INVASION: EARTH

RICHARD G. MITCHELL

Rating:

Original Review: Invasion: Earth was one of the successes on British TV this year. A six-part science fiction series written by Jed Mercurio, it was hyped as 'Independence Day comes to England' and featured some of the most impressive special effects ever created for a BBC drama series. For the music, the producers turned to Richard G. Mitchell, who won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Original Score for his work on the 1997 drama The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Mitchell's music has a fitting otherworldly sound, and weaves together many unusual elements to create a quite unique alien soundscape for the hostile visitors to inhabit. Percussion plays a very prominent role in the score, as do synthesisers and electronically enhanced strings. However, the thing which lets Invasion: Earth down is the lack of a cohesive binding element, and the constant strangeness of the album as a whole. It was a conscious decision by the series' producers to eschew the 'generic hi-tec feel of most science fiction', so don't listen to this expecting to hear a David Arnold clone. Mitchell's music was designed more to create a hypnotic mood of unease and uncertainty rather than to stir the patriotic blood, and the resulting lack of any memorable thematic content makes the album drag somewhat. The majority of the score consists of various indiscernible bangs, crashes, whooshes and zooms that are integrated into a plethora of synthesised rhythms with occasional acoustic accompaniment. Although the music adequately serves the needs of the series, it is rather uninspiring to listen to separately, and as a result only a scant few of the cues are worth noting. "Fast Moving Target Moving in From the North West" is a skilful combination of action and suspense, merging militaristic snare drums with the unusual sounds of a church organ. Listening to "Military Machines", with its use of a stirring brass theme and snare drums, you can imagine it underscoring scenes of soldiers running to their respective fighter craft, preparing for battle. The "Love Theme", written for the two central characters of Drake and Tucker, is an ambient synth piece which slowly develops to include a delicate, but sadly underdeveloped, piano motif. "The Story So Far" is a pulsating cue, incorporating harsh slapsticks into a driving, Zimmer-style action sequence. To be honest, Invasion: Earth never really builds up any head of steam, and ends up being nothing more than an interesting experimentation in sound design. As standalone music, there are very few redeeming qualities to the score, and anyone expecting the music to live up to the quality of the series for which it was written is likely to be disappointed.

Track Listing: Running Time: 45 minutes 54 seconds

BBC Records MPRCD-009 (1998)

Music composed, arranged and produced by Richard G. Mitchell.


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These web pages were designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton copyright 1998. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of my employer, the Trent Institute for Health Services Research, or those of the University of Sheffield.