How Titanic's Music (almost) Influenced Insurrection
Released a year before
Star Trek: Insurrection, James Cameron’s
Titanic
became a celebrated and successful motion picture event. Part of its
power was certainly due to its music under the composition and direction
of James Horner (composer of
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock).
An especially poignant use of music in the film was Horner’s
arrangement of Sarah Flower Adams’ hymn “Nearer, My God, To Thee,”
performed by I Salonisti. The ship’s band chooses to stay behind and
plays the song to calm the passengers.
With filming set to begin during Spring of 1998, specific details about
Star Trek: Insurrection’s new cultures, most especially the Ba’ku, were being still being imagined and reimagined when
Titanic premiered. Even before
Titanic was in theaters, the
Insurrection
creative team had already discussed the idea that music would play an
important role in helping to define the Ba’ku, and more importantly,
serve as an emotional connection between the audience and the
agricultural and peaceful artisan community. Some of the ideas included
that of director Jonathan Frakes, who had previously suggested that
Jean-Luc Picard’s Ressikan flute, introduced in "
The Inner Light” and making appearances in the episode “
Lessons” and – eventually - the film
Star Trek Nemesis, be utilized to help make the musical connection.
About three weeks after
Titanic’s premiere, Insurrection’s screenwriter, and one of
Star Trek’s
most-talented and important producers, writers and creators, Michael
Piller, sent a memo (dated January 20, 1998). He wrote about the
emotional scene in
Titanic when the violin player stays behind,
followed by his fellow players, as the ship sinks. The scene inspired
Piller to think about the role of music in the upcoming
Trek
production. Piller suggests in the memo that some kind of Ba’ku
instrument like chimes perhaps be introduced during the scene when
Picard first beams to planet’s surface to “rescue” the not-quite
Starfleet hostages. The instrument and musician could then become an
emotional touchstone that the film returns to occasionally. Piller
cautions that whatever instrument is created, it must be portable so
that it could be believable carried into the mountains during the
evacuation. Piller believed that by having Ba’ku musicians featured, it
would provide an emotional connection to the extras who evacuate along
with the primary characters.
Eventually, the idea of using a Ba’ku version of the
Titanic
musicians was never fully realized. The film instead focuses on a
variety of other kinds of Ba’ku artistic endeavors, from blacksmithing
to break-making. The evacuation scene does use big chimes/gongs to sound
the alarm, as Piller suggests in his January 20th memo, but that is
mostly the extent of the musical elements of the Ba’ku that are given
primary focus. (As an aside, that doesn’t limit the power of the Ba’ku
evacuation scene as filmed and edited because Jerry Goldsmith’s music,
Herman Zimmerman’s village designs, Jonathan Frakes’ direction, the
special effects, stunts, and acting all combined to create a visually
dynamic, original and exciting sequence).
However, there is a Titanic-band of sorts featured in
Insurrection
– during the diplomatic reception with the Evora onboard the U.S.S.
Enterprise E at the start of the film, the audience is treated to
classical music performed by a small Starfleet orchestra that gets quite
a few close-ups. Additionally, Earth music makes another appearance
when Picard, Worf, and Data sing Gilbert and Sullivan. Picard even does a
little dance to “Make Over Mambo” from composer Alan Silvestri. The
inclusion of this music in Insurrection - from “Piano Sonata No. 8
“Pathetique”, 1st movement” by Beethoven to “A British Tar” -
demonstrates how using real-world music in
Star Trek’s futuristic settings connects the audience emotionally to the characters.
