckoned with."

I can't think of any other series that used the theme music this way. Thoughts?

Comments

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8DqLwdkgdk

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I still haven't got used to this internetty thing...

[valydiarosada.livejournal.com]

You might like to check the price currently being asked by dealers selling the Space Rangers DVD set through Amazon...

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Good heavens.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

I didn't recognise the name, but I watched the trailer and when she appeared I went "Isn't that?" Yes, she's Hetty on NCIS Los Angeles! I can see her being a base commander, definitely...

(I wish they'd release "Space Cases", the Peter David / Bill Mumy comedy series...)

[soren-nyrond.livejournal.com]

I know that it's juvenile, but I always thought that the theme for "Joe 90" fitten remarkably well with the visuals, with the changes in melody matching the jump-cuts between the miniature pans.

But that's just semi-senile Soren for you

[keristor.livejournal.com]

As I recall so did the theme for UFO (or the visuals were cut to fit the music, whichever). I don't remember who did the music for either, or how the music for the other Gerry Andserson series fitted (I don't remember the visuals as well as the music).

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Yes, cutting the visuals to suit the music is something a lot of shows do, but usually, the music isn't necessarily relevant to the visuals: it does what it's doing, the pictures do what they're doing. Sometimes, as with B5 season openers, the music is tailored to the action, but whatever it says about the show you're about to see is stated in fairly general terms--"lots of action, lots of passion, big explosions, you'll love it" kind of thing. With Space Rangers, the music said something very specific about this particular character. Imagine a B5 season opener, say third season, if instead of coming at the beginning of the long climb to the climax, Bruce Boxleitner's image had been saved for the moment when the music crested, and had been shown in a markedly different way from the others. (I'm not saying that would have been a good thing for B5, just that it would have had a very different effect on the way we viewed that character.)

I may be making too much of what may merely be a coincidental juxtaposition, but it seems too right to be merely accidental. The power of music is almost always underrated in film and telly.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Indeed, I can't think of any which did it with a specific character (or characters). I can imagine a series which used a leitmotif for each of the regular characters throughout, and I wonder how many people would notice on a conscious level but still be influenced by it. If I had the power to create such a series, and knew a sufficiently good and subtle composer (I always knew that I really wanted to direct a film or TV series) it would be an interesting experiment.