Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | 2x09 "Subspace Rhapsody"

LoglineAn accident with an experimental quantum probability field causes everyone on the USS Enterprise to break uncontrollably into song, but the real danger is that the field is expanding and beginning to impact other ships—allies and enemies alike.

Written by Dana Horgan & Bill Wolkoff

Directed by Dermott Downs

RHTeebs ,
@RHTeebs@startrek.website avatar

That Klingon Boy Band was hilarious. The pause was just perfect.

ValueSubtracted OP Mod ,
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website avatar

I loved the episode overall, but that Klingon fleet should have been commanded by L’Rell herself (though that was an extremely fun way to bring back Bruce Horak without shoehorning the Ghost of Hemmer into it).

GaiusGornicusCaesar ,
@GaiusGornicusCaesar@startrek.website avatar

God I wish there was more Klingon Heavy Metal out there…

CeruleanRuin ,
@CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world avatar

General Gorkog was Bruce Horak? That’s awesome.

Also more fuel for my running theory that Hemmer isn’t truly dead. I think they’re holding onto him for a surprise return in the coming confrontation with the Gorn.

maegul ,

but that Klingon fleet should have been commanded by L’Rell herself

Whaaaattt … this exists!! Man … that klingon in the verses really works well! And yes, giving us something a bit more faithful to klingons feels like the missed opportunity of the episode … pretty sure there would have been a way for it be comedic and klingon at the same time.

ValueSubtracted OP Mod ,
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website avatar

I’m okay with what they did - they were tapping into the Broadway Musical Universe, after all, not the Epic Klingon Opera Universe.

lagomorphlecture ,

I thought it was hilarious and works with their dishonor but I also wouldn’t have loved if they had been head banging to metal or going to town on some Klingon opera.

Cynoid ,

So, I’m a good public for this I suppose, since I loved Mamma Mia, and am a real fan of rock/metal operas. And I think this episode is… surprisingly decent?

I mean, the singing was surprisingly good, even with autotune (I mean, if you ever want to hear a real musical disaster, try Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia ; everyone here is pretty much excellent compared to that), so kudos to crew. The music was uneven : some parts were quite bland/uninspired, but I very much loved the common theme of “I’m ready”(catchy!)/“I’m the X”(lovely!) and the two widely different feelings.

On the plot side, you can feel they are trying very hard to brush over how nonsensical this musical thing is. And, somehow, I’m glad that not much progress happens here : you can summarize what happens as “La’an tell Kirk about the time-travel event, Spock gets dumped for a study program, Pike have a minor fight. And musical subspace shenanigans.”, which will sure come in handy if you’re allergic to musicals and (re-)watch the series.

But yeah, it was fun. The “La’an cut the captains couple argument in the middle of signing”, and the boys-band/K-pop klingon were unexpected.

Overall, I think this episode somewhat suffer the comparison with the Lower Deck crossover. The s02e07 was a real Star trek story : if Lower Deck wasn’t a thing, “These old scientists” would still be a decent story, it’s the meta element which push it into the land of deep sillyness (even when, like me, you don’t really like Lower Decks). “Subspace rhapsody” is… a musical. It’s good fun! But I was hoping for a bit more.

lxskllr ,
@lxskllr@mastodon.world avatar

@ValueSubtracted

Pretty silly episode. I'm not a fan of musicals, and I was dubious going in, but it was fun. They managed to make it as good as a musical could be for my tastes. I'm happy it was made, and I'm happy to have seen it. That's about the highest praise I could give for something like this.

triktrek ,

Some of the lyrics were really clever and fun:

Spock: “I solved for the Y in my computation … but the variable so devastating: I’m the ex / X”.

At the same time: "When we gain control again, I confess"

  • La’an / Pelia: "I’ll miss the singing"
  • Spock: “I won’t miss singing”
UESPA_Sputnik ,
@UESPA_Sputnik@feddit.de avatar

Spock: “I solved for the Y in my computation … but the variable so devastating: I’m the ex / X”.

Thanks. Now I get it. IIRC the subtitles had “solved for the why” and then the X didn’t make any sense. That is indeed clever.

My favourite Spock bit came at the end during the grande finale. Everyone was singing “we know our purpose, to protect the mission – our prime directive”, and Spock just goes “not exactly”. 😄

Odo , (edited )

The Klingon breakdown in the final song about had me laughing so hard I was almost in tears. I appreciate using the songs to move various character storylines forward. It feels like everyone ended the episode in a much better place, outside of Spock. …and maybe M’Benga…he didn’t seem thrilled with the singing, though he certainly had some fancy footwork during the final song.

triktrek ,

I feel like poor La’an is in a worse place now. She just doesn’t get a break. :(

CeruleanRuin ,
@CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world avatar

On the other hand, she made a breakthrough in actually opening up to Kirk, and he didn’t reject her for it. If anything, him being unavailable for other reasons may be a relief to La’an, releasing her to focus on other things now that she knows that door is closed to her (at least for now).

triktrek ,

Yeah, I guess.

But also, jealousy can be a difficult emotion to deal with, and La’an already had to deal with a lot this and past season. But then again, she’s a tough one.

Jfillian ,
@Jfillian@twit.social avatar

@ValueSubtracted Delightful episode. I laughed, I cried, I (would have) bought the t-shirt. I have really enjoyed some of the risks they've taken this season, this one and the Mashup with Lower Decks and punctuating with the powerful war episode. I've looked forward to Thursdays.

praxi ,

This was such a fun episode. I so enjoyed all of the male and female vocalizations. It was as campy as the TOS episodes could sometimes be, but I loved it. Definitely on my rewatchable episode list when in a light mood.

CeruleanRuin ,
@CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world avatar

If I could make one tweak I would have made the music itself feel less 2020s contemporary and given it more of a funky 1960s flavor, because I could absolutely see TOS doing something like this.

praxi ,

Could you have imagined an updated hippie singalong? I so wish that had happened! Even a Herbert or two

kmccoy ,

This was incredible. Loved seeing Celia Rose Gooding so clearly in their element. And Bruce Horak returns in one of the strangest Klingon moments yet!

CeruleanRuin ,
@CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world avatar

I love a good comedy relief Klingon moment. They nailed that. It was just goofy and unexpected enough to get a good laugh and they knew just when to cut it off before it overstayed its welcome.

triktrek ,

Wait, what? I didn’t realize the Klingon captain was Bruce Horak!

williams_482 ,
@williams_482@startrek.website avatar

I was not optimistic; musicals are definitely not my favorite genre. I was pleasantly surprised.

This is such an incredibly well done show.

BrooklynMan ,
@BrooklynMan@lemmy.ml avatar

someone watched The Magicians and said, “Hold my Romulan ale”

soo… for anyone wondering, the music is great. unlike other shows with musical episodes, the music is all original and written/performed of the episode (although I didn’t see Lt. Cmdr. Auto-tune listed in the credits…). It’s plot appropriate, and not shoehorned-in or overdone. There’s a great tone balance, and it comes off like a great American stage musical. I had serious doubts regarding whether they could pull it off… but they did. It was cute, clever, and fun.

I’m a trekkie of the old guard who abso-fucking-loutley 🔥HATES🔥 DSC for shitting down the throat of canon (and just being terrible), but, but I’ve been giving SNW a fair shot. S1 was okay, but S2 has been more promising— HOWEVER, these last few episodes have been very Star Trek, and in new, innovative ways that are refreshing and, dare I say… fun? But, also, serious when they SHOULD BE.

Season 2 of Strange New Worlds is just great, and I guess someone at Paramount is finally listening to all of the screaming from Trek fans about the fire hose of diarrhea that’s been blasting at us so far, and decided to put out some quality content at long last. THANK GOODNESS, because this? This is awesome!

ValueSubtracted OP Mod ,
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website avatar

Going on a tangent to complain hyperbolically about a different show is both unwelcoming and off-topic.

BrooklynMan , (edited )
@BrooklynMan@lemmy.ml avatar

so you’ve deleted a comment because you personally disagree, and wrapped that action in an excuse which doesn’t pass muster that’s invisible so it’s past scrutiny.

how convenient for you

but you deleted this comment because you’re mad I criticized DSC, and you know it. and that’s bullshit.

AzPsycho ,

Another great episode. The a capella theme song was great too.

GummySquirrel ,
@GummySquirrel@startrek.website avatar

10 minutes in, Oh I like it!

GummySquirrel ,
@GummySquirrel@startrek.website avatar

46minutes, kind of over it. Would love to hear a Klingon song

darelik ,

If there was a klingon-side spinoff, this episode would be entitled:

Bat’leth of the Bands

khaosworks ,
@khaosworks@startrek.website avatar

Annotations up at: startrek.website/post/628489

erbazzone ,

Ok, a post from someone that really hate musicals and was worried about this episode. So sorry if I will over criticize the episode…

I admit the episode was so fun at the beginning and songs were nice, loved La’an and Una parts they were really good. I was thinking the episode was a banger. I loved so much the opera opening too.

Unlikely it started to lose my attention around on Chapel’s song (also because the autotune was so evident in her and I found the Chapel Spock relationship the worst part of the series) and the second part was a little hard for me to follow, the music too was less interesting and even if Uhura has a great voice her solo song was too long and def not my cup of tea, I didn’t even understand what was trying to say. It could have worked for me with less songs.

It was interesting I have fun for more than I thought and I laughed so much with Klingons, it was often close to clinginess but it was ok at the end.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • [email protected]
  • All magazines
    •