THE PHOENIX (IN SEARCH OF MIRA - 3.26.82)

THE PHOENIX's second episode aired a year after the pilot episode but this time with a new opening title theme featuring more of the synclavier on the main idea with a consistent pulse from the timpani underneath. This is the same electronic sound that Arthur B. Rubinstein would play for John Badham the following year when the filmmakers were looking for a partly electronic score for BLUE THUNDER. The theme closes with a familiar Arthur B. signature motif in the synth at the end:






A mysterious setting of the main theme starts the episode off as Bennu (Judson Scott) arrives in New Mexico. This cue sounds as if it was tracked in a couple of scenes in the episode: 





There's chase music that kicks off the episode early when some guys in a pickup truck hunt for Bennu. That famous sound effect from every 70s/80s super hero show appears when Bennu blasts the gun out of one of the bad guy's hands using his sun power. Apparently he can now harness enough power from the sun even at night. Interestingly toward the end the score returns to some of the electronic pulsing sounds from the Pilot episode:

The show would bring in a new villain named Justin Preminger (played by Richard Lynch) who would last for the remaining four episodes. In this standout cue, an exciting build of percussion, strings, horns and electronics begin after Preminger comes asking Dr. Ward Frazier (E.G. Marshall) about where to find Bennu. The composer returns to the South American pan flute color as Frazier retrieves a map and a stone possibly from the Peruvian burial ground. There is an interesting mixed-meter synth idea that bookends the following scene. The main theme begins on it's middle B section in the strings (again with pounding timpani and electronics) and continues into the main theme on French Horn in a scene where Bennu begins to recharge his solar power:

One of the best variations of the main theme is a reflective string passage for a conversation between Bennu and Darlene: 

The ancient astronaut is also able to read minds and influence animals. Here Bennu is able to get a dog to bail him out of jail by retrieving his amulet. The cue starts off with the pan flutes as Arthur B. combines a fragment of the Main Theme from the Pilot episode with the new opening theme of the series. Strings whirl around in some nice orchestration under another statement of the B section of the main theme:





The love theme from the Pilot (Noel's Theme) returns for when Bennu says goodbye to Darlene:





I failed to mention last time the brief but great end title cue from the Pilot episode but unfortunately it's covered by the ABC announcer and it's not on YouTube.  


-- Brandon F. 

The Phoenix will return next week in "One of Them."