Subspace Rhapsody
"Subspace Rhapsody" is the ninth episode of the second season of the American television series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The series follows Captain Christopher Pike and the crew of the starship Enterprise in the 23rd century as they explore new worlds and carry out missions during the decade before Star Trek: The Original Series. In the episode, an anomaly makes the crew sing like characters in a musical film. It was written by Dana Horgan and Bill Wolkoff, and directed by Dermott Downs.
Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, and Rebecca Romijn respectively star as Pike, Spock, and Number One, along with Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Celia Rose Gooding, Melissa Navia, and Babs Olusanmokun. The second season of Strange New Worlds was announced in January 2022. It was revealed to have a musical episode that July, a first for the Star Trek franchise, with original songs by Tom Polce and Kay Hanley of the band Letters to Cleo. Downs worked with choreographer Roberto Campanella and other crew members to design the musical sequences. The creative team aspired to match the quality of "Once More, with Feeling", the musical episode from the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
"Subspace Rhapsody" premiered on the streaming service Paramount+ on August 3, 2023. It was estimated to have high viewership and audience demand, and was positively received by critics for the way the musical aspects are used to explore the season's major character arcs, for the strength of the songs and how they use the different singing abilities of each cast member—with particular praise for Gooding—and for key moments such as an interlude with singing Klingons. The episode was nominated for a Hugo Award.
Plot
, recently promoted to executive officer of the USS Farragut, visits the to shadow Number One. While conducting communications experiments with a mysterious "subspace fold", Ensign Nyota Uhura broadcasts a recording of the song "Anything Goes" into it. The fold produces an "improbability field" that causes science officer Spock, and then the rest of the Enterprise crew, to begin singing about feelings like characters in a musical film.Number One and Kirk sing a duet in which she advises him to be true to himself. Chief security officer La'An Noonien-Singh, who had a relationship with an alternate version of Kirk during a time travel adventure, sees this and sings about potentially opening up about her feelings for Kirk. She tells Captain Christopher Pike that the improbability field represents a security risk. Pike is unconcerned until he and his girlfriend, Captain Marie Batel, sing about their relationship in front of the crew. Number One later sings to La'An, warning her about keeping secrets and encouraging her to be open with Kirk.
Spock and Uhura try to provoke a singing incident so they can analyze it. They see nurse Christine Chapel celebrating at the Enterprise bar, as she has been accepted to a prestigious research fellowship off the ship. Spock, who has been in a relationship with Chapel, asks her why she did not inform him of this, and she reveals in song that she has decided to prioritize the fellowship over their relationship. Spock later sings to Uhura about the end of his relationship with Chapel. After Spock leaves, Uhura is left alone and sings about her personal loneliness as well as her role in bringing the ship together as communications officer.
La'An voluntarily confesses her feelings to Kirk, but he reveals that he is in a relationship with Carol Marcus, who is pregnant. After analyzing the most recent songs, Uhura determines that an upbeat grand finale will provide enough energy to close the improbability field. She encourages the crew to sing about the fulfillment they find in working together, briefly interrupted by a ship of Klingons who sing about how they dream of killing Starfleet personnel. When the song concludes, the improbability field dissipates.
Production
Development
Executive producer Alex Kurtzman envisioned Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, a spin-off from the series Star Trek: Discovery, as an ongoing series that could cover the seven years between Discovery second season and the accident that seriously injures Christopher Pike in Star Trek: The Original Series. Paramount+ announced a second season in January 2022, ahead of the first season's release. Showrunners Henry Alonso Myers and Akiva Goldsman committed to the first season's episodic structure and said they would "go for broke" in differentiating the second season's episodes with unique genres. Goldsman said it would have some "creative stretches" and "big swings" that had not been seen in Star Trek before.Kurtzman first discussed the potential for a Star Trek musical episode in July 2020, believing the idea could be explored as part of the companion series Star Trek: Short Treks. While working on the series Star Trek: Picard, Goldsman unsuccessfully attempted to pursue a musical episode after learning that showrunner Michael Chabon knew songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda. When he moved to working on Strange New Worlds with Myers, who previously worked on musical episodes for the series Ugly Betty and The Magicians, Goldsman again began pursuing a potential musical episode. Myers thought it was too early to do one in the first season, but agreed for the second season after writer Bill Wolkoff pitched a "crazy idea" for such an episode that Myers thought was interesting. Goldsman admitted that he did not know anything about making a musical despite being a fan of the genre. Myers knew how difficult a musical episode could be based on his prior experiences and began making calls to prospective songwriters around six months before production on the episode started.
In January 2023, star Anson Mount teased that the second season had an episode even crazier than "Those Old Scientists", the previously announced crossover with the animated comedy series Star Trek: Lower Decks. He said this episode required the cast to rehearse on weekends and they had all been excited to do so. His comments led to speculation that the season had a musical episode. John Orquiola at Screen Rant believed a full musical episode was inevitable after the musical moments in the first-season episode "Children of the Comet", which featured the characters Nyota Uhura and Spock singing. In July 2023, "Subspace Rhapsody" was announced at San Diego Comic-Con as the first full music episode in the Star Trek franchise. It was written by Dana Horgan and Wolkoff, and directed by Dermott Downs. Downs previously directed "Duet", the musical episode of the television series The Flash.
Writing
The writers of Strange New Worlds first settle on the character arcs for the full season before breaking down the plot and style of each individual episode, so when work on the penultimate ninth episode began they knew where the characters were coming from, what they had to go through, and where they were going next. They planned for all of the season's character arcs to culminate in the episode, and when the idea of doing it as a musical was suggested Myers felt that "went hand in hand" with the character plans. Goldsman said, "we decided it would also be a musical and, in a weird way, that made it better. We had obligations to these character stories. And they were gonna sing it!" Wolkoff's pitch for the episode was that the would encounter an "improbability field" which creates a reality where the characters are compelled to sing about their feelings. Myers said his primary contribution to the episode was reminding the creative team that audiences would expect a Star Trek musical to be silly, but he wanted it to make them cry and be about real character drama.The creative team aspired to match "Once More, with Feeling", the musical episode from the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Myers felt that was one of the best musical episodes, calling it "really smart and thoughtful. It has big heart." The episode includes a line about bunnies as a reference to "Once More, with Feeling". Unlike that episode, the writers did not try to create the songs themselves; Tom Polce and Kay Hanley of the band Letters to Cleo were hired to write original songs. The writers gave the initial concept to the songwriters, and there was a back-and-forth between the two pairs as they developed ideas. Myers said the Strange New Worlds team were trying to make the episode feel like a true musical while the songwriters were trying to make it feel like a true episode of Strange New Worlds. He believed they came to a "great place in the middle".
One of the big character moments planned for the episode is between Spock and Christine Chapel, who are in a romantic relationship in the season but are destined to go down different paths. This is handled through back-to-back songs in which Chapel sings about deciding to leave the Enterprise and Spock sings about the end of their relationship. Spock star Ethan Peck said this moment could, in part, lead to the less emotional version of Spock seen in The Original Series. Another big character moment comes when Uhura sings about her role on the ship, solidifying her character development from an unsure cadet to a permanent member of the bridge crew. Also in the episode, James T. Kirk reveals that he is in a "complicated relationship" with a pregnant woman named Carol. This is a reference to Carol Marcus and their son David from the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The showrunners thought the series gave them a good opportunity to explore this stage of Kirk's love life, and they " the math" to ensure the timeline would work for David's age in The Wrath of Khan.
Casting
Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, and Rebecca Romijn star in the series as Captain Christopher Pike, science officer Spock, and first officer Una Chin-Riley / Number One, respectively. Also starring are Jess Bush as nurse Christine Chapel, Christina Chong as chief security officer La'An Noonien-Singh, Celia Rose Gooding as Ensign Nyota Uhura, Melissa Navia as helmsman Erica Ortegas, and Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. Joseph M'Benga.Appearing in their recurring guest roles are Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk, Melanie Scrofano as Marie Batel, Dan Jeannotte as George Samuel "Sam" Kirk, and Carol Kane as Pelia. Bruce Horak, who starred as chief engineer Hemmer in the first season, said the death of his character would not be the end of his involvement in the series; he returned as Hemmer for a guest role in the second season, and also guest stars in "Subspace Rhapsody" as the Klingon General Garkog. The showrunners said they loved working with Horak and wanted to find a fun way to bring him back again.