Star Trek fans are still lamenting the death of Leonard Nimoy but they can look forward to a brighter tomorrow, as Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage will bring the orchestral history of the television franchise to more than 100 cities during 2016 (from Billboard)
A live orchestra will tour the United States performing music from several of the franchise's titles, all while film clips play on a 40-foot screen. The Verge reports that music from each of the television series, barring Star Trek: Enterprise, will be featured during the program, as well as music from the films and perhaps even select video game titles.
The events will be staged by CineConcerts (with sponsorship from Paramount Pictures), a group that has operated similar tours for classic film series such as The Godfather and The Lord of The Rings prior. The company's cofounder Justin Freer will conduct the orchestra as well.
The tour will begin abroad in Europe during November, when it'll stop by Royal Albert Hall for a "pre-tour engagement." The orchestra will come back to the United States during January to kick off the tour in Florida and will then hit 100 cities by the end of April. Although CineConcerts hasn't released a full schedule of the dates yet, don't be surprised if they miss some regions...100 shows is quite a few to cram in 120 days.
The 2016 dates represent the 50th anniversary of the airing of the first Star Trek episode on NBC during 1966. The original theme music was composed by Alexander Courage, although the rest of the original series featured a mishmash of music due to budgetary constraints. Of the 79 original episodes, only 31 had original music composed (by eight composers) while the rest made do by recycling the work and cues from previous episodes. The series has come a long way in terms of both profit and esteem over the last 50 years.
