by Moe Zilla

Created on: February 19, 2008

"Mr. Spock's Music From Outer Space" is one of my favorite albums. Unlike William Shatner's album "Transformed Man," this record preserves its actors association with the TV show "Star Trek," using nothing but songs about outer space. The whole album is barely 25 minutes long, but it's full of quaint surprises from a strange and innocent time.

Ironically, Leonard Nimoy doesn't even appear in many of the songs. The album opens with a funky instrumental version of the Star Trek theme, including an electric bass and psychedelic keyboards, along with the familiar female backing vocals from the original TV theme. The vocalist compliments another instrumental with the campy title "Music to Watch Space Girls By," though it's actually just a spacey version of an earth-bound song by Andy Williams. ("The boys watch the girls, while the girls watch the boys who watch the girls go by...") A slower version of the theme re-appears on side two, along with the theme to "Mission Impossible." It was apparently such a great TV theme that they couldn't resist including it on Nimoy's album - complete with its own electric keyboard solo. But one of the instrumental tracks is surprisingly moving - "Beyond Antares." With its romantic flute solo, it sounds a little like the incidental music used in Star Trek's romantic scenes.

But there's a few gems on the album. "Lost in the Stars" was a remarkable song written by Kurt Weill (who also wrote music for Bertolt Brecht), for a 1949 musical in which a troubled minister re-examines his faith. ("Sometimes it seems maybe God's gone away, and we're lost, out here in the stars...") This song was inexplicably left off of the Nimoy/Shatner compilation album, "Spaced Out," perhaps because instead of being laughable, it's a genuinely good rendition of a thoughtful song. "You Are Not Alone" offers another slow and philosophical melody, asking a star-gazer what he'd do if he encountered an alien race. ("Will you teach them war? Will you teach them hate?") This sets the stage for "A Visit to a Sad Planet," a spoken word track (in the persona of Spock) closing the album with a final stark warning about a civilization ruined by nuclear war.

There's also some funny songs on the album. Just like in the series, Nimoy is able to create while maintaining his straight-faced analysis. In "Highly Illogical" he offers a Spock-like analysis of customs like commuting to work and getting married, while in "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Earth" Nimoy complains about the human-centric wording in many popular songs and phrases.

The albums complete title starts with the word "Leonard Nimoy presents," but despite the fact that the actor is shown smiling broadly on the album's back cover, he ultimately stays true to his serious Star Trek character. On the album's cover, Nimoy even poses in his blue science officer uniform holding a model of the starship Enterprise. The album may not be as good as "Star Trek," but in it's own way, it's almost as entertaining.

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