Everybody out of the gate has been pooh-poohing this episode. It’s a gimmick episode, it’s a this, it’s a that, who cares. It was fun. I enjoyed it. Period.
This is Strange New Worlds, season 2, episode 9, “Subspace Rhapsody.” It’s the musical episode, and I’ve got to tell you, this one definitely made me feel things.
One thing I absolutely have to do first. Happy birthday, Mama Know-It-All. It’s my mother’s birthday today, so a special happy birthday to my biggest fan, my number one fan, the great and powerful Mama Know-It-All.
I genuinely was excited for this episode. We had an opportunity to see everybody sing. Celia Rose Gooding, who plays Uhura, does an amazing job at this. She comes from Broadway, and so everyone sort of gets an opportunity to play in this playground.
The Buffy Comparison, and Why It Holds
It keeps being compared to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode “Once More, with Feeling,” which was the musical episode, and which sort of set the tone for most musical episodes moving forward. If you remember, in Buffy they had a demon that was causing everything to happen. They explained it. Everyone was very self-aware. I find myself making comparisons to “Once More, with Feeling” because that’s probably the best example of modern television doing musicals.
In this episode they encounter a subspace fold, and when they try to communicate with it, nothing happens. Spock is asserting that it could ultimately change how communication happens in the sector, or possibly even all over the Federation. It’s Pelia who says, why don’t we try music? She says it’s fundamental harmonics. If one structure of communication isn’t working, go another direction. So Uhura chooses some show tunes and sends it in, and next thing you know this pulse shoots out and washes over the entire ship. That’s when all the fun starts.
There’s almost immediately a shift. Literally as the thing comes over, people are like, what’s going on? The music changes. You start hearing these notes, bum bum bum bum, and someone’s about to start singing, and you get the opening overture of the episode. It ends all nice and big and bad, and then you get the opening titles, and they’re somewhat a cappella. I think I did hear a couple of musical instruments in the background, but overall I really liked the a cappella version of the intro song. I thought that was cool.
Everybody Is Going Through Stuff
The episode starts with Uhura giving her log while the Enterprise is analyzing the subspace fold. Spock has to use so much power analyzing it that normal communications have to go through the relay of Uhura. Nobody can send a direct call. So she’s literally like an old style operator, just sitting there. Hello, excuse me one second. Hold on one second. Thank you so much. It was very entertaining to see, and I loved that spin on this.
Meanwhile we get a look at everybody’s situation. Pike is talking to his girlfriend. They’re going to be planning a trip soon, and she wants to go somewhere very commercial. That’s not very Pike. What’s funny is, even before the show posited the premise that Pike may not like the idea of going to some normal touristy vacation place, I very much was like, I don’t know, that doesn’t sound like Pike’s cup of tea. Turns out I’m absolutely right.
They do name drop Dr. Korby. For those of you playing at home, in the original series Dr. Korby was a renowned human scientist and professor who lived during the mid 23rd century, described by Spock in the 2260s as “the Pasteur of archaeological medicine.” If you remember, the last time Chapel was dealing with archaeological medicine it was that Vulcan fellowship. Well, she has another fellowship this time, potentially to get to work with Dr. Korby, which, if you guys remember, that’s canon. It’s one of those times where I sit here and go, okay, I like it. Again, always keeping true to Star Trek, in my opinion.
Getting this fellowship would mean three months away. You also find out she got accepted and she hasn’t told Spock yet. They’re still on the outs. And I affirm very much what I’d said before: we’re going to see the end of that relationship. Everybody who was upset about it, I was never concerned in the least. I had a feeling it was going to end somehow, whether Spock was going to come to his senses in terms of, well, this isn’t what I want, or she was going to mess it up. And that’s exactly the road they went down. I like what they’re doing for her character. They’re giving her agency, but at the same time it’s clear those two are headed in a direction.
Everybody’s going through stuff, which, if you know anything about musicals, is exactly what you do. You set up everybody’s particular plight, argument, or story.
Musicals Are an Alternate Dimension in Star Trek, and I’m Here for It
When they come back, everyone’s meeting, and Spock explains that the subspace fold has generated what’s called an improbability field. With the multiverse and alternate dimensions, through sheer crazy probability there’s a universe out there where everybody sings and dances, essentially a musical world.
So what’s great is, musicals are an alternate dimension in Star Trek, and I’m here for it. For those of you who loved Glee growing up, or High School Musical: The Musical, or whatever, yeah, man. It’s interesting, to say the least, the direction they went.
They take a ridiculous premise. No offense, but let’s be real for a moment. There’s a lot of ridiculous premises in Star Trek that ask us all to take your reality hat, stick it on the suspension stand, and don’t look at it again for a little while. To act like there isn’t is just foolish. This isn’t nearly as bad an episode as some folks have tried to claim it was going to be, or thought it might be. I actually found this episode very, very exciting. It was just fun, and especially on the heels of such a hard episode like last week’s “Under the Cloak of War,” I feel like you needed something.
I do love the fact that at one point M’Benga is like, yeah, I don’t sing, and you don’t hear him sing much until the finale, which is great. I was like, right on, man. Good for you.
Secrets, Out Loud
Then we get to Spock and Uhura, who are trying to figure out the resonant frequency. The whole time, that’s what these two are doing. They’re working together to find whatever the pattern is in this whole thing, and I found that entire thing to be extraordinarily enjoyable. Because all the comms are going through her station, Spock sees the message from Dr. Korby to Chapel, and he’s like, well, I guess she must have received news. Do you know if it’s positive or not? And Uhura’s like, I don’t go reading other people’s private mail. I just don’t do that. So he’s somewhat concerned.
Then we cut to Una and Kirk. James Kirk was lent to the Enterprise this episode to do sort of an internship or mentorship with Una. Una’s considered the best first officer in the fleet. He wants to be a really good first officer, ultimately to make captain, so he goes to the best ship in the fleet to learn some things. Una has begun sharing more, and they actually explain that through this episode, which I thought was really interesting.
So she and Kirk sing a song, a little ditty. By the way, it’s not a thing. Una is literally just singing about how, in order for him to be a good first officer, he needs to learn to connect. He could try to keep that distance like some people do, but it would serve him better to be right in the midst of the whole thing and really be involved with his crew.
While they’re singing it, La’an is watching, and she’s like, did Una just open up to someone? What’s going on? She has her own response song, and in it she realizes this could get bad. So she reports back to Pike and says, listen, right now this is a security risk. The more people start singing, they’re going to sing personal things. That’s when they have to find a plan to shut the thing down.
And then there’s another pulse from the field. At that moment Captain Batel calls and wants to talk to Pike. As soon as she comes on, she’s singing. The field has expanded now and encompasses basically the entire Federation and portions of the Klingon Empire. That’s a whole thing. As they’re starting to sing personal stuff, Uhura runs over real quick, turns off the communications, and the song just stops cold.
They Follow the Rules They Set
Uhura posits that if this alternate universe is music based, then it probably works on the rules of a musical. As you get into heightened emotional states, you get to a point where the only thing you can do is break out into song. And it’s really starting to affect everybody.
Una asks La’an how she’s doing, and La’an confides in her. I don’t know what to do. I’m going to have to tell him something before it breaks into song. Una gives her some advice through a song, and it’s really funny, because while she’s starting to sing, Una walks over carrying her pad and deactivates the anti-gravs in the room, and they float into the air. Because musicals, why not?
But I love the fact that they didn’t take it for granted. Everything has a reason it happens. Silly or not, they establish rules and they follow the rules. This episode, though goofy, holds together very well.
Pike’s like, we’ve got to blow this thing up. So they transport some of the material down to engineering to see if they can, and it explodes, nearly blowing up engineering entirely. Oh, crap. So they do a model, and it shows that if they shoot the thing, the cascading explosion will destroy the entire Federation, literally shattering planets, destroying ships, the whole nine yards, and parts of the Klingon Empire.
Just then they get a communication that a Klingon K’t’inga class ship is heading their way. They bring up the ship and there’s this commander who’s like, we’re coming to destroy the thing that has brought us dishonor. So clearly the Klingons have been affected. Pike says, listen, I don’t care what else happens, this is the mission. We have to get this solved before the Klingons get here.
Chapel, La’an, and Carol Marcus
To figure out if there’s a pattern, Uhura and Spock decide they’re going to have to cause an emotional reaction in order to record it. Spock was able to record the last song, and he realizes he can get good information. Just then they’re walking by the lounge, and Uhura’s like, well, I mean, there’s something. It’s Chapel. They’re clearly celebrating her fellowship, and she feels really weird about it.
Spock walks in and has that conversation. Hey, what’s going on? And Chapel sings about it. She sings that it’s a great opportunity and she’s ready to leave. Specifically, she’s ready to leave him. It’s very matter of fact. And by the way, Uhura was recording the whole time. Spock leaves.
La’an confesses her previous encounter with Kirk, to Kirk. She literally stands in front of him and says, this happened, this happened, that happened. And he’s like, look, I feel it too, I get it, but I’m currently seeing someone. She’s like, what? He’s like, yeah, I have an off-again, on-again relationship. And he says, “You’d really like Carol.” It’s Carol Marcus. And you find out she’s pregnant.
So now we’re getting to see elements that we know are going to come, and we get to see them at their origin, at their inception. I really like that. This is what I feel a prequel series is. When they gave us Enterprise, this is more what I thought I was going to get. This is a genuine prequel. It fills out the information more fully, but it doesn’t change the tone and timbre of what came before. At least I don’t think so.
Just because people don’t like some of the styles of what’s going on, I think it’s whatever. It’s foolishness. I think this episode is really good. They’re doing a great job. It’s very Star Trek. I mean, they explain the goofy thing. Come on. We’ve had Q. We’ve had Trelane. And a spatial anomaly causing them to sing, that’s where you draw the line?
Spock Deserves a Rock Opera
Spock is hurt. He goes to engineering, Uhura finds him, and he sings about his pain. It’s funny, I put it in my notes: Spock deserves a rock opera. He’s got this tone he sings in, this deep, bassy, Spock-like tone, and I think it would fit great in some kind of a rock opera all day.
Then he leaves, and Uhura sings a song about being alone, but also that she’s the one who keeps everybody connected. It’s that song you saw in the trailer. I keep us connected, all that stuff. I got it, and again it gave me layers to the character of Uhura that I never knew I wanted.
And then she comes to the realization. She sees the pattern. Linguistics is a very specific study, and I feel like when you get into that, you’re used to hearing and seeing patterns, so this is just another variation of patterns. She gets to see it, whereas Spock was very in his own head.
She rushes up and explains they have to break the improbability field, and to do it they have to get everyone to sing. She shows what she recorded when Chapel was singing. It was just a handful of people singing and it went up a certain amount. We’ve got to get this to peak. We’ve got to get the whole ship involved.
So Pike introduces her as the voice of the Enterprise. Right there, the voice of the Enterprise. She talks to everyone, a song starts, they keep the comms channel open, and next thing you know everybody’s singing and dancing in the halls and everything.
The Klingons Had a Boy Band Song
The Klingons have arrived, and there’s this crazy moment where they’re like, we need more voices, and they open up the channel to the Klingons. If there’s dishonor, it’s that the Klingons were singing a boy band song. That was theirs. That’s their breakaway pop hit. And it was bad. It was so bad.
Even the ships are choreographed at one point. They show them and they’re all spinning in space, and I was like, all right, y’all. Big balls on you. Why not? I’m okay with that.
Then as the finale ends and they manage to break the thing, there’s an end to the show, like the coda on the music, and it’s the old theme song. Perfect. The entire old theme, right down to the ending.
When you compare this to other musical episodes of things, sometimes musical episodes are ridiculous, and the ones that work for me are the ones that put you in plausible scenarios. Look, we’re watching space soldiers, space cadets, or whatever the heck, on starships, who can magically transport across thousands of miles, and your hang-up is a musical episode. You have episodes with Trelane and Q and other spatial anomalies that do time loopy things, and all that stuff’s okay, but somehow a musical doesn’t work? Get out of my face.
Was the episode goofy? Absolutely. Was it fun? Absolutely.
The Verdict
Strange New Worlds “Subspace Rhapsody” lands at an 8.5 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.
I enjoyed it. It wasn’t the best episode ever, but it wasn’t the worst either. I’m giving it an eight and a half for this season. I think it was a solid episode. I loved the reasoning, and I loved the tonal ways this allowed storytelling to happen. They used it exactly the same way Buffy used “Once More, with Feeling,” which is that you got to hear and experience the story plots that have been happening. So you understand some things that are going down, and you use it to help move your plot forward.
This is the penultimate episode. Of course it’s going to be excellent. Based on last year’s season finale, I’m looking forward to the season finale this year. I feel like it’s going to be really good and I’m hyped for it, because, man, “A Quality of Mercy” was such a good ending. They have a high bar to hit.
This season for me has been consistent. I see reviews online saying it’s been all over the road. Not for me, man.
Let me know what you thought. Did you like it? Did you not like it? Be respectful, but tell me in the comments on the video above.
