Notes

The following originally appeared in the GRAND JUNCTION FREE PRESS:

In 1966, Captain James Tiberius Kirk first pledged to “go boldly where no man has gone before” on the ground-breaking science fiction television series, STAR TREK.  For Kirk, his first officer Spock, and the other occupants of the starship Enterprise, that meant penetrating the furthest reaches of outer space.  But for many of the actors who have donned Federation uniforms,  the “final frontier” to explore has been “the strange, new world” of popular music, where a surprising number of TREK veterans have sought to prove that in space, everyone can hear you sing.

The earliest TREK cast member to voyage onto vinyl was Leonard Nimoy, the Boston-born actor who first went alien in the tacky early-’50s adventure serial ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE.  Nimoy’s 1967 Dot Records debut MR. SPOCK’S MUSIC FROM OUTER SPACE was only the first of five albums the thespian-turned-Vulcan would release during his career, and included several numbers sung in his Spock persona, like the single “A Visit to a Sad Planet.”   This trend continued on Nimoy’s sophomore effort, in ditties like “Highly Illogical,” but THE TWO SIDES OF LEONARD NIMOY also found the actor beaming from the Enterprise to Middle-Earth for the unforgettable “Ballad of Bilbo Baggins.”  And Nimoy put his pipes to work on the musical theatre stage as well, when he assayed roles like that of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF’s philosophical milkman Tevye, in the 1970s. 

Another former Federation science officer to hit the boards is Brent Spiner, who portrayed the puckish android Data on the 1980s spin-off STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION and its subsequent film sequels.  In 1991, Spiner followed in Nimoy’s footsteps by cutting an album with a title that played off his TREK character.  OL’ YELLOW EYES IS BACK was filled with chestnuts like “Toot Toot Tootsie,” but Trekkies probably enjoyed Spiner’s version of “It’s a Sin (to Tell a Lie),” which found the long-time character actor backed by a chorus comprised of his TREK cohorts, Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton and Michael Dorn.  Spiner can also be heard on the soundtrack to the 1997 Broadway revival of 1776, in which he starred as John Adams.

Other TREK notables to issue albums include Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), Grace Lee Whitney (Yeoman Rand) and Tim Russ (Tuvok on VOYAGER).  But strangely, both the worst and best albums to come from an ex-Trekker were produced by the same man — William Shatner, whose rugged and randy Captain Kirk remains an iconic standard-bearer of the STAR TREK franchise.  Shatner told an interviewer in 1972, “I can’t sing,” and his self-appraisal is born out by his spoken-word performances on both his 1968 debut TRANSFORMED MAN and the more recent HAS-BEEN.  But while the former’s tortured (and torturing) readings of “Lucy in the Sky” and “Mr. Tambourine Man” are musical monuments of kitsch, the latter album represents artistic redemption for Shatner, thanks partly to guest turns by Joe Jackson, Aimee Mann and the album’s producer, Ben Folds.