Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: The Musical?

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has enthralled long-time fans throughout its first two seasons. This prequel series, featuring the adventures of Captain Pike and the crew of the USS Enterprise prior to the era of Captain Kirk, has successfully captured the flavor of classic Trek, utilizing a more episodic format akin to the original show. This fresh approach to modern Trek storytelling has allowed the series to showcase a variety of genres in individual episodes, including body-switch comedy, intense war stories, time travel adventures, and in one of the wildest stylistic swings in Star Trek history: a musical. “Subspace Rhapsody,” the penultimate entry of the series’ sophomore season, is a full on Broadway extravaganza, featuring original songs performed by the actors in character.

When the Enterprise investigates a subspace anomaly which has the potential to significantly boost communication signals, Uhura and Spock  decided to use music, when their experiments to obtain a reaction from the anomaly are unsuccessful. They definitely get a reaction: a wave washes over the crew, and suddenly everyone is compelled to sing about their feelings. Things start off with an ensemble number, followed by Captain Pike warbling about his relationship with fellow Captain Batel, in full view of the bridge crew. Spock and Nurse Chapel emote about their difficult relationship in separate songs, and both Number One and security chief La'an (Christina Chong) get to sing cool tunes as well. But its Celia Rose Gooding (who portrays Uhura) who gets to belt a show-stopping number toward the episode's climax.

The songs (composed by Kay Hanley and Tom Polce of alternative rockers Letters To Cleo) are well placed within the story, move things forward, and define the characters, just like the tunes in a traditional Broadway musical. The cast is clearly having a lot of fun, and they give it their all, though Tony nominee Gooding and musical theatre veteran Chong (who plays La'an) absolutely get to show off their top-notch musical chops. "Subspace Rhapsody" is a wonderful episode, one that could have easily gone off the rails, but director Dermott Downs (who also helmed a musical crossover between the CW's The Flash and Supergirl ) does a superb job, integrating the musical aspects of the story with the ongoing development of the show's storylines.

There are some nice Easter eggs contained in the episode, including a not-too surprising romantic revelation from Lt Kirk, and a career change for Nurse Chapel that will delight and intrigue Trek fans. There's also a nod to "Once More, With Feeling" the 2001 musical episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer that's kind of the standard bearer for shows like this one. Even if musicals are not your cup of tea, I encourage you to give "Subspace Rhapsody" a try. It's a delightful change of pace for Star Trek, and another genre which Strange New Worlds has adeptly pulled off during its run. The show isn't afraid to switch gears from a dark-themed war story to a musical, and the upcoming season finale looks to be another stylistic shift. I give the cast and crew credit for taking chances within the Star Trek format, while telling entertaining and enlightening stories that are firmly in Star Trek's thematic wheelhouse. "Subspace Rhapsody" is now streaming on Paramount+.