Battlestar Galactica: Season 3

Bear McCreary

 
" The temple of Five: McCreary heeds the call "

Written by Thomas Glorieux - Review of the regular release

If you loved how Battlestar Galactica: Season 2 ended, you'll adore the direction of the third season for sure. The population of New Caprica thought they finally found their new home, until the day the cylons made an unwanted visit. Now each member that left the Battlestar for their own personal reasons must now unite once again to defeat their imprisonment, and to find a way back to what was home all along, namely the starship Galactica. Consisting of some of the best episodes of the entire saga so far, Battlestar Galactica Season 3 continued to razzle dazzle audiences with more twists and expanding confrontations, leaving a plethora of musical styles behind for Bear McCreary to work with.

The score couldn't open more serene (and above all important), as we hear a motif in the opening seconds that will become a very important musical theme for sure. This in the enchanting "A Distant Sadness". This enchanting feeling returns once we spot Kara's theme in the middle of a rocking track called "Precipice". The driving beat and kick ass instrumentations surely kicks it out of the ballpark at the end.

No Battlestar Galactica season can be without the family theme of the Adama's. And in "Admiral and Commander" it reappears lovely once again. Once you understand the bond between father and son, you'll understand why this version will always make you cry. But once their roads have departed, business needs to be done. In one of the biggest kick ass episode of the entire Battlestar Galactica universe, "Storming New Caprica" delivers you a percussion feast from start to finish. Like "Battle on the Asteroid" it infuses bagpipes (the highlight for sure) to signal the Adama's have entered the battlefield, while all around this McCreary underscores the fight on the ground and in the sky with percussive precision.

After the fight, what's left of the refugees make it back to the Galactica, and it is here where Bear creates one of his most personal favourites. What was meant to be a happy relieving moment, became a longing grief of despair for a single man who wasn't happy he's was just rescued.

After grief comes love and thematic excellence. The track of the disc that re captures the Shape of the Things to Come magnificence is this time the 7 minute love affair "Violence and Variations", stating both the Kara and Lee love theme and the Shape of Things to Come theme is one divvying musical piece. This love theme is reprised in "Under the Wing", while Adama and Roslin's love theme gets an emotional airing in "Adama Falls".

Baltar's time ("Battlestar Sonatica") on the Cylon basestar remains a mysterious, solemn, unusual piece for piano, in the midst Baltar's theme gets an appearance whilst leaving you intrigued by the mere mystery and atmosphere of the place Baltar's been staying in. His theme however gets another dimension (and almost totally unrecognizable) in the utterly beautiful "Someone to Trust", showing Baltar's not without his sporadic moments of compassion.

Kat's heroic demise gets a noble meaning in "Kat's Sacrifice", the Laura Roslin theme hidden under a bed of vocal and duduk in "The Temple of Five", the blues riff theme for the working men in "Dirty Hands" as the touching heartfelt music in "Gentle Execution" all lead us to the incredible finale of season 3.

In "Mandala in the Clouds" Bear continues the road of "Storming New Caprica", this with another thunderous set of taiko drums that lead us to the unbelievable climax of "Deathbed and Maelstrom", which is a track you must understand the intricacies of, as it uses Kara's theme to grow to the emotional send off. Yet the final send off becomes "Heeding the Call", where we have the returning "Final Four Theme" (aka Along the Watchtower) now making a full and firm impact on another climatic finale. The song that uses the final four theme fits well alongside this unbelievable wow factor.

Battlestar Galactica: Season 3 may start and end strong, people would be unwise to dismiss the middle part as just average music. Battlestar Galactica: Season 3 is above all the most diverse one of the trilogy for sure. Far more ethnic than its predecessors, the third season went for more deeper confrontations, burning desires and more unanswered questions, but gave Bear McCreary nonetheless a plethora of musical styles he could work with. And Season 3 is his musical answer to all those styles. In between the diversity lies however the beauty and the shock, as Bear unravels 4 of the 5 cylons, making sure he remains in the race for the final fifth place...

Tracklisting

1. A Distant Sadness (2.52)
2. Precipice (4.56) Excellent track
3. Admiral and Commander (3.18) Excellent track
4. Storming New Caprica (7.50) Excellent track
5. Refugees Return (3.45)
6. Wayward Soldier (4.19)
7. Violence and Variations (7.34) Excellent track
8. The Dance (2.35)
9. Adama Falls (1.43)
10. Under the Wing (1.16)
11. Battlestar Sonatica (4.46)
12. Fight Night (2.30)
13. Kat's Sacrifice (2.48)
14. Someone to Trust (3.11) Excellent track
15. The Temple of Five (2.47)
16. Dirty Hands (3.33)
17. Gentle Execution (3.30)
18. Mandala in the Clouds (4.10)
19. Deathbed and Maelstrom (5.55)
20. Heeding the Call (2.13) Excellent track
21. All Along the Watchtower: BT4 (3.33)

Total Length: 78.34
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(total of 15 votes - average 3.93/5)

Released by

La-La Land Records LLLCD 1062 (regular release 2007)

Main Theme by

Richard Gibbs

Conducted by

Bear McCreary

Orchestrations by

Brandon Roberts, Jeremy Levy & Bear McCreary