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

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"

Can we talk about how great it is that they keep tinkering with the opening credits for the special episodes? Because I love it every time they do. Fukkin acapella man.

Loved it. I was most surprised that the whole cast all had such beautiful singing voices.

La'an's song touched me the most because I'm someone who also doesn't really dare to do the things I'd like to do.

A bit sad that we didn't get a Klingon opera but the alternative was ... well, interesting too. 😄 Also, I kinda hope that Spock solving diplomatic crises with the Klingons by drinking excessive amounts of blood wine will become a running gag.

SNW continues to break new ground really well. This was a really refreshing episode and very well done. I for one loooved this episode.

Alright, I get that musicals are not everyone's cup of tea, but as a person who watched multiple dozens of Broadway musicals, I must say that the songs were really on par with actual musicals. The cast can really sing well -- I expected many great things from Cecile Rose Gooding and wow she did not disappoint. I was very pleasantly impressed by Christina Chong, Rebecca Romijin, Ethan Peck's performances as well.

I think the director made sure to highlight those actors that can sing well and put those that can't sing into secondary positions. Clearly Grammy-Award winning/Tony Award-nominated Gooding was at the center of the story, and they cut off Anson Mount's song, because well, he isn't the greatest singer. They even fully acknowledged that Babs Olusanmokun can't sing in universe as well. :) The ensemble pieces in the teaser and the finale were superb though and was a lot more entertaining than the solo pieces (which I get is probably much easier to rehearse/record and produce).

I loved that the episode intertwined music as a piece of the story, pushed the character arc forward between Spock/Chapel and La'an/Kirk. I am not so much of a sucker for La'an/Kirk but the alternative universe scenes were really a nice touch. The only cringey part was the Klingon K-pop/rap, but I suppose it was intentionally cringey/funny.

Whether you like this musical episode or not, you gotta admit that SNW really boldly goes where no one has gone before.

Thoughts/Observation as I watch:

• Where will this stand in the long history of Star Trek gimmick episodes? After all, this is the franchise that gave us "Trials and Tribble-ations", "Take Me Out To The Holosuite", "In a Mirror, Darkly", the OG "Lower Decks", and most recently... "Those Old Scientists". Holy shit, that was just two episodes ago and in between we got the darkest Star Trek thing in years!

• Uhura having to be the operator sounds like the most stressful thing to do that doesn't involve imminent danger.

• "Even if it's not fully necessary." That basically sums up every contrivance to get Kirk on board.

• KORBY ALERT

• Ah, spatial distortions, the cause and solution to everything.

• The facial acting as they enter musical-land is priceless.

• Acapella theme song!

• "So... that happened."

• "Quantum uncertainty field". That's some Hitchiker Guide type stuff.

• Ah, they brought back the Gilbert and Sullivan stuff.

• I like how they are hanging a lampshade on just how BIZARRE it is that people sing out their biggest secrets and deepest feelings in musicals.

• Good save, La'An.

• "Surprisingly beautiful baritone"

• It could have been worse for the crew. Imagine if Uhura had broadcast opera into it, then they'd ALWAYS be singing.

• Shaxs would suggest blowing it up by ejecting the warp core.

• Gratuitous zero-gee is gratuitous.

• Oh god, singing Klingons.

• Yeah, the Klingons would also like the "let's just blow it up" plan.

• Wait were those extras twins?

• Apparently the improbability field also affects the lighting of the bar.

• Isn't K'tinga the later type of Klingon ship? Ah, screw it, musical rules.

• "I don't love rules but I think you're about to break a big one."

• This totally is going into Temporal Investigations Kirk file.

• CAROL MARCUS REFERENCE

• Oh shit, David Marcus reference!

• "I'm the Ex" standing as if X in a math question is a good bit of workplay.

• Kind of surprised it took this long to give Celia Rose Gooding a full-on solo.

• Grammy-Award winning singer!

• A grand finale. How meta!

• Boy Band Klingons was not on my bingo card.

• Lol, playing the TOS theme as a curtain-closer

• "You sang about lying to me."

• "Sorry, Earworm."

• All-and-all, it was a good enough gimmick episode. But it was no "Take Me Out To The Holosuite." ("DEATH TO THE OPPOSITION!")

I didn't think they'd skip the opportunity to give us singing Klingons but the end result was just...wow. chef's kiss

I absolutely love Pike's "exasperated" face. It's possibly a bit overused this season but it cracks me up every single time because it's how I'd probably react if I were in his shoes and it's so unlike how the previous Starfleet ship captains would react, even when the situation fully merited it.

This episode will forever be the test of whether someone who likes Trek is a fun person.

10/10.

It could be bunnies

I was wondering why the Klingons were all pissed off about singing. They love their opera.

....and then I saw the performance and was like ah yeah I bet that would be completely humiliating for them. 😂

I loved this episode!

If I had a nickel for every time Uhura solved a problem by singing at it, I'd have two nickels. That's not a lot, but it's the same number as how many times Chakotay's been lost in the Delta Quadrant.

This was a fun episode. Some bangers, though I agree with some of the people who think some songs could have been shortened. The unexpected Klingon boy band was an amazing gag that didn't overstay its welcome. Overall, I think it's great to have Trek embrace the old-school campiness from time to time.

Anyone else convinced Captain Batel is kinda doomed? Pike got off the relationship trauma fairly easily in this episode.

I've come to the conclusion that SNW is the entry point series.

Do you like legal dramas? Perfect, here's a great LGBTQ allegory episode!

Do you like goofy animation like Rick and Morty? Here's the crossover with Lower Decks!

Do you like gritty serious war stories? We're still dealing with the trauma of the Klingon War!

Do you like showtunes? Somehow we pulled that off too! (also Chapel's song is a straight banger)

SNW is the show I'd introduce my friends to in order to get them into Star Trek as a larger thing. I think it's an easier entry point than any other series.

Touching on the actual character moments for a bit here: the events of this episode do not reflect well on Chapel.

She'd been hitting on Spock literally since the beginning of the show, and openly pining after him for most of that time. Four episodes ago, she winds up breaking down in tears explaining to an alien telephone receptionist how much she cares about him. Two episodes ago she is extremely distraught when Boimler accidentally lets slip that Spock is famous in the future, and her relationship with him almost certainly will not last. And now, she gets into a three month fellowship that she didn't think she had much of a chance at, doesn't say a word to Spock until she has no other choice, and then busts out a (involuntary, but reflective of genuine emotion) musical number about how "free" she feels. What the hell.

We already know Chapel has some problems with commitment, but this is a whole 'nother level. Throwing away a relationship she spent most of this show obsessively wishing for, without any apparent consideration for Spock's feelings or non-breakup solutions to spending a couple months apart, is just wild. I'm sure the finale will touch on this with a little more nuance than a musical number was likely to give, but whatever else is said this is not a good look.

I found it peculiar how the Klingons were saying there was no honor in the singing—considering how into Opera the can be known to be—up until I heard how they got the most egregious of the autotune.

That was so stupid. I love this show.

It was wacky and I loved It! I laughed my ass of with the Klingon part

Episode was good. Klingon part was funny. Liked how the played the TOS theme after the "grand finale" was finished.

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.

Loved it.

Some amusing details:

• For Pike's singing voice, he adopts a kind of Meatloaf/Russell-Crowe-in-Les-Miz style that is exactly the right mixture of masculine and adorable.
• The build up to the Klingon Boy Band: We know that Klingons love opera, heightened emotions, spontaneous group singing, and choreography (if you're willing to consider martial arts a form of choreography). La'an even explicitly mentions singing old sea shanties which would seem to be an obvious way to translate the Klingons into musical form. So naturally, I was shocked that the Klingons would not immediately assimilate into their new musical reality. I even told my husband, "I can't believe the Klingons would want this to stop!" And when it hit, everything made perfect sense.

Another amazing episode and a certainly fresh idea for the Klingons with their K-pop, or Kling-pop?

I think they towed a good line on whimsy, emotion and gimmicks and kept it well grounded as character exploration. Let's force everyone to process their season's emotional growth in song!

Also I have to say I love how much focus SNW gives to lower ranking officers. Classic trek always ended up focusing on a few senior officers but this is a proper ensemble number.

Only thing I want more now is this with Elle Cordova doing her Star Trek technoblabble songs in it.

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

Oh man, loved that episode. The grand finale was so good! I loved that part when

One thing I love about SNW is the variety of stuff they try.

What the heck, this episode must have taken so much effort like 20+ minutes of singing + music (and the writing of the songs as well), and in a good half of those requires choreographed dancing as well, the a capella version of the intro, and a few orchestra versions in the credits

I was grinning almost the entire time for this episode, it was just....fun! And it moved the plot along too! (Although you kinda need to with so few episodes in a season)

What a lovely episode.

I saw a fair amount of skepticism across the Fediverse about how musical episodes are always bad and annoying, to which someone would always respond "well, Buffy nailed it." Apparently the SNW writers feel the same way, because "Subspace Rhapsody" isn't just a homage to "Once More With Feeling," it's a love letter. They may have swapped the demon for a subspace wedgie, but they kept the idea of using music to force the characters to confront their feelings about each other, and they even threw in a bunny callback.

10/10. I hope SNW maintains the tradition of a theatrically silly episode near the end of each season as long as it runs!

Upfront: I love musicals. I have to say this episode is just so creative and original. I think it is one of my all time favorites across all the series. Strange New Worlds has done such a good job bringing back the light-heartedness in a franchise that had become so overly dark and serious - and this is the pinnacle of that effort. Season 2 has just been outstanding.

Kirk and Uhura are real ones for never telling McCoy that Spock had a phase of being proud to be human until he got dumped by Nurse Chapel. He never would have let him live it down.

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

We all must have done some pretty amazing stuff in our past lives, to deserve this season we are getting.

I feel like I’m the only person who was SUPER excited when the musical episode was announced, and.. rather underwhelmed by the actual episode. (Except for the a capella theme song. I adored that!) Maybe my expectations were too high, but.. I just didn’t think most of the songs were that good. I need to rewatch it a couple times, maybe it’ll grow on me.

According to the Ready Room, Bruce Horak played the Klingon captain!

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).

I love Star Trek, and I love musicals. These are two of my favorite things, and I never thought they should mix. When this was announced, I was very skeptical. I have to say, that they pulled it off, and it was AMAZING! The plot was a bit meh and definitely made to shoehorn in the musical, but the singing really did it for me. "How Would That Feel" (La'an's solo) and "Keep Us Connected" (Uhura's solo) were my favorite songs, and I have listened to them so much today. "How Would That Feel" definitely cemented La'an's place as my favorite character.

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!

Fantastic episode! Loved it from cover to cover. I like how we have Spock reverting back to being classic Spock in a musical episode. Arguably it makes this episode one of the most important episodes to canon. Also did Kirk know about Marcus beforehand? I swear he learned about him in Wrath of Kahn but I haven't seen that film in forever.

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.

SNW playing with the format we all know and love continues to pay off.

Trek has a very, very long history of the space anomaly of the week causing hijinks to ensue. And these hijinks were epic. Especially considering the sheer amount of raw broadway-class talent SNW has.

And the foreshadowing with the drinking-song-belting, sea-shanty-and-opera-loving Klingons getting pissed off about the "we have to sing everything" bit was hilarious (and Pike's "WTF" face was the icing!)

I know it's a one-shot, but bloody brilliant.

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

This is such an incredibly well done show.

What an absolute gosh darned delight that was. I love musicals but I tend to be pretty cynical about musical episode of TV shows, but I think that's probably the best one I've ever seen? It helps that a. its still a coherent episode with a plot about the musical itself, b. its effectively paying off three or four different emotional character arcs we've already spent a lot of time with and c. the music is actually really well written both lyrically and compositionally

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?

honestly who knew La’an and Uhura would be the main characters this season? And I'm crushing on Chapel and Uhura and La'an right now. This episode only made it worse. Yeah there are three damned handsome guys on the show. But those ladies... might be my favorite of all star trek. La'an's doomed relationship was heartbreaking btw. I knew this was happening with Spock so it didn't hit so hard (I thought they'd last longer). Meanwhile Pike's love (who is also insanely cute with that smile) may be heading for danger now. We need to do a poll to see if the woman on SNW are more loved then the men. And good songs.

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.

So, the time has finally come. I want to mention that I'm not a huge fan of musicals, this translates to that tend to only watch them if external circumstances push me to watch one and I only enjoy if they're really well done. Well, circumstances have pushed me, and... it was meh.

I thought the songs weren't particularly memorable, the productions were a bit underwhelming and the dancing nearly non-existent.

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.