Don't know about you but i'd love to watch V-the final battle with the original electronic score which IMHO has aged impeccably
Dennis Mccarthys cheesy TV score does a great injustice to parts 2 & 3 whereas the music to part one is superb. if your listening Warners, a special edition would go down a treat
Dennis McCarthy's music was utter cheese, one of the things that help ruin TFB. I guess we should be thankful they choose Conlan's and De Vorzon's TFB theme instead of McCarthy's...
share"Dennis McCarthy's music was utter cheese, one of the things that help ruin TFB. I guess we should be thankful they choose Conlan's and De Vorzon's TFB theme instead of McCarthy's... "
I agree to a certain extent. McCarthy did have too much of a syth fantasy thing going on with the music, especially when he did the music for the series. However his original opening for the Final Battle which was used as the opener in the midseason of the series was pretty good. Very forboding in a V sense. That and the music played during the death of Ruby was pretty good but he recycled alot and I guess that couldn't be helped with the time constraints he had. I do agree with you about the Conlan/DeVorzon theme for TFB. I was begining to think I was the only one who liked that. Most of my friends thought it was too close to Fiedel's Terminator theme.
The music during the birth of the baby reptile is unnerving and effective. The cinematogaphy, reaction shots, music etc. really make the whole scene horrifying.
shareMcCarthy's score was awful; hard to believe this is the same guy who gave us the terrific DS9 theme and years of great music in ST: TNG (and Star Trek: Generations).
shareHey man, everyone has a hall of shame moment :)
There is no remainder in the mathematics of infinity.
As much of a Dennis McCarthy fan as I am, this was definitely not one of his better moments.
I think that when he re-wrote the theme for the series (the one that had the voiceover) it worked a lot better than the original one. the first one was a glaring example of everything that was wrong with 80's TV music.
I also think that part of the reason the music sounded so bad wasn't just that it was bad music, but it was bad music presented badly. It'd be interesting to hear what it would have sounded like in stereo. About the only thing that really stood out were the Simmons drum hits (of which there were way too many, even for the 80's).
Apparently there's actually an unreleased CD of McCarthy's "V" music floating around out there.
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I am definately not a fan of McCarthy, but he did redeem himself with the 2nd version of the V: The Series theme. (Which originally composed as the theme for TFB when he replaced de Vorzon and Conlan.) The question is, why did he record the awful first V:TS theme when he had a perfectly good theme in his archives?
Regarding unreleased CD, I believe all McCarthy's work for V:TFB has been released on CD. Unfortunately, the music composed by de Vorzon/Conlan has never been released, and probably never will be which is a damn shame...
"Unfortunately, the music composed by de Vorzon/Conlan has never been released, and probably never will be which is a damn shame..."
I agree - I've only managed to get their title tune from the first 'Final Battle' episode, but would love to be able to get hold of all the score they did for that one - I thought they did some really good stuff (the escape from the hospital etc..).. I know McCarthy only had a few days to do the 2nd 2 episodes, but they sound so.. erm.. 'fluffy' compared to what had come before - especially the scoring of the balloons releasing the red dust...
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You guys realize that McCarthy literally had 8 days to score parts 2 and 3 from scratch after Devorzan's score was rejected. For what he did, it was amazing what he pulled off, but it doesn't mesh well with the theme and the tone established in part 1. It is completely and tonally jarring. For that the blame lies solely at the feet of the Producers. They decided to change the formula mid-way through and it's painfully obvious when you watch where McCarthy steps in with his orchestrations and the dark atmospheric electronic score goes away. By the end of part 3, the score is so light-hearted and happy it's like Julie Andrews could burst in at any moment with "The Sound of Music."
He did a fine job scoring the Series but that was very different from the Mini-series altogether. Much of his scores sound identical to Star Trek:TNG or McGyver. I became very bored with Star Trek because his music also sounded redundant.
I wish Joe Harnell had continued his choral themes from the Original mini but unfortunately he had passed on. His work was the best.
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