Star Trek Strange New Worlds S2E9 Is a Musical! Got a Problem with That?

By John Kirk

Rating: B+

I have a hard time with people dumping on their fandoms.

The problem with Star Trek fans is that they hold their fandom to a higher standard of excellence than other fans. Case in point: the Toronto Maple Leafs fans. We still love our team, but we know it’s a mark of pride to suffer for our love. But Star Trek fans feel that if they aren’t critical about their favourite show, it’s like they’re not doing their job.

The Star Trek panel in Hall H at San Diego Comic Con two weeks ago revealed that this week’s episode, titled “Subspace Rhapsody,” would be a full-length musical featuring no less than 10 original songs and performances by the cast. It was immediately received by cheers of exclaimed happiness on one side and shocked surprise on the other. At least, from my vantage point at the front of the stage, that’s what it seemed like. It also seemed that way on social media.

The story: the Enterprise has discovered a subspace fold, a naturally occurring spatial phenomenon on the outer edges of the Alpha Quadrant. It has the potential to triple communications and is the object of an experiment that Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck) and Ensign Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) are eager to begin.

However, in the meantime, people’s lives on board the USS Enterprise continue. Lieutenant Lahn Noonien Singh (Christina Chong) must prepare for a visit from Lieutenant Kirk (Paul Wesley) who will be shadowing Number One (Rebecca Romijn) to learn about being a First Officer. Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) has a fellowship from the Vulcan Science Academy in the works and Captain Pike (Anson Mount) is still working on his romance. It's an episode that seems ripe for dramatic exposition.

Which is what musicals are all about.

Prior to the release of this episode, fans on Twitter were agonizing over whether this would be a “joke episode” or that Paramount Plus was “moving Star Trek further away from what they wanted to see.” Other fans opined that it “looked amazing” or that it was a chance for the cast to show how much they were all “triple threats.” In short, Star Trek fans had something to argue about — once more, with feeling.

What some fans are overlooking in their reactive moments of exuberance or dissent is how the concept of a musical gets worked into the basic premise of this story.

You see, both Uhura and Spock are trying to find a way to send messages across space in a matter of moments. Instead of sending a complicated message of varying type of information, Chief Engineer Pelia suggests that simple harmonics — a.k.a. music — could work. When attempted, the fold reacts, resulting in an energy discharge that causes the entire crew to communicate in song. Sounds plausible, right?

At least it’s as plausible as moving faster than the speed of light, dissembling people by molecule, and moving them great distances or you know, working side-by-side with strange aliens from far away planets.

There’s been a tendency for Star Trek fans to place their fandom on an altar that prohibits the exploration and development of new ways to express this show. Fans are calling this “cringey” or “weird” and to be frank, it’s definitely an odd direction to go in. In fact, some fans are worried about how this impacts the integrity of the characters that they revere. Some are concerned about it being the joke episode and the one they’ll skip.

And they haven’t even seen the episode yet.

Is it really such a big deal? Well, to fans, it apparently is. But what if the quantum insurgency field caused them to spasm uncontrollably or to de-evolve into more primitive forms of life? Energy emitted from a subspace fold seems pretty Star Trek to me and why shouldn’t it affect the way they communicate on-board the ship? I’ve been a fan of this franchise ever since I could turn the channel on a television set and that kinda sounds at par.

We saw plenty of music in the 1960’s original Star Trek. Nichelle Nichols sang and Uhura was recognized as an extremely talented musician. Leonard Nimoy had a couple of occasions to play the Vulcan lyre and grace us with his dulcet tones, and everyone remembers the “Space Hippies” episode.

I seem to recall a lot of fans not liking that episode, either. While it certainly didn’t dominate the script like this, it’s been difficult to actually discern solid arguments why some fans might be opposed to the idea of a musical episode. The most common reason has been expressed as simply a distaste for musicals.

OK, so the solution seems pretty clear: don’t watch it.

But don’t dump on the episode because you feel it reduces the value of the entire franchise or that it fails to live up to your standards of enjoyment.

Here’s my take: is it my favourite one so far? No. Absolutely not.

I am however impressed by the range of vocal talent as well as the ability to justify the concept of a musical episode in a sci-fi series. The cast must have had a lot of fun doing this episode and I’m impressed by the level of theatricality.

I’ve even downloaded the soundtrack and I’ll listen to it in the background because it’s a new way to appreciate Trek. This way I don’t have to have a series of episodes playing on the TV. I’d also have preferred some rock as opposed to showtunes, but hey, that’s just me, and that’s OK.

But it was damn clever AND not intrinsically bad or controversial like some fans irrationally seem to think. I did love the personal insight to Lieutenant Kirk’s private life, though.

See? There’s something for the die-hard canon fans to appreciate.

But I think the lesson here is that fans need to bring their love of Star Trek down to a place that’s more reachable. It’s not necessary for fans to like every Star Trek episode; they just need to accept the ones they don’t like as part of the Star Trek continuum. After all, there’s a lot of room there.

I’d have preferred a rock opera, but I can accept this, and isn’t acceptance what Star Trek is supposed to be about?

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Directed by Dermott Downs. Starring Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, Ethan Peck, Celia Rose Gooding, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Melissa Navia, Babs Olusanmokun, and Paul Wesley. Streams every Thursday on Paramount Plus and on CTV Sci-Fi Channel.