2001: A Space Odyssey (film) essay "Odyssey of Stanley Kubrick" wrote, "Kubrick has conceived a film which in one stroke has made the whole science fiction cinema obsolete." Others credit "2001" with opening up a market for films such as "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "Alien", "Blade Runner", "Contact", and "Interstellar", proving that big-budget "serious" science-fiction films can be commercially successful, and establishing the "sci-fi blockbuster" as a Hollywood staple. Science magazine "Discover"s blogger Stephen Cass, discussing the film's considerable impact on subsequent science fiction, writes that "the balletic spacecraft scenes set to sweeping classical music, the tarantula-soft tones of HAL 9000, and the
2001: A Space Odyssey (score) exist outside the action, while uplifting it. With regard to the space docking sequence, Ebert stressed the peculiar combination of slowness and majesty resulting from the choice of Strauss's "Blue Danube" waltz, which brought "seriousness and transcendence" to the visuals. Speaking of the music generally, Ebert wrote: 2001: A Space Odyssey (score) The "2001: A Space Odyssey" score is an unused film score composed by Alex North for Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film, "." In the early stages of production, Kubrick had commissioned noted Hollywood composer Alex North, who had written the score for "Spartacus" and also worked on "Dr. Strangelove",