James Horner on his work on Star Trek II and Aliens

James Horner on his work on Star Trek II

He reveals a lot about his amazing work on the second trek film. I knew he was close friends with Trek composer Jerry Goldsmith, but I had no idea he actually sit in some of the recording sessions for Star Trek The Motion Picture. Some of he best can be heard in this score. The only problem I have with Horner is that he keeps re-using the cues from this score in many of his action films.

He worked on the sequel right after Goldsmith in the same manner that he did for Aliens behind Goldsmith's Alien score. He's also wrong about it not having any relation to the first film. He used the blaster beam in the same manner as Goldsmith did in first movie. He even uses it in nebula scenes, thus recalling the feel of V'ger.

His interview about Aliens score

Horner didn't have a good time scoring this film and had a breaking off with Cameron. He never fully finished the score the way he wanted to. Cameron and the producer didn't get along too well because of the last minute changes in the movie. They threatened to fired him, which was pretty mean. To be fair, Cameron had a hell of time filming the movie. He had hundreds of problems in production and post-production.

Horner patched things up with Cameron with Titanic and they worked on Avatar.

I really like Horner's score to Aliens. The sharp military beats are just plain fun to listen to. There are hints of Goldsmith's score thrown in for good measure too.

Keep in mind it is not an original score, but still entertaining.