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

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.

PilksUK ,

When they announced this episode I hated the sound of it… Not Trek at all I said but I have to say after watching it was like ok that was fun lol

LibraryLass ,

Star Trek had a long history of taking cues from capital-T Theater, so a musical was kind of a logical extension of that.

most_peculiar ,

Looks like they even made a soundtrack for this, and it is on all major streaming services. Some new tunes for my musical playlist. Seriously loved this episode.

47_alpha_tango ,
@47_alpha_tango@lemmy.zip avatar

Apple Music Link

lawrence ,

Spotify Link

triktrek ,

YouTube Music Link

estebanknobl ,
@estebanknobl@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t like musicals… at all. But I really enjoyed this episode. The whole cast is so good. I had a lot of fun watching (and listening to) it.

StillPaisleyCat ,
@StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website avatar

I loved the episode. I’m not a huge fan of American musical theatre, but this really worked for me and my partner.

The tone was just right and the songs were well matched to the skills and characters. It’s delightful.

It was also really nice to come to this community and soak up all the positivity. I really needed a place to come like this after watching episodes. As we see it a bit later on CTV Sci-fi Channel in Canada, I can often feel blasted with fan backlash when I check out people’s views after watching.

Yes, there are a few folks here for whom this isn’t there kind of thing, and they are letting us know. We’ve not however seeing brigading negativity that is cropping up on some other social media. I can appreciate that some want their Trek more dignified and serious, but the ‘worst thing ever’ hyperbole is a bit hard to take when Threshold and Code of Honor exist.

canis_majoris ,
@canis_majoris@lemmy.ca avatar

I think the main split in the Trek fandom now is how serious a tone people tend to prefer. Most of TNG was professionalism porn, and most of the 90s stuff was generally serious. A lot of people got used to that, and whenever I talk to them about stuff like SNW or LD, their chief complaint is that “the characters act immature and are too quippy”. To an extent, I can agree and see the point of view, but on the other hand, I really like it when Trek doesn’t take itself too seriously.

I like to argue that the TOS era was a less mature era of Starfleet in general which causes the familiarity with the bridge crew to be more socially profound as opposed to professionally based. To whit, I remember SNW directly addressing things like this wherein they discuss “General Order 1” being renamed “The Prime Directive” which I feel is evident of a maturing organization.

Strange New Worlds doesn’t take itself seriously unless it has to. It’s been great about totally experimenting with the Trek formula to create unique, fun and memorable episodes. The plot devices are straight out of the 70’s, with random space anomalies impacting the crew. They modernize the storytelling and keep up the pace, which is always just what the TOS era needed.

NuPNuA ,

I’d disagree that all the 90s series were too serious, they all took time out for more wacky stuff but they were hidden in 24 episode or more series. DS9 for example had loads of Ferangi family sitcom stuff, the bond episode, the baseball one, the heist, worfs wedding, all the mirror universe episodes, the TOS crossover, etc all within the backdrop of the bajoran restoration and then the dominion War.

canis_majoris ,
@canis_majoris@lemmy.ca avatar

Most of the people who argue that the new stuff is not serious enough would probably consider most if not all of those sillier episodes from the old days to be not worth watching. There’s tons of DS9 watch orders that are like “Skip the Bajoran restoration, don’t watch the Ferengi episodes, don’t watch the Mirror Universe, etc”

Some people just dislike fun!

felixxx999 ,

DS9 had what seemed to be a whole season singing swing songs in the holodeck…

canis_majoris ,
@canis_majoris@lemmy.ca avatar

One of my favorite things ever is the DS9 instrumental for the heist episode. It’s just great.

TheGayTramp ,
@TheGayTramp@lemmy.ca avatar

Voyager had the captain proton episodes which are tremendously silly as well

NuPNuA ,

Good shout. Forgot about them.

brandoncarey ,
@brandoncarey@vivaldi.net avatar

@canis_majoris @StillPaisleyCat

TOS could be downright goofy sometimes. Tribbles, Harry Mudd and his android wives, Spock jamming with the Space Hippies™. Sure, there were heavier episodes like City on the Edge of Forever, but ... c'mon, it was the 60s! Not everything could be US Space Navy vs the Evil Aliens.

TeaHands , (edited )
@TeaHands@lemmy.world avatar

Ok I love musicals so was definitely looking forward to this one. Did anyone else find it a little disappointing?

There was a bit too much moping and not enough joy, for me. That’s what makes a good musical episode so great, they can progress the plot while giving us an over-the-top fun time. But instead we had everyone singing a sad song and then one or two upbeat numbers, none of which were particularly catchy or entertaining. Like, if you’ve seen it even just once or twice years ago like I have you can probably remember some of the songs from the OG Buffy episode, but we watched this last night and by the end I genuinely couldn’t even remember the supposed grand finale song.

Boy band Klingons made the wait worth it, but I spent most of this episode spaced out a bit and just half-listening rather than watching which is the first episode I can say that about.

Shoutout to whoever decided to redo the theme music though, that was inspired.

Also the talk about bunnies has to be a reference to Buffy, right?

Mezentine ,

Honestly this episode feels written by Sondheim fans more than anything, which is why all the G&S references were so odd to me lol. Definitely less focus on “fun” but I think all the lyrics were really clever and expressive and the way that all of the songs felt like they reinforced character work successfully was a feat even if none of them are particular “catchy” in that ear-worm way. Company is probably my favorite musical of all time but its pretty hard for me to hum you anything from that show

khaosworks ,
@khaosworks@startrek.website avatar

I’m not sure about Sondheim - it doesn’t really have his feel and the music and lyrics for the most part aren’t as thematically disciplined and crisp as I expect from a Sondheim musical.

The feel was a bit more contemporary pop, like a Pasek & Paul piece.

lonlazarus ,

I don’t love musicals in particular, but aren’t anti-musical, and I felt the same. The songs weren’t memorable, the numbers were a bit dull, and nobody really danced much except for extras that they hired that were clearly dancers. If you’re going to pull of a musical, gotta go big, SNW didn’t go big.

Hogger85b , (edited )

Agree. I love musicals (Buffy musical episode, scmigadoom) and was really looking forward to this. The first song I though yes this is great..... but when Una started singing to Kirk I thought meh....and the songs never really got any better. Just got too much into the angst and no joy (except chapels song that was a banger and should have been the tone of all the other songs)

astroturds ,

That was insane, I was in equal parts cringing and laughing my arse off.

I knew La’an would be amazing. I was also very excited when I realised Kirk would be involved.

The singing of the intro should be permanent.

clobubba ,

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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    StillPaisleyCat ,
    @StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website avatar

    Christina Chong just released an album.

    ThirteenthWorrier , (edited )
    @ThirteenthWorrier@mstdn.social avatar

    @ValueSubtracted
    Subspace Rhapsody is the greatest episode in all of Star Trek canon.

    I will die on this hill.

    Edit: cannon -> canon

    GaiusGornicusCaesar ,
    @GaiusGornicusCaesar@startrek.website avatar

    I’ll join you, great episode.

    ThirteenthWorrier ,
    @ThirteenthWorrier@mstdn.social avatar

    @GaiusGornicusCaesar
    Then you're gonna be my cha'DIch from now on!

    All the haters will draw their last breaths at the end of our Mek'Leths!

    HardlightCereal ,

    Yep, it’s the best episode

    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.

    startrekexplained ,

    This was the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Not just of Star Trek but of anything ever. It was so cringey. I forced myself to watch it (on 2x speed) for completion sake, and I regret it. Thankfully I’ll never watch this again.

    Potatofish ,

    Ironically your post is at least as cringy lol

    startrekexplained ,

    If you don’t find that “singing” cringey, you’re a soulless monster.

    Potatofish ,

    Two days later and you’ve managed to dig a deeper hole. There are other hobbies out there…

    chronicledmonocle ,

    Well that episode was certainly…uh…something. Lol.

    Don’t get me wrong I loved it, but in that “oh God it’s happening again” laughing my arse off kind of way.

    Also, whoever wrote the lyrics to the first song “All Systems Stable” really made a banger.

    MikeyMongol ,
    @MikeyMongol@lemmynsfw.com avatar

    I love musicals and I love Trek so I was hoping I would love this episode, but I just didn’t, and I think it was mostly because the music was… bad? It wasn’t catchy, it wasn’t fun, there was not one single legitimate bop during the whole episode. Uhura’s last line about an earworm struck me as a sour note because… no. Not a single earworm to be had in the whole thing. I couldn’t hum a single song from that episode and I watched it less than an hour ago. The only number that had any spark to it at all was Chapel’s number at the lounge, and it was barely a spark.

    Even Una’s alleged Gilbert and Sullivan riff was barely, barely recognizable as a take on G&S. It was to G&S as a brick spraypainted orange is to a glass of refreshing orange juice. You’re gonna do G&S in a musical episode and not do patter? Come on, son.

    I just can’t get behind this episode, and I was truly prepared to be thrilled. I mean the cast tried hard, but in a musical the music has to be good, and this wasn’t.

    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

    CCF_100 ,

    I LOVED this episode! I wouldn’t be opposed to them doing another musical episode 😁

    triktrek ,

    Given that the subspace rhapsody spread to many other ships in the area, they could do a parallel episode from the point of another the ship, say the Farragut but it won’t be the same primary cast.

    ritos ,

    I would put my money on the anomaly somehow chasing Boims to the 24th century Cerritos.

    khaosworks ,
    @khaosworks@startrek.website avatar

    Annotations up at: startrek.website/post/628489

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