Overuse of music in modern Star Trek
Not sure if anyone else has noticed this or its just my oversensitive ear being a musician, but I notice the new live action Star Trek series (Discovery, SNW, Picard) tend to always have music playing in the background. Unlike in TNG, DS9 or VOY, where you'll often have scenes between characters with no music, and just dialogue.
Now, this isn't so much of a complaint, but more of a nitpick. Constant music in the background can sometimes distract from the acting and the dialogue itself, and actually lessen the impact of the scene. I'm not sure what the reason is for using so much music in new Trek. Maybe they think modern audiences will lose interest or attention in what they're watching if there isn't always background music. Maybe its for "go go go" urgency in how they want the scenes to be presented.
Either way though, imo, constant music sometimes causes the scenes to be less impactful and emotional, as well as the music itself to be less effective, as it just sort of becomes white noise if overused. Sometimes lack of music adds a lot to scene. In a perfect world I wish PIC/SNW/DISCO would pick their spots more carefully when using musical cues. TNG, DS9 and VOY had it down, and the scenes were all the better for it.
All in all, I'm of the belief to just let your actors act, and have faith that your writing is of high enough quality that you don't have to rely on music to mask your script's ability to carry a scene. And then when you do choose to bring in music, it has more impact because of its conservative use.
Edit: this is not a nitpick of the musical scores in the new shows themselves, which are generally quite good
Posted Apr 1, 2023, 6:51 PM UTC · edited