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‘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!

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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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Review: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 9 “Subspace Rhapsody”

So… that happened.

For the first time in its 890-episode history, Star Trek did a musical episode. If you didn’t know what to expect upon first learning Strange New Worlds would tackle this genre, you’re not alone. We were skeptical. Optimistic, but skeptical. But here’s the nice surprise: “Subspace Rhapsody” was generally quite an enjoyable affair, since we were going into it knowing it would be silly. It would have to be, right? What possible reason could there be for a starship crew to break out in song?

Well, there’s a scientific explanation. The episode begins with the Enterprise encountering a quantum fissure in space, and the crew thinks this discovery could be a quantum leap forward in trans-quadrant communications. But, Spock ( Ethan Peck ) and Nyota Uhura ( Celia Rose Gooding ) are having a tough time getting signals through the fissure, so they resort to Lt. Pelia’s ( Carol Kane ) outlandish idea: send music through.

The fissure definitely reacts to a tune from the good old American Song Book, and it distorts the surrounding space, including the Enterprise , so that the crew now exists in a realm where music can break out at any moment. We first see this with a bewildered Spock, who breaks out into tune while discussing the effects of the fissure. Soon enough, the crew from around the ship are rhyming and dancing, culminating in a scene on the bridge where everyone, including Captain Christopher Pike ( Anson Mount ) and visiting officer James T. Kirk ( Paul Wesley ), are musically arriving at the same conclusion: the universe has thrown them a curveball and now they are trapped in a space where singing is the norm.

“Honestly, I assumed it was something you all rehearsed, but… I sang, too.” “So did I. And I do not sing.” – Kirk and M’Benga ( Babs Olusanmokun ) after the episode’s first musical number.

There are 10 songs in “Subspace Rhapsody,” and to our great surprise, Strange New Worlds uses each one to inform our understanding of various crew members and their relationships. Moreover, this is an ensemble episode the likes of which we really haven’t seen yet this season, so everyone in the main cast has a moment to shine, if not have a whole song to themselves.

The driving force behind this music, and a rule of the space the crew learns eventually, is that music breaks out whenever strong emotions are in play. So, we hear musical numbers from Uhura about her loneliness, her ill-fated family, and the importance of connection in her life; Nurse Christine Chapel ( Jess Bush ) about her being accepted into a prestigious fellowship and thus being okay leaving Spock behind (poor Spock!); Spock singing about how hurt he is by Chapel; Captain Pike and his girlfriend, Captain Batel ( Melanie Scrofano ), on the frustrations of their long-distance relationship; the normally stoic La’an Noonien-Singh ( Christina Chong ) about her ill-fated romance with Kirk; and Una Chin-Riley ( Rebecca Romijn ) about keeping secrets, and then another song dueting with Kirk about how to be a good command officer.

One unexpected development from the La’an storyline in this episode is her telling Kirk about her experience with the alternate reality Kirk in “ Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow .” This disclosure breaks rules set by the Department of Temporal Investigations, but the potency of La’an’s music-driven emotions make her decide to express her feelings to Kirk. Kirk takes the revelation good-naturedly and has a surprise of his own for La’an: he is in a “sometimes” relationship with a woman named Carol Marcus, and she is pregnant. This is a neat revelation for Star Trek fans, as those who have seen Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock know about Kirk’s later-in-life experience with Carol and his ill-fated grown son, David. We’re curious if Strange New Worlds continues filling in Kirk’s backstory.

The Enterprise crew being trapped in a music-filled fissure isn’t enough, as it appears the fissure’s influence is spreading through subspace, infecting many other Federation and non-Federation ships. The crew also realizes their bouts of singing are seemingly following a rule of musicals: when characters have so much pent-up emotion, they resort to song.

“Admiral April’s last message confirmed that the improbability field has now spread to 12 Federation ships. He let me know in surprisingly beautiful baritone that he wants us to stop this now.” – Una

The Klingons, who don’t take kindly to breaking out in song, send battlecruisers to destroy the fissure, and the Enterprise crew knows if the fissure is destroyed, anybody who has suffered its effects will also perish. Uhura and Spock seek to discover a way to break the improbability matrix, and they do so through studying the songs themselves. Uhura, with her careful eyes and ears, finds a connection in the raw data presented by the fissure. It’s a simple solution: the entire crew must sing.

Pike asserts Uhura, who is someone who can bind the Enterprise crew together thanks to her ability to connect people, should lead the ship in song to get the fissure’s “improbability level” high enough to close it. Music hitherto was being used to push people away from each other, but Uhura recognizes music is also great for bringing people together. It’s a clever message couched in dumb science, but again, if you go into this episode knowing it’s silly, things won’t seem so absurd. The episode doesn’t take itself too seriously, and neither should we.

In a grand finale number, with the Klingons just about ready to fire their weapons, the Enterprise crew rallies in song. and even gets the Klingons to join in. We’ll give one critique here: Klingons dancing in a way you might see at, say, a Tayler Swift concert, is really disconcerting and cringy – but at least the uncomfortable moment is acknowledged by the Enterprise bridge crew and played for laughs. Otherwise, the finale number is appropriately explosive, with members of the entire crew singing and dancing together to close the fissure. With the tear in space closed, all is well.

Taken together, the experiment “Subspace Rhapsody” poses to its audience works surprisingly well. Using each song to expand our understanding of our main characters, and in some cases move their respective plotlines forward, is a creatively smart way to balance storytelling and music. While only a few numbers present choreography worth writing home about, the songs themselves are varied and enjoyable to listen to; we have members of the American alternative rock band Letters to Cleo to thank for that. We’ll look forward to the songs from this episode showing up on streaming services, which is as good a compliment as any musical can expect.

On a thematic level, we appreciate how Strange New Worlds asserts a well-known understanding of music and emotions; that is, the two go hand in hand. Such is a fundamental aspect of the human condition that we all can relate to; who doesn’t appreciate it when an artist bears their soul through song?  It’s like what Elton John once said: “Guess there are times when we all need to share a little pain…And it’s times like these when we all need to hear the radio/’Cause from the lips of some old singer/We can share the troubles we already know.” Such is the understanding “Subspace Rhapsody” has of the healing power of music, and this power allowed us to see a more honest side of our characters than we would have otherwise.  For that reason, we consider this Star Trek musical a success, even if some people may scoff at the abnormality of the episode.

Stray Thoughts:

• Chapel is awaiting a message from Dr. Korby, who is likely the same Roger Korby as in TOS ’ “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” M’Benga describes Korby as the “Louis Pasteur of archaeological medicine,” which is the same language Spock used to describe him in the aforementioned episode. We know Chapel eventually becomes Korby’s fiancé, so… will Strange New Worlds show us how that happens?
• The song Uhura sends through the fissure is, appropriately, “Anything Goes,” written by Cole Porter for the 1934 musical of the same name.
• Don’t skip this episode’s intro sequence, as it features a unique rendition of the SNW theme song.
• We confirmed with Paramount+ that these songs were performed by the actors themselves.
• The watch La’an holds while singing about Kirk is the watch the pair used to track down the reactor in “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.”
• On the map of the area surrounding the fissure, we see the Republic , the ship James Kirk served on as ensign.
• Check out DS9 ’s “Rivals” for another sci-fi story that involves unusual improbability.
• Writers Dana Horgan and Bill Wolkoff are sure to reference through character dialogue how silly the idea of a Star Trek musical is, and the noticeable reprisal of the TOS theme after the grand finale number helps us recall when TOS could sometimes get off the rails.
• Why do we get the feeling Batel is not long for this world? At the end of the episode, she’s off on a priority one mission, and we know the Gorn must figure into the season finale.

New episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds are made available to stream Thursdays on Paramount+ .

Stay tuned to TrekNews.net for all the latest news on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , Star Trek: Picard , Star Trek: Discovery , Star Trek: Lower Decks , Star Trek: Prodigy , and more.

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Kyle Hadyniak has been a lifelong Star Trek fan, and isn't ashamed to admit that Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek: Nemesis are his favorite Star Trek movies. You can follow Kyle on Twitter @khady93 .

Martin Jacobs

August 3, 2023 at 10:18 am

especially since in Star Trek II, Kirk was only then learning about his son.

He knew he had a son. He told Carol that he stayed away at her request.

August 3, 2023 at 10:31 am

Echoing what Martin said above; Kirk knew about David. He was told to stay away

Antonio Relyea

August 3, 2023 at 2:48 pm

I came here to make the same comment. David new about Kirk too. “Remember that overgrown boy scout you used to hang around with?” to which Carol replied “Listen kiddo, Jim Kirk was many things but he was never a boy scout.”

August 3, 2023 at 5:53 pm

Ah yes, thank you for that reminder. I must have a leaky memory bank. Will edit. 🙂

Jared McCubbin

August 4, 2023 at 9:27 am

Can any of them sing though?

Christine Granados

August 6, 2023 at 2:16 pm

This episode was just plain stupid… and the end with the Klingons as a weak, sad Boy Band was just pathetic and so off-putting as to be a bit vomit inducing. Really guys, this was possibly one of the stupidest ideas for a show ever….. EVER EVER EVER. Spare me. I had to watch two hours of other mindless TV just to blot the vision of singing Klingons ala a sad little Boy Band. This episode was the thing that nightmares are made of and lurk in your mind waiting to spring up and make you puke.

August 6, 2023 at 4:48 pm

This episode was so hard to watch – I had to fast forward through all the singing. I would say there is some truth in saying that Star Trek fans do not want to sit through a musical. It was very cringeworthy.

August 6, 2023 at 7:59 pm

I loved the musical. The songs were perfect and on point. Star Trek – Strange New Worlds is just what the doctor ordered. I’m loving it!

August 13, 2023 at 7:16 pm

SNW was supposed to appeal to those of us that wanted an episodic sci-fi series again. Its not working and they have already lost their focus. I really want to love it(I suppose because of the nostalgic characters), but they are losing me. Another silly episode !

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You likely have to be a fan of the musical theater genre in order to connect with “Subspace Rhapsody” — but while this episode is not going to be for everyone, I strongly believe that all fans should applaud Strange New Worlds for undertaking this venture.

When Star Trek takes risks, it creates opportunities for unique experiences and episodes that allow the franchise to try new things and connect with its audience in different ways. A musical might not work for you, but the courage it takes for the franchise to decide to create a musical episode may then make possible another experiment that does. And if this experiment does not work for you? Well, you still have nearly 900 other episodes of Star Trek to enjoy.

“Subspace Rhapsody” works for me. In addition to being a full-on musical complete with big songs, dance numbers, and grand finales, this episode is also a deep character episode that continues, and in some cases concludes, character arcs from season two to this point. It is not a throwaway triviality of a Strange New Worlds episode, but one that is integral to the threads and relationships that have been cultivated across the first two seasons. And it’s fun that so much of that comes to a head through song.

While investigating a naturally-occurring subspace fold — in the hopes that it will unlock the secrets to real-time subspace communication across the Federation — the Enterprise accidentally dislodges a “quantum uncertainty field” that creates a new reality in which people sing uncontrollably.

Obviously, there is going to be some element of contrivance in order to maneuver a Star Trek episode into a musical, but you know what? This one works for me. It’s technobabbly, it’s connected to the era of Strange New Worlds and the canon of Star Trek — why yes, real time subspace communications would be great! — and it opens the door to a lot of fun.

The ten original songs of “Subspace Rhapsody” — written by Kay Hanley and Tom Polce — range from solos (“Keeping Secrets”) to ensemble numbers which feature the whole crew (“We Are One”). Each has something to like about them, though a few are more forgettable than others. My personal favorite of the whole episode is the opener (“Status Report”), primarily because it blends the unique language of Star Trek with actual music in a way that I personally enjoyed a lot, but Uhura’s big number (“Keep Us Connected”) and Chapel’s song (“I’m Ready”) are also real standouts.

And while the episode potentially feels a little smaller than many fans would have expected from a Star Trek musical as there are not a lot of big choreographed set pieces, that actually feels appropriate for me for this big character episode that focuses more on individual relationships rather than the ship as a whole.

“Subspace Rhapsody” is, at its heart, a character episode. It brings the Spock/Chapel relationship to its apparent conclusion, and provides some exceptional material for La’an and the emotional fallout from her relationship with the alternate James T. Kirk.

When Chapel gets accepted into a fellowship for archeological medicine run by Doctor Roger Korby — who TOS fans knows has some importance in Chapel’s life — this seems like it is the end of the road for her dalliance with Spock.

It is rewarding to see her make decisions that are for herself and not related to Spock, and after what we learned about the character’s experiences during the Klingon War in last week’s episode, it’s tough not to feel like Chapel deserves the happiness (and the career potential for her future career) that she is currently feeling. Chapel’s song is also one of the standouts of the episode, with the most advanced chorography of any of the songs and a really great musical performance from Bush.

And for Spock, it appears we have reached the end of his short-lived experiment with indulging his emotions. Chapel’s decision to leave the Enterprise for three months, which probably means bringing her relationship with Spock to a halt, drives the Vulcan science officer back to pure logic (“I’m the X”) in an effort to cure a broken heart.

Strange New Worlds has added a rich layer of complexity to the Spock/Chapel relationship from the Original Series that I have enjoyed, but everything about it has felt a tad rushed — a consequence of having only ten episodes to tell their (and all of the characters’) story.

One of the advantages of a longer season is that shows had more breathing room to allow things to develop, rather than barreling through the story before time ran out for the year. Despite that, I still think the Spock/Chapel relationship has been a rewarding arc — and I’m thinking there will be more story to tell whenever Season 3 rolls around.

But while the Spock/Chapel breakup is probably some viewers’ biggest character moment in the episode, for me La’an has the most fulfilling emotional arc of this episode. She begins the episode wanting to shut down any singing because of her fear about the emotional release it creates — but by the end of the episode, the security officer has opened herself up fully to her emotions for the first time, and reached out for connection to those around her.

“Subspace Rhapsody” also lobs a bit of an unexpected curveball which dovetails really nicely with Star Trek canon — because while Kirk feels the same connection that La’an does, his current relationship with Carol Marcus, and her pregnancy with his son, make any exploration of that connection impossible.

Ultimately, falling into bed with Kirk is not the obvious route the episode chooses to take, and consummating the romantic connection between the characters is not where the emotional benefits of this experience lie for La’an. This version of Jim Kirk is not her Kirk, but this experience has allowed her to understand that it is possible for someone to see La’an as herself — and not just part of Khan’s legacy.

We already know from the Original Series that La’an was never going to end up in a forever romantic relationship with Kirk, but the events of this episode might make such a thing possible for her with someone else. That’s very smart writing, because it creates a greater depth for the character and thinks beyond the cheap thrill of giving Kirk a romantic liaison on the Enterprise crew — and it is backed by a terrific, emotional performance from Christina Chong, an accomplished singer who threads the musical and dramatic moments of this episode together wonderfully (“How Would That Feel”).

Jim Kirk’s role this week was a wonderful one — both with La’an, and his first-officer bonding time with Una (“Connect to Your Truth”) — but it feels like the show is running out of plausible reasons to get him aboard the Enterprise . I like how Paul Wesley is portraying the future starship captain, but after four appearances in the the last two seasons, it’s time to let Kirk have his time on the Farragut.

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

• The soundtrack for this episode is available through many streaming services.
• The reference to the crew poofing into bunnies appears to be a wink to perhaps the most well-known musical television episode, Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s “One More With Feeling.”
• Captain Batel finally gets her first name, Marie, spoken aloud this week; it previously appeared on a screen graphic back in “Ad Astra per Aspera.”
• Kirk mentions his sometimes-relationship status with “Carol,” who of course is Carol Marcus, the Project Genesis scientist seen in  Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan — and her yet-to-be-born child is Kirk’s son, David.
• The Klingon ships seen this episode were called “ K’t’inga -class battlecruisers” — introduced in  Star Trek: The Motion Picture — instead of the more period-appropriate D-7 designation.
• Spock’s diplomacy with the Klingons, which began in “The Broken Circle” and is picked up on here — and it nicely foreshadows the critical role he will play in the two civilizations’ peace process in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country .
• It’s nice to get another look up the Jeffries Tube shaft, using current-day visual effects to let us see the rest of the tube in the way that The Original Series could only hint at.
• The Klingon general aboard the boy-band warship was played by Bruce Horak, who portrayed Hemmer last season (and again in this year’s “Lost in Translation”)

“Subspace Rhapsody” is Star Trek at its most experimental, and it is to be applauded and enjoyed and supported for that. The cast and crew clearly had a blast making this episode, and their infectious joy seeps through the whole episode to make it a rewarding affair.

Coupled with some compelling character work, a few very catchy songs, and boy band Klingons, this musical outing is a triumph. I don’t think a reprise of this format would work as well as the first, but I hope Strange New Worlds never stops taking risks.

900 episodes of Star Trek later, the franchise continues to find new ways to tell stories.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 concludes with “Hegemony” next Thursday, August 10 on Paramount+.

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REVIEW – Star Trek: Strange New Worlds “Subspace Rhapsody”

Star Trek has officially done a musical episode! It’s very exciting and was the episode I was most excited about this season. The latest edition to Season 2 is Star Trek: Strange New Worlds “Subspace Rhapsody” . Before we get into the quality of the job that director Dermott Downs and writers Dana Horgan & Bill Wolkoff did, we need to acknowledge what a gambit this was. There have been many experimental episodes and out-there concepts, with something like “Spock’s Brain” being the worst example.

Even as far as crossovers like the one earlier this season go, a musical episode is still very, very risky. In a season full of crazy ideas, this stands out a lot, and that says something. So how much did this risk pay off? Is “Subspace Rhapsody” an instant classic or an episode that’s best left ignored? All of this and more in this review for the latest episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds .

WARNING: This review contains full spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 9 – “Subspace Rhapsody” . If you’ve not seen the episode, please turn away now!

NOTE: This is being written amidst the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes . Without the work of those on strike, this episode could not exist. Any praise for this episode should be considered praise for the writers, actors, and other artists involved. As far as I can tell, independent reviews like this (made without the use of studio-provided screeners) are not against strike rules. I fully support both unions’ fight for fair working conditions and adequate compensation. Do not support studios during a strike.

I’m not much of a musician, but know enough to know that the music here was amazing. The soundtrack isn’t due for release until tomorrow, but I’ll definitely be streaming it for a while. It’s full of a really good mix of songs, from show-stopping ballads to hilarious smaller numbers. I loved it, especially considering most of the cast aren’t known for their musical talents. The voice training they went for with the entire cast, even with the smaller characters paid off in droves. There’s scarcely a note off-key.

The biggest exception to the “not a musician” rule is La’an ( Christina Chong ). She has released some music recently that I find myself obsessed with. Her number in Strange New Worlds “Subspace Rhapsody”, entitled “How Would that Feel”, had my jaw on the floor. I knew she had an amazing voice, but wow. It managed to pack in so much emotional power into a few minutes. By far, it’s my favourite of the episode. It was equal parts exhilarating and emotionally devastating, with all the punch of one of the ballads from Falsettos. I loved it.

Songwriters Tom Polce and Kay Hanley really knocked it out of the park. I appreciated how distinct all the songs were, with none of them feeling the same. There’s flashes of all sorts of genres, but the Klingons stand out the most. I’m also fairly certain they managed to integrate Bruce Horak into that scene, which was amazing. The integration of science-fiction nomenclature was also fun, this being the only musical I know of to do that. There’s a variety here that, much like this season, is of very high quality.

Spock and Christine

I’ve made no secret of how I feel about the romance between Spock ( Ethan Peck ) and Chapel ( Jess Bush ) this season. That being said, this episode really put everything in perspective, carefully explaining why Spock is so hurt by Christine. We finally get word of the as-of-now unseen Dr Korby accepting Chapel into his fellowship program. We know from The Original Series episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” that she ends up engaged to him. I wait in anticipation for his appearance, and the actor they choose to portray him.

Their breakup here felt a little forced, but also understandable. I’m not a fan of their relationship at all, still, seeing the silence between them at the end was gutwrenching. As funny as all the maths jokes were in “I’m the X”, Peck did a great job, considering he got broken up with through song. Vulcans are said to only express strong emotions like this, which made it all the more devastating. Him getting broken up with through song was pretty sad, but also a little on the funny side.

I’m curious to see what Chapel joining Dr Korby does to Spock. Compared to my previous indifference, I’m now incredibly invested in their relationship. With how quickly they broke up, it’s as if every awkward moment between them in TOS is completely recontextualised. I’ll never be able to watch the older episodes the same way, and I love that. It really is astounding that all these characters are in the same place, years before the events of T OS. Seeing the change in relationship dynamics over that time is equally astounding.

Una ( Rebecca Romijn ), outside of a lovely musical number mostly plays second fiddle to the other characters in Strange New Worlds “Subspace Rhapsody”. She’s there to support Jim, who’s beamed over from the USS Farragut trying to move up the ranks. And then she’s there to support La’an through her breakup. Although I guess it plays into what she sings about, getting closer with her officers. Even though this was a thing that was shown gradually onscreen over the past two seasons, it’s nice to have it in the form of song as well.

The song also plays into her obsession with Gilbert and Sullivan, which gets namedropped here. The song, while less opera, it definitely has more in common with something like The Pirates of Penzance than Wicked . It’s probably the most distinct song in the musical in this way, and I think I mostly enjoyed it. Seeing Romijn, who can also actually sing, perform something like this is awesome.

While most of the cast aren’t experienced singers, having people like Romijn, Chong, and Gooding sing to their known strengths was a great choice. It’s a side of the actors’ skillset that most Star Trek fans may not be aware of, so it’s great outlet for them to show off that side of themselves. Strange New Worlds “Subspace Rhapsody” also created a musical universe in this anomaly, something that they could easily revisit in another series years down the line for more fun. That being said, this should definitely remain a one-off for a while.

Kirk and La’an

After “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” put La’an in a relationship with an alternate Kirk ( Paul Wesley ), I’ve been intrigued to say the least. I wasn’t sure what to make of it initially, but I finally see what they were going for. A bit like the relationship between Spock and Chapel, it feels like a lot of the plot points this season has introduced are being closed off. The scene between them was sweet, and I’m glad it didn’t descend into song.

It’s pretty much the only scene of the episode that did this, to the point where the conversation they had stands out as one of the few traditional scenes of the episode. As much as it turns out Paul Wesley has a nice singing voice, I’m glad this scene remained pretty serious. I’m also glad that they chose not to add another romance into the fold, with the series feeling a little crowded in that department already. As nice as it is to have closure, it’s gutting for La’an, to the point where I’m wondering where she goes from here.

We know that she’s not in TOS , is it possible that she resigns after Kirk takes command?They also referenced Carol Marcus. We here at Trek Central thought this might happen before the season even came out. While she didn’t appear, I did appreciate the nod. There’s no big need for the character to appear, just knowing that Carol’s out there and pregnant (with David) is enough for me. It’s as far as they need to go, and for Kirk to keep the ‘deadbeat dad’ reputation for The Wrath of Khan , it’s probably as far as they can.

The journey of Uhura ( Celia Rose-Gooding ) this season has also been a lot of fun. The character finally feels like she’s coming into her own. I think the crossover episode, “Those Old Scientists” , in which she met both Boimler ( Jack Quaid ) and Mariner ( Tawny Newsome ) changed her for the better. The second she heard she was considered a legend, her confidence has increased tenfold. Watching her as more of a phone operator this week was the ultimate sign of this, working quickly, effectively, and well… confidently.

It ties in to how we see her in TOS , where she was played by the brilliant Nichelle Nichols . The series has built on a lot of her most iconic moments from the series. I guess that also includes the singing talent that she displayed during “Charlie X” . This was on such a bigger scale, turning every musical number the series had ever done up to 11. Honestly, my biggest complaint is the lack of references to songs and musical moments like that.

It’s safe to say Uhura was not as much of a character in TOS . She was there, but was never really the focus for more than the occasional scene. It’s great to have her more fleshed out. Seeing that she has the capability to inspire the whole of the crew to sing as one, in a moment that was absolutely awe-inspiring. It’s the song that’s going to get stuck in your head, probably more so than Uhura’s solo number. They’re able to cram so much into an hour of television, so many songs and yet still recognisable as an episode of Star Trek .

It didn’t surprise me to learn that the director this week, Dermott Downs, has prior experience with special musical episodes. He’s also had a lot of experience with the scale of science-fiction, directing a lot for the superhero genre. One of these episodes he previously directed was “ Duet ” for The Flash . Interestingly, it featured a similar premise – the series regulars being dragged into a musical before fighting their way out. However, I consider this to be the superior product of the two, by far.

While both episodes are enjoyable, this one’s less of a novelty and the songs actually drag the plot forward. As well as this, Downs has clearly become more experienced when it comes to spectacle. The way the Klingons were framed when singing was amazing, and the shots of the dancers moving around the hallway during the final number was nothing short of epic. It was all amazingly well choreographed, even the ships spinning in time with the music was such an inspired choice.

If the franchise were ever to do anything similarly theatrical, I’d expect him to at least be considered for the director’s chair. That being said, I hope this doesn’t happen again. I loved it, but we don’t want to risk Star Trek becoming too much of something its not. Variety is a great thing, especially with the shorter episode count that these newer series have. However, adding musical to the list of formats that the series uses regularly isn’t special.

This exceeded even my expectations. It was so much fun. I loved how, unlike musical episodes like The Flash ‘s “Duet” , and Buffy the Vampire Slayer ‘s “Once More with Feeling” , this was really special. “Subspace Rhapsody” in no uncertain terms propelled the plots forward, inching the characters closer to their TOS starting positions. It did this and also had a lot of fun singing, dancing, and prancing around the Enterprise. Lots to love here.

I mentioned a few times now, not just in this article but over the last few weeks, that Strange New Worlds “Subspace Rhapsody” was the episode I was most excited for. What can I say? I’m a fan of musicals, of course I was going to love this. Whilst the format isn’t for everybody, and can even be a bit of a turn-off, I had a lot of fun here. It’s essential viewing, especially for the novelty component. That being said, I wouldn’t call this my favourite episode of this season. Although with how strong it’s been, that’s hardly a criticism.

I’m glad this came in the series when it did. If it were done at the other end of the season, it wouldn’t have succeeded as much as it did. It definitely worked better when we knew what to expect from the characters, and what sort of dramatic moments would happen. It managed to get a laugh and smile out of me more than your regular episode. This was well worth the hype and secrecy, it was so much fun and was just the lighter pick-up I needed after last week’s very dark episode.

Where to Watch

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds  streams Thursdays via  Paramount+ in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Latin America, Brazil, South Korea (via Tving), France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland & Austria. As well as CTV Scifi / Crave in Canada, & TVNZ in New Zealand. And on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Central and Eastern Europe.

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REVIEW: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 9 Pulls Out the Stops for Its Musical

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds goes full-blown musical for Season 2's penultimate episode. Here's CBR's review of the ambitious change of pace.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds nears the end of its second season with its biggest and most ambitious creative swing yet by making the season's penultimate episode a full-blown musical. Titled "Subspace Rhapsody," the episode stands as one of the longest in the entire series to date, giving it room to breathe and including eight original songs celebrating a variety of musical styles. While the idea of a Star Trek musical episode may not seem like everyone's cup of tea, "Subspace Rhapsody" fits within the wider story and character arcs, complementing Season 2's noticeably lighter tone .

The Enterprise investigates an anomaly while testing out a new subspace communications system devised by Spock and Nyota Uhura to significantly bolster communication speeds across the armada. When Uhura sings through the subspace system in an effort to change up the harmonics used by the new technology, it triggers the anomaly's probability field, engulfing the Enterprise. As the crew regains their bearings, they spontaneously break out into song and dance to channel even their most latent emotions as they scramble to stop the probability field from spreading and affecting others throughout the galaxy.

RELATED: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Jeff W. Byrd Brings Fiery Intensity to Season 2

With nearly a dozen different Star Trek shows, often filled with ensemble casts from theater backgrounds, it's a wonder that no series has attempted to produce a musical episode before. Given Strange New Worlds ' propensity for experimenting with different genres, a musical isn't too far-fetched as a premise for a standalone episode, and it works within the context of the story. There are still genuine stakes to the story. The fate of Starfleet hangs in the balance by the climax, but the real focus is on the characters.

As for the songs themselves, they are written by Letter to Cleo bandmates Kay Hanley and Tom Polce and cover everything from the traditional stage numbers made famous by Rodgers and Hammerstein in the '50s and '60s to rap musicals like Hamilton . The cast is competent in their singing and dancing abilities, with the episode wisely focusing on its strongest musical performers, namely Celia Rose Gooding and Christina Chong. Everyone gets a chance to shine, and most of the songs are catchy enough, with the best songs bookending the episode.

RELATED: Strange New Worlds - Jordan Canning Delves Into the Hilarity of Star Trek

For all the spontaneous singing and dancing, this episode presents important developments for much of the main cast, from Spock and Christine Chapel's burgeoning romance to La'an Noonien-Singh's complicated feelings for Jim Kirk . It'll be interesting to see how this all, along with Kirk's continued presence on the Enterprise , informs the impending Season 2 finale, but there are major moments for the main ensemble, to be sure. "Subspace Rhapsody" may be an outlier in terms of its presentation and genre but is certainly not a throwaway episode in the larger Strange New Worlds saga.

"Subspace Rhapsody" stands among the most memorable Star Trek episodes from a season full of them. Anyone skeptical about the concept of Star Trek delving into the musical genre is unlikely to be completely won over, but those open to the premise will find lots to enjoy as the season finale looms. At this point in its storied legacy, Star Trek doesn't have a lot of franchise firsts left, but Strange New Worlds has more than delivered and helped redefine what Star Trek can be.

Created by Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, and Jenny Lumet, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds releases new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ' Musical Episode Is a Glorious Triumph

"subspace rhapsody" hits the high notes literally and metaphorically, delivering an episode that's full of great character work and greater earworms..

“Will this work/Who can say?/We’re gonna sing it/anyway!” An interlude in the climactic song of Star Trek ’s first ever musical episode —and an underlying thesis that guides it as it swings for one of the boldest ideas the franchise has ever tried... and by god, does it nail it.

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I’m fully aware not everyone is going to agree with me on this— Star Trek has had a dual reputation of a series capable of great drama and great silliness in equal measure, and when it does the latter, it doesn’t always hit with an audience consensus. How much you enjoy “Subspace Rhapsody,” the penultimate episode of what has been an even more experimental sophomore season for Strange New Worlds than its debut, likely depends on how much you hear the phrase “Backstreet Boy Klingons” and either snort with delighted laughter or recoil in fear. If it’s the latter, well, I certainly question how you got through “Threshold” with your faith in Star Trek in tact long enough that this becomes your breaking point, but you do you.

But that’s not the point, and “Subspace Rhapsody”—which builds on Star Trek ’s history of genre dalliances and in particular its musical dalliances to offer the franchise’s first fully-fledged musical episode—is an episode of television strong enough to warrant much more than “oh it’s just fun ” as a defens e of its quality from curmudgeons. It is fun! But it’s also two things on top of that. It’s a really good musical, filled with an eclectic mix of catchy ditties, all in all eight notable hits that are by and large great, that earworm their way into your head at warp speed. But crucially it’s also a really good episode of Star Trek , one that deftly marries the logical framework it takes on from an angle that is perfectly Trek -y, but also uses it to deliver a vital, character-driven piece that ties into so much of what this season has already had to say about the connections between its characters.

“Subspace Rhapsody” is, undoubtedly, a musical, but it is as much an episode of Star Trek as that—the premise is rooted in the kind of framework the franchise usually deals with, and one that makes sense for Strange New Worlds ’ setting in particular. Examining a subspace fold in the hopes that Starfleet could beam communication data through it—allowing for instantaneous communication across vast distances, a technology that will eventually exist in Trek by TNG —Uhura and Spock, using audio data in the form of the Great American Songbook, inadvertently cause the fold to unleash a quantum uncertainty field. This entangles the Enterprise in a growing pocket reality where heightened emotion causes people to inadvertently break out into song.

With our first song, “Status Report”—a very funny blend of music and Trek in the way it gets so much Starfleet tech and technobabble to rhyme that you immediately start wondering why no one’s used the phrase “inertial dampeners” in verse before—we’re off to the races, and what follows continues to balance that line between Trek character work and musical silliness. While our heroes, spurred on of course by Uhura herself and her interest in music, begin to suss out that this new reality operates on musical logic and experiment with just what causes the songs to break out, the stakes get raised when the reality starts expanding and affecting other ships—Federation and Klingon alike. And while that’s a good enough development outside the Enterprise , “Subspace Rhapsody” prefers to focus internally, right down to the fact that it doesn’t arguably feel as big as an episode an all-singing, all-dancing spectacle could’ve been, outside of a few climactic moments. That’s to our benefit though: Uhura pegs on quickly that musical logic means that where drama goes, song follows. And on the USS Enterprise at this moment in time, there is a lot of drama to go around.

“Subspace” focuses largely on two of the larger emotional throughpoints of this season. The first is La’an, trying to navigate her insecurities in the wake of her potential alt-timeline romance with a young Jim Kirk (returning guest star Paul Wesley), who finds those insecurities compounded when prime-Kirk is brought aboard the Enterprise for command training with Number One when the uncertainty field strikes. We get a barnstorming power ballad/I want song from Christina Chong in the form of “How Would That Feel” that plays with La’an’s inability to let people into her life—something the show has explored thoroughly through the lens of her trauma with the Gorn—and importantly we get to see her begin to open up to Kirk as the duo find the situation aboard the Enterprise getting more dangerous outside of catchy tunes.

The other, is, of course, Nurse Chapel and Spock’s situationship . Getting accepted into a dream research fellowship at the start of a simmering romantic relationship is never the best time, and it’s arguably an even worse time when you’re aboard a ship plagued with emotional outburst-induced song. But we are readily rewarded in perhaps “Subspace Rhapsody”’s best choreographed number in the Enterprise lounge, “I’m Ready,” which sees Christine tell Spock to his face that she’s willing to take this chance and—because the musical reality is compelling her to speak her true heart—more specifically she’s willing to let him go to do so, a brilliant little moment at the climax of the song that Rebecca Bush plays devastatingly well. And we even get a Spock solo out of it too, “I’m the X,” where a spurned Spock laments that perhaps he should never have strayed from the logical emotional control of his Vulcan side, if all he was going to do was get hurt by it.

It’s an incredibly bold move that Strange New Worlds decides to deliver the emotional climaxes of these two relationships we’ve followed throughout the season in a purportedly “silly” episode some might see as throwaway. It’s an altogether bolder move that it equally does not give into the romance of the musical genre and give either of them happy endings . Kirk lets La’an down easy, telling her he’s already in a serious relationship. Since Christine is about to leave the Enterprise for the foreseeable future, her and Spock’s romantic spark is extinguished almost as quickly as it came together, setting the stage for them to become the people they are when they cross paths again by the time of original Trek . “Subspace Rhapsody” matters to these characters as much as any other episode they’ve been the focal point of this season, and it matters to what Strange New Worlds has been saying all season long about finding the value in the time you get to spend with the people you care about, instead of lamenting what could’ve been. In doing that here, in an episode that’s got songs about earning the trust of your subordinates or being a comms officer, and people doing co-ordinated dances through the corridors of the starship Enterprise ? It’s a brilliant statement by the show, not just in the confidence it has its storytelling, but its confidence in just how much Star Trek can stretch itself to when it tries.

In the end, we’re rewarded with those aforementioned Backstreet Boy Klingons—the crew of approaching Imperial battle cruisers also caught up in the reality field that interrupt the final, raucous ensemble number of the episode, “We Are One,” itself a cheesy, heartwarmingly earnest, and yet also thematically crucial sendoff to Strange New Worlds ’ biggest, boldest, and most successful experiment so far. There’s hands waving in the air on the Enterprise bridge, a starship in chorus overwhelms a subspace fold with so much energy it explodes in dazzling light, and the day is saved—but some of our heroes still have hard journeys to navigate with the people they care about.

In a series that has proven that it is often at its strongest when it is most experimental with Trek ’s classical episodic formats, it’s fitting that its biggest leap of faith yet is also a fundamentally vital episode of the entire show— o ne that emphasiz es the importance of the growth of its characters, and their connection to each other, as much as it emphasiz es just how broad a tent Star Trek can be in terms of theme and tone. And that’s well worth having a song and dance over.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel , Star Wars , and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who .

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 9 Review – Subspace Rhapsody

Star Trek's first musical installment is silly, heartfelt, and perhaps the most fun the show's ever been.

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This Star Trek: Strange New Worlds review contains spoilers.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 9

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds continues to swing for the fences in its second season, repeatedly going where literally no one has gone before in this franchise. And if you thought that things couldn’t possibly get more delightfully chaotic than the episode that brought several Lower Decks animated characters into the world of live action, you definitely weren’t prepared for the series’ foray into musical storytelling, an installment that is potentially the most purely fun hour of Star Trek I’ve ever watched. Is it silly? Absolutely. Occasionally cringe-worthy? Kind of. But somehow still perfect in spite of it all? 100% yes.

Most viewers likely assumed that the much-ballyhooed Star Trek musical episode would basically be a marketing gimmick, a silly, largely disposable hour with little to offer besides the chance to see our faves sing and dance together. And I don’t know that any of us would have actually minded too much if that’s all it had turned out to be! But instead, “Subspace Rhapsody” is a surprisingly thoughtful exploration of community and connection, an hour that’s not only wildly fun to watch, but that wholeheartedly embraces the format it’s chosen, using the larger narrative framework of traditional musical theater to say something meaningful about its characters and their various journeys this season. 

Life in Starfleet doesn’t often lend itself to overt emotion, which is probably why so many of its members are closet alcoholics. I kid, I kid—mostly—but while Strange New Worlds is a show that literally runs on heart, a certain brand of stoicism does tend to rule the day on the Enterprise . Yes, there are certainly plenty of emotional moments , but getting people freely admitting and talking about their feelings isn’t something that happens particularly often. (I mean, Una basically reverse engineered her own arrest in order to come clean about her Illyrian heritage and her reasons for lying to Starfleet. We just found out about M’Benga’s dark past as a sort of Special Forces assassin last week .) And musicals are made for big, messy, emotions—we sing when we feel so much we can’t keep it inside anymore, when it’s the only way to possibly convey what’s in the depths of hearts. So this is an hour that’s over the top entertainment, yes, but one that’s also full of deep seated and necessary truths. 

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Smartly, Strange New Worlds fully leans into the ridiculousness of the situation the Enterprise crew finds itself in, a phenomenon brought about by a rare subspace fold and the unfortunate application of a classic Cole Porter track. The songs are hilariously peppered with references to deflector shields and phaser banks, simultaneously incredibly broad and hyper specific. And the episode repeatedly underlines how much no one actually wants to be singing their feelings out in front of their crewmates, gleefully giving various characters cringe-worthy and painfully self-aware public confessionals. Anson Mount, truly making a solid case that someone should just cast him in a romantic comedy already, continues to be the show’s MVP when it comes to subtle humor and deadpan reaction shots.

The overall quality of the episode’s musical numbers is…well, it’s a Star Trek musical, it’s about what you’d expect, with songs about connecting to your true self and the importance of trusting one another. The series’ cast is game for anything, and most of them are fairly decent singers, though Strange New Worlds is smart enough to understand that large ensemble numbers can cover a multitude of sins. 

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds “Subspace Rhapsody” Soundtrack and Musical Influences

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Celia Rose Gooding gets the biggest and best solo number, a showstopper of a self-actualization anthem that’s a lovely celebration of how far Uhura’s come since the series began. Christina Chong, also a professional singer, gets a nice introspective piece about La’an’s internal struggle with control. And while Jess Bush doesn’t necessarily have the strongest voice among the crew, Chapel gets one of the episode’s best ensemble numbers as she rediscovers her free spirit while celebrating her acceptance into a three month fellowship with archeological medical expert Dr. Korby. (Who I assume she’s also going to get engaged to sometime in the not too distant future.)

Vocal performances aside, the high drama and heightened emotions of musical theater make for a perfect backdrop for a surprisingly thoughtful exploration of several of season 2’s key relationships, including La’an’s lingering feelings for James Kirk to Chapel and Spock’s nascent connection. Even Pike and Batel’s one step forward two steps back long distance courtship comes under the spotlight. Granted, I’m not sure how truly invested any of us are in that particular pairing no matter how fabulous Melanie Scrafano is, and this hour does nothing so much as indicate that Pike isn’t really willing to put in the work their relationship needs, whatever he says to the contrary. But, hey, at least we confirmed Batel’s first name is Marie.

Viewers knew that the Spock/Chapel relationship was doomed long before Boimler told the Enterprise’s chief nurse the truth about the Spock history will remember, but its doubtful that any of us expected a break-up between them to happen so soon. Happily, the end of their romantic relationship isn’t about Spock’s nebulous future but Chapel’s very real present, and it’s a relief not only to see her choose herself in the end, but to do so with such a total lack of guilt or uncertainty about it. We love a woman who knows her worth. Of course, it seems more than likely Strange New Worlds will revisit these two at some (multiple?) point(s) in the future, and her choice—as well as his response to it—will surely complicate things between them even further. 

Speaking of complicated, this is also the episode in which La’an comes clean about her alternate past history with a different version of James Kirk, fearing quite rightly that the odds of her blurting it out in song at some point are not zero. (Since she so clearly also has feelings for his prime timeline counterpart.) Kirk is surprisingly cool about both the revelation that La’an’s into him and that she watched a different version of him die in front of her , and, to his credit doesn’t take advantage of the opportunity. Instead, he confesses that while he’s drawn to her too for reasons he doesn’t entirely understand, he can’t act on any of those feelings because he has a girlfriend at the moment and said girlfriend is pregnant. Whether this is merely meant to serve as a fun Carol Marcus pseudo-cameo for fans, or if it’s a hint that we might actually get to see some version of this character (and her relationship with Kirk) fleshed out more thoroughly in future episodes, is a question for another day. But why not? I’m pretty sure Strange New Worlds has already proved there’s nothing it can’t do.

4.5 out of 5

Lacy Baugher

Lacy Baugher is a digital producer by day, but a television enthusiast pretty much all the time. Her writing has been featured in Paste Magazine, Collider,…

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds review, Episode 209: “Subspace Rhapsody”

By michael atkins-prescott | aug 3, 2023.

There’s a stereotype that Star Trek fans miss emotional cues and subtext. I’m watching Strange New Worlds with the attentiveness and focus of someone who has to review and recap each episode, and I’m not entirely sure I’m catching all of the emotional beats. Perhaps that’s why sci-fi franchises typically enjoyed by socially awkward nerds should have an episode where the characters literally sing their emotions. It’s a lot more fun than trying to learn what facial expressions mean using cue cards.

I jest… It would be awful if this were to become a trope. This musical episode of Star Trek works precisely because it’s never been done before, and will probably never be done again.

“Subspace Rhapsody” is a one-off get-out-of-jail-free card. Strange New Worlds has given us a fantastic mix of plot-driven and character-driven storytelling this season, but while the plots generally get wrapped up as soon as the problem of the week is solved, the personal stories are a little harder to wrap up. After all, how do you narratively resolve unrequited love?

In the streaming age, most shows would stretch that story out over the length of a season of TV. But Strange New Worlds is a throwback to the days when stories were wrapped up in 45 minutes or so. They needed a way to make usually restrained characters confess their emotions to themselves, to each other, and to us in one big purgative moment of catharsis. A musical emotional deus ex machina, if you will.

“Subspace Rhapsody” demonstrates that the writers understand how musical theatre actually works. My concern for a musical episode of Star Trek was that it would fall into the same trap as a lot of high-concept musicals and load the song lyrics up with clunky exposition and plot development. The role of songs in a musical is to express the characters’ inner emotions and to spell out themes. The stories in musical theatre have to be simple enough that they can be developed in between songs.

Not only does “Subspace Rhapsody” understand the rules of musicals, it comments on them. After the Enterprise is hit with a shockwave from a negative space wedgie , the crew all begin spontaneously breaking into song. They soon realize that their reality is merging with another reality that conforms to the rules of musicals, and their heightened emotions cause them to sing.

Since the songs don’t have to vehicles for the story, they can focus on being good catchy songs. They’re not all winners, but it’s a really good set of songs. And each one is better than the last, building to an impressive show-stopper. That final song is tooth-achingly saccharine but infectiously joyful. It features a chorus of reluctantly crooning Klingons threatening “eternal torture” in smooth R’n’B. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard at anything on Star Trek .

Just go with it

A lot of what happens in this episode is a “just go with it” proposition, starting with the technobabble that kicks it all off. The space wedgie here is a subspace fold. In the Star Trek universe, subspace is a dimension through with communications travel, allowing for correspondence that moves faster than light. No communications sent through this particular subspace fold have been received. Pelia suggests sending music, because fundamental harmonics may work with the different laws of physics in subspace (just go with it). Uhura plays Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes” into the fold, which generates the shockwave that makes everyone sing.

James T. Kirk is there too (just go with it). I do not remember the in-universe reason for his presence, but his role in the story is pretty significant. After seeing him, La’an sings a torch ballad about her crush on him, which is how she works out how serious the situation is. Thinking like a security officer, she reasons that if the songs make everyone sing their inner feelings, then they’re a security risk. Captain Pike immediately demonstrates this principle by having a lover’s tiff with Captain Batel, in song, over the bridge’s viewscreen, in full view of the crew. Thankfully the song is fun, or else the second-hand embarrassment would’ve made the scene unwatchable. With perfect timing, La’an shuts off the viewscreen just before it becomes too much.

That tells them that the singing is affecting other ships. From Spock and Uhura’s unsuccessful attempts to undo whatever it is that the fold is doing, we know that destroying the fold would destroy every ship affected by it. So while Spock and Uhura continue to try and shut it down, La’an and Kirk are assigned to try and stop a group of Klingons trying to destroy it.

A recurring theme in Strange New Worlds is that we can’t have silliness without heartache. So first up we have La’an reasoning that she has to tell Kirk about her feelings before they come out in the form of a sea shanty. But Kirk tells her that he’s seeing someone: Carol at Starbase 1, who is currently pregnant. That’s sort of an easter egg, as we meet Kirk’s son David in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , approximately 25 years after this.

Then we have Spock and Uhura coming to the conclusion that they need to prompt a song so they can observe it and see if there are any patterns. So Spock confronts Nurse Chapel, who’s been acting squirrely around him ever since she was accepted into an internship on archeological medicine. Where we expect another ballad about how much she’ll miss him, we get a big brassy, “I want” song about how much she’s looking forward to it. This is the first fantastic song, but the look on Spock’s face is almost too much to bear. Chapel is giving us real f-boy energy in this moment.

If this is the beginning of the end for Spock and Chapel, it significantly recontextualizes the original series, changing the story while keeping the canon intact. Spock is half-human, but throughout the original series, you rarely saw any evidence of this; instead, he was fully committed to the emotionless, Vulcan way of life. If Spock rejected his emotions because of a broken heart, then the character reads very differently.

Uhura makes her observations, and after belting out her own fantastic “I want” song (this episode may well just exist to give Celia Rose Gooding’s pipes a workout) she reports that there is a pattern to the music: each song is accompanied by a spike in the quantum improbability field (just go with it), and if they can make the field spike to 344 gigaelectronvolts, that should fix everything. An ensemble number about unity and togetherness should do the trick.

There’ve been better episodes, both silly and serious, but I can’t remember having this much fun watching modern Star Trek! It’s the final number that really cinches it. There’s such guileless joy to it that you really have to just forget yourself. Every cast member sings, even those who can’t. And when they can’t quite get to 344 gigaelectronvolts, they hail the Klingons to put them over the edge with their funky impotent rage threats and hip urban dance moves. It has everything!

Through radical (musical) honesty we have seen Pike and Batel overcoming their differences and La’an seemingly moving on from Kirk. With these two threads tied up, we can go into the final episode without tripping over them. But as for Spock and Chapel… well, we know from the original series that Dr. Roger Korby, who she’ll be interning with, is her ex-fiance . It seems that we’re building up to a bust-up between the two so bad that she nearly marries someone else and he rejects human emotions forever.

And you thought you’d had bad break-ups.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds review, Episode 207: “Those Old Scientists”. dark. Next

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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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'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 .

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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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‘Subspace Rhapsody’ Is a Fascinating and Flawed Star Trek Musical

This discussion and review contains spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 9, “Subspace Rhapsody” (a musical), on Paramount+.

It is surprising that it took Star Trek so long to do a musical episode.

After all, John Ford wrote a musical Star Trek tie-in novel in October 1987. William Shatner reportedly considered staging a musical variety show to celebrate the franchise’s 50th anniversary. Fans performed a loving stage musical Boldly Go! , which is available in its entirety on YouTube. Pop songs like The Firm’s “ Star Trekkin’ ” translate the franchise’s iconography to music. The franchise has given musical set pieces to stars like Brent Spiner , Avery Brooks , and Robert Picardo .

More than that, the musical episode was a staple of turn-of-the-millennium television. The most famous example might be “Once More, with Feeling,” the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that aired in November 2001. However, this was the culmination of a larger trend that included episodes like “ The Musical, Almost ” on Ally McBeal , “ Brain Salad Surgery ” on Chicago Hope , “ Old Tree ” on Northern Exposure , “ The Bitter Suite ” on Xena: Warrior Princess , and many more.

As such, “Subspace Rhapsody,” the much anticipated Strange New Worlds musical episode, fits firmly within the show’s nostalgia for the 1990s. As with “ Ad Astra Per Aspera ” earlier in the season, there is a sense that the franchise is finally doing something that would have been cutting-edge 30 years ago. Of course, while “Ad Astra Per Aspera” was confronting one of the franchise’s long-standing blind spots on civil rights, “Subspace Rhapsody” is really just doing something cute and fun.

As with “ Those Old Scientists ” earlier in the season, it is easier to admire “Subspace Rhapsody” on a technical level than it is to enjoy it as a satisfying piece of television. “Subspace Rhapsody” is clearly a labor of love for the cast and crew. It features original songs by Kay Hanley and Tom Polce, members of the band Letters to Cleo . It showcases choreography from stage and screen veteran Robert Campanella , whose past credits include Oscar-winning The Shape of Water .

On a purely technical level, “Subspace Rhapsody” is a showcase for an incredibly talented ensemble cast. It’s obvious that a lot of the series regulars have some experience with the form. Christine Chong has talked about how it “ was always (her) dream to do musical theatre .” Rebecca Romijn starred in The Producers opposite Richard Kind at the Hollywood Bowl . Before joining Strange New Worlds , Celia Rose Gooding broke out performing the Alanis Morissette musical Jagged Little Pill .

More than that, Star Trek should be doing more stuff like this. It is a gigantic multimedia franchise with a built-in fan base and high production values, with Nicole Clemens, president of original scripted series at Paramount+, talking openly about wanting an “ always on slate .” With that level of creative freedom and that volume of content, there is absolutely no reason for Star Trek to be as aesthetically conservative as it has been over the past few years.

Fans and critics have been quick to praise Strange New Worlds as “ a return to an episodic vision ,” but the show has failed to take advantage of that. The beauty of the episodic television model was the freedom that it afforded for experimentation. To pick a random example, The X-Files could do a black-and-white creature feature in “ The Post-Modern Prometheus ,” a found-footage crossover with Cops in “ X-Cops ,” and a series of long-take sequences broken up by commercial breaks in “ Triangle .”

Star Trek should be willing to play with its form. Strange New Worlds should be willing to be both strange and new. With the move to digital cameras and with no commercial breaks on streaming, why not do an episode in a single extended take? What about an episode in the “ screenlife ” style? Strange New Worlds should be taking full advantage of the opportunities presented by the episodic model, where every installment is a chance to do something exciting and interesting.

In that sense, both “Those Old Scientists” and “Subspace Rhapsody” are welcome additions to the Star Trek canon, in that they push the limits of what is possible within the established Star Trek format. “Those Old Scientists” proves that it is possible to blend animation and live action in a single Star Trek episode. “Subspace Rhapsody” proves that the production team can stage what is effectively an hour-long musical. That is commendable.

At the same time, it is frustrating to watch “Subspace Rhapsody” and wish that it was… well, better. As with “Those Old Scientists,” the episode is so thrilled to be playing with a new set of toys that it fails to really build a compelling narrative around them. There is no sense of stakes. There is no sense of momentum. There are some vaguely interesting thematic dynamics at play, but even those end up muddled at the end.

“Subspace Rhapsody” is a relationship episode. The character arcs running through “Subspace Rhapsody” focus on three potential couples: Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and Captain Batel (Melanie Scrofano), Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck) and Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush), Lieutenant Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) and Lieutenant Kirk (Paul Wesley). However, it’s frustrating that the episode ultimately shelves two of these three relationships.

To be fair, this is an issue with both the episodic format and the prequel nature of Strange New Worlds . Without long-form serialization, it’s not really possible to watch relationships grow and develop as they did with characters like Sisko (Avery Brooks) and Yates (Penny Johnson Jerald), Kira (Nana Visitor) and Odo (René Auberjonois), or Worf (Michael Dorn) and Dax (Terry Farrell) on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . If each story has to be self-contained, the characters cannot truly change between installments.

Similarly, most of the key characters in Strange New Worlds already have a predetermined path through the established canon. Based on their knowledge of existing Star Trek media, fans know that Spock and Chapel or Kirk and Noonien-Singh cannot end up together. This has the effect of undermining any attempt to wring drama from their interpersonal relationships. More than that, it makes the choice seem deeply cynical, an attempt to get the audience to invest in an impossibility. It feels like a waste of everybody’s time.

As such, “Subspace Rhapsody” literally makes a song and dance about two relationships that cannot go anywhere. The “will they / won’t they?” dynamic between Noonien-Singh and Kirk that was first teased only a few episodes ago in “ Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow ” ends in a simple “they won’t.” The Spock and Chapel romance that only began at the end of “ Charades ,” four episodes ago, is cut short as it would always have to be.

The only real character development that comes from “Subspace Rhapsody” is that Pike and Batel are pretty much in the exact same place that they were at the end of “ Among the Lotus Eaters .” They are in a relationship, but not so committed that it will meaningfully impact the show, as Batel is on another ship. There is nothing wrong with Star Trek asking its audience to embrace interpersonal dynamics, but those dynamics must actually have weight. Otherwise, it feels like watching pieces being shuffled aimlessly around a board.

This is where the themes of “Subspace Rhapsody” get a little muddled. One of the more interesting aspects of Strange New Worlds is its recurring fascination with the idea of gender and performance. This is most obvious with Spock, particularly in episodes like “ Spock Amok ” and “ The Serene Squall .” The show returns time and again to the idea of gendered archetypes and the idea of heterosexuality as a sort of performance. “Ad Astra Per Aspera” and “Charades” are both episodes about “ passing .”

Whether fairly or not, stage musicals and pop music are not seen as stereotypically or conventionally heteronormative masculine spaces. As Kelly Kessler argued , “The performance of song and dance – as well as musical theatre – culturally has been associated with non-hegemonic or queered masculinity.” It is such an accepted cliché that Neil Patrick Harris famously opened the 2011 Tony Awards by jokingly assuring straight audiences that Broadway is “ not just for gays anymore .”

“Subspace Rhapsody” is obviously playing with this. A subspace fold prompts big musical numbers, and those songs find characters expressing their emotional inner lives. The crew find that emotional openness to be an existential threat. “Lieutenant, are you telling us that our emotions constitute a security threat?” Pike asks Noonien-Singh incredulously early in the episode. However, after performing his own musical number to Batel, Pike seems to agree. “The subspace fold, I think we should blow it up,” he states bluntly.

Obviously, it is not only male characters affected – Noonien-Singh is among those most horrified at the thought of being rendered emotionally vulnerable. However, it does tie into longstanding tensions about how men are socialized to repress their emotions . After all, the episode’s stakes only really escalate when the stereotypically macho Klingons are affected. One of the episode’s best gags features a deeply humiliated Klingon boy band, with the Empire vowing to destroy “the abominable source of our dishonor.”

It’s clever and well intentioned, but it is also shallow. As with so much of the show’s interrogation and subversion of gender roles, there’s a lack of diversity of perspective. All three primary couples in the episode are heterosexual, with no queer perspectives represented in what has traditionally been seen — as James Lovelock points out — as “ a safe ‘queer space’. ” More than that, the episode ends with the rift closed. Spock goes back to being his stoic and repressed self, with no sense that he has grown or learned anything.

It’s easier to appreciate “Subspace Rhapsody” as pure spectacle. There is a lot of fun to be had in rhyming technobabble — “inertia dampeners” with “hampered,” “your last breath” with “mek’leth.” The choreography makes impressive use of the show’s sets, with Chapel getting a big crowd number in the crew lounge and Spock using the safety railing in engineering like a balcony. Indeed, there’s something charming in the Enterprise and Klingon ships literally dancing in space like they’re in a Busby Berkeley number.

“Subspace Rhapsody” is an episode that it’s easier to admire than to enjoy. It’s a pleasant enough tune, but it’s not a showstopping success.

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Inside the ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Musical Episode — ‘Picard’ Almost Got There First

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There have certainly been musical moments in “Star Trek” before: Uhura sang while Spock played his lyre in “The Original Series”; Data and Picard duet to Gilbert and Sullivan in “Insurrection”; James Darren played a holographic nightclub singer on “Deep Space Nine.” But it took “Strange New Worlds,” the critically revered Paramount+ series nearing the end of its second season, to stage an entire musical episode.

The emotional clarity that drives suddenly “breaking into song” was actually an ideal fit for wrapping up most of the characters’ recent storylines, showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers said to IndieWire in a new interview. “The thing that made it a comfortable fit is that it’s still essentially a ‘Star Trek’ episode, and not just a ‘Star Trek’ episode but the ‘Star Trek’ episode that needed to be the ‘episode nine’ of our [10 episode] season. We need resolution in order to get us into episode 10, which in this case, Henry was going to write part one of a two-parter.”

The episode, directed by Dermott Downs, also has a very clear in-universe reason for existing: a subspace rift has altered reality so that people can only communicate through singing when they’re feeling intense emotion — the kind of climactic emotions involved in season-long storylines being resolved. “Fundamentally, I’d be game to make every episode nine a musical,” Goldsman said, “because it’s a great way of getting right to the heart of the issues the characters are bringing into the show and to resolve it in a really emotional way.”

The cast encompasses a wide range of singing skill levels from the professional vocalist polish of Chong, Gooding, and Rebecca Romijn (who plays First Officer Una Chin-Riley) to Mount, whose most notable on-screen singing was in a car with Britney Spears in 2002’s “Crossroads” (but who brings an admirable rocker-y growl to some of his musical moments in “Subspace Rhapsody”). Vocal lessons were provided over one to two months to anybody who wanted them, as was the option to re-record once the final mix was in place. Most of the actors had spent so much time in prep, including putting in extra hours on the weekends, that many stayed with their on-set recordings. “The surprising thing was that everyone had worked so hard, they were pretty happy with what they came up with at that point,” Myers said.

Staging a musical episode requires a greatly expanded pre-production timeline and Myers started making calls to prospective songwriters six months in advance of the shoot, landing quickly on Tom Polce and Kay Hanley. The process from there had to be profoundly iterative, with Polce and Hanley sending multiple versions of each song to the episode’s writers, Dana Horgan and Bill Wolkoff, to make sure that they fit with what they wanted for the characters.

The thing that’s especially remarkable about “Subspace Rhapsody” is that it’s the immediate follow-up to the darkest episode in the series to date, “Under the Cloak of War,” in which Dr. M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) seeks a fight with a Klingon defector, kills him, then covers it up (with Nurse Chapel helping the cover-up). “There’s a moment in ‘Subspace Rhapsody’ [during the song about people dealing with the things they’re holding onto] where you pass his face and you really see him, he looks at Chapel and they share this look that feels like it comes from that episode,” said Myers. “But we also wanted it to feel like its own thing because this is its own episode with its own tone.”

“We spent a lot of time talking about trying to bring back all the feelings of ‘Star Trek,'” Myers said. “A lot of those [like ‘Take Me Out to the Holosuite’] were ones that really spoke to me. I know that they spoke to Akiva as well, which was just that ‘Star Trek’ changes every week and tries different things. The baseball episode is one of my favorites. It’s shockingly good. It’s like shocking how good it is today. We really wanted to come at it like that. ‘Star Trek’ can be different every week. It’s something that we both missed is what I can say because we’re really delighted to be able to bring that kind of idea back.”

“Subspace Rhapsody” is definitely the culmination of that idea. And though the “Star Trek” of old had 26 episodes to take a chance on a big swing like a musical episode, Goldsman notes that the 10-episode format allows for greater resources to be applied as well as time for production that would never be possible with 26 episodes: “There would certainly not have been time to do it anywhere near as thoroughly.”

The funny thing is that there was one other possible opportunity for a musical episode in the streaming era of “Star Trek.”

“We were like, ‘Yes, call him!'”

“Then two days later we were like, ‘What happened?'”

“Michael went, ‘He didn’t call me back.'”

“Subspace Rhapsody,” the “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” musical episode is now streaming on Paramount+. The Season 2 finale will stream August 10.

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Of course Star Trek looked to Buffy for its big musical: 'That was our bar'

Co-showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers tell EW how they pulled off "Subspace Rhapsody" on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Warning: This article contains spoilers from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 9, "Subspace Rhapsody."

When it comes to musical episodes of television, few have done it better than Buffy the Vampire Slayer . The producers behind Star Trek had that pop culture event on the brain when they set out to make the sci-fi franchise's first-ever music-fueled extravaganza on Strange New Worlds season 2.

"That's one of the best made ones," series co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers tells EW of 2001's "Once More, With Feeling," in which Sarah Michelle Gellar 's supernatural warrior faces a demon of song and dance. "It was done very well. It's really smart and thoughtful. It has big heart. The only thing I will say that I distinctly thought differently was that they wrote their own music, and I knew that that was a little more than we could handle. But that was kind of like, let's challenge ourselves to be as good as the best of this [genre]. That was our bar."

As time went on, Myers realized they actually could write their own music, with help from Letters to Cleo rockers Kay Hanley and Tom Polce, who crafted the songs. "Subspace Rhapsody," the penultimate episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 (now streaming on Paramount+), sees the likes of Captain Pike ( Anson Mount ), Number One ( Rebecca Romijn ), Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), Spock (Ethan Peck), and the rest of the U.S.S. Enterprise breaking out into musical numbers after an encounter with a quantum probability field. They all find themselves operating by the rules of a parallel reality in which everyone sings all the time, which causes problems for anyone trying to hide their emotions, including La'an (Christina Chong) and Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush). The problem gets bigger when it starts spreading to other spaceships.

"I'm a huge fan of musicals, but had no idea what it took to actually make one," says Akiva Goldsman, the other co-showrunner on Strange New Worlds . Myers had worked on musical episodes of Ugly Betty and The Magicians , but Goldsman was coming in fresh. "When we started on season 2, a small voice, like a gremlin kept going, 'Music. Musical. Musical.' And Henry kept going, 'Not yet. Not yet. Not yet,'" he continues. "We were going back and forth on the story, and we sort of knew where the character arcs were. Then, to our delight and terror, the idea of what we needed to do emotionally in episode 9 and the idea of a musical went hand in hand."

With a script written by Dana Horgan and Bill Wolkoff, the producers got to work on "Subspace Rhapsody" about six months ahead of filming, Myers estimates. Goldsman likes to say, "This episode happened in large part before it happened," meaning most of the execution went into prep, including dance rehearsals and singing lessons. Director Dermott Downs also wanted to shoot the episode like a musical, which means the shots are "a little more wide and you really see people doing things, you're not in their faces all the time," Myers explains. "It was a lot of work from a lot of people, but the one thing I remember waking up and thinking was that everyone will expect this to be silly. We should surprise them and have it be gut-wrenching and emotional."

Some of that can be credited to Gooding. It was clear to everyone from the start of the show that their Uhura actress had some pipes. An early episode of Strange New Worlds season 1 saw her singing out tones to activate a piece of alien tech. So, it's no surprise that the actress is the one to get the musical's big power ballad, "Keep Us Connected." "What we do like to do is write to our cast," Goldsman remarks. "It suddenly became clear that a lot of the folks who we work with had musical theater in their backgrounds or real musical training. The universe was conspiring to get us to throw down in that way."

Peck was less confident about pulling this off, Myers notes: "I don't think Ethan thought that he could do it, and he surprised everyone by having this crazy deep voice, the baritone, that was kind of beautiful."

Now that it's all come together, it almost feels like a miracle that it even happened. Goldsman looks back to when the news of what would become "Subspace Rhapsody" came up during the closed-door meetings with the other showrunners from across the active Star Trek series. "All I remember was people being like, 'Okay, sure,'" he recalls. "This is basically the tenor of all the [meetings], which is somebody will say a bunch of stuff and then somebody else will go, 'Wow, that sounds cool.' Subtext: 'Please don't f--- it up.'"

Goldman adds, "We were like, 'If we're gonna do this, we gotta do this.'" And so they did.

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Related content:

• Star Trek is getting its first-ever musical episode
• How Star Trek brought the 'chaos bomb' of Lower Decks to Strange New Worlds
• Star Trek: Lower Decks stars enter the world of live action in first look at Strange New Worlds crossover

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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

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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.

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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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Mr Spock belting out showtunes? How Star Trek became a fizzy, frantic romp

From an alien rights courtroom to cartoon characters visiting the Enterprise, this prequel series wildly experiments with sci-fi – and the musicals episode is the latest oddball delight

I n space, everyone can hear you sing. That’s the premise of this week’s special musical episode of the Star Trek prequel Strange New Worlds, which swaps photon torpedoes for jaunty flashmobs as the crew of the starship Enterprise find themselves inexplicably bursting into song – much to their bemusement. It’s an oddball delight, even if the science behind it seems a little fuzzy.

When a classic recording of the Cole Porter musical number Anything Goes somehow creates a harmonic quantum field (we know), characters are compelled to reveal their deepest emotional secrets via belt-’em-out Broadway-ready numbers. The crew are pleasingly aware of how daft the situation is even as they strive to resolve being made to sing original songs by Kay Hanley and Tom Polce from 1990s alt-rockers Letters to Cleo . It is slightly cheesy, very self-indulgent and clearly designed to boldly launch a thousand memes of Mr Spock singing his Vulcan heart out. But it is also heartfelt, in keeping with the show’s unfashionably optimistic outlook.

There is an eccentric tradition of US TV series’ embracing their inner glee-club kid by staging a musical episode, from high-kicking fantasies Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena: Warrior Princess to postmodern sitcoms such as Scrubs and Community. These interludes tend to occur in later seasons, when shows have found such a familiar groove that hard-pressed writers are either looking for a fun way to keep things fresh – or are just running out of ideas.

That doesn’t apply to Strange New Worlds, which is only in its second season. This week’s barrage of show tunes kind of makes sense, given that this is a series that, Mr Benn -style, has been trying on a different genre every week. Being set on the classic USS Enterprise and featuring younger versions of recognisable characters such as Spock and language savant Uhura (lady-killer James T Kirk is also floating around in the background, although yet to graduate to captain) seems to have given Strange New Worlds the confidence to experiment. A ship-wide outbreak of full-throated singing is not even the strangest thing the show has attempted in the last fortnight.

A recent crossover episode with Star Trek: Lower Decks – the ribald cartoon spin-off overseen by the former Rick and Morty writer and producer Mike McMahan – brought cartoon characters (voiced by The Boys’ Jack Quaid and Space Force ’s Tawny Newsome) on to the Enterprise. The interpolation of animated sequences and live-action (explained by the classic Trek plot device of a time portal) created a fizzy, frantic romp.

Spock – one of Star Trek’s most highly regarded, serious characters, played here by Ethan Peck – is frequently placed into farcical situations more suited to Frank Spencer. A season one episode channelled Freaky Friday by trapping Spock and his Vulcan fiancee in each other’s bodies, forcing them to vamp their way through crucial missions. This season, his pointy ears and sharply symmetrical haircut vanished when a shuttle accident transformed him into the pouting, impulsive equivalent of a hormonal teenage boy. Somewhere up there, Leonard Nimoy – who directed the 1980s comedy romp Three Men and A Baby – is raising a Spock-like eyebrow in approval.

But the phasers are not always set to fun. There has been a terrifying riff on Ridley Scott’s Alien, with chest-bursting xenomorphs hunting harried crew members on a stranded ghost ship, plus an impassioned, episode-long courtroom drama exploring alien rights and even a Trek spin on Richard Linklater’s romance Before Sunrise , with two Starfleet officers from different timelines bickering and bonding on a mission to present-day Toronto.

This hopscotching is an antidote to the recent wave of ambitious small-screen sci-fi that leans heavily on serialised storytelling, from Prime Video’s hardscrabble asteroid belt drama The Expanse to Apple TV+’s densely plotted, millennia-spanning Foundation . Even Star Trek: Discovery , the series that relaunched the franchise on TV in 2017, has leaned into epic, season-long stories that skew to the dark and brooding. The pick ’n’ mix approach of Strange New Worlds is a welcome palate cleanser, even if it means any overarching story arcs seem rather secondary (the second season wraps up next week and you would be hard-pushed to identify a unifying theme). It all chimes with the highly episodic spirit of the original series, when audiences of the late 1960s were presumably never sure what the next week’s instalment would bring. As Cole Porter said: anything goes.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Where to watch.

Watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds with a subscription on Paramount+, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

Cast & Crew

Anson Mount

Captain Christopher Pike

Rebecca Romijn

Science Officer Spock

Nurse Christine Chapel

Christina Chong

La'an Noonien-Singh

Celia Rose Gooding

Nyota Uhura

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds : How Lin-Manuel Miranda Ghosting a Picard EP Led to That Memorable Musical Episode

Keisha hatchett, staff editor.

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Nobody is having more fun making television than the creatives behind Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . That was evident in this week’s episode, “Subspace Rhapsody,” a musical installment which found the Enterprise crew involuntarily sharing their true feelings through song.

Co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers confirms that Thursday’s Strange New Worlds was, in fact, influenced by the Buffy musical.

“That was definitely an inspiration,” he tells TVLine. “We held that up as like, ‘OK, well, we have to live up to that because if we do this badly, it will not go well, and we would be upset by it. And none of us wanted to do it badly.”

The idea for a Star Trek musical came up while Picard executive producers Michael Chabon and Akiva Goldsman were enthusiastically chatting with star Michelle Hurd about the prospect of one on the Picard set.

Goldsman, who also serves as EP and co-showrunner on Strange New Worlds , recalled how Chabon told them he knew Lin-Manuel Miranda. “We were like, ‘Call him! call him!”” the EP shared. Two days later, when they followed up with Chabon, he told them, “[Lin-Manuel] didn’t call me back.”

“And that was the end of that musical,” Goldsman noted. “But it did seem like such a good idea. As soon as Henry and I got together to make [ Strange New Worlds ], I kept peppering him with, ‘We should do a musical,’ and Henry, of course, had done musicals before.”

Myers, who oversaw musical episodes as showrunner on Syfy’s The Magicians , “was like, ‘You know they’re really hard,’ and I was like, ‘Well, they can’t really be hard, can they?’ knowing nothing about how hard they could be. But my blind optimism, I think, finally persuaded Henry’s pragmatic, actual practical understanding of the heavy lifting required, and off we went.”

“It has to come late in the season because there’s a lot of work that is required. I remember I started making calls about six months out because we needed to find a composer, we needed to find a lyricist, we needed to start designing what we would do for the sets,” he continues. “Once they’re finally ready, they shoot more quickly than you think. But it’s the months and months and months before that, while you’re making a TV show and doing lots of other things, that make it extremely hard.”

TVLine has reached out to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s reps for comment.

What did you think of Star Trek’s first musical episode? Grade “ Subspace Rhapsody” below, and then share your thoughts in the comments!

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54 comments.

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I’m relieved that they didn’t end up trying it with Picard. A musical is a much better fit for the lighter, wackier tone of SNW. – I had totally missed the Magicians connection – I always loved their musical moments, which were often hilarious but actually delivered real emotional impact.

I am still missing “The Magicians” and I won’t ever forget the cast perform “Take on me”.

I absolutely loved the arrangement of Take On Me performed after Quinn’s death.

i can’t recommend the books enough. There are a few differences, some major, but theres more story and a much more satisfying conclusion.

That was an experience!!! The talented cast pulled it off… The other thing is as well as the musical numbers, it revealed a lot… Didn’t just sing for singing purposes… The songs revealed stuff the the audience and it actually pushed the stories of this season forward and answered some fan questions like for instance about Spock and Chapel.. As a one of event, it was fun.. And it looked like the cast all had fun doing it as well which is a great thing.. Hope they all can get back to work soon…

Did anyone else notice the main Klingon was played by same actor who portrayed Hemmer?

Really? I didn’t know that. Makes it even more fun.

I love any and everything Lin Manuel touches. Feels strange to me that any Star Trek is related to that, but ok.

Except this happened specifically because he *didn’t* touch it…

I’m not a big fan of random musical episodes (I’m that person who hates the Buffy musical episode), but this was better than I thought it would be. More interested in the “Dr. Korby” easter egg and trying to remember if Kirk ever mentioned a “Carol” on the OG series – definitely no mention of Jim Kirk having a child, but his brother Sam did. At least the show can say they did it and never have to do it again.

Never mind about the Carol Marcus bit; I looked it up and it’s from the Wrath of Khan movie, including the reference to Kirk having a child that I had completely forgotten about (I know, everybody loves that movie but it’s not one of my personal favorites so I don’t remember all the details from it)

And to add to this, in the second TOS pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before, Gary Mitchell mentions having set Kirk up with a “little blonde technician” whom many people assume was Carol Marcus, or at least that the Wrath of Khan writers kept this line in mind when creating the character.

Kirk being an absent parent wouldn’t have been accepted as a lead on a 1960’s show, but it was obvious from how old David was in 1982 that he was conceived before TOS ever began.

Well, even Kirk didn’t know he was a father. I love that the are playing with the cannon. I hoping for more surprises!

No, Kirk knew he had a son. Carol asked him to stay away.

It seems almost every show now does has a musical episode, it it’s a sci-fi or fantasy show. Going all the way back to shows like Xena, Buffy to more resent shows such as The Flash, even Gray’s Anatomy did one. The only one that was any good IMO was the Buffy the vampire one. I really just hate them with a passion. as such this is the one episode I’m just going to watch something else, and return for the week after.

It was horrible and a rip off of Lin’s music in Hamilton

I felt no connection to Hamilton at all in it.

There really wasn’t, but most of the music was obviously derivative of other musicals (one song obviously had most of its parts derived from Let It Go). I rationalized it as the wave was using the ‘great american songbook’ so obviously all the song swould have been derivative of clssics.

Uhura won hands down – she got some pipes

No. I’ve watched Hamilton many times. This had no Hamilton vibes whatsoever.

Wow. A Star Trek the musical… the other OG Trekkers will probably go cranky over this episode but I loved it! And that cast has some pipes! The only negative was that the Klingons had better choreo. Krunking Klingons. Oh my…..

I AM an OG Trekker and I absolutely loved this episode! I hate musicals where the story is stopped for a musical number. Here, the songs propelled the story. It was well done and the cast looked like there were having a blast!

Very good singers. And K-Pop Klingons — I have no words. But, overall, not that good. BTVS is still about the only non-musical show that has pulled off a musical episode.

Xena would like to have a word with you about that comment.

I really liked it and tjhe nod to Buffy’s Once More With Feeling by bringing up bunnies.

And Uhura said, “I have a theory…” I replied, “…that it’s a demon.”

I thoroughly enjoyed the episode. This season has been top-notch and the episodes keep getting better.

As a die hard ST fan this show showed promise last season but has clearly “jumped the shark”

You mean last season when Spock and his fiancee swapped bodies and an omnipotent child transformed everyone into storybook characters? If you haven’t figured out what this show is by now, you aren’t paying attention.

LOVED the episode!! Thank you cast and writers.

Going in, I felt the same way I did before the Buffy musical came on — I hoped it wouldn’t embarrass a show I liked. Nothing to worry about in either case. I’ve watched this a couple of times, and liked it the first time, but loved it the second. . Celia Rose Gooding is a powerhouse, but it was Christina Chong and Jess Bush that really did it for me. Chong in an excellent singer and dancer, and she has that way of going straight to your heart, as she did in Doctor Who. The Bush number was interesting, for example in the way Chapel flirts with a man and a couple of women in celebrating the freedom the fellowship will give her. Ethan Peck was also very good, and you wanted to take poor Spock aside and tell him that it’s a three month break and he should at least talk things over with Christine before withdrawing from emotional involvement forever. This Nurse Chapel is a surprisingly complex character, and Jess Bush has been giving a strong performance, particularly in the episode before this. . It was fun to see Anson Mount and Melanie Scrofano singing, among others. Rebecca Romijn isn’t as strong a singer as Celia Rose Gooding or Christina Chong, which is hardly a criticism, but she is very good, and she’s a pleasure to listen to. . I’m incredibly slow on the uptake, but until now I hadn’t clicked with the fact that Number One’s first name is Una, which means one in Spanish or Italian.. .

worst episode ever in the history of all trek series combined

This is just factually inaccurate Star Trek TNG had so many brick episodes, the worst of which is the one with david ogden stiers Any episode that reolved around westly crusher, objectively worse, especially if it involve ashley judd and an addictive space checkers game

Let’s not forget the Voyager clunker where Tom Paris turns into a lizard and mates with Janeway. Can not watch.

They were salamanders, not lizards! They were salamanders!

LOL!! I don’t want to remember LOL!!

The best was Chapel’s “musical” number in the lounge. I have to admit that I thought that this episode was going to be SNW “jump the shark” moment but it wasn’t. The story as to why everyone would break out in song was well thought out. The next best “musical” number were the singing and dancing Klingons! I had thought that a ST musical would be better as a Lower Decks episode, but everything considered it was better than I expected it to be.

The first season was sharp, suspenseful with good character development and storylines. This season is not. It is bordering on stupid. This episode and the one combined with lower decks, for me were unwatchable.

Dear Star Trek, If you’re resorting to Musical Episodes to remain relevant and trying to do something “unique” with your Franchise then it’s probably time to give it a rest. You’ve had a good run but come on… You’re done. You belong in a museum now. Sincerely, -Me.

I have retired in 2005. The person you are adressing is just an impostor that uses my name.

Regards, (The actual) Star Trek

While I thought they did an excellent job, I would have preferred it on a stage in a theatre. I’ve been a Trek fan since Day 1 and did not like the episode.

Pure cringe

It was a fun episode and I enjoyed it. I didn’t care for some of the songs and no song really stuck with me, but that Klingon scene was absolutely hilarious.

Surprisingly excellent in its execution both in demonstrating Cast & supporting Writers/Producers’ talent & most importantly sticking well within the series story line. Well done!

I don’t normally mind (or especially like) musical episodes, but I feel like they packed way too many numbers into this episode. Seemed like they’d start the next song 30 seconds after the last one ended. And the songs were mostly “meh”.

I loved every minute of it. Funny because I felt it had a “Lin-Manuel” flow, but to find out he actually had nothing to do with it is interesting. Well done!!

This headline had me scared that this was going to be another stop-start Lin-Manuel musical – was pleasantly surprised when I watched the episode that the songs were SONGS!

This was a really fun episode, goofy in a good way, and it was very nice to see the whole cast getting a lot to do – something this season has not been great about juggling. The Klingons’ shame was hilarious.

There were some very fun numbers in there and they tried hard to make everything relevant and pushing the characters forward. Not every song was a winner, most were too long, some of the lyrics got awkward and some character work still felt trite, but this was a stellar effort all the same. Great acting, fantastic production team, and a fun bold concept. The idea of an improbability field is straight out of Douglas Adams.

The Infinite Improbability Drive! . Actually, I took it as a sort of self-parody. They’re always pulling rabbits out of hats — nebulas as magical places, particularly when they contain Boltzmann brains, people hallucinating because their spaceship passed through deuterium, deuterium somehow hosting extradimensional beings, whatever that means, and so on. They do it so blithely and their “science” is such word salad that I wonder sometimes if they’re winking at you, as well as getting their plots from A to B, keep moving, nothing to see here. . This time they obviously were joking. You had “subspaces” with “quantum improbability fields” like zippers that someone thinks might have gotten stuck in a musical theater mode and which are somehow shut off if everybody sings at once and exceeds a specific threshold measured in GeV that somebody just knows. I found that very funny. . In more serious contexts, I kind of hate it when a show waves its hands that way. It’s like assuming your audience is so ignorant that you can double talk them and they’ll believe it. SNW does some of that, sometimes in ways that drive you nuts, but on the whole it’s pretty good at not putting you in that position.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Directors Post Filming Updates

Posted in: Paramount+ , Preview , streaming , TV | Tagged: preview , season 3 , star trek , strange new worlds

We've got updates from two directors on Paramount+'s Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn & Ethan Peck-starring Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

When we last checked in on the recently renewed, 2025-returning third season of Paramount+'s Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn & Ethan Peck -starring Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Mount was throwing down the gauntlet to all of the cosplayers out there that they're going to have their work cut out for them after they see what Season 3 has to offer. Speaking of Season 3, we also have an update on how filming is going from two directors who are no strangers to visiting "strange new worlds." First up, we have a look at  Jordan Canning (S02E05: "Charades"), who took to Instagram to post a pose with Romijn & Peck on the set ("Always happy to be the redshirt between these two 🖖🏻 🌌"). Following that,  Maja Vrvilo (S01E02: "Children of the Comet" & S02E10: "Hegemony") shared a look at their office door to confirm that they will be directing the season's 10th episode ("Returning to the Mothership🖖") – otherwise known as the season finale:

Here's a look at Canning & Vrvilo's posts, offering a look at how things are flowing with Season 3:

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Jordan Canning (@jjhcanning)

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Maja Vrvilo (@majavrvilo)

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Showrunners on Season 3 & More

"We're going to keep going. We genre hop. So where we haven't been, we will try to go. Henry's watchwords for Season 2 were, 'Let's do Season 1, just bigger and better.' That's become the truth of Season 3. We're always doing the thing that we do best, which is secretly just a lot of relationship stories in space. We'll keep unfolding those, hopefully in ways that are different, in the same way, that the tones of our episodes will be different. But yeah, ambition will taper off only when we can't figure out a thing to do we haven't done before," Akiva Goldsman shared with Variety back in August when asked what boundaries he and co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers were thinking of taking on next season. Myers added, "The joy of doing the show — Akiva and I spent a lot of time on this — is trying to come up with something really great and cool and different for our actors. The more challenging stuff you bring them, the harder they will work. We want to bring them great material so that they will continue to do incredible things."

With the Season 2 finale now streaming, Myers discussed how confident the creative team was about finding resolutions to the cliffhangers in play heading into the third season. "The best way to approach this is with a deep sense of confidence. We were very upfront with all of our folks internally about what we were doing. They were very supportive of it. We wanted it to be a surprise," the co-showrunner shared. "I remember how the ["Star Trek: The Next Generation" cliffhanger episode] 'The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1' made me feel. That was what we wanted to revisit for the audience, to really surprise them."

Myers continued, "By the time we were shooting that episode, the first season had come out, and it did very well. We were trying to take risks. We knew it was going to be challenging, but it's crazy if you don't try the challenging things. The opportunity when you have a show like this is to make it as interesting and surprising as you possibly can. Sometimes that just means taking risks. This was a big season of risks. So by the finale, we had done so many risks, it was kind of like, 'Yeah, sure!'"

Paramount+'s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is based on the years that Captain Christopher Pike ( Anson Mount ) manned the helm of the U.S.S. Enterprise, following Pike, Science Officer Spock ( Ethan Peck ), and Number One ( Rebecca Romijn ) during the years before Captain Kirk boarded the U.S.S. Enterprise as they explore new worlds around the galaxy. The streaming series also stars Jess Bush as Nurse Christine Chapel, Christina Chong as La'an Noonien-Singh, Celia Rose Gooding as Cadet Nyota Uhura, Melissa Navia as Lt. Erica Ortegas, and Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M'Benga. The second season will also feature the return of special guest star Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk and new addition Carol Kane in a recurring role as Pelia. Jack Quaid (Boimler) & Tawny Newsome (Mariner) from "Lower Decks" will be crossing over in a live-action way this season, directed by none other than Jonathan Frakes .

Paramount+'s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 is produced by CBS Studios, Secret Hideout, and Roddenberry Entertainment. Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers serve as co-showrunners. Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, and Jenny Lumet serve as executive producers in addition to Alonso Myers, Aaron Baiers, Heather Kadin, Frank Siracusa, John Weber, Rod Roddenberry, and Trevor Roth

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Screen Rant

Star trek: strange new worlds season 4 needs another lower decks crossover.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 is confirmed and the best chance to see Star Trek: Lower Decks when the animated show ends with season 5.

• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 needs to have another crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks.
• More opportunities for the casts to meet include Lt. Spock meeting fellow Vulcan Lt. T'Lyn.
• Strange New Worlds season 4 is the best chance to see the Lower Decks cast again in a further mix of animation and live-action.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 needs another crossover episode with Star Trek: Lower Decks . Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 7, “Those Old Scientists, ” saw Lower Deckers Ensign Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and Ensign Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) time travel to encounter Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and the USS Enterprise crew in the 23rd century. The exciting and emotionally resonant Star Trek crossover was lauded by fans of both shows and provided important character and narrative development.

The renewal of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds for season 4, alongside the news that Star Trek: Lower Decks will not be renewed after season 5, is a bittersweet reality check for fans but may also present an opportunity to capitalize on the success of the first crossover between these two shows with another one in Strange New Worlds ’ season 4. The growing prominence and influence of Tawny Newsome over Star Trek’ s modern shows and Strange New Worlds showrunners’ interest in further collaboration suggests that another crossover may be a possibility .

Tawny Newsome is a writer on Paramount+'s upcoming Star Trek: Starfleet Academy series as well as voicing Mariner on Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Strange New Worlds Season 2 Cast Guide — Every New & Returning Star Trek Character

Strange new worlds season 4 needs another star trek: lower decks crossover, star trek: strange new worlds season 2, episode 7 - "those old scientists".

Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Tawny Newsome says there's no crossover episode in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, but the possibility of reuniting the USS Enterprise and USS Cerritos casts remains open. Ensigns Beckett Mariner and Brad Boimler visited the Starship Enterprise in Strange New Worlds season 2's crossover, but a sequel could see additional USS Cerritos officers’ involvement or even fully bring the live-action USS Enterprise crew into the world of animation, allowing fan-favorite characters like Lt. D’Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) and Lt Samanthan Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) to interact with other Star Trek characters .

Imagine Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck) meeting Star Trek: Lower Decks ’ Vulcan Lieutenant T’Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz).

Imagine Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck) meeting Star Trek: Lower Decks ’ Vulcan Lieutenant T’Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz) or a live-action Dr. Migleemo (Paul F. Tompkins) showing Dr. Joseph M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) the finer points of food-metaphor psychiatry. The dynamic between characters like Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), Lt. Shaxs (Fred Tatasciore), and Dr. T’Ana (Gillian Vigman) could also create engaging storylines, allowing options for additional animation. With the success of the first Strange New Worlds crossover and both shows’ strong fan base, another joint-venture episode in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ’ season 4 seems a natural progression , continues important character developments, and, most importantly, allows for a continuation of Star Trek: Lower Decks .

Strange New Worlds Season 4 Is The Best Chance To See Lower Decks Again

Strange new worlds can bring the enterprise and cerritos crews back together..

When Star Trek: Prodigy was canceled by Paramount+, an online fan campaign successfully saved the show, with Netflix acquiring it for a second season. This suggests a similar option exists for Star Trek: Lower Decks to continue with a new streaming provider. However, with Lower Decks having already completed a five-season run and fans not responding with the same umbrage and passion that saved Star Trek: Prodigy from cancelation, the likelihood of this happening remains uncertain. Nevertheless, there are still avenues – and interest – for the USS Cerritos crew to embark on new adventures.

Star Trek: The Next Generation icon and Commander William Riker actor Jonathan Frakes directed the Strange New Worlds & Lower Decks crossover episode, "Those Old Scientists."

A second crossover with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds offers the most promising chance to see Lower Decks again after it ends with season 5. Given how well-received Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 7 , “Those Old Scientists" was, there is scope and precedent for further development of this collaboration. Strange New Worlds season 4 presents the best chance for Star Trek: Lower Decks to make a triumphant return . Both Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Lower Decks' diverse creativity and genre-blending offer numerous possibilities for an engaging and innovative second crossover, including the potential for a multiple-episode story arc.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Lower Decks are available to stream on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Lower Decks

Star trek: strange new worlds.

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• April 25, 2024 | Prep Begins For ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 3 Finale; Cast And Directors Share BTS Images

Prep Begins For ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 3 Finale; Cast And Directors Share BTS Images

| April 25, 2024 | By: Anthony Pascale 15 comments so far

Work on the third season of  Star Trek: Strange New Worlds  continues to move swiftly in Toronto and looks to be set to wrap up next month. We have some fun bits from the set shared by the cast and a couple of directors, as well as some details on the production.

2 more episodes to go

First up, a selfie from director Jordan Canning, who previously directed the season 2 episode “Charades.” The image posted earlier this week shows the director with Ethan Peck and Rebecca Romijn and has the message, “Always happy to be the redshirt between these two.”

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Jordan Canning (@jjhcanning)

TrekMovie has confirmed that Canning directed episode 8, which has wrapped. Filming for episode 9 has already begun, with Andrew Coutts directing. This will be the directorial debut for Coutts, a co-producer and editor on the show. The 10th and final episode of the season will be directed by Maja Vrvilo, a Paramount+ Trek veteran who has directed episodes of Discovery , Picard , and Strange New Worlds . Earlier this week, she posted an image of her office door, indicated prep work for her episode had already begun.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Maja Vrvilo (@majavrvilo)

Anson has a challenge for cosplayers

There have also been a couple of fun recent social media updates from the cast. First up, Anson Mount posted on Twitter/X that season 3 will require cosplayers to bring their “A-game” as he shared some creative fan costumes.

I will say this about season 3 of #StarTrek #StrangeNewWorlds : Cos-players, you better be ready to bring your A-game. #Cosplay @StarTrek @StarTrekOnPPlus pic.twitter.com/mZ9gMmIhsL — Anson Mount 🖖 (@ansonmount) April 16, 2024

One new look for cosplayers to try is an armed Nurse Chapel, as seen in this short video from Jess Bush showing off her phaser holster.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Jess Bush (@onejessa)

Finally, on the day of the big eclipse, some of the Strange New Worlds team took a moment to check it out. Bush shared an Instagram story with herself and co-star Melissa Navia rocking their eclipse glasses. (They had 90% totality in Toronto.)

Last week brought big news for Strange New Worlds: It’s been renewed for a fourth season. Paramount+ recently confirmed season 3 will debut in 2025.

Keep up with news about the  Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com .

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I LOVE holodeck dude in cosplay!

I’m curious how long their entire season shooting period actually is.

Usually 5 to 6 months. This one started just before Christmas.

I know I’ll end up watching it, but I’m just not excited for the next season. Season 2 was all over the place, in my opinion. For every episode like Those Old Scientists or Ad Astra Per Aspera, there was rubbish like The Broken Circle and Under the Cloak of War and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. I like the cast, but the quality isn’t there- and for all the talk of “big swings” and pushing the envelope- Season 2 was almost painfully generic.

Same here. I’ll be tuning in, but it’s not up there on my ‘must-see right away’ list. I feel like overall, the storytelling floundered during S2, legacy characters written badly, and a distinct corny popcorn feel to it. Both Spock and Pike were reduced to bumbling sidekicks. Hoping S3 has a bit more gravitas to it. Like you said, not the fault of the cast. All blame goes back to the writer’s room. I’m more than happy to consider this show as existing in its own separate timeline, as has been confirmed.

I still can’t get over how *boring* the finale was. It felt like it went on for hours and yet nothing actually happened besides a super-quick and appallingly shot fight in zero-g. Season Two really dropped the ball.

I agree. I don’t even remember what happened in the finale, except Pike at the end hesitating like a scared junior officer when the situation called for fast decisive action. As for the season in general, it feels empty, like nothing really happens in the episodes. I hate the way they turned Spock into a moron. There are better ways if the writers wanted to put some humor in… I’m sure the 12 year olds found it funny but adults are watching too…

They seem to be testing the water for the Academy show with teen romances also. Spock, Chapel / La’an, Kirk and Pike, Batel were all shallow romances and just really boring that took up way too much time in the season. They seriously need to get back to writing some good sci fi stories or this show will go down as one of the worse Star Trek series for me. It seems more of a comedy starship show than the Orville at times. And season 1 had so much promise as well.

The SNW writers room has a chalk board titled Gimmick Board only they misspelt it Big Swing Board. Hopefully they can’t destroy Spock’s character anymore as they have already scraped the bottom of the barrel with their writing of his character.

So relieved I’m not the only one who felt this way. I hear “game changer” and “big swing” and I think “great, they’re effing with my show again to bring in the non-Trek fans”!

Yes, to them “big swing” means having the characters do things completely out of character and turning Star Trek into a Broadway play. Sure the musical was original and unexpected, but really out of place, and I will never be able to get the K-Pop Klingons out of my head.

I didn’t mind the musical episode (probably because I love musicals!) but on the whole, the season felt soulless and devoid of anything interesting to say (outside of Ad Astra Per Aspera). It’s as though the entire season was written by committee and was deathly afraid of offending the fandom by doing anything even slightly controversial.

I’ve had this feeling since the first season. Anson Mount is a wonderful lead, but they’ve completed destroyed the character that we got to know in Season 2 of Discovery. And they need to do something with Spock besides him being a complete and utter pig to women.

I’m absolutely giddy for this next season. Season two was fantastic and I cannot wait for this next season.

I really wish studios would get it together. They used to be able to turn out twice the number of eps or sometimes more every year without year-long pauses between seasons.