The Star Trek universe extends much further than a simple 1960s TV series that lasted a mere three seasons. It is a movement unto itself, spawning three television sequels and one prequel, an animated series and several film series. One of the lesser-known ends of this universe are the video games which get the star treatment with this new collection from BuySoundtrax...

For Star Trek fans who have collected the soundtrack to every movie and TV show... here's something a little different: a soundtrack that collects together highlights from the various Star Trek games.

Now I have to be honest and admit that I'm not a huge Star Trek gaming fan - in fact I don't think I've ever played a Star Trek game - or even actually seen any game play from one. So I can't comment on how close to the original these tracks are - although Silva Screen did release a Star Trek album back in 2003 which included the same Star Trek: Academy theme, and I couldn't tell the difference between them. BuySoundtrax has a reputation in recent years of producing cover versions of albums which are surprisingly close to the original source material.

Featured in this new collection is music from Star Trek Online (Kevin Manthei), Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (Ron Jones), Star Trek: Starfleet Command (Ron Jones), Star Trek: Starfleet Command III (Danny Pelfrey), Star Trek Legacy (Rod Abernethy), Star Trek Armada II (Danny Pelfrey), Star Trek, The Next Generation: Birth of the Federation (Steven Scherer), Star Trek Voyager Elite Force (Danny Pelfrey), Star Trek Away Team (Danny Pelfrey) Star Trek: TNG - Klingon Honor Guard (Roland Rizzo), Star Trek Klingon (Gregory Smith), Star Trek Bridge Commander (Jerry Goldsmith’s theme), and a full sixteen tracks from Star Trek: Borg (Dennis McCarthy and Kevin Kiner).

Personal highlights include Star Trek Legacy - 'Kirk's Theme'; Star Trek Away Team - 'Intro' (which has a hint of Hans Zimmer's Gladiator score about it); Star Trek: Klingon - 'Warrior's Poem'; and Star Trek: Borg - ' Main Theme' and 'Finale'. In fact all of Dennis McCarthy's (who wrote music for the various TV series - but most memorably The Next Generation Pilot 'Encounter at Farpoint') Star Trek: Borg score, which is reproduced here over 16 tracks, is pretty enjoyable.

On a side note, but one I think is fairly important... My heart always sinks a little when we get a BuySoundtrax Records album in for review. The album's themselves are usually enjoyable, but the formatting for iTunes is non existent. Now, I'm assuming the review files we receive are the same that are downloaded when people buy the albums, but I could be wrong. The files we receive contain no tags, so once you've imported the albums into iTunes (which surely the majority of people do these days) it becomes a bit of a chore to find them in your library.

The album contains 29 tracks and lasts for 1 hr, 04 min, 37 sec. It's an interesting collection and one Star Trek gamers will embrace.

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Darren Rea