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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S02E09 - "Subspace Rhapsody" Episode Discussion
So, this was the big "musical episode" they hyped up for a few weeks. As not the biggest musical fan in the world (they can be fun to go see on occasion), this episode was a resounding "meh" for me. It was basically just a novelty. The hip-hop Klingons were the funniest part though, wasn't expecting that...
I think it might be my personal least favorite episode of Trek like, ever. Like, I'd rather only ever be able to watch Threshold again and nothing else. Okay, maybe that's just hyperbole, but still. And that's just comparing it to old Trek since this is the only NuTrek show I'm all caught up on.
I hate that every time someone posts a discussion for an episode here (no shade at you EmperorPenguin) It's always for the episodes I really didn't enjoy because it makes it seem like I hate SNW a lot more than I do. Among the Lotus Eaters is probably my favorite episode of Trek in the last decade, I thought the crossover episode was really fun even for it's tackiness because it felt in spirit. And believe me, if I don't like a Trek enough I'll just stop watching it and won't ever talk about it, so this comes from a place of genuine enjoyment for the series so far.
But this... I mean a fucking musical episode in season 2 of a Trek show? The penultimate episode of the entire season? I mean every show jumps the shark eventually, but why is it happening so early. I could even forget it if these were like, 25 episode seasons, but the seasons are 10 episodes and this is one of the episodes they put on the roster right on the heels of a crossover episode which is not something that people are usually amicable to.
And the songs just aren't good to me, I'm a born and raised theater kid - granted I'm usually on the tech side of things - but I live in a theater city and showtunes are a mainstay of my playlists. I'm no expert, but I've had some exposure. These instrumentals just sound like the most stereotypical theater camps songs they could have created, there wasn't even a Trek twist. Wouldn't it have been funny to at least throw in some Klingon opera in there? Maybe throw in some Riker shade with a trombone bit? I'm just spitballing, but even with an awful idea like this they could have at least tailored it to Trek.
One of my other main complaints about this season is how overly transparent the writers are with the characters emotions. For the entire season nothing has been left up to interpretation, there's never been a will they/won't they, for as much as they try to feign that everyone is holding their emotions in the writers just don't seem to be able to help themselves but to just explain what everyone is feeling in a certain moment, or by the next scene. So imagine how I felt when the vast majority of the ten songs in this hour long episode are just dedicated to these open books of characters speaking about the same things that they've been talking about for the entirety of the season! We get no new information from this anomaly that apparently acts like a truth serum! <Spoilers> The closest thing we got to a development was La'an fessing up to James Kirk about her episode 3 time travel adventure, and that doesn't even come out through a musical number (which I preferred, don't get me wrong) </spoilers>.
The whole thing came off as a bad parody of a bad Trek episode. As much as I complain about DIS not feeling like Trek, this just takes the cake. I'm probably coming off as impassioned - pretentious might be a better word - but I'm genuinely dumbfounded that this was produced. Also, can I just say for a show called Strange New Worlds, there's been like, one strange new world this entire season? I really hope they end with a bang because this one just tastes bitter.
Edit: And I do just want to add, if you liked Subspace Rhapsody, more power to you. If you're just watching SNW casually without being a sweaty trekkie like me, I respect you so much. I hope I don't run anyone off or give anyone a bad taste, I genuinely want to hear some other opinions outside of my group of people.
Counterpoint: I've been a die hard trek fan for 40+ years and I loved this episode.
While I'm not trying to take away from the fact that you did not like this episode, or that you don't seem to like the direction nu-trek has taken (those are legitimate gripes and I can certainly respect and emphasize with), I do love that trek can be more things for more people and I especially love that it is pushing boundaries, in the types of shows were getting and the representation those shows are showcasing. I think the nu-trek series are all close to the spirit of the OG show which pushed boundaries in its own age.
I've read that Eugene has said he thinks his father would love that trek can be more than what he envisioned it to be, and that point softened me a lot on my initial dislike of the (pretty blatent) differences in nu-trek compared to the OG and TNG eras. It is different for sure, but I've come to think of that as a good thing.
And beyond that, I'm happy they're trying new things like the lower decks crossover and this musical episode. They may not land well with everyone, but I'm happy that Trek is in a strong enough position to try these things, even if they ultimately end up being seen as failures.
Finally, I'd like to say I am bummed that it didn't land well for you, your viewpoint is just as valid as mine is and I hope that has come through in this.
Sorry if I implied that longer-term fans of the IP can't enjoy this episode, didn't mean for that.
I think we just have to agree to disagree on what we see as trying new things. Musical episodes and crossovers (again, I did like this crossover episode) are, to me, just staples of the culmination of a lack of creativity and new ideas. It's been done before, and (to my knowledge) never to great effect. I don't see it as pushing the envelope for the series, but receding back into the formula of a lot of other shows that I wouldn't otherwise compare Trek to.
Are you kind of saying that you appreciate the genre-bending nature of NuTrek? Like, SNW is the... I don't know, the Frasier (first thing I thought of) of Star Trek? If that's the case I can kind of see where you're coming from. I'm an enormous fan of the Alien franchise and similarly each new piece of media there fits into it's own category. Alien (the first one) for horror, Aliens for action, even up to the videos games no two share a genre. And that's something that's great about Alien, I can celebrate it's ability to deliver new and innovative stories using different formats and genre conventions to their advantage. Even assuming that SNW is the character drama series of Trek it's just not delivering anything new or innovating using that genre choice, an episode like this comes off to me as outdated and tacky even for something that came out today, and even compared to the shows that came before it. I view that this could be a sign that the show isn't in a great position when the writers are defaulting to tropes.
I guess our views are really just very opposed to eachother lol, I just wanted to add that on. I'm happy that Rob Roddenberry think's Gene Roddenberry would enjoy the new direction the show is taking, but you'll have to forgive me if it just rings hollow from someone who has a vested financial interest in the success of these shows. In a similar vein wouldn't necessarily take it to heart what Christopher Tolkien has to say about what his father would think about the Jackson Trilogy.
But again, abundance of respect for your viewpoint. I do envy it a little bit
No worries mate, I did not take your viewpoint as an attack or diminishment of anyone else's viewpoints, just your own legitimate personal grievance with the episode and (my extrapolation of) your implied disappointment with the series. For what it's worth, seeing these series along with my wife, who has happily watched all of the old series with me but has zero buy-in on being a fan has also really helped give me a different perspective. My initial reactions were quite different, but I've learned to just enjoy them on their own merits and decouple my lifetime of sci-fi nerd experiences.
Also, if SNW is the Frasier of trek (which is awesome!).... Who is the equivalent to Eddie!?! :D
The bolded was surely an intentional, considered choice. It's a classic strategy to put whatever you think is your worst/most risky/etc episode in the second to last episode slot, where a dud is least likely to be remembered because it is immediately followed by the much more significant finale. As an example, that's where TNG hid their infamous clip show (and The Inner Light, which apparently the people in charge thought would be terrible). SNW S1 almost did that with The Elysian Kingdom, but put it 8th instead of 9th because Hemmer was present, and Hemmer had to die before the season finale.
Did you know this would be a musical episode coming in? I did, I had extremely low expectations (I am not a fan of musicals in general, and figured it was 50/50 that I'd bail halfway through), and found myself pleasantly surprised. Whatever else you want to say, this cast has some excellent musical talents, and they (the actors) apparently lobbied pretty hard to make this episode happen.
You made an interesting point for me- I actually saw this thread- got kind of excited that the new ep was getting attention here- and then went and watched it. I think that actually worsened my experience because I was imagining the Trek hate I assumed was happening here. I didn’t know it was going to be a musical episode, and probably could have braced for it. C’este la vie.
I loved it and I know what they were getting at.
The "singing makes us reveal most inner feelings" let them progress multiple (three?) relationships in a big way inside one episode instead of having to make them the B plot of 3 different episodes.
Sorry about not posting threads for the other episodes! I jumped on making one for episode 5 since I saw nobody else was doing them consistently, then I legit forgot to do it for a couple weeks. I guess this episode being more controversial reminded me I wanted to be posting these.
Oh no no! You're fine, I'm just excited to see someone post about it! I tend to go into these without keeping up on the news about the show beforehand, so it's great to see other peoples opinions and learn a little bit about the episode. The discussion posts on ~tv are always great
I'm commenting here so I can reflect after watching every series.
I'd like to see how this holds up to Threshold (VOY), Code of Honor (TNG), Move Along Home (DS9), etc. There were a ton of stinkers across many of the series, but the great thing about old TV is that you had 26 episodes rather than 10 to like get everything right. So less stuff stood out as absolutely terrible.
You mentioned NuTrek coming off as pretentious, and I'm starting to agree. The writing essentially asks you to not think, and that they'll do it all for you without anything happening off screen. Maybe that's a product of our time now?
Agreed. I'm a big fan of musical theatre. These were... songs. The characters said they were explicitly following a musical theatre trajectory in this situation, but the songs didn't feel very much like musical theatre. They were just... there.
I know. I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for a moment of Klingon opera. Then we finally got the Klingons on the view screen... and no Klingon opera! That felt like a massive missed opportunity.
Did you notice, like I did, how much 'Subspace Rhapsody' seemed to be a direct rip-off of 'Once More With Feeling'? Like, this wasn't just another show doing a musical episode, like many shows have done since OMWF started the trend. This episode directly called back to OMWF multiple times, to the point where it felt like the writers were trying to make their own version of OMWF by taking the original 'Buffy' episode and just updating the references.
We had:
The external influence causing characters to be forced sing while knowing that they're singing.
The realisation that the songs were forcing characters to reveal hidden emotions and secrets.
The "I've got a theory" line.
Even a reference to bunnies.
Unfortunately, most of the songs in this remake of OMWF were nowhere near as good as the songs in the original.
Just an observation - five paragraphs on the will-they-won't they of Spock and Chapel in your comment. That, I think is a pretty good example of what "the fanboys" (I'll include myself in this as their unwanted spokesperson) take issue with with "Nu-Trek".
Trek's (at least with TOS and TNG) strength and longevity IMO comes in part from its desire to toy with ideas using world building- to examine and discuss big ideas while "wearing other clothes" so to speak. That's hard to do well. It takes great writing and deep analysis of themes and ideas, and requires room to do it. SNW has been doing an absolutely fan-f*cking-tastic job of delivering the goods in this regard. I've been waiting a long time for Trek to be de-soap-opera-ed and then to have it be de-star-wars-ed. All I ever wanted was an updated version of TOS - one where the optimism was there, the exploration was there, the ideas were smart and deep and the questions sometimes were hard to answer. SNW is as good as it's gotten for that in decades, IMO.
That, I think is why there's so much blowback on this musical number. We FINALLY have a good thing going - but we see it slipping away. I get the attraction for showrunners to ramp up drama using all those formulaic approaches instead of doing the work to break new ground on good storytelling and world building... this season is evidence that SNW is also headed that direction. It just has not quite held up as well as that first season.
To add a little context, I'll add that I only just watched season 1 because that last season of Picard angered me so much. It was so insultingly stupid. I stuck through to the end out of loyalty to TNG. Someday I'm going to figure out if Johnathan Frakes is the one to blame for that. What a disappointing way to go out.
Back to the topic at hand though - I semi-enjoyed this musical episode. Uhura has a helluva voice. Captain Pike's pretty decent too. I'm going to have to go back and look for the rapping Klingons - somehow I missed that. It was no Ad Astra per Aspera though. Bring me another "Children of the Comet"!
I have loved the comedy in the show, much to my surprise. Spock's engagement body swap - while a lousy lazy writing trope that probably should not have worked, absolutely entertained and delivered out of sheer acting talent.
I guess my point is - some of us old-heads hold out for something different from Trek, something more; Some hope, some mystery, some complexity, some ambiguity, some depth, some metaphor, some smarty-pants nerdy shit. And yes, we can get snotty when it gets taken away by laziness or stupidity or greed.
HJM out.
Just thought I'd add - "bring me another 'Children of the Comet'!" did NOT mean bring the comet and their fundamentalist-adjacent followers back. I meant deliver the mystery, propose big questions. Challenge my conception of what life and consciousness are. Have the intestinal fortitude to do the 2023 version of putting a slab of crystals on screen introduce the idea of a 'silicon-based life form' (this blew my mind as a kid). Bring on the Strange New Worlds, darn it.
I liked it. I thought it would be corny, and it was, but I really enjoyed watching all these serious people smash against the inherently unserious nature of living in a musical. The techno jargon lyrics were great, and I legit laughed out loud at several of the song transitions as different characters couldn’t help but break into song, despite their best efforts to remain serious people.
I really enjoyed it. I think it's a nice "comic" esque relief that resolves the romance subplots, before what's going to be a serious and dramatic season finale.
Not my favorite episode, but I always enjoy watching episodes where the actors look like they’re having a great time. I’d read about the Klingon rap in this thread already (literally like 3 minutes before - pulled it up while watching), but I still about died when it happened. What a world we live in!
I’m still waiting for RedLetterMedia to review Strange New Worlds. Mike mentioned in one of the Picard episode reviews that he doesn’t like it because the characters act too young and unprofessional, but they haven’t done any reviews of either season yet.
RLM’s main criticism of New Trek (the NextGen movies and the shows since then) ruin Roddenberry’s concept of a better future for humanity by making The Federation corrupt. (This actually started in DS9). I kind of agree with some of this, there was a very specific thing about Trek that set it apart and this was weakened over time by writers who wanted to explore more familiar conflicts. Also they think the shows have become too blatant in their social commentary, to which I say they should rewatch Let That Be You Last Battlefield.
I assume they would hate this episode a lot and their comments about it would probably be pretty entertaining. But maybe they would like SNW and even this ep once they got over the adolescent behavior of the cast and noticed how traditionally Trek it all is.
I bring up RLM not because they are arbiters of what is good, or essential gatekeepers of the Star Trek universe, but because they are a good representation of Sci-fi fans who are almost impossible to please because they want their entertainment to fit in a little box that they’ve decided is the One True form of the thing.
Personally, I didn’t like Subspace Rhapsody much. The plot was too derivative, musicals are too repetitive because you have to repeat phrases to make a song out of it, and I think some of the voices sounded auto tuned. But it didn’t ruin Trek, I still like Strange New Worlds a lot and I’m happy to see them try new things. Until now I pretty much thought every episode this season was better than the last, including the hilarious crossover ep.
I echo your thoughts a lot, obviously this isn't the end of Trek. I love SNW a lot for making me excited to sit down and watch a weekly show again, even better that it's Trek! This episode just didn't showcase the series' strongest aspects, and came off grading to me. I'm waiting for the RLM review right there with you! Their review on Picard was pretty hilarious, though I think it was helped that I agreed with most of their points. I suspect I'll have a few more disagreements this time around, but I mean it's RLM; you know you're in for a good time no matter what!
It leaned heavily on Once More with Feeling with the “don’t want to sing about personal things I keep secret” trope but my problem with the episode is that there was no big reveal.
Buffy ended on a OMG she told everyone moment. New Worlds ended on Klingons rapping.
Without the OMG moment it had no crescendo and fizzled. New Worlds doesn’t keep secrets at all, so the only out I was hoping for was Spock going from Human with a little Vulcan to the stereotypical full on Vulcan we all remember. A song about rejection, anger and ultimately reflection, acceptance and making a decision.
I really hate this style of singing and especially hate corny theatre rap like Hamilton etc. barf.
Anyway, outside of the style, the episode was good. A lot of shows are doing musicals these days. I believe this is a trend that should have stopped with Oz.
Number One and Uhura perfectly explain why I hate musicals so much : singing exists only as an expression of emotions when words are deemed "not enough" which is not the case in other forms of music. It's dramatic, it's corny, it's tedious and I personally find musicals incredibly annoying and cringey.
While I may not like the format of the episode, fundamentally it felt like classic Trek (aka take a goofy sci-fi premise and run with it) mixed in with new Trek (aka taking time to flesh out your characters) all while trying something fun. While I'm not an accurate judge of what is a good or bad musical, I'm going to guess that those who love both Trek and musicals found this wildly entertaining and I'm glad they have it. I want Trek to keep having fun with these types of formats, even if there are episodes that don't connect with me but bring a lot of joy to other fans. I mean this wasn't "Sub Rosa" or "Move Along Home".
I really admired the choice to make the fact that this is a musical episode a part of the plot and something the characters are aware of and need to solve in classic trek fashion (complete with an overly simple explanation of a technojargon concept, a la Bender’s “like putting too much air in balloon” with the sub space zipper). So many musical episodes just have songs for the sake of having songs, but the fact that the characters had to grapple with the mystery, the risk of revealing secrets, their personal relationships, and the inherently silly situation was something that set this apart from other musical episodes I’ve seen in the past (even if I agree that the songs were, while not bad, not that great either)
I enjoyed it. It wasn't the greatest episode ever but I will take stuff like this over grimdark any day. The songs were ok but a bit similar.
The only critique I have is this feels like something you'd do in a later season. Some compared it to Once More With Feeling which I think was from the 6rh season of Buffy?
I need more singing Klingons however. I hope someone does a fanmade stage musical of Star Trek because that would be amazing.
I didn't hate this episode, but it's not going to become one of my favourites. And that's disappointing, considering that combining Star Trek with musicals should result in my favouritest anything of everything ever.
I've gotta start by saying I loved Uhura in this. Celia Rose Gooding was abso-fucking-lutely amazing! Their sheer joy while singing the finale was beautiful to watch. And watching Uhura realise her purpose in her solo was also a great moment. Given that Uhura was set up as a singer in the original series, it's nice to see that Gooding has the chops to follow in Nichelle Nichols' footsteps. I looked at Gooding's Wikipedia page, and it seems that they majored in musical theatre at university - and that experience was put to great use in this episode.
But, on the topic of that finale... while I loved it, I hated myself for loving it. It was so obviously formulaic. Maybe I noticed it more because Uhura had just finished explaining that the crew need to do a musical theatre finale to eliminate the threat, and so the characters were more self-aware that they were doing a musical theatre finale, which made me more aware that's what they were doing. But it was like someone read the requirements for a musical theatre finale, and then made sure they ticked all the boxes. It was so obvious. But, it did tick those boxes, so it did draw me in, feeling the obligatory feels, smiling the obligatory smiles, crying the obligatory tears - and hating that I can be so easily manipulated by something so obviously designed to manipulate me.
It was also painfully obvious that this episode is a direct rip-off of 'Once More With Feeling'. This wasn't just another show doing a musical episode, like many shows have done since OMWF started the trend. This episode directly called back to OMWF multiple times, to the point where it felt like the writers were trying to make their own version of OMWF by taking the original 'Buffy' episode and just updating the references.
We had:
The external influence causing characters to be forced sing while knowing that they're singing.
The realisation that the songs were forcing characters to reveal hidden emotions and secrets.
The "I've got a theory" line.
Even a reference to bunnies.
Unfortunately, most of the songs in this remake of OMWF were nowhere near as good as the songs in the original. I wouldn't have noticed that shortfall as much, if they hadn't kept calling back to OMWF so much.
And where was our moment of Klingon opera? There should have been at least one moment of Klingon opera! The writers even got the Klingons involved in the finale (which they absolutely didn't need to do) - and then totally missed the opportunity to have them sing opera.
Ethan Peck has a good voice. So does Anson Mount. (The friend I watched this with, who absolutely hates musicals in any form, even said that Pike should have sung more!) Rebecca Romijn should have been let off the hook, and not forced to join in - like how they let the actor playing Ortega sit out most of this episode. In the original 'Once More With Feeling', Alyson Hannigan asked not to be included because she couldn't sing and, because it also suited Joss Whedon's purposes to not have Willow reveal her thoughts, Willow didn't sing (except for one line, which was "mostly filler"! ;) ) Romijn should have been given the same opportunity to sit out this episode. And, above all... do not force a non-dancer to dance! That moment of Number One dancing down the corridor with James Kirk was just cringeworthy. Romijn can't dance (and nor can the Kirk actor), so don't make her dance!
Like I said, I didn't hate it. But a musical Star Trek episode should have become an instant favourite for me - and it didn't, which speaks volumes.
The "crossover" episode left a bad taste in my mouth.
I was prepared to hate this episode, but it wasn't that bad. I enjoyed the Klingons singing rap music. :-).
I really wanted La'an and Kirk to get together. Still I think the two thwarted romances of the episode might be a good think if kids end up growing up with SNG as they did TOS. It will teach them that relationships don't always fail because someone is awful or someone else is a substandard person.