Class3

Last night I watched one of the Star Treck movies from the original series. Towards the end of the film the crew discovers an uncharted planet that they believe to be Eden. They land on it, and as they descend from their space craft and take in their surroundings they seem quite pleased with themselves. They decide to further explore their wondrous discovery, and for a moment I thought to myself “Wow! They really have discovered Eden!” Then I noticed the eerie music that began to play and immediately knew that the crew was in fact in danger.
If the sound designers had not included that little bit of music I would have had absolutely no idea that the crew was in danger. It amazes me that one simple little melody can say so much. The meaning of that scene would have been completely different if the music had been a grand celebratory composition of joy. However that particular piece of eerie music, used as a kind of warning for danger, was chosen in order to create suspense in the viewer. It gives the audience a bit of insight that the characters on screen do not have. If it hadn’t been for the music I would have been just as clueless about the planet as Captain Kirk was.