Posted in: Audio Dramas, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: star trek, Star Trek: Khan

Star Trek: Khan Composers Tease Epic Conclusion, Soundtrack Hopes

Star Trek: Khan composers Marcus and Sam Bagala spoke with Bleeding Cool about building to the audio drama's finale and soundtrack hopes.

Composers Marcus and Sam Bagala are living a dream, working on their favorite childhood sci-fi franchise in Star Trek since their days watching Voyager on UPN. Fate would have it, the season three episode "Flashback" would serve as part of the inspiration for Nicholas Meyer's long-awaited follow-up to The Original Series episode "Space Seed" in the audio drama Star Trek: Khan. Reuniting on the USS Excelsior, Voyager star Tim Russ and TOS star George Takei would help a scientist trying to trace the steps of the 20th-century tyrant, Khan Noonien Singh (Naveen Andrews), his partner Lt. Marla McGivers (Wrenn Schmidt), and his band of Augments before the events of 1982's The Wrath of Khan. The Bagalas spoke to Bleeding Cool about crafting the journey to the finale on November 3rd, and if we should expect a soundtrack release.

Star Trek: Khan Composers Marcus and Sam Bagala on Forging the Epic Path to the Finale

What was the most difficult sequence for you to get through?

Marcus: Sam, what do you think? [laughs]

Sam: I'm going to say the final episode is basically 30-plus minutes of non-stop action. There are spaceships, battles, high emotion, and everything runs right into each other. We probably wrote…what would you say? Between 20 and 30 minutes of music for that one episode, and splitting it up between us, making sure everything ran into each other smoothly, that all the keys were related, all our themes from the entire season were coming back, and we were coming to conclusions. Just like the wrap-up of like…we've arrived at the end of this project, it's this giant culmination, and everything's happening in this episode. That was the hardest thing. Marcus?

Marcus: I totally agree. Where the series went, and how it ends, it's like there are the technical aspects, as Sam said, there are battles, a spaceship taking off, and things getting destroyed. There are all kinds of crazy shit, and we're like, "Okay, cool." We're listening to the sound design coming back from Dan [Brunelle].

Sam: It was incredible.

Marcus: It was like, "Holy shit! This is amazing!" Then it's like, "Okay, now we must find the emotional element to this and help and support all that action and drama." There are some highs, some lows, and it was a big technical lift. I'm proud of what we were able to do, and particularly with what Sam mentioned that this is the final episode, this is what you do as a composer, but bringing back themes that we introduced, evolving them, and finding that musical conclusion within this episode was something I love.

There is a specific piece with a big reveal towards the end of the episode that Sam wrote, and I remember listening to the first time with the scene. He brought in this melody that I wrote years ago when we were pitching the project, to hear that come full circle, it was right at the end of the show, and it was this beautiful moment, and it's beautifully acted. The actors in this, Tim Russ and George Takei, are legends. Naveen Andrews' performance as Khan is so Shakespearean. He delivers so many speeches in the podcast, and every single one is better than the last one. It's so amazing to have a chance to support these moments with music and like, "Do the thing." I would say it was the final bit, but we got there, and it works.

Do we expect a separate digital release for the soundtrack?

Marcus: We certainly would like to… There are more conversations we need to have, but we're crossing our fingers that we can make that happen.

Co-written by Kirsten Beyer and David Mack, the premiere episode of Star Trek: Khan, which also features the voices of Sonya Cassidy, Olli Haaskivi, Maury Sterling, Mercy Malick, and Zuri Washington, is now available with new episodes on Mondays through November 3rd.

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