Best Singer in Trek

[Nate the Great]

Warped, weird poll time. Note that we're talking about the singing voices of the characters, not the actors themselves.

[Nate the Great]

Oh, and please no references to the album Golden Throats, okay?

[PointyHairedJedi]

Kevin Riley, of course. :D

[mudshark]

Oh, and please no references to the album Golden Throats, okay?
References to whatnow?

[Nate the Great]

You can look it up on Wikipedia, but suffice to say, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy sing on it.

[AKAArzosah]

Maybe here is a good place to ask - does anyone know where I could find 'Moonlight Becomes You', as sung by the holo-woman in First Contact?

[mudshark]

Not sure. The song doesn't appear to be included in the soundtrack album, and the only album I can find that she has out under her own name doesn't have it, either.

http://www.juliemorgan.com/

http://cdbaby.com/cd/juliemorgan

[Zeke]

Vic! Vic! Vic! Vic! Vic! Vic! Vic! Vic!

I love jazz.

[PS: Vic!]

[Nate the Great]

I see that the holograms are neck-to-neck. Vic/Doc would've made an awesome crossover, wouldn't it? You know, bounce a signal through the wormhole and off the Gamma Quadrant array (which is closer to Delta, remember?), and let them bond? Think of the duets!

Wouldn't the First Contact album have that?

[AKAArzosah]

You'd think so, but apparently not.

[mudshark]

I see that the holograms are neck-to-neck. Vic/Doc would've made an awesome crossover, wouldn't it? You know, bounce a signal through the wormhole and off the Gamma Quadrant array (which is closer to Delta, remember?), and let them bond? Think of the duets!
Vic could hang, but have you ever heard a Classical musician attempt jazz? It's usually not pretty. (There's an expression: "He wouldn't swing if you hung him and gave him a push.")
Wouldn't the First Contact album have that?
I already stated above that it does not. Now you can see for yourself (http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-First-Contact-Soundtrack/dp/B000001P1Y/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-5806128-4939041?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1174532124&sr=8-2).

[Nate the Great]

Hey, there are lots of things that would allow their musical styles to mesh! "Let's Get Together" comes to mind.

A freaky thought just struck me. What if Doc could replicate his mobile emitter, and he gave one to Vic? What would Vic do in the real world? Go on a music tour of Risa and Wrigley's Pleasure Planet?

[mudshark]

Hey, there are lots of things that would allow their musical styles to mesh!
And nearly all of them involve dragging Vic down to some lame, amateur level. Pass.
"Let's Get Together" comes to mind.
There are several songs by that title, and I'm not sure any of them are a good idea.

The sort of thing you're proposing might sound like a great idea to non-musicians; hearing it, they might even convince themselves that they liked it. Frankly, just the thought of it makes me cringe.

[Nate the Great]

"Let's Get Together" as written by the Sherman Brothers and as sung by Hayley Mills. You know, Doc's tickling the ivories and Vic shows up with a sax. "Do you mind, I'm giving a concert!" Plus having Doc say "Hey al-li-gah-tah" would be great.

[mudshark]

Doc's tickling the ivories...
Urgh. I hate that expression. It makes me retch.
...and Vic shows up with a sax.
And he would do this... why, exactly?
Plus having Doc say "Hey al-li-gah-tah" would be great.
Nate, you are a very strange person.

[Zeke]

Wouldn't the First Contact album have that?

Don't get me started on the First Contact album. How did a movie with such a great score bungle the soundtrack album so badly? (sigh)

Shark, tread carefully. Yours truly is a classical and jazz clarinetist who most certainly can swing.

[Chancellor Valium]

Vic! Vic! Vic! Vic! Vic! Vic! Vic! Vic!

I love jazz.

[PS: Vic!]

That's not jazz! That's croon!

[Nate the Great]

I'm a strange person? You don't have the slightest idea.

"You are a sad, strange little man. You have my pity."

[Sa'ar Chasm]

Yours truly is a classical and jazz clarinetist who most certainly can swing.

That don't mean a thing.

[mudshark]

^ All you got to do is sing.


Shark, tread carefully. Yours truly is a classical and jazz clarinetist who most certainly can swing.
I haven't forgotten (I also do both, though not on that particular instrument) and I did say...
It's usually not pretty.
Usually. Not always. Stolzman pulls it off pretty well; Edgar Meyer can play damn near anything and sound great, and check out a German cellist named Wolfram Huschke some time. There are others, but I really don't think I need to remind you just how awkward and painfully square the overwhelming majority of classically-trained musicians are when they decide to "let their hair down" and play jazz, that poor, black-sheep relative of "serious" music.

[Sa'ar Chasm]

I did, oh, call it seven years of concert band before I switched to stage band. Now I can't play straight eights notes anymore.

[mudshark]

I'll bet it would still be a lot easier for you to get straight eighths down again than it would be for those "dotted-triplet figure = jazz :) " guys to go the other way. They've had rigid and exact subdivision drummed into their heads for so long that most of them wouldn't be able to get the feel of anything as abstract as swing if their very lives depended on it.

[Sa'ar Chasm]

Somebody's bitter...

[Chancellor Valium]

^ All you got to do is sing.


It makes no difference if its sweet or hot.

[Nate the Great]

Sheesh, is it "mutate a thread as quickly as possible" week? :)

I also gotta ask why you guys don't create your own threads more often.

[mudshark]

Now, where would be the fun in that?

[Nate the Great]

The fun would be having more topics to post in.

[AKAArzosah]

I'm all for posting in more topics. I'm also all for annoying you. It's a tough decision to make.

[Nate the Great]

You know, you're not the first person to find the idea of yanking my chain amusing. I guess I'm just that sort of person.

[AKAArzosah]

I think it's more that I'm the sort of person who finds the idea of annoying anybody amusing.

I tend to only create threads if I really have something to say, or I need help. Although really, 'I need help' should probably be my motto.

What was I saying? Oh right, tangential thread topics, and annoying Nate. Um... asparagus!

(thus proving the 'I need help' theory)

[AKAArzosah]

Best Singer in Trek! Well I voted Seven. Vic comes in second. I have no idea who Kevin Riley is (I hear you all shouting 'for shame'). Never heard Uhura sing. The rest I don't like, at all.

I only voted Seven over Vic because I personally prefer female singers.

[Nate the Great]

Kevin Riley. He was a recurring background character in TOS, kinda like Barclay or Vorik. Proud Irishman. Bowling afficianado.

[AKAArzosah]

I never watched TOS. I honestly wouldn't be able to, not with the effects as they were. Riley sort of rings a bell.

All I know about TOS I learned on this site.

[PointyHairedJedi]

IJD will be along to lynch you shortly.

[Nate the Great]

Then watch the restored version. The effects are much less painful.

[AKAArzosah]

Hmm... Maybe. I don't know how much luck I'd have finding it for hire, though. I'll try.

[Chancellor Valium]

Ehh. After '60's/'70's Doctor Who, and the 90bn variations on the 'rubber and CSO' theme there, I personally find Shatner's...ahem...'acting' more brain-haemorrhage-inducing than the tacky special effects.

[Nate the Great]

But ... the ... ACTING is part ... of the ... fun. :)

[Chancellor Valium]

Oh, absolutely - much like the dialogue :D

Doesn't make it any less dumb, though ;)

[AKAArzosah]

Why do I get the feeling that I'd get about five minutes into the first episode before saying 'screw it' and just coming here to read the fivers?

Actually, I think I'll go do that now.

[Zeke]

Buncha philistines. TOS is great television.

[Nate the Great]

Of course it is!

[mudshark]

Buncha philistines. TOS is great television.
It is, and using the quality of the effects (or Shatner's acting or even the bright colors of the set design) as an excuse not to watch is really a cop-out.

Kevin Riley. He was a recurring background character in TOS, kinda like Barclay or Vorik. Proud Irishman. Bowling afficianado.
He appeared exactly twice.

[Chancellor Valium]

I never said I didn't watch it.

It's still a great show, despite the rubbish effects, stories, plots, dialogues, two-dimensional characters, lack of character development, reliance on ideas that were cliches then and use of catchphrases, simplistic attempts at messages etc etc...

Is that your argument?

[Nate the Great]

Hey, two episodes is still "recurring." One appearance is a cameo. Some of the most memorable characters in Trek appeared in two episodes or fewer. All of Susie Plakston's roles come to mind, Moriarty, Selea, and so on.

[Kristina]

Yep, Susie's great fun - both as K'Ehleyr and "Suzi Q" (to quote Jim Wright). To get back *on* subject: I'm surprised I'm the only one who's voted for Data here. Where are all the Brent Spiner fans?

[mudshark]

When did Data sing, anyway? I'm having trouble recalling.

[Chancellor Valium]

^Too often?

[mudshark]

Whistle? Check.

Play violin? Check.

Recite dirty limericks? Check.

But singing? Still not recalling it.

(I understand there's something of the sort in Nemesis, but I haven't seen that yet.)

[ijdgaf]

I never said I didn't watch it.

It's still a great show, despite the rubbish effects, stories, plots, dialogues, two-dimensional characters, lack of character development, reliance on ideas that were cliches then and use of catchphrases, simplistic attempts at messages etc etc...

Is that your argument?

Here's my argument.

1) The acting was fun. It wasn't always good (particuarly in season three), but you could tell the actors cared about what they were saying, and were having fun filming. There was a certain passion in the way Shatner and McCoy delivered their lines that was pretty much missing from most of the latter day Trek actors, save maybe for Stewart and Brooks. Several of the better guest actors -- particularly the Klingons -- had this as well.

2) The shows were fun. When the newer Trek series tried to do fun, it was often more miss than hit. The majority of TNG bored me (particularly its "fun" episodes). DS9 was epic and groundbreaking... but rarely fun. VOY had its own charm I suppose... but often its fun was hokey. And when it wasn't, it felt somewhat out of place in terms of its situation. ENT... its fun fell almost entirely in the hokey camp, IMO.

3) The original series had science fiction writers interested in penning shows. That didn't really happen in the newer shows. Thus the science, while sometimes shoddy and corny, felt unique and ambitious. For the same reason, I am a huge fan of Phillip K. Dick and his works.

4) The characters on this series were archetypes. Not so much later on. You've got the hero captain, the methodical first mate, the passionate doctor... When you're the personalities of your characters are so rigidly defined, it's hard to write them out of character. And everybody can easily relate to them. This is why everybody knows who Kirk and Spock is, and practically nobody knows who Harry Kim or Travis Mayweather are. IMO, of course.

Sorry Valium, for me the whole series just screams "classic". You can point out flaws, sure. But it's sort of like poking fun at an old man in a nursing home who craps his pants. He can't help it. He's an old man. And the younger kids with their continence and splashy special effects are bastards for pointing and laughing at him. Besides, this guy fought in World War II and saved the Federation from Klingon plots. What did these guys do? Shave their heads when Cobain died? Get their asses handed to 'em by fraking holograms?

Please.

[Nate the Great]

Instances where Data has Sung, a Partial List.

Star Trek Nemesis: Blue Skies.
Star Trek Insurrection: A British Tar.
Star Trek Generations: Life Forms.

[mudshark]

Star Trek Nemesis: Blue Skies.
As I believe I mentioned, I haven't seen that.
Star Trek Insurrection: A British Tar.
This I have seen, but there are bits of it I seem to be blocking, the singing part apparently among them. Well and good, I suppose.
Star Trek Generations: Life Forms.
This... [mess], I have also seen, and seem to be succeeding in blocking almost completely. Excellent! :D

Nothing in the TV show, though?

[Nate the Great]

Oh, was that the original point? Well, he whistled in Encounter at Farpoint, does that count?

[mudshark]

*looks at title of poll*

*whistling = singing?*

No. No, I don't think it does, really.

[Nate the Great]

The title of the poll is "Best Singer in Trek." The movies are Trek. I don't understand what your point is supposed to be.

[Nate the Great]

Well, I suppose Doc won. Not surprised in the slightest.

[Zeke]

But... but Vic! Vic, man!

As admin, I hereby declare that my vote is worth 47 of everyone else's.

[Nate the Great]

Um, how do you respond to that? Really.

[Zeke]

I don't, because I said it. (This strategy may not work for everyone.)

[Nate the Great]

Your mileage may vary...

[Zeke]

<Hamm> Oh, I seriously doubt he's getting this kinda mileage. </Hamm>

[Nate the Great]

Buzz: Please tell me I wasn't this delu--