Strange New Worlds: Subspace Rhapsody

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, having successfully staged a crossover with a cartoon, decided in its penultimate episode of season two to give us that most gimmicky of television stunts: a musical episode. (Though perhaps the real shocker is that in nearly 900 episodes of television, the Star Trek franchise never served one up before now.)

While experimenting on an unusual subspace phenomenon, Spock and Uhura entangle their reality with another which adheres to the conventions of musical theater. Soon the entire crew is breaking into song -- revealing emotional secrets in the process -- as they try to restore normality before a Klingon battle group causes widespread destruction.

With two union strikes underway in Hollywood, there's not much the writers and actors can tell us about the creation of this unusual episode. Still, you can watch the episode itself and see that a major touchstone was the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (There's even a shout-out to bunnies, for fans of both franchises.) Though many series (dramatic and comedic) have done musical episodes over the years, they're almost always siloed endeavors that you really can "take or leave" according to your willingness to accept the gimmick. Buffy's musical episode was different, deeply integrated into the ongoing story lines at the time, forcing characters to reveal deep secrets to one another and kicking off new plot lines that would turn the course of the season.

"Subspace Rhapsody" takes that same approach to fully integrate the episode with ongoing story (just as "Those Old Scientists" did), resulting in an episode that really matters. The episode grapples with multiple elements of season two, from Pike's rocky romantic life, to Una's resolve to be more open in the aftermath of her trial, to La'an's deeply impactful time adventure, to Spock and Chapel's new relationship, to Uhura's gradual journey toward self-assuredness following her promotion. These are more plot threads than you could normally advance in a satisfying way in a single episode, but here the fact that this is a musical episode is leverage to do exactly that. All that and more (Kirk mentioning Carol Marcus!) can thus be included here while not feeling "packed in."

All that said, some of the songs were more effective than others. Naturally, it helped when an accomplished singer was being featured. Celia Rose Gooding and Christina Chong have both starred in major musical productions, so it's no surprise that the solos for Uhura and La'an were the biggest "show stoppers" of the episode, weaving emotion and musicality to absolute perfection. Yet the weakest number of the episode for me wasn't due to the performance. Ethan Peck showed off a surprising effective baritone, though I thought his big number missed the mark emotionally. Spock basically sang about being dumped, in a number that felt centered on the wrong embarrassment; his deeper shame is surely that he dared to express more emotion and now it hasn't worked out.

That's just a minor quibble, though. Really, there's just one significant issue I'd raise against the episode: I think it should have leaned in harder. I imagine there was a lot of behind the scenes discussion about whether a significant number of Star Trek fans would accept a premise this fantastical (though far fewer seem to have an issue when the "magic" results from, say, Q snapping his fingers). I say that once you've taken the leap, just go for it. The most impactful moments in the episode fully embraced the musical conceit: cuts to dancing redshirts in the corridors, the auto-tuned Klingon boy band (it's K-Pop, get it?!) -- or, on the more serious side, La'an's visions of another reality with Jim Kirk.

I think there could have been more of all that -- if not in the script, then at least in the directing and cinematography. Director Dermott Downs (who, incidentally, has done a few "musical episodes" now for other series) did do a decent job of moving the camera enough to keep this from feeling like we were sitting static in a theater, watching a stage... and yet there wasn't a lot of variety in the visual presentation, either. More theatrical lighting, more fully realized dance numbers (like Chapel's), more spectacle could have pushed this episode to even greater heights.

Still.... it did soar to respectable heights for me. If there's one Strange New Worlds episode from season two that I re-watch obsessively, it's going to be "Those Old Scientists." But I'd still say "Subspace Rhapsody" deserves an A-.