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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' musical episode (and the real singers on the Enterprise crew)

After 'Subspace Rhapsody,' we dive into how musical each cast member of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is.

At this year's San Diego Comic-Con, the Star Trek Universe panel announced that Paramount+ 's Star Trek: Strange New Worlds would receive a musical episode. Luckily the wait was only a few weeks to watch 'Subspace Rhapsody.'

In season 2, episode 9, Uhura and Spock are experimenting on a quantum probability field. A freak accident causes the people onboard the U.S.S. Enterprise to reveal their innermost feelings in song. Though only the starship seems to be afflicted by the musical disorder, it has the potential to spread across the galaxy. So, they must work fast to contain it.

'Subspace Rhapsody' is a fun diversion from your conventional episode that still maintains the core of what Star Trek is. Each cast member does an admirable job, and you would think everyone has some musical talent. That made us curious about which actors had prior experience and which were out of their comfort zones. Here's a brief musical history of the actors of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Anson Mount (Captain Christopher Pike)

Anson Mount has spread his acting career throughout television, film, and theater. In theater, he always performed in plays and never had the chance to share his voice in a prior musical. In an interview with Collider promoting the series Hell on Wheels, the interviewer asked whether he sings. The actor responded, "A little bit. Mostly people pay me not to sing, but I could learn."

After becoming Captain Pike in Star Trek: Discovery, Mount shared during a panel at the Great Philadelphia Comic Con in 2019 that he had a singing part in the second episode of season two entitled 'New Eden.' When the crew meets with human inhabitants of a distant planet, his character sings an old church hymn, 'Let Us Break Bread Together.' The actor even asked for a voice teacher for the part. But for story reasons, the scene was eventually cut. He would have to wait until 'Subspace Rhapsody' for others to see him finally sing on Star Trek.

Celia Rose Gooding (Nyota Uhura)

Celia Rose Gooding is a big reason Uhura plays a significant role in 'Subspace Rhapsody.' They are a talented singer who broke out as Mary Frances 'Frankie' Healy in the rock and roll musical Jagged Little Pill. They earned a Grammy award and a Tony nomination for the performance. They studied dance at the Alvin Alley Institute in New York City and majored in musical theater at Pace University before dropping out due to Jagged Little Pill obligations.

Melissa Navia (Erica Ortegas)

Helmsman Erica Ortegas is one of the breakout characters of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds due to Melissa Navia. In addition to acting, she is a writer and stand-up comedian. No wonder she hits Ortegas's one-liners and zingers. She grew up as a musical theater kid. In an interview with IRK Magazine , she mentions one of her earliest leading roles was as Peter Pan when she was younger. Despite many adult projects not needing song and dance, Navia still looks right at home in the musical episode.

Ethan Peck (Lieutenant Spock)

Entertainment runs in Ethan Peck's family as his grandfather and father were both actors. It's no surprise that he began his career as a child actor with his early roles, including parts in the made-for-TV movie Marshal Law and Passport to Paris, which starred the Olsen twins. Though none of his prior projects required any musical talent, he did appear in the music video for 'I Want You to Want Me' by KSM. The video was for the television series 10 Things I Hate About You. Peck also studied classical cello for six years when he was younger.

Christina Chong (La'an Noonien-Singh)

Christina Chong started dancing at the age of four. She initially studied at the Sutcliffe School of Dance in Longridge, England, then attended the Italia Conti Academy of Theater Arts in London beginning at 14. After graduating from the academy, she received a role in the musical Aida, which featured songs from Elton John and Tim Rice. An injury shortened her musical theater career, so she turned to acting. Chong proves she still has it in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' musical episode.

Carol Kane (Pelia)

The newest main addition to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is Chief Engineer Pelia. Her actress, Carol Kane, has a long career in entertainment as an actor. She has also received an Academy Award nomination for best actress for the film Hester Street and earned two Oscar awards for her work on the sitcom Taxi. But did you know she has musical experience as well? She played Madame Morrible in Wicked during the first national tour and later on Broadway. For someone who is most known for her comedy, Kane is a sneaky musical ringer for "Subspace Rhapsody."

Jess Bush (Nurse Christine Chapel)

Jess Bush's first television appearance was as a contestant on the seventh season of Australia's Next Top Model. She later pursued acting in the Australian soap opera Home and Away and having a recurring role in the drama series Playing for Keeps. Playing Nurse Chapel on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is her first international role. She might not be a singer, but she has other talents. She is a visual artist who has been selling her work since age 19, and she even designed some of the jewelry her character wears in the series.

Babs Olusanmokun (Doctor Joseph M'Benga)

The one crew member who isn't a slight bit amused with all the musical shenanigans is Doctor M'Benga. Compared to the other characters, he seems to sing the least. Looking through Babs Olusanmokun's filmography and history, there don't appear to be any roles that called for musical ability. That's okay because we saw one of his other talents front and center in the previous episode 'Under the Cloak of War." Olusanmokun utilized his championship Brazilian Jui-Jitsu skills in a sparring scene with Ambassador Dak'Rah.

Rebecca Romijn (Una Chin Riley/Number One)

Rebecca Romijn was first known as a supermodel before she transitioned into acting. She had geek cred even before Star Trek. Her first film role was as the mutant Mystique in the X-Men films of the '00s. Romijn has also dabbled in singing. She covered the Prince song 'Darling Nikki' for the 2005 album Electro Goth Tribute to Prince and featured on 'Color Me Love' on RuPaul's eighth studio album Realness. More recently, as cohost of The Real Love Boat, she sang the iconic theme song of the '80s show, which the reality romance television series is based on during the opening credits alongside her real-life husband, Jerry O'Connell.

Paul Wesley (Lieutenant James T. Kirk)

Before he was Lieutenant Kirk in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Paul Wesley is probably best known for his role as Stefan Salvatore in The Vampire Diaries. Due to the popularity of the series, he was a regular on the convention circuit featuring in many panels. You can search for videos of the various panels and find where the actor sings, including a viral video where he and The Vampire Diaries co-star Ian Somerhalder rap Vanila Ice's 'Ice Ice Baby.' However, these instances are all for fun to entertain the attendees in the audience. You'll have to dive deep into his filmography to find a role where he professionally sang. In the season 2, episode 11 of the legal drama Shark entitled 'Shaun of the Dead,' Wesley plays the lead singer of a rock band. There is a scene where the character performs onstage at a bar, and you can hear Wesley sing a few lines.

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How Strange New Worlds pulled off the first-ever Star Trek musical episode

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Throwing an hour of light comedy into the middle of a 10-episode arc with galactic-level stakes could derail an entire season, but Star Trek: Strange New Worlds dances gracefully from week to week between courtroom drama, time-travel romance, and its latest wild swing: a musical episode.

In “Subspace Rhapsody,” the crew of the USS Enterprise encounters a strange cosmic phenomenon that induces them to break into song and reveal their innermost feelings. The episode features 10 original songs by Kay Hanley and Tom Polce (of Letters to Cleo fame) and highlights the vocal talents of the cast, including Tony nominee and Grammy winner Celia Rose Gooding and singer-songwriter Christina Chong.

Executive Producer Alex Kurtzman, who heads up the franchise at Paramount, has been teasing the possibility of a Star Trek musical since 2020. But at the time, his only venue for bizarre genre experiments was Star Trek: Short Treks , a short subject anthology series that filled the gaps between Discovery and Picard . Short Treks eventually became the launchpad for Strange New Worlds , whose tone has proven equally elastic. After the warm reception to its first season, which contained everything from a screwball body-swap comedy to a grim political drama involving child sacrifice, it was time to set phasers to “sing.”

According to the episode’s director, Dermott Downs, Chong was the cast member who pushed the hardest for a musical episode. Chong, whose debut EP Twin Flames is also out this week, confesses in her Spotify bio that her screen acting career began as a way to raise her profile as a singer and stage actor. “Subspace Rhapsody” would seem to be an important landmark in her career, as she features heavily on the soundtrack, including the solo ballad “How Would That Feel?”

(Chong is unavailable for comment due to the conditions of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, as is the rest of the cast and the episode’s writers, Dana Horgan and Bill Wolkoff. Songwriters Kay Hanley and Tom Polce also could not be reached via Paramount publicity.)

Indeed, one of the interesting challenges of producing a musical episode of an established television show is tailoring the music to suit the talents of the existing cast. Who’s a belter? Who’s a crooner? Who’s funny? Who might not be comfortable singing at all? The tools at hand impact not only the distribution of the songs, but the shape of the story. The narrative and emotional weight of a musical has to fall on the shoulders of the cast members most prepared to carry it.

So, it’s no surprise that, while “Subspace Rhapsody” gives nearly every regular cast member an opportunity to show off, the heart of the story is Ensign Nyota Uhura, portrayed by Celia Rose Gooding. Gooding’s performance as Frankie in Jagged Little Pill , a Broadway jukebox musical featuring the songs of Alanis Morissette, garnered them a Tony nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, as well as a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album (shared with the rest of the cast). Gooding sings the episode’s 11 o’clock number, “Keep Us Connected,” an undeniable earworm that showcases their impressive vocal range and power. Gooding’s Broadway bona fides bring a level of legitimacy to “Subspace Rhapsody” that’s lacking even in top-tier TV musical episodes like Buffy ’s “Once More, With Feeling” and Community ’s “Regional Holiday Music.”

This also isn’t Downs’ first crack at a musical episode, as he also helmed “Duet,” a crossover between The Flash and Supergirl that reunited former Glee castmates Grant Gustin, Melissa Benoist, and Darren Criss. Downs used this experience, as well as his long resume as a music video cinematographer, to secure the “Subspace Rhapsody” gig from the list of episodes in development for Strange New Worlds ’ second season. Combined with his fondness for the original Star Trek , the possibility of working on Trek’s first musical episode was too exciting to pass up, despite the obvious risks.

“There was a great potential to jump the shark,” says Downs, “because if you’re this grounded show, how are you going to do a musical in outer space? And to their credit, they crafted a great story. Once you understand the anomaly and how music pushes forward all of these interior feelings through song, then you have the potential for so many different kinds of songs.”

However, the prospect of singing for the viewing audience was not immediately appealing to every cast member, a fact that is lampshaded within the framework of the episode. Much of the Enterprise crew fears the subspace anomaly’s ability to make them spill their guts through song. Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) is afraid of getting into an argument with his girlfriend, Captain Marie Batel (Melanie Scrofano), and the pair ends up airing out their relationship issues on the bridge. (This song is, appropriately, entitled “A Private Conversation.”) Mount’s singing role is simpler than his castmates’ on a technical level, but leverages his comedic talents and awkward, boy-next-door charm.

“He crushed it,” says Downs. “It was like a country ballad gone wrong.”

Babs Olusanmokun, who portrays the multifaceted Dr. Joseph M’Benga, sings the bare minimum in the episode, and his character makes a point to tell his shipmates (and the viewer) that he does not sing . For his part, Downs cannot comment on any studio magic that may or may not have been employed to make the less seasoned vocalists in the cast more tuneful, but a listener with an ear for autotune will definitely detect some pitch correction.

Downs says that Ethan Peck, who portrays the young Lieutenant Spock , was among the more apprehensive cast members, but if anything, this becomes an asset to his performance in the episode. Spock has spent this season actively exploring his human feelings, even entering into a romantic relationship with Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush). Spock’s solo “I’m the X” sees Spock retreating into his shell, and the actor’s shyness feeds into the character’s conflict. Peck’s performance of the song, which was written for his smooth baritone, was the production’s most pleasant surprise. The temp track of the song that the crew worked with (until Peck recorded his version over a weekend, like the rest of the cast) featured a bigger, more conventionally Broadway vocal, but Peck performs it in character — superficially steady, but with strong emotional undercurrents just below the surface.

On a character level, however, the musical format might be most revelatory for Rebecca Romijn’s Commander Una Chin-Riley, aka Number One. Una began the series as a very guarded person harboring a secret that could end her career. Even as far back as her appearance in the 2019 Short Treks episode “Q&A,” her advice to new arrival Spock was to “keep your ‘freaky’ to yourself,” in this case referring to her love for Gilbert and Sullivan ( inherited from Romijn herself ). Since then, her much more consequential secrets have been revealed, and she finds herself unburdened, and uses the opportunity presented by the musical anomaly to encourage her mentees to do the same. Una’s songs, “Connect to Your Truth”’ and “Keeping Secrets,” see her offering advice to rising first officer James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) and her protege La’an (Chong), respectively, about the futility of withholding your full self from others.

“Subspace Rhapsody” concludes with an ensemble number about the crew’s common purpose and fellowship — an appropriate sentiment not only for a musical episode but for Strange New Worlds . Star Trek has always been about friendship and cooperation, but no previous incarnation (save, perhaps, for Deep Space Nine ) has granted each member of the cast such even amounts of attention and importance, from Captain Pike to Ensign Uhura. Previous Trek series could perhaps have sustained a musical episode (Ronald D. Moore even pitched one for DS9 back in the ’90s). For a series sold to fans as a return to “old-school Star Trek,” Strange New Worlds has taken some wild creative risks. While the show has resumed its time-tested episodic “problem of the week” format, its writers and producers have used this structure to experiment in ways that its sister shows, Discovery and Picard , could never have gotten away with. As corny as it might be, on Strange New Worlds it feels particularly appropriate to close a story with the entire crew singing about their trust in each other, in perfect harmony.

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The Best Singers In Star Trek's Subspace Rhapsody, Ranked From Uhura To Worst

Season 2 of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" is almost over and it didn't miss a chance to leave its mark on "Star Trek" history. The ninth and penultimate episode, "Subspace Rhapsody," is the first "Star Trek" musical episode. Like any good musical, it opens with a group number, branches off into solos, and then reunites the cast for a grand finale.

But wait, you might ask, how does the show justify such an odd premise? "Strange New Worlds" is the show that, back in season 1's "The Elysian Kingdom," turned the Enterprise crew into characters out of a child's fairy tale. A musical episode is well within the show's tonal range and ability to excuse.

At the start of the episode, the Enterprise is investigating a "naturally-occurring subspace fold" — Starfleet hopes the fold can be harnessed to enable faster communication. When Uhura and Spock send a song into it hoping for a response, it responds by altering probability to turn the Enterprise into a reflection of a musical universe. Long story short? The cosmic phenomenon of the week is making the Enterprise act like they're in a musical, so just go with it.

Every cast member, main and recurring, gets at least one moment singing. Musical episodes on TV will always put a cast out of their elements; they signed up to act, not sing and dance. How do the respective musical talents of the cast of "Strange New Worlds" compare?

1. Ensign Nyota Uhura

Taking the crown as best singer on the Enterprise is Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding). As the ship's communications officer and polyglot, it's only natural that's she also skilled in song. The final solo of the episode, "Keep Us Connected," is hers. It's basically a musical recap of her character arc; she sings about how she's been alone since her family's death. That is, until she came to the Enterprise and found friends who had faith in her.

Even before "Subspace Rhapsody," Uhura was canonically a good singer. In "Star Trek: The Original Series" episode "Charlie X," she sings for the rest of the crew. Nichelle Nichols' singing was high energy but her voice was soft and melodic like a lullaby. Gooding, on the other hand, goes loud. Once Uhura has the engine room to herself, she belts her heart out, singing at the top of her lungs, yet stays perfectly in tune with the strumming instrumentals. 

Gooding is not just an actor, they're a Broadway star too; they first broke out from the 2018-2020 runs of the rock musical "Jagged Little Pill." That theatrical spirit hasn't left Gooding; while singing as Uhura, they animate their body and project their voice like a stage performer. The results are enrapturing.

2. Lieutenant La'an Noonien Singh

La'an Noonien Singh, the Enterprise's uptight security chief, is played by Christina Chong. On top of her acting, Chong is a singer with the solos "Twin Flames," "No Blame," and "Can't Show Love" to her name. Surprise, surprise — the other trained musician among the cast gets second place as the show's best singer.

After spotting Una (Rebecca Romijn) and Jim Kirk (Paul Wesley) hitting it off, La'an retreats to her quarters and breaks out into a solo ballad, scored to a sad piano melody. La'an is usually rather stoic and closed off from others. Her song, "How Would That Feel," from the isolated setting to the lyrics, is all about that. She asks herself if she should "change her paradigm" and open herself up to others — but in turn, if she could manage to "fly blind" in her life.

The blocking reflects the song's theme of self-reflection — there's a shot of La'an standing in front of a mirror and then out a window. Most of the shots, though, are still close-ups of her as she sings. Rather than a theater star, Chong feels like someone most used to singing in place before a fixed microphone. It works, though, thanks to her expressive face (that she finally gets to put to full use) and how she keeps hitting higher and higher notes as the song goes on.

3. Lieutenant Commander Spock

Spock (Ethan Peck) has always shown some musical inclinations, even back during "The Original Series." He plays a Vulcan lute in his spare time; this season revealed that it was prescribed to him as a coping method for his emotions. We've never seen Spock singing along as he plucks the lute's strings, but "Subspace Rhapsody" reveals that isn't due to lack of talent.

Spock is the first crew member to break out into song during the first group number, "Status Report." Seeing an emotionally-restrained Vulcan singing underlines the surreality of the musical; normally, Spock would be the least likely to express himself so overtly.

He gets a solo later in the episode, right before Uhura's: "I'm The X." The title's meaning is twofold. For one, Spock is the ship's science officer, so he's always trying to solve the unknown like an equation. It's also a pun on how Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) has chosen her career over continuing their relationship. Spock's feelings of betrayal tie the meanings together; he's decided that giving over to his emotions yielded disastrous consequences so he will return to cold analysis.

"I'm The X" is one of the calmest heartbreak songs I've ever heard. Underscored by a dour electronic tune, Peck maintains a strong and even timbre while moving his face as little as possible; Spock's shields haven't dropped even under these circumstances. Yet somehow, you can still feel the rawness in his voice.

4. Captain Christopher Pike

A plot point in "Subspace Rhapsody" is that the musical behavior is causing the Enterprise crew to reveal information they'd rather keep secret. Captain Pike (Anson Mount) gets the worst of it. His partner Captain Marie Batel (Melanie Scrofano) calls after the music plague spreads to her own ship. She and Pike get caught in a duet where they have "A Private Conversation" about the relationship, their frustrations with one another laid bare for the Enterprise bridge crew to see. 

The one thing that isn't embarrassing? Pike's singing ability. Scrofano is a capable scene partner, but Mount steals the scene for himself with a smooth, mellifluous baritone — exactly the kind of voice you'd picture coming out of his handsome face.  

Since "A Private Conversation" is the most comedic of the setlist, it has a playful orchestral tune, like something out of "Peter and the Wolf." Tragically, it's cut short when La'an disconnects the transmission. We do get to hear a bit more of Pike singing in supporting parts during "Status Report" and "We Are One." Pike might've been uncomfortable singing, but I was eating it up.

5. Commander Una Chin-Riley and 6. Lieutenant James T. Kirk

Back in episode 6, "Lost In Translation," it was revealed that Kirk (Paul Wesley) has been promoted to First Officer of his current ship, The USS Farragut. So, he spends some time on the Enterprise shadowing Una (Rebecca Romijn), an experienced First Officer. Their duet, "Connect To Your Truth," is about this new mentor-student relationship; Una explains how to best be a starship second-in-command.

Naturally, Commander Chin-Riley takes the lead in the duet. "Connect To Your Truth" boasts some of the most complex lyrics and creative rhyming schemes in the song's tracklist; from the wordplay to the flighty mood it often feels like a "Star Trek" themed "Mary Poppins" song. The nature of the song also evokes "My Fair Lady" (or rather, "My Fair First Officer"). Romijn understands how to handle this, drawing out some of her line deliveries even if her singing voice doesn't quite escape the confines of her normal one. Wesley handles himself just fine but definitely cedes the spotlight to his costar.

Romijn must have been eager to sing; she  was  a Music major before becoming an actress and model. Thus, Una also gets a solo — "Keeping Secrets" — a follow-up to La'an's "How Would That Feel" as the Commander advises her younger friend. Una confesses that "in another life, [she] could see herself on a stage." By enthusiasm alone, I could see her getting there.

7. Nurse Christine Chapel

Back in "Charades," Nurse Christine Chapel had been rejected from a scientific fellowship. In "Subspace Rhapsody," she's applied to another one and gets it — but that means she'll have to leave the Enterprise. Spock confronts her about it while she's toasting to her success and the number makes it clear where her priorities are. "I'm Ready" is all about how Christine's been working so hard to get to the top of the scientific field; she can't even bother paying attention to Spock, so focused on her own dreams and ambitions.

The music is a poppy dance song, with everyone in the bar joining in and swaying back and forth; only Christine's voice is clearly audible but there's some background vocal harmonizing too. "I'm Ready" has the most extras and complex choreography of any "Subspace Rhapsody" sequence. Some of those extras take turns carrying Christine around as she dances around the room, climbing onto the bar and some tables along the way.

Sadly, the most underwhelming part of the scene is Jess Bush's own singing. From my own ear, it sounded like her voice had been auto-filtered. It might have been a creative choice, whether to have her voice match the upbeat mood of the song or to show that Christine's not her usual, more reserved self. I'm not convinced it was the right one, though.

8. Lieutenant Erica Ortegas and 9. Dr. Joseph M'Benga

Musical TV episodes always reveal which cast members are comfortable/capable with singing and which aren't. Those in the latter category for "Strange New Worlds" appear to have been Melissa Navia (Erica Ortegas) and Babs Olusanmokun (Dr. M'Benga). Neither one gets a solo song, whether due to runtime constraints, the actors' disinterest, or something else altogether. As a result, it's hard to judge these two against their castmates.

Both Ortegas and M'Benga do sing during the group numbers. M'Benga's parts in both songs feature him harmonizing with Chapel (they both work in Sick Bay, after all), so it's especially hard to get a read on his own voice.

Ortegas, though, does get a brief solo as part of "Status Report." The song features a bridge of the Enterprise Bridge crew describing their stations on ready; Ortegas does so for the ship's helm. Navia's voice sounded good, to the point where I'm puzzled why they didn't give Ortegas more material . She's generally a comic relief character, so a funny song would fit her like a glove. Maybe "Strange New Worlds" season 3 will have to feature "Subspace Rhapsody II" to give Ortegas a moment at the mic.

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" is streaming on Paramount+.

‘Star Trek’ made its first ever musical episode, but was it any good? Our writers discuss

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This article contains spoilers for “Subspace Rhapsody,” the ninth episode of Season 2 of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds .”

On Thursday, “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” (Paramount+) debuted “Subspace Rhapsody,” which has been announced as the first musical episode in the franchise . (Some will, of course, remember Spock strumming on a Vulcan lute and Uhura singing in the original series or Data’s rendition of “Blue Skies” at Will and Deanna’s wedding in “Star Trek: Nemesis.”)

Whether or not one views this as an insult to or a delightful expansion of the series, it has become, if not quite de rigueur, not unusual for a comedy or drama or even a soap opera to get its inner “Rent” on. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” was perhaps the most ballyhooed show to take this step toward Broadway, but all sorts of series have danced into the footlights: “Fringe,” “Psych,” “Xena: Warrior Princess,” “Futurama,” “One Life to Live,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Community,” “Transparent” and more.

Entertainment and arts reporter Ashley Lee, who knows a lot about musicals but little about “Star Trek,” and television critic Robert Lloyd, who knows quite a bit about “Star Trek” and less about musicals (at least any written after 1970), got together to discuss the episode.

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Ashley Lee: Because I love musical theater, I’m always intrigued when TV shows take the risk to make a musical episode. The task of creating original songs for the screen is already tricky enough, especially in a way that invites along the show’s weekly audience and still moves its stories forward. And then there’s the task of asking the actors to perform them, whether or not they’ve ever sung or danced onscreen before. It’s an episodic experiment that, over the years, only some shows have gotten right.

I admittedly put on the musical episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” with low expectations because, outside of “Little Shop of Horrors,” putting sci-fi to song hasn’t historically been so harmonious (R.I.P., “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark”). Even though I had no prior connection to any of these characters, I found “Subspace Rhapsody” to be a pleasant surprise.

I loved how the songs, written by Kay Hanley and Tom Polce of the ’90s alt-rock band Letters to Cleo, poked enough fun at the oddity of suddenly breaking out into song without insulting the TV tradition. And I found it hilarious that the episode, directed by Dermott Downs and written by Dana Horgan and Bill Wolkoff, deemed “confessing highly personal, emotional information” a legitimate security threat. (When you think about it, such can definitely be true in the real world!)

I’m surprised that, after all these years, this is the first ever “Star Trek” musical episode. Robert, as a longtime fan of the franchise, were you open to the idea?

Robert Lloyd: In sci-fi fandom, any unusual step is bound to raise some hackles. But as a TV critic since before flat screens, I have seen at least a few of these “special musical episodes” mounted in otherwise nonmusical series. I suspect the impetus came not from viewer demand but from the producers or the writers, who are always looking for something new to entertain the audience and, not incidentally, themselves and was seized upon happily by cast members, many of whom will have had backgrounds in or at least a love of musical theater, even if only from their high school production of “Guys and Dolls” (which I mention because it was produced at my high school — not with me).

History shows there’s no sort of show more likely than another to take on this challenge, but of all the “Star Trek” series, “Strange New Worlds” is perhaps the one most amenable to it. It’s got a strong vein of humor, and, as a highly episodic show, it’s subject to — in fact, embraces — tonal shifts from week to week. This season has been particularly … goofy? Two weeks prior to “Subspace Rhapsody,” they aired a crossover with the animated spinoff “Star Trek: Lower Decks,” in which cartoon characters became flesh and fleshly characters cartoons.

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I thought it was smart to give the musical element of the show a “scientific” rationale — if the usual “Trek” technobabble — with the Enterprise overwhelmed by feedback from a substance fault into which, on the inspiration of Carol Kane’s Pelia, they sent a playlist in an attempt to communicate musically.

And it’s quite appropriate for a season full of romantic subplots, including Ethan Peck’s Spock — who, you must know, is more about logic than feeling — having a thing with Jess Bush’s Nurse Chapel, and security chief Noonien-Singh’s (Christina Chong) awkward reunion with a young James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley), who doesn’t recall their relationship from an alternative timeline. (That bit may have made no sense to you, Ash.) Appropriately, the story makes it clear that heightened emotion is what causes the characters to sing — which is, of course, the underlying rationale of music theater.

All else aside, how did the music strike you? It was odd that although the music they fed into the fault was the “Great American Songbook” — the standards of early to mid-20th century popular song, often written for musicals — none of the songs in the episode were actually modeled on that tradition. Not much in the way of Jerome Kern or Rodgers and Hart there. It all sounded post-Andrew Lloyd Webber to me.

Lee: Haha, you’re right! While I did appreciate the use of Cole Porter’s show tune “Anything Goes” as a very literal cue to the audience of the storytelling “rules” ahead, many of the tunes were more contemporary than Golden Age. The one that’s most “vintage” in style was the sweet duet “Connect to Your Truth,” when Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) shared key leadership advice with Lt. Kirk.

Regarding the romances, I admittedly became deeply invested in these will-they-won’t-theys by the end of their musical numbers. I particularly loved La’an Noonien-Singh‘s song “How Would That Feel,” about contemplating vulnerability; it was like an introspective, angsty version of “Company’s” “Being Alive” in the musical style of “Wicked” (and is a promising preview of her music — Chong just released a debut EP). And the stark differences in genre between Spock’s brooding electropop ballad “I’m the X” and Nurse Chapel’s Amy Winehouse-esque fellowship celebration “I’m Ready” definitely maximized the tension amid their miscommunication.

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Beyond those, the opening number titled “Status Report” was so strong — a perfect example of musicalizing a familiar routine of the world (think “Opening Up” from “Waitress” or “Good Morning Baltimore” from “Hairspray”) — and the choral, orchestral rendition of the show’s main title was a delight. Also, the double meaning of communications officer Nyota Uhura’s anthem “Keep Us Connected” was very satisfying and, in my opinion, only scratched the surface of Celia Rose Gooding’s vocal abilities (she earned a Tony nomination for her performance in “Jagged Little Pill”).

If “Star Trek” ever officially makes the leap to the stage, I imagine these three songs in particular would transfer well. (Though if so, I’m gonna need a full expansion of that brief interlude of autotuned, rapping Klingons.) Bravo to Hanley and Polce for writing all the music and lyrics of this episode; while many have attempted it over the years, only a few pop stars and rockers have successfully walked the tightrope of writing effective and entertaining stage musicals (e.g., Cyndi Lauper, David Byrne and Elton John).

Overall, did you enjoy “Subspace Rhapsody”? Was the first musical episode of the franchise worth the wait?

Lloyd: I can’t say I was waiting for it, but I certainly enjoyed it. I’m all about nutty “Star Trek,” going back to “The Trouble With Tribbles,” and also found it a really effective way to embody the emotional crises being faced by “Strange New Worlds’” eminently likable characters. Certainly, the cast bursting into song (and the occasional dance), with music dropping in from … somewhere, is no more nonsensical than about, oh, a hundred things that have happened to the various starship crews over nearly six decades.

But let me ask you, did it make you liable to keep watching the series? (No judgment.)

Lee: Robert, these subplots were so genuinely compelling, even when concisely moved forward in song, that I’ll likely start this series from the beginning and continue on past this episode. Plus, I’m so intrigued by Lt. Kirk and Noonien-Singh’s romance in that alternate timeline!

‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’

Where: Paramount + When: Anytime, starting Thursday

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Ashley Lee is a staff reporter at the Los Angeles Times, where she writes about theater, movies, television and the bustling intersection of the stage and the screen. An alum of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Critics Institute and Poynter’s Power of Diverse Voices, she leads workshops on arts journalism at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. She was previously a New York-based editor at the Hollywood Reporter and has written for the Washington Post, Backstage and American Theatre, among others. She is currently working remotely alongside her dog, Oliver.

Robert Lloyd has been a Los Angeles Times television critic since 2003.

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How ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Brought Its Delightful Musical Episode to Life: ‘You’re Like, Wait, Spock Is Singing Now?!’

By Adam B. Vary

Adam B. Vary

Senior Entertainment Writer

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SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses plot — and musical! — developments in Season 2, Episode 9 of “ Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ,” currently streaming on Paramount+.

Since premiering in 2022, “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” has already embraced body-swapping comedy, storybook fantasy and a crossover episode with the animated series “Star Trek: Lower Decks.” So perhaps it’s not surprising that for the penultimate episode for Season 2 of “Strange New Worlds,” executive producers Henry Alonso Myers and Akiva Goldsman would mount the first-ever full-on musical episode in “Trek” history.

Popular on Variety

As Myers and Goldsman explain to Variety , “Subspace Rhapsody” was the result of more than six months of intense work by the cast and crew, as the songs were built around the actors’ respective vocal abilities by composers Kay Hanley (Letters to Cleo) and Tom Polce (Letters to Cleo, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”), in partnership with writers Dana Horgan and Bill Wolkoff. 

The showrunners also revealed which performance ultimately did not make the episode, and what to make of Kirk’s allusion to an it’s-complicated relationship with a woman named Carol.

How did the idea for this episode first arise?

Akiva Goldsman: The truth is it goes all the way back to Season 1 of “Star Trek: Picard.” We were sitting on set and [co-showrunner Michael] Chabon and I were talking about a musical [episode], and Chabon goes, “I know Lin-Manuel Miranda.” [Actor] Michelle Hurd was there and she was like, “Oh my God, call him!” And so then, like, three days later, Michael came in. And we said, “Did you call him?” And he goes, “Yeah, he didn’t call me back.” And so died the musical idea for that series. 

I love musicals, but know nothing about them. And then it turns out my partner Henry has done this before, and well. And so what a fucking delight! I mean, I had no idea what we were biting off. Henry clearly did.

So how did it finally happen for “Strange New Worlds”?

Myers: The idea for it came when were pitching what Season 2 should be. I remember, Bill [Wolkoff], one of our writers had a crazy idea, and we were like, ‘Well, that’s interesting, let’s try that!’ I did a bunch of musicals on “The Magicians,” and I did one on “Ugly Betty.” And so I just knew what a giant pain it would be — I mean, how difficult it was. I started making calls probably about six months before production.

Goldsman: We were lucky enough to suddenly have a cohort that knew how to do all these things, and they were collaborative. It was built around story and theme, and it was tailored to the vocal ranges of the particular actors. We ended up with an absurdly good cast on “Strange New Worlds.” Like, it makes no sense whatsoever. Usually, there’s a dud in the bunch. It was as if they all secretly had been coveting the idea of a musical their entire lives. So it was really good fortune how much everybody liked doing it.

There are so many threads in this episode that originated much earlier in the season: Spock and Chapel’s break-up, La’an’s feelings for Kirk, Uhura’s feelings of isolation. How did you build this episode’s the story around them?

Goldsman: We don’t break them episodically. We break the season first, so we know what our 10 episodes are — in terms of character development, really. We’re a hybridized object. We are episodic, fundamentally, in terms of plot, but serialized in terms of character arc. So we knew what the characters had to go through in the episode and that was connected to where they had come from and where they were going.

What was the most important thing for you to get right?

That was all that I came in pushing. And then everyone else jumped in and actually did it. We had someone to teach the people to sing. We had someone to teach them how to dance. The actual shooting of it, weirdly, was not as hard as you’d think, but only because it has months and months of work to lead up to it.

How much of that was happening in parallel with production and all the other episodes?

Myers: All of it! A lot of our cast were walking around set, shooting previous episodes, looking at what they were going to be singing, playing with each other. They would come in on the weekend and work on the dancing. 

How did you bridge the songs and the story?

Myers: We had broken an early concept of what the story would be, which we then shared with our composer and lyricist, and they would send it back to us and then we would give them thoughts. The two writers who wrote the episode were deeply involved in that. We were trying to make sure that all of the stuff that they were coming up with linked with what we were coming up with. They wanted the show to feel like the show, and we wanted the show to feel like a musical. So we kind of found this great place in the middle.

So, for example, who was the person who realized Spock could sing about being both Chapel’s ex and the x variable in an emotional equation?

Myers: I think that came from our composer and our lyricist. Usually, we’d say, “Here’s the emotional thing that’s supposed to happen. We know the beginning. And we know the end.” Because these are story scenes. It can’t be just a song that describes everything you know. This has to be a scene that reveals something. So we knew what was generally supposed to happen. And then we were like, “Now that you have that, go have fun. Come back to us when you have something.”

Celia Rose Gooding, Rebecca Romijn and Christina Chong are all singers, but did you know that the rest of the cast could sing as well?

Goldsman: No! Our composer played with all of them to see what their range was, and we wrote for them. I mean, I didn’t know Ethan could sing until I went, “Holy fuck, Ethan can sing!” Which is, by the way, kind of what happens when you watch the episode. You’re like, “Wait, Spock is singing now?”

Are there any musical areas that you explored that ultimately didn’t make it into the episode?

Goldsman: Well, we had one fantastic moment of contention, which we won. There’s two versions of the Klingons at the end.

Myers: And we did them both because we were like, we’ll try out everything. The other version is great, too. But this was the one that really kind of, you know, knocked us out. That’s why we wanted it.

What we see are the Klingons performing like they’re in a pop boy band, but you shot another genre with them as well?

Myers: We did an operatic one which was also great because the Klingons have a history with that. And it was also good. 

Myers: The boy band took you by surprise. It was not what you thought was going to happen. I’m delighted by it.

At one point, Kirk tells La’an that he’s in a complicated relationship with a woman named Carol, who is pregnant with his son — which “Trek” fans know is Dr. Carol Marcus, who first appears with Kirk’s grown son David in 1982’s “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” Would that suggest we’ll meet Carol in Season 3 of “Strange New Worlds”?

Goldsman: I think what we can say is the conversation about James T. Kirk’s love life is not over.

Myers: There’s a lot of known history about his love life, and this part had never really been explored. So we thought, what an opportunity. That’s really what we try to do on the show: None of these things that we know about happening later are known to the people in it.

I will ask the very nerdy question: Did you do the math as far as when Kirk’s son is supposed to have been born vis-a-vis the timeline of the show?

Goldsman: Oh, we always do the math. Anytime we can make canon work, we do. I mean, we’ll body English around it now and then for the sake of a story. But fundamentally, we really try to adhere.

So would you do another musical episode? 

Goldsman: In a heartbeat. 

Myers: Absolutely. But now that’s a high bar. It has to earn itself and be purposeful and feel like a great thing to do. But we loved it.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds': Behind the Scenes of the Franchise's First-Ever Musical Episode (Exclusive)

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The Star Trek: Strange New Worlds crew found themselves in one of their strangest worlds yet -- the world of musicals!

The penultimate episode of Strange New Worlds season 2 was released on Thursday, in which the occupants of the USS Enterprise spontaneously broke into song, making for a hilarious and heartfelt new adventure.

"I do believe that this is going be seen as one of the great Star Trek episodes...It's such a cool concept," says  Anson Mount , who plays Captain Christopher Pike, in ET's exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the epic episode. "It's not a musical episode, it's an episode about very real people being stuck in a musical experience."

"I feel like it's something we've all been praying for and waiting for," agrees Rebecca Romijn , who stars as First Officer Una Chin-Riley.

One of the most entertaining parts of the episode is the characters' utter confusion about the circumstances they find themselves in -- often singing about how confused they are to be singing.

"It's still very grounded and Star Trek ," shares  Ethan Peck , who stars as the latest iteration of the franchise's iconic science officer, Spock. "We're all approaching it with scientific minds and inquiry."

The episode was especially thrilling for the Strange New Worlds cast members who have musical theater backgrounds, like Celia Rose Gooding, who was nominated for a Tony Award in 2020 for originating the role of Frankie Healy in Jagged Little Pill.

In the clip, Gooding shares how they love "storytelling through music," noting that the musical setting for the episode allowed their character, cadet Nyota Uhura, to express her feelings and solidify her place among the Enterprise crew.

"It's probably one of my favorite episodes of the entire season," Gooding raves. "You see Uhura sing, and finally really, really relish the fact that she has an essential place and an essential role in how the Enterprise functions."

"Pike, in this episode, calls her the voice of the Enterprise, and I find that so sweet, because that really is what she is," they continue. "She is the person who keeps the entire crew connected, and she has a way to tapping into the humanity of each of the crew members, and really using that as a way to weave us together into this beautiful family."

The episode features 10 original songs, all of which are included in the soundtrack that's now available on all music streaming platforms.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams on Paramount+. The show's season 2 finale premieres next Thursday, Aug. 10.

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'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' showrunners reveal origins of that historic (and epic) musical episode

Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers discuss the making of Episode 9, 'Subspace Rhapsody.'

Most "Trek" fans went into Thursday night's musical episode of " Star Trek: Strange New Worlds " with a bit of trepidation, half-expecting some cringe moments to unfold as the director, cinematographer, writers, composers and actors tried to pull off something that had never been attempted in the noble franchise's 57-year history.

But cosmic tumblers aligned amid the improbable song-and-dance reality of a rare subspace fold and season 2's penultimate episode "Subspace Rhapsody" nailed it on every level. The U.S.S. Enterprise crew (and any starship in the vicinity) were stricken with sudden impulses to belt out their inner-most emotions and, due to the show's palpable cast chemistry , it worked brilliantly!

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This infectious musical episode, written by Dana Horgan & Bill Wolkoff and directed by Dermott Downs, with original songs composed by Kay Hanley and Tom Polce, was injected with many memorable tunes, incredible vocal performances, and a stylish charm that requires repeat viewing just to soak up all the Broadway-like emotion. 

Executive producers Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers spoke to Variety in an interview that gives viewers a behind-the-scenes peek at what went into making "Subspace Rhapsody," and how the idea for a full-on musical episode first emerged.

 "The truth is it goes all the way back to Season 1 of 'Star Trek: Picard.'" Goldsman told Variety. "We were sitting on set and [co-showrunner Michael] Chabon and I were talking about a musical [episode], and Chabon goes, 'I know Lin-Manuel Miranda.' [Actor] Michelle Hurd was there and she was like, 'Oh my God, call him!' And so then, like, three days later, Michael came in. And we said, 'Did you call him?' And he goes, 'Yeah, he didn’t call me back.' And so died the musical idea for that series. 

"I love musicals, but know nothing about them. And then it turns out my partner Henry has done this before, and well. And so what a f***ing delight! I mean, I had no idea what we were biting off. Henry clearly did."

Myers added his recollections on the genesis of the moving "Subspace Rhapsody.” 

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"The idea for it came when were pitching what Season 2 should be," he noted. "I remember, Bill [Wolkoff], one of our writers had a crazy idea, and we were like, 'Well, that's interesting, let's try that!' I did a bunch of musicals on 'The Magicians,' and I did one on 'Ugly Betty.' And so I just knew what a giant pain it would be — I mean, how difficult it was. I started making calls probably about six months before production."

Goldsman recalls how fortunate the production was to have a professional cohort who had the experience to transform a standard episode into a joyous chapter of sci-fi television overflowing with compelling songs.

"It was built around story and theme, and it was tailored to the vocal ranges of the particular actors," he added. "We ended up with an absurdly good cast on "Strange New Worlds." Like, it makes no sense whatsoever. Usually, there's a dud in the bunch. It was as if they all secretly had been coveting the idea of a musical their entire lives. So it was really good fortune how much everybody liked doing it."

Making sure that the tone of the episode was more melancholy than humorous was something that kept Myers awake in the wee hours of the morning.

"The only middle of the night thing I remember having about this was waking up and thinking, 'This shouldn't be a funny episode. This should be an episode that breaks your heart and makes you want to cry.' That's what people won’t expect from this. They'll come in thinking it's going to be funny. And I was like, 'No, no, no. These have to have moments, they have to be about real character things.'

"We had someone to teach the people to sing. We had someone to teach them how to dance. The actual shooting of it, weirdly, was not as hard as you'd think, but only because it has months and months of work to lead up to it."

The executive producers were well aware of the proficient pipes of Celia Rose Gooding, Rebecca Romijn and Christina Chong, but nobody expected Ethan Peck to deliver the goods in such a striking fashion.

"Our composer played with all of them to see what their range was, and we wrote for them," said Goldsman. "I mean, I didn't know Ethan could sing until I went, 'Holy f***, Ethan can sing!' Which is, by the way, kind of what happens when you watch the episode. You're like, 'Wait, Spock is singing now?'"

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’" season 2 finale airs Aug. 10 on Paramount Plus .

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Jeff Spry is an award-winning screenwriter and veteran freelance journalist covering TV, movies, video games, books, and comics. His work has appeared at SYFY Wire, Inverse, Collider, Bleeding Cool and elsewhere. Jeff lives in beautiful Bend, Oregon amid the ponderosa pines, classic muscle cars, a crypt of collector horror comics, and two loyal English Setters.

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• kev72 I don't know anyone who liked this episode. I was ultra cringe. Yes some of them are very talented but really it felt like an audition for Bollywood. Reply
• Classical Motion We all love it here at our place. Reply
• Classical Motion Especially the Klingons. Reply

Classical Motion said: We all love it here at our place.

• Classical Motion Does a poll change your opinion? Never has mine. Have you ever made a decision using a pole? That's like picking a choice of stupids. A pole is a direct assault on critical thinking. What are they teaching these days? Reply

Classical Motion said: Does a poll change your opinion? Never has mine. Have you ever made a decision using a pole? That's like picking a choice of stupids. A pole is a direct assault on critical thinking. What are they teaching these days?

• View All 7 Comments

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“In a weird way, that made it better.”

Behind-The-Scenes On The Star Trek Musical

From the director to the choreographer, to showrunners, writers, and actors — it was all hands on deck for “Subspace Rhapsody.”

Strange New Worlds’ showrunners always knew Season 2 Episode 9 was going to be big. They just didn’t know it was going to be this big.

“It was planned that all the arcs would come to a head in Episode 9,” co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman tells Inverse . “Then we decided it would also be a musical and, in a weird way, that made it better. We had obligations to these character stories. And they were gonna sing it!”

Perhaps the biggest surprise of “Subspace Rhapsody,” is just how crucial the episode is not just for the overall story of Strange New Worlds Season 2, but for Trek canon more broadly. This fun episode full of singing and dancing isn’t just a one-off, it’s an essential piece in the Strange New Worlds journey. This is still a prequel series, technically, but, when it comes to addressing the rest of Trek canon, co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers tells Inverse the show is never “trying to jump into the thing that’s it’s gonna be,” which was especially true of the musical.

“We try to imagine the person who is still living through the moment,” Myers adds.

But how did Strange New Worlds pull that off? Inverse spoke to both showrunners, director Dermott Downs, and choreographer Roberto Campanella to find out. Spoilers ahead.

Choreographer Roberto Campanella with the cast of Strange New Worlds .

Defying Anti-Gravity

“For me, I wanted to know what Episode 8 was,” Roberto Campanella says. “I wanted to know the cast more than anything. I wanted to know their characters.”

Campanella is an Oscar-winning choreographer perhaps best known for his work on What We Do In The Shadows and The Shape of Water . But despite his deep knowledge of dance, he maintains that everything about “Subspace Rhapsody” was designed to make sense within the Trek world and not to be constantly winking to other musicals.

“I guess there’s one moment, a tribute to West Side Story when the dancers run toward the camera in the finale,” Campanella admits. “But other than that, I wasn’t trying to reference anything. I let my experience dictate where we were going, physically.”

Campanella also largely credits the cast of Strange New Worlds with making sure the story was told through the music. “They know who they are better than anybody else. They were always open to collaborate. Always. I love this cast.”

Don’t jump the space shark

“They’re running a great ship over there.”

The director of the episode, Dermott Downs — who previously directed The Flash musical episode “Duet” in 2017 — points out the SNW cast kept the episode “grounded,” and although it was the next-to-last episode filmed in Season 2, that the cast “worked weekends,” and put in extra rehearsals to get everything just right. Downs credits some of this energy boost to timing.

“You would think they'd be pretty exhausted,” Downs says, “but Season 1 just started airing when I was at the end of my prep [in 2022]. So they were very fueled by the positive response of Season 1 when we started filming.” Downs makes it clear that everybody sang their hearts out, both on set and in laying down the tracks. “Yes, they all sang,” Downs confirms. “When I came on, there were pre-recorded temp tracks, but I was excited to hear their versions because I knew the cast was gonna bring their own nuance and emotions to the songs.”

Downs also stresses he didn’t want the episode to “jump the shark,” and that keeping everything grounded in the reality and canon of Star Trek itself was very important. “The anomaly hits the ship and the music becomes a kind of virus. It’s a great plot device. They express what they can’t normally say.”

Although The Original Series never did a musical episode, the idea of a weird space virus causing people to express their innermost feelings is very reminiscent of the 1966 episode “The Naked Time,” perhaps better known as “The One Where Sulu Is Shirtless With a Sword and Spock Cries A Lot.” Star Trek canon clearly allows for this kind of thing. But, we now know that a “musical reality” is a part of the Star Trek multiverse.

George Takei as Sulu, swinging a sword in “The Naked Time.”

Downs also points out that almost nothing was cut from the final version of the episode, which runs at 62 minutes. If you count the brief Klingon dance number — featuring the promised return of Bruce Horak as the Klingon captain — there are technically 10 unique songs in “Subspace Rhapsody.” In other words, it’s a supersized episode for good reason. (Note: speaking to Variety , the showrunners mentioned another version of the Klingon song that was “operatic.” It’s unclear if that alternate version was ever filmed or recorded.)

“I’ve done so much episodic TV and that hour becomes really like 42 minutes,” Downs says. “This wasn’t like that. There’s very little that changed. And that starts with the writers’ room. They’re running a great ship over there.”

Star Trek canon shockwaves

Number One (Rebecca Romijn) and Kirk (Paul Wesley) in "Subspace Rhapsody."

While “Subspace Rhapsody,” brought Season 2 SNW plot arcs to a crossroads — most notably Spock and Chapel’s relationship, Uhura’s emerging independence, and Pike and Batel’s feelings for each other — it also dove deep into some Captain Kirk canon . While La’an had a relationship with a Kirk from an alternate dimension in Episode 3, she learns she can’t have a relationship with Prime Kirk, because he’s currently in a relationship with someone named “Carol,” and this person is pregnant!

Longtime fans know this is Carol Marcus, Kirk’s ex from The Wrath of Khan and mother of David Marcus, their son. The Wrath of Khan takes place in 2285, and Strange New Worlds is happening in 2260 at this point. So, if David is born in 2260 or 2261, that makes him either 24 or 25 in The Wrath , which is just about right. Chronologically, this all matches up with the existing canon, but it probably does change our perception of canon a bit, at least in terms of our feelings about present-tense Kirk.

“Everyone knows this happened,” Myers says. “The opportunity that we thought we had was, this is a part of Kirk that you've never seen and it happened, and we have a chance to explore it.”

Neither Goldsman nor Myers can reveal if we’ll actually see Carol Marcus or baby David in Season 3, but they do stress that Strange New Worlds is always trying to make characters like Kirk seem real to today’s audience.

“This is how people live,” Myers says.

That said, both showrunners are always open to fan theories, specifically the canon-changing implications of the way the episode ends...

Does the ending of “Subspace Rhapsody” create the TOS theme music?

Jess Bush as Nurse Chapel in "Subspace Rhapsody."

In the end, the Enterprise crew has to break the “improbability field” of the musical reality, by putting on a show-stopping number, encouraged by the one and only Uhura. But, after this song concludes, the outro music we hear is very clearly the 1960s Alexander Courage theme song of the classic show. All the other songs in “Subspace Rhapsody” were written by Tom Polce and Kay Hanley, but that outro music is 100 percent retro. So if the Polce-Hanley songs clearly exist in-universe, does that mean the theme to Star Trek: The Orignal Series just became in-universe canon because of this episode?

“That hurts my brain too much!” Akiva Goldsman says, laughing. “Pain precludes me from answering that. Maybe?”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 9, “Subspace Rhapsody” streams on Paramount+. The album itself is now on Apple and Spotify.

Ryan Britt's new book on the history of Star Trek's biggest changes. From the '60s show to the movies to 'TNG,' to 'Discovery,' 'Picard,' Strange New Worlds,' and beyond!

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An alternate Klingon opera and other 'Subspace' secrets from the Star Trek musical

Kay Hanley and Tom Polce, former members of rock band Letters to Cleo, discuss their work composing the music for the franchise's first full-on musical.

It may take a moment to wrap your head around the idea of rockers from the band Letters to Cleo now forever linked to the legacy of Star Trek , but perhaps it was already engrained in the DNA of its stars.

Lead singer Kay Hanley has been linked to major pop culture moments, like when she performed on the soundtrack for 2001's Josie and the Pussycats as the voice of Josie, or when she appeared as a musician on screen in 1999's 10 Things I Hate About You , as well as a 2014 episode of Parks and Recreation . Polce, now a staff producer and composer at Paramount, separately worked on music for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend . This past year, they both found themselves involved in another significant zeitgeist development: writing the music for "Subspace Rhapsody," the first-ever full-on musical in the history Star Trek for season 2 of Strange New Worlds .

"The idea that we were writing for these canon figures in pop culture history and sci-fi lore, we couldn't f--- it up," Hanley tells EW in an interview with Polce over Zoom in September. "We took it very seriously, as we do as people from New England. We are rule followers and we do things. We do our research, we do our homework."

Hanley previously composed music for animated shows like Disney's Doc McStuffins and Cartoon Network's DC Super Hero Girls . She also won an Emmy for her work on Netflix's We the People . Though, the singer-songwriter's knowledge of Star Trek comes in part from the Trekkies in her own life, including her nephew Brendan, who's "a Trekkie of the highest order," she says. Having watched the original show with her dad on WSBK-TV, which is Channel 38 in Boston, ("Shout out to '70s Boston!"), Hanley adds, "I had some knowledge of how seriously people take this s---."

"It's a Star Trek musical, so my head exploded when it came up. Kay's head exploded," Polce adds. "Can you imagine somebody who's a completist for Star Trek hearing that there is a musical? I mean, their heads went fully nuclear. And in some cases, no matter how well we did it, it's reasonable to think that some people aren't going to even be open to it. So, we needed to make extra certain that we did an honorable and forthright and virtuous swing."

Hanley and Polce break down some of the big musical moments from "Subspace Rhapsody."

A Klingon opera moment exists somewhere

Actor Bruce Horak, who previously appeared on Strange New Worlds as Hemmer, has a featured cameo in "Subspace Rhapsody" as a Klingon general named Garkog, who breaks out into a frenetic K-pop-inspired dance break within the finale ensemble number. Two versions of this moment were filmed: the one that made it to the screen and a more operatic take.

Hanley's first instinct was to make the Klingon bit in the vein of K-pop. She showed Polce her favorite K-pop music video, which she won't disclose. "It'll just lead to a bunch of, 'Well, did you copy that?'" she remarks. "What we wrote doesn't sound anything like this particular K-pop band."

"But it got us in that world," Polce notes. "She pitched it to me and my head exploded. Then she pitched it to the showrunners and the writers, which we were both a little apprehensive about. They were immediately like, 'Oh hell yes, we're going to do that.'"

As they were working on the piece, some of the higher-ups caught wind of it and wanted to put the kibosh on that plan. "To be fair, I don't believe it was the network," Polce clarifies. "I think it was some of the folks on the core Gene Roddenberry side. It wasn't so much like, 'No, no, no.' It was like, 'Maybe you do that and you have something in your back pocket and we can discuss later.' It's like when your parents tell you to get a degree in business while you also get your degree in music."

The alternate plan was an operatic song for the Klingons. "We shot both," Polce confirms. "The opera is shot, and that'll hopefully come out someday. Congrats to everybody for having the chutzpah and the audacity to make that. I mean, the whole thing is audacious. Why not just continue hedging bets on a Star Trek musical once you've already begun? You've got Spock singing for crying out loud! Just keep going."

Giving Spock his voice

The first thing the pair had to figure out was, who in the cast could actually sing? Polce found the answer when he went up to Toronto, the production's regular stomping grounds, to record the actors' vocal ranges.

There were clear standouts. Uhura actress Celia Rose Gooding, for example, could obviously handle more advanced material. Others were less confident in their abilities, like Ethan Peck, the actor behind the typically deadpan, no-nonsense Spock. "Peck came in when I met him and was like, 'Yeah, I don't sing,'" Polce recalls. "It turns out he could sing, and he sings beautifully. So, Spock ended up getting this beautiful song."

"I'm the X," sung by Peck in the episode, delves into Spock's emotional state as he grapples with his relationship with Chapel (Jess Bush) — who was another surprisingly capable singer among the bunch. "It's a Spock lament over getting broken up with," Polce explains. "As you know, Spock is half human and half Vulcan. The Spock we knew from the original Star Trek was very stoic. There was no laughter, there was no joking. What was clocking to a lot of people was, maybe that song and him getting broken up with was the moment that solidified the Spock that they all came to know and love."

"And we did in that song address the struggle between being human and [Vulcan]," Hanley says. "Searching for Y is human, I'm the X. It's a human variable that he should not have ever f---ed with and he's not going to do it again. We thought people were going to be like, 'Oh my God! It's so clever!' But they didn't. They were like, 'This is the moment Spock rejects his humanity and becomes fully Vulcan!'"

Despite whether the actors had musical skill or not, all of them were gonna go for it. "There wasn't a single moment of, 'I don't want to do this,' which can happen," Polce says.

The power ballad

Gooding made her musical talents known much earlier on in Strange New Worlds . In season 1, Uhura activates a piece of alien technology by singing specific notes. After testing the cast's vocal ranges, it became clear to even Hanley and Polce that Gooding would be a major part of "Subspace Rhapsody," ending in a magnificent power ballad, "Keep Us Connected," in which the actress showcases the true extent of her vocal prowess. "Having her vocal ability and range in our back pocket was incredibly empowering as songwriters," Hanley acknowledges.

The piece sees Uhura at first lamenting over what she perceives to be her weaknesses and succumbs to loneliness. Through song, she comes to learn all these ideas that have plagued her throughout her life are actually her strengths. "We knew that it was going to be kind of the emotional core of this musical and that it had to accomplish a lot of things emotionally," Hanley says.

Typically when writing the music for the show, Hanley or Polce would come up with a brief sample — a short riff on a guitar or a quick vocal run — as the first kernel of a melodic idea. For "Keep Us Connected," Polce remembers Hanley wanting to start with a Gregorian chant. "Then she just starts going numb, and she just starts going and I'm like, 'What's that? I don't even know what's happening.' I'm not boxing her in. Let's go."

"The finale was... Man, it was really tough"

Hanley and Polce consider the Trek musical to be one of the more difficult endeavors of their careers. "In terms of the lyrics, I've never had a harder assignment," Hanley says. "It was so challenging. It was consuming for the five weeks that we wrote the basis for all the songs and then doing revisions and stuff like that." Adds Polce, "We were actually doing gigs amidst it and still having to think about them in between the shows. It was glorious work and fulfilling work, but it was a lot."

The songs only became more challenging as they got deeper into the process, making the finale ensemble piece, "We Are One," the most difficult. "Last one was absolutely the hardest because you and I were really struggling with the melody and we were disagreeing on the lyrics," Hanley tells Polce. "We had some lovely brother-sister texts going back and forth about the lyrics."

"There's so much happening and it's, who's going to sing what?" Hanley recalls. "We had to really figure out why each of them is singing. The chorus was probably the hardest one that we had to do. We just did not agree for a really long time on that chorus. A lot of times I think of songs as a jigsaw puzzle. We knew we had enough of the pieces in place that were really great anchors, but it was just how to tie them together in a narrative way that was still interesting, melodically, that was still going someplace that felt like a finale."

"There has to be a saccharin element to the finale. It needs to be very catchy, and there is this sort of sugary, super poppy element that just needs to be there. If ever there were a time for jazz hands and hat-tipping and kicks, that's the finale."

Both credit teleplay writers Dana Horgan and Bill Wolkoff for assisting in the creation of this number. "[The characters are] essentially all talking about what they're thankful for in their jobs," Polce recalls. "I think we would just ask [the writers], can you just give me some ammo? It doesn't work without the whole sandbox. Everybody was important at every moment of this thing."

"Subspace Rhapsody" is now streaming on Paramount+.

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• Watch the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds musical finale — dancing Klingons included
• Star Trek 's Hemmer actor had a secret cameo in Strange New Worlds musical
• Of course Star Trek looked to Buffy for its big musical: 'That was our bar'

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• Episode aired Jan 26, 2000

The Doctor's singing talent is so appreciated by an alien species that he considers resigning his commission and staying on with his millions of adoring fans. The Doctor's singing talent is so appreciated by an alien species that he considers resigning his commission and staying on with his millions of adoring fans. The Doctor's singing talent is so appreciated by an alien species that he considers resigning his commission and staying on with his millions of adoring fans.

• Gene Roddenberry
• Rick Berman
• Michael Piller
• Kate Mulgrew
• Robert Beltran
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• 16 User reviews
• 4 Critic reviews

• Capt. Kathryn Janeway

• Cmdr. Chakotay

• Lt. B'Elanna Torres

• Ensign Tom Paris

• Seven of Nine

• Ensign Harry Kim

• (as Kamala Lopez-Dawson)

• Qomar Spectator
• (uncredited)

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Did you know

• Trivia Made obvious in several scenes in this episode (and The Swarm (1996) , for that matter), Robert Picardo , the Doctor, is an accomplished singer. While he was at Yale University, he was a member of the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus, the second longest running undergraduate a Capella group in the United States. Then in 1977, he made his Broadway debut. He appeared in Gemini (1977) and Tribute (1980) .
• Goofs When two forward Qomar women have the doctor "trapped" in Sickbay, he calls for Security then deactivates himself. When he deactivates, his mobile emitter does indeed remain and visibly drop to floor.

[last lines]

Seven of Nine : I have something for you.

The Doctor : What is it?

Seven of Nine : Fan mail.

The Doctor : Delete it. I don't want to read another word.

Seven of Nine : Then I'll read it for you.

The Doctor : Seven...

Seven of Nine : [reads] "Dear Doctor. I regret that your last performance was not as successful as you'd hoped. There are still those who appreciate your unique talents, and admire you as an individual. I'll always consider myself your loyal fan."

The Doctor : Who's it from?

Seven of Nine : It's signed, "Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01."

[Seven hands the Doctor the PADD and leaves sickbay. The Doctor reads through it again, then starts singing "I've Been Working on the Railroad"]

• Connections Features Star Trek: Voyager: Year of Hell (1997)
• Soundtracks Star Trek: Voyager - Main Title (uncredited) Written by Jerry Goldsmith Performed by Jay Chattaway

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• Jul 19, 2020
• January 26, 2000 (United States)
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10 Musical Biopic Stars Who Did Their Own Singing: Sissy Spacek, Joaquin Phoenix, and More

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There’s a trap inherent to making a musical biopic. On the one hand, there’s something undeniably thrilling and crowd-pleasing about seeing a cultural icon like Freddie Mercury , Whitney Houston , or Elvis Presley come alive on the screen. On the other hand, when audiences buy a ticket to see a movie about a famous musician, they expect to hear their songs. More importantly, they expect to hear their voices .

Music history is filled with artists whose vocal qualities have become iconic in their own right, immediately distinctive and filled with incredible personality. Think of Mercury’s bombastic, four-octave vocal range that very few people on the planet are capable of replicating. Or Houston’s soulful, gospel-inspired technique, or Presley’s often-parodied stuttering Southern drawl. It’s not only difficult for an actor cast as these artists to live up to their singing — sometimes, it’s quite literally impossible.

For directors tasked with making a musical biopic and getting their star to embody the musician at the center, the solution to this vocal problem is often just to sidestep it entirely, by employing rigorous use of lip syncing and soundalikes. Rami Malek famously didn’t sing much of the Queen songs featured in “Bohemian Rhapsody,” instead lip syncing to both Mercury’s vocals as well as soundalike Marc Martel. Naomi Ackie, playing Houston in “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” almost entirely lip synced to the artist’s archival recordings.

Those are two recent examples, but the practice of using lip syncing to recreate an artist’s voice on film is a common one. In her acclaimed breakthrough role in Tina Turner documentary “What’s Love Gotta Do With It,” Angela Bassett lip synced for the rock icon’s vocals. Even when you cast as a singer as a star, that doesn’t guarantee that they’re the ones singing; “Selena,” the biopic of beloved tejano star Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, cast Jennifer Lopez in the lead role, but the voice you hear during the vast majority of the concert scenes isn’t Jenny from the Block’s but the late Selena herself.

With all of these lip syncing shenanigans going on, the times where biopics do trust their leads to do their own singing feel all the more surprising. But it happens occasionally, and one prominent example is the new biopic “Back to Black,” which features “Industry” star Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse. Winehouse, during her short career, was one of the most distinctive vocalists of her generation, with an expressive contralto voice that made her a sensation. That makes it all to easy to just use her vocals wholesale, but the Sam Taylor-Johnson film feature Abela’s own voice in its retelling of Winehouse’s life. Its a bold approach but one that, at least in theory, can lead to a more immediate and transporting performance from its central star, more concerned with embodying the character than perfect one to one recreation of the real-life icon.

With “Back to Black” out in the United Kingdom, IndieWire is taking a look at other biopics that had their lead actor step up to the recording booth. Here are 10 biopics were the stars did their own singing.

‘Lady Sings the Blues’ (1972)

Sometimes, the easiest way to ensure the star of your musical biopic will actually sing is to cast an actual singer. That was the case in 1972, when Diana Ross made her feature film debut playing jazz singer Billie Holiday in a loose adaptation of the icon’s autobiography ‘Lady Sings the Blues.’ Holiday had an extremely unique vocal style in which she would frequently stretch words and modulate vocals, which couldn’t be further from Ross’ more traditional pop voice. But her performance still received acclaim and netted her a Best Actress nomination. 

Gary Busey in ‘The Buddy Holly Story’ (1978)

Gary Busey rose to fame as pioneering rock ‘n roll figure Buddy Holly in ‘The Buddy Holly Story,’ a 1978 film that tracks Holly’s career from his beginnings to his tragic death in a plane crash. Busey played his own instruments and did his own singing live to play Holly, on top of losing 32 pounds to better resemble the pop star. His chameleon efforts received acclaim and netted him an Oscar nomination.  

Sissy Spacek in ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ (1980)

One of the most acclaimed biopic performances of all time, Spacek’s work in ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ playing country music star Loretta Lyn won her the Best Actress Oscar. The 1980 film, directed by Michael Apted, follows Lyn’s story of becoming one of the biggest country musicians of all time after a life as a poor Kentucky teenager. Lyn choose Spacek to play her after seeing a photo of the star, and Spacek was reluctant; she did her own singing in her audition in the hopes it would get her rejected. She ultimately took the role and did all of her own singing of Lyn’s songs, working with the musician to emulate her accent and speech patterns. 

Val Kilmer in ‘The Doors’ (1991)

Oliver Stone’s psychedelic biopic ‘The Doors’ received mixed reviews at the time of its release, but star Val Kilmer’s performance as the influential band’s frontman Jim Morrison was universally acclaimed. Kilmer auditioned for the film by making an eight-minute video in which he dressed and sang as Morrison, and performed 15 of The Doors’ songs himself in the final project, singing over recordings of the band’s master tapes. 

Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix in ‘Walk the Line’ (2005)

Before there was iconic biopic parody ‘Walk Hard’ there was ‘Walk the Line,’ which told the love story between country singers Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) and June Carter (Reese Witherspoon). Both stars don southern accents, play guitar, and do their own singing in the final film. Their efforts paid off with Oscar nominations for each, and a win for Witherspoon. 

Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning in ‘The Runaways’ (2010)

Underseen and unappreciated, ‘The Runaways’ is a smart look at the groundbreaking punk band of the same name, featuring excellent performances from both Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart as the women Cherie Currie and Joan Jett who led the band. Both stars did most of their own singing and guitar-playing for the film, including an exhilarating performance of ‘Cherry Bomb.’ 

Tom Hiddleston in ‘I Saw The Light’ (2015)

‘I Saw The Light’ casts Tom Hiddleston as country music legend Hank Williams, following the star’s rapid rise to fame and quick death at the age of 29. Hiddleston prepared for the film by rehearsing and playing with country music star Rodney Crowell, and did his own guitar playing and singing for the project. 

Taron Egerton in ‘Rocketman’ (2019)

‘Rocketman’ tells the story of Elton John’s early days as a pop star, ending in 1983 with a performance of his song ‘I’m Still Standing’ and featuring multiple hits throughout his career as full-blown production numbers. Taron Egerton plays John in the film, and does all of his own singing throughout the film. 

Renée Zellweger in ‘Judy’ (2019)

Judy Garland’s soulful contralto voice is one of the most iconic in all of film, between her legendary rendition of ‘Over the Rainbow’ in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and her acclaimed work in films like ‘A Star is Born’ and ‘Meet Me in St. Louis.’ But her voice isn’t heard in biopic ‘Judy,’ which casts Renée Zellweger as an older Garland during the last year of her life as she prepares for a concert residency. Zellweger did her own singing for the part, with the justification that Garland’s voice has long since been damaged by age. The film received mixed reviews, but Zellweger won an Oscar for her efforts. 

Austin Butler in ‘Elvis’ (2022)

Austin Butler shot to A-list fame when he took on the role of Elvis in Baz Luhrmann’s divisive biopic. Butler put in significant vocal training to nail Elvis’ iconic drawl and voice, retaining the voice for months after production. He ultimately sung all of the songs heard in the film during Elvis’ younger years. During the second half of the film, as the character ages, Butler’s vocals are mixed with those of the real-life Elvis. The lengths Butler went to sound like Elvis created some internet memes, but also netted the actor an Oscar nomination. 

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Why Did 'Star Trek' and 'Buffy's Musical Episodes Work, but 'Grey's Anatomy's Didn't?

• Musical episodes can either be a hit or a miss, and episodes like Buffy the Vampire Slayer 's "Once More With Feeling" and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ' "Subspace Rhapsody" remain the gold standard.
• Grey's Anatomy 's "Song Beneath the Song" flopped due to its lack of self-awareness, disconnected musical numbers, and unnecessary covers.
• Buffy and Strange New Worlds succeed by incorporating original songs, acknowledging the strangeness of a musical episode, and balancing dark subject matter with humor.

Musical episodes are always a bit of a risk — they can either go down in television history or flop so badly that they remain the butt of the joke for decades to come. Of the greats is Buffy the Vampire Slayer 's "Once More With Feeling," a well-executed and perfectly plotted episode that has set the bar for musical episodes in the two decades since. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds took direct inspiration from Buffy with their effort, "Subspace Rhapsody," which received praise after it debuted.

But for every Buffy, Star Trek, or Scrubs is a show that succeeded quite a bit less in its meandering over to the musical genre. The most notorious of these is Grey's Anatomy 's "Song Beneath the Song," which tried to capitalize on the cast's incredible singing talent with a musical episode in Season 7 that flopped terribly and has remained one of the most divisive of the show's run. When it comes to singing and dancing, what separates the successes from the absolute failures? It seems there are quite a few factors. Whether it be self-awareness, plot development, the inclusion of original songs, or comedy, Grey's seems to be lacking across every mark of what makes a musical episode great.

Grey's Anatomy

A drama centered on the personal and professional lives of five surgical interns and their supervisors.

Release Date March 27, 2005

Cast James Pickens Jr., Ellen Pompeo, Patrick Dempsey, Chandra Wilson, Justin Chambers, Kevin McKidd, Jesse Williams

Main Genre Drama

Genres Drama

Rating TV-14

For a Musical Episode, Writers Need to Lean Into the Format

When resident doctor and fan favorite Callie Torres ( Sara Ramírez ) finds herself fighting for her life in the first few seconds of "Song Beneath the Song," a cryptic voiceover explains that "when the human brain is traumatized, well, that's when [the brain] gets even more mysterious." That is the only clarification viewers get as to why, for the rest of the episode, all the main characters keep bursting into song. It is a singular sentence that we're not meant to question and one that we obviously do. With such a thin thread tying the purpose of a musical episode, it feels nearly impossible to hop on board with the premise. As far as ridiculous plots in medical TV shows go, it has to be one of the wildest.

In Buffy and Strange New Worlds , as a contrast, the characters' singing is introduced with a cleverly written 'Why Am I Singing' number. (Technically, in Buffy , it is the second song, which Sarah Michelle Gellar 's Buffy begins by asking the others, "Uh, so, did anybody, last night... burst into song?") The shows immediately acknowledge the strangeness of a musical episode — the characters think it's strange too! This self-awareness is key, a necessary step to get the audience to suspend their realities and buy into one with background music, perfect harmonies, and well-rehearsed dance numbers. Both shows also set up their characters' musical compulsions as the problem the episode serves to solve . In Buffy , the singing and dancing come from a musical demon ( Hinton Battle ) who has arrived in Sunnydale — and he'll make you dance until you spontaneously combust.

In Strange New Worlds , the Enterprise has been tethered to a quantum probability field that places the crew in a parallel universe where everyone communicates through song — each crew member sings about their deepest emotions, which risks an enormous security threat. Both episodes hold their musicality as central to the plot — without the singing, nothing would make sense. In Grey's , on the other hand, the musical numbers don't feel necessary at all — in fact, the episode would have been (much!) better without them. Rather than interacting with the storylines, the songs on Grey's merely sit atop them, leading to a jarring and disconnected feeling every time the music starts playing .

In 'Buffy' and 'Strange New Worlds,' Original Songs Make All The Difference

This detachment, which is one of the largest reasons why "Song Beneath the Song" doesn't work, could also be caused by the specific song choices each show made. Both Buffy and Strange New Worlds created their own original songs , while Grey's used only covers . Notably, Strange New Worlds brought on Kay Hanley and Tom Polce , the latter of whom composed for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend , the most incredible musical dramedy television show of all time, and the production value reflects it. This difference between them is hugely important. Because each song was written specifically for the characters and what they are going through at the current moment, every number moves the plot forward. They are always relevant, and, in turn, always purposeful.

In Grey's , the musical episode consists of only covers, many of which are identifiable with the show itself. The result is song choices that are either completely disconnected or tied to the plot by the loosest string . In a prime example, the surgical team working on Callie sings "How To Save A Life" while trying to save her life. It is almost laughably on the nose when it comes to the title, but significantly less so when listening to the actual lyrics of the song. Over and over, the word that keeps coming to mind is "unnecessary."

Hear Us Out, 'The Boys Needs To Do a Musical Episode

Balancing the darkness is key in a musical episode.

All three of these episodes handle dark subject matter, which may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking, hey, let's make a musical. Buffy is reeling after dying, reaching heaven, and being tugged back to reality – her friends thought they brought her back from hell, but they were wrong. On Grey's , which is known for killing off its main characters , Callie is fighting for her life as well as the one of her unborn child. Most devastated by her injuries are Mark ( Eric Dane ), the father of said child, and Arizona ( Jessica Capshaw ), who had asked Callie to marry her mere seconds before a truck ran into them. Strange New Worlds is the least devastating of the three but still includes its fair share of lonely, introspective numbers.

Crucially, both Buffy and Strange New Worlds balance out their darkness with plenty of humor and lighthearted, musical moments. The shows maintain their quippy humor throughout the episodes, and include quite a few memorable, upbeat numbers as well — the latter's Klingon boy band number is sure to be remembered for years to come. While Grey's tries to add in one good campy number ("Walking on Sunshine," the only time our characters smile) , the rest of the episode is so gut-wrenching that their joy feels entirely out of place . If you choose to embrace a musical element, you have to embrace the lighter parts of it as well.

Grey's Anatomy does make for good TV. It can make us laugh and cry, weaving tragedy and comedy together in a truly magical way — it's why the show won over America in the first place. But, as can be expected for a show that has been around for nearly twenty years, Grey's has also had its fair share of flops . "Song Beneath the Song" is one of the greatest of these flops , especially when comparing it to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , the old and potentially new gold standards of musical episodes . There are many reasons why the episode didn't work and plenty of reasons why the other ones did. But to end on a positive, we'll add one more. Though their subject matter is different, the thesis of both Buffy and Strange New Worlds is the same: regardless of what challenges the team is facing, they can defeat them if they work together. And really, what's more fitting of a musical than that?

Grey's Anatomy is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.

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‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Renewed For Season 4 At Paramount+

Where to stream:.

• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Bill Maher Applauds William Shatner For Controversial ‘Star Trek’ Interracial Kiss

Patrick stewart was asked to wear a wig at his ‘star trek’ audition — a wig that flew by itself from heathrow to lax, tom hardy “never said ‘good morning'” or “good night” while filming ‘star trek: nemesis,’ says patrick stewart, stream it or skip it: ‘star trek: lower decks’ season 4 on paramount+, featuring the continuing (mis)adventures of starfleet’s proudest platoon members.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been renewed for Season 4 at Paramount+ , despite currently being in production on its third season.

On the other hand, it has been revealed that the animated comedy series Star Trek: Lower Decks , will end with Season 5 on the streaming platform. The final season will premiere this fall.

Strange New Worlds centers around Capt. Christopher Pike ( Anson Mount ) is the USS Enterprise commander at this point in the Star Trek universe. He is joined by younger versions of several legacy characters, including Spock ( Ethan Peck ), Uhura ( Celia Rose Gooding ), and Kirk ( Paul Wesley ).

It debuted in 2022 and had an epic second season that included a musical episode and a crossover episode with Lower Decks , helping it climb aboard Nielsen’s chart of the 10 most-watched streaming original series over multiple weeks.

“On behalf of the cast and crew of ‘Strange New Worlds,’ we are thrilled and grateful to continue our voyages together,” said executive producers and showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers, along with executive producer Alex Kurtzman in a statement according to Variety . “We can’t wait for you to join us and the crew of the Enterprise on another season of exploration and adventure.”

Lower Decks is set in the years following the feature film Star Trek: Nemesis and centers around the junior officers of the USS Cerritos: Beckett Mariner ( Tawny Newsome ), Brad Boimler ( Jack Quaid ), D’Vana Tendi ( Noël Wells ) and Sam Rutherford ( Eugene Cordero ).

The series also featured voice cameos from several Star Trek alumni including George Takei , Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, John de Lancie, Will Wheaton, Armin Shimerman, Nana Visitor, and Robert Duncan McNeill.

Although some aspects of the storyline make it appropriate to conclude the show, Kurtzman and executive producer and showrunner Mike McMahan are leaving the hull open for future iterations.

“We remain hopeful that even beyond Season 5, Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford, and the whole Cerritos crew will live on with new adventures,” they said in a message to fans. “While five seasons of any series these days seems like a miracle, it’s no exaggeration to say that every second we’ve spent making this show has been a dream come true.”

Season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is slated to premiere in 2025.

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Screen Rant

Star trek’s musical was inevitable after strange new worlds episode 2.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode 2 contains an early set up for season 2's musical episode by revealing the Enterprise crew can sing.

• Strange New Worlds season 2's musical episode was set up in season 1, episode 2, proving that the cast had singing abilities.
• Uhura's humming and Spock and Uhura's a capella singing in episode 2 foreshadowed the musical talents of Celia Rose Gooding and Ethan Peck.
• The idea for a musical episode was initially discussed in season 1, and its success in season 2 paved the way for potential future musical episodes in Star Trek.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2's musical episode appears to have been inevitable after Strange New Worlds ' second episode set up the USS Enterprise's crew members can sing. Directed by Dermot Downs with music and lyrics by Letters to Cleo's Kay Hanley and Tom Polce, Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 9, "Subspace Rhapsody," was Star Trek's first-ever musical episode. However, Strange New Worlds season 1, episode 2 effectively foreshadowed that there would eventually be a musical episode.

In Strange New Worlds season 1, episode 2, "Children of the Comet," the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) encounters and investigates a rogue comet. The Enterprise is intercepted by the Shepherds, a caretaker race who reveal the comet is actually M'hanit, an ancient "Arbiter of Life" that can somehow choose whether worlds live or die. Unfortunately, a landing party consisting of Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck), Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), Cadet Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), and Lt. Sam Kirk (Dan Jeannotte), who is injured, are trapped aboard M'hanit with the Enterprise unable to beam them out.

Related: Strange New Worlds Musicals' Best Star Trek Singers Ranked Worst To Best

Star Trek’s Musical Was Inevitable After Strange New Worlds Episode 2's Singing

Star Trek's first-ever musical episode was essentially set up by the actions of Uhura and Spock in Strange New Worlds season 1, episode 2, "Children of the Comet." While trapped in the underground chamber of M'hanit, Uhura hummed to herself, and her tune resonated with the comet's egg-like inner chamber. Uhura deduced that song could potentially open the egg, and she asked Spock to match her frequency (La'an bowed out claiming that she can't sing). Spock and Uhura sang a capella and together, their harmony opened the egg. This scene also proved the musical talents of Celia Rose Gooding and that Ethan Peck can also carry a tune.

Uhura is a known singer since Nichelle Nichols' Lt. Uhura often regaled her USS Enterprise crew mates with song in Star Trek: The Original Series . Spock singing is a new aspect of the Vulcan that Strange New Worlds has deepened with the musical episode. But once the seed that some of Strange New Worlds ' cast and characters can sing was planted so early in season 1, it opened the door to the potential of the entire cast to star in a musical episode to be realized. Further, Strange New Worlds season 1, episode 2 established the doubts Uhura had about remaining in Starfleet, but in Strange New Worlds ' musical, Uhura realized in her solo number, "Keep Us Connected," that she is the hero of the Enterprise. Indeed, Uhura saves the day in Strange New Worlds over and over, a talent she began in episode 2.

How Strange New Worlds' Musical Episode Happened

They say success has many fathers, and this seems to be the case with Strange New Worlds' musical episode as several individuals claim and deserve credit for it happening. Strange New Worlds showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers told Variety that Akiva had been wanting to do a musical episode since Star Trek: Picard season 1 when showrunner Michael Chabon told Goldsman he knew Lin-Manuel Miranda. Unable to make a musical episode of Picard happen, Goldsman was delighted that Myers had done musical episodes of The Magicians and Ugly Betty . Co-executive producer Bill Wolkoff and Christina Chong also presented the idea for a musical episode to Strange New Worlds ' showrunners, who made it happen in season 2.

A musical episode was one of the "big swings" Strange New Worlds took in season 2, but it paid off with critical and audience acclaim as well as the soundtrack topping the Apple music streaming charts. But the idea of a Strange New Worlds musical was being floated early in season 1, and it's fair to surmise that Strange New Worlds season 1, episode 2, "Children of the Comet," may have been a primer for how audiences would react to Spock and Uhura singing to solve a problem. Whether or not Star Trek: Strange New Worlds or another Star Trek series will attempt a follow-up musical episode remains to be seen.

SNL: Ryan Gosling Sings an Ode to Barbenheimer in a Parody of Taylor Swift's "All Too Well"

Gosling also gets a special visit from Kate McKinnon and Emily Blunt.

The Big Picture

• Ryan Gosling's return to SNL was iconic, with a hilarious monologue and cold open setting the tone for a fantastic episode.
• A classic UFO sketch with Gosling and Kate McKinnon returned, bringing laughs and charm to the show once again.
• Gosling said farewell to his role as Ken in Barbie in a musical monologue, featuring Emily Blunt and Taylor Swift's "All Too Well."

This week's Saturday Night Live brought us Ryan Gosling back as host with musical guest Chris Stapleton, and it was wonderful to have him return to the show. Gosling's opening monologue and cold open really set the tone in the best way, promising a fantastic episode as he continues to ride the Barbenheimer high right into his new movie The Fall Guy . The episode kicked off with a returning sketch that we know and love!

The series used Gosling's iconic role as Ken to its advantage and the way that he can charm an audience to start the episode with a bang. Gosling consistently proves that he is one of the best hosts the show has had — it's always hilarious when even the cast members can't keep a straight face. This episode was instantly one of the funniest of the year so far, and his monologue will go down as one of the show's best!

Your Favorite Alien Abductees Return for an Out-of-This-World Cold Open

Gosling has some iconic sketches on Saturday Night Live already built into his repertoire. One of them is a UFO sketch that he did years ago with Kate McKinnon . Just when you think that it might not happen, the show itself kicked off with a brand-new edition of the sketch with McKinnon returning! The cold open took us back into the set-up that we know and love.

Gosling was part of a crew of people who were taken by aliens and brought to space. McKinnon, of course, had a very different experience than Gosling and Sarah Sherman with the aliens, getting a more gritty version of alien abduction. Listening to them all talk about Gosling's genitalia and how the aliens reacted to it was genuinely hilarious. Kicking off the entire episode by bringing one of our all-time favorite sketches back was pretty incredible.

Ryan Gosling's Epic Farewell to Ken

What is better than Gosling just delivering a funny monologue? Gosling singing, of course! In his monologue, Gosling decided that it was time to say farewell to his now Oscar-nominated role of Ken in the film Barbie . There to promote his film The Fall Guy , Gosling decided instead that it was time to say goodbye to everyone's favorite blonde boyfriend. But when Emily Blunt appears, she's upset that he didn't focus on their film and doing stunts instead.

However, after Blunt attempts to pivot the conversation to The Fall Guy , Gosling asks her if she misses her time in Oppenheimer and the summer of Barbenheimer, leading to her joining in on the song, and singing farewell to Kitty. It was hilarious, perfect, and all set to Taylor Swift 's "All Too Well" and making it a perfect monologue for Gosling.

The full episode of Saturday Night Live is available to stream on Peacock in the U.S.

Saturday Night Live

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‘star trek: lower decks’ to end with season 5.

However, Paramount+ renewed 'Strange New Worlds' for season four.

By James Hibberd

James Hibberd

Writer-at-Large

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Paramount+ has made two big decisions about its Star Trek universe.

Strange New Worlds has been renewed for a fourth season, while Lower Decks will end with its previously announced upcoming fifth season, expected to air sometime this year.

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Meanwhile, Strange New Worlds is currently in production on its third season, which is set to debut in 2025.

“ Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks are integral to the Star Trek franchise, expanding the boundaries of the universe and exploring new and exciting worlds,” said David Stapf, president of CBS Studios. “We are extraordinarily proud of both series as they honor the legacy of what Gene Roddenberry created almost 60 years ago.”

Strange New Worlds is based on the years Captain Christopher Pike manned the helm of the  U.S.S. Enterprise . The series follows Captain Pike, Science Officer Spock, Number One and the crew of the  U.S.S. Enterprise , in the years before Captain Kirk boarded the starship, as they explore new worlds around the galaxy. It stars Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, Ethan Peck, Jess Bush and Christina Chong.

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