Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2x09 - "Subspace Rhapsody"

[Therin of Andor]

I am excited. I did a replay this morning and there were actual tears of joy with the opening number. Musicals definitely have to be heard more that once to fully appreciate them. The end often strengthens the beginning.

And the Andorian redshirts from "Those Old Scientists" are back! Spotted them (plus one more in Science blue) singing and dancing in the background, during Chapel's number, while I was getting ready to do a frame grab of the more noticeable Tellarite!


Three background Andorians in Subspace Rhapsody by Ian McLean, on Flickr


Two Andorians in Subspace Rhapsody by Ian McLean, on Flickr


Tellarite crewman in Subspace Rhapsody by Ian McLean, on Flickr

And I realised how much I love the way so many of the shots were framed:


Love this sequence in Subspace Rhapsody by Ian McLean, on Flickr

 

[Jack Wolfe]

Oh, just one more thing.

The octave dip in "I'm the X" is utterly badass.

And the minor key shift, heavy percussion, and sparse instrumentation. Totally sells it.

 

[Unique]

[ puts away her stack of $100 bills ]

Whoa, whoa, whoa…let’s not be hasty.
<clears throat>

ToMORROW, toMORROW, toMORROW
I love ya,
ToMORROW
You’re ALways a day aWAYYYYYYYYYYY

<jazz hands>

 

[Nerys Myk]

Chong is amazing as La'An. Especially when I contrast how she is in interviews vs in the show. Like night and day. Yes, I know. ACTING!! Chong seems closer to Princess Thalia than La'An.

 

[Amaris]

Whoa, whoa, whoa…let’s not be hasty.
<clears throat>

ToMORROW, toMORROW, toMORROW
I love ya,
ToMORROW
You’re ALways a day aWAYYYYYYYYYYY

<jazz hands>

I'm sorry, I've already given those $100 stacks to an itinerant Ferengi farmer.
At least he told me he was a farmer.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I'm sorry, I've already given those $100 stacks to an itinerant Ferengi farmer.
At least he told me he was a farmer.

 

[Amaris]

I see you are a man of culture.

 

[StarMan]

I see Chong has also released an album.

La'An has fast become one of my favorites in a cast that's tricky to call favs.

 

[Greg Cox]

I've always liked musicals. Maybe from being taken to all those live action and animated Disney and Disney wannabe films as a kid in the 60's. All the musical classics and some not so classic films were heavily reran on TV, too. Stuff with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, well the list goes on. Later more modern films first run. Grease, Rocky Horror, Hair, Tommy, Blues Brothers...

Me, too. I grew up on Star Trek AND classic musicals: Rogers & Hammerstein, Lerner & Loewe, Sondheim, "Singin' in the Rain," "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," etc.

So this ep hit my sweet spot.

 

[Unique]

I'm sorry, I've already given those $100 stacks to an itinerant Ferengi farmer.
At least he told me he was a farmer.

<gazes sadly into empty tin cup>
That’s okay. I’ll go find him and hold him upside down. Ferengi are like ketchup bottles; for best results hold upside down and smack firmly.

 

[Nerys Myk]

On my third watch so things beyond the music and plot are popping out. Like, there seems to be more goldshirts in this episode than any previous one. Pike and Una often seem to be the only goldshirts is most episodes.

 

[Mr Awe]

Christine has really come off as a big jerk lately. Spock deserved better from her. We never did see them happy - I don't know why they even bothered with the romance. It'll be hard to watch her mooning over him in the original series over this. I wanted to slap her in this episode.

So.. Why did Christine even need to dump Spock for her fellowship? It's only a few months they can have a short "long distance relationship" for that time period.

Yeah. I don't see why do this relationship if they weren't going to *do* it! I guess that's the problem with 10-episode seasons you have to do the big moments (hook-up, hitting rocks, breaking-up) and leave out the little things to, you know, develop things.

Christine was really hurt and taken aback by what Boimler told her in the crossover episode. That sped things up but they were going to go that way anyway. I don't take Christine as being a jerk. She just fell in love with the wrong person. Boimler's comments were a wake up call.

Spock needs to become the person he is destined to be. The Spock we know from TOS onwards. One of the most important people in the Federation.

Meanwhile, Christine has a different path that's important in a different way. It just wasn't going to work out because their lives are taking them in different directions. It's very realistic. Happens all the time in the real world.

I can see point about not really showing the relationship given the limited number of episodes. Things feel like they're on fast forward. That's also true with Pike & Batel. However, do we really want SNW to be mainly a soap that shows how the various relationships are doing week to week? So, I'm ok with how it's worked out.

 

[Mr Awe]

*drinks Guiness*

Yeah, few of my Irish American friends do the catholic church thing.

I learned all I know about the Irish and Catholicism from Father Ted. So, yes I'm quite well informed on the subject!

 

[Richard S. Ta]

I was certain that this episode would be entertaining, but I'm also really impressed at how the songs were used to develop various ongoing plotlines and how the singing itself was framed as a very Star Trek like anomalous threat.

It's another easy 10 from me in a Season of 10s.

 

[Mr Awe]

In almost twenty years I've never noticed that until now.

You might have been looking . . . um . . . elsewhere?

 

[Therin of Andor]

While I found the Klingon boy band aka K-pop funny, I think I would have preferred the Opera that apparently they filmed first. That better be on the Bluray. I think Opera would have suited the Klingons better, that or something like Lamb of God, Burn the Priest.

I was expecting Klingon Opera to turn up as soon as the K't'inga vessel did but, of course, Klingon Opera is honorable and being compelled to do a K-Pop number instead is why they are so pissed.

 

[Tosk]

Oh so we all love musicals now huh? Where the hell were all you when I needed help defending the "British Tar" scene in Insurrection?!

 

[Noname Given]

You might have been looking . . . um . . . elsewhere?

The DP and Cameraman certainly were. (I won't blame the editor as he can only work with what he's given and SOMEONE on set should have caught that error before the Director said "Print!" They obviously didn't have another good take to use instead.)

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Regarding the use of Auto-Tune and in general any sound processing that may have been done for this episode, my opinion is that I can't really judge without hearing the unprocessed recordings. And the use of sound processing to alter/improve/"correct"/enhance performer voices has been used to great effect, from ABBA's songs, to works of the Alan Parsons Project, to Cher's "Believe", and so on, so its usage is never necessarily negative. Despite the singing in "Q&A", I've never expected the whole SNW cast to perform as world-class singers. I was surprised with how many of the cast really hit it.

Also, I've found "Keep Us Connected" to be quite the earworm. Gooding certainly hit it and hit it big, and I love how the song validates Uhura's thankless job in TOS of mostly just opening and closing hailing frequencies.

"Status Report" is also very good, and I think it effectively and cleverly addressed the singing, leaving no doubt right then that the singing was, in fact, in continuity, before we even got to the briefing room. Romijn really hit it every time she sang.

There were other good songs, too, but I especially wanted to mention these, in addition to "I'm the X".

 

[rocketdave]

Throughout this series, I've felt bad for Chapel, knowing that she's doomed to spend years pining for Spock during the TOS/TAS era (assuming they don't seriously diverge from canon). However, after watching this episode, now it almost feels like karmic retribution for breaking his heart in the first place, though I admit I feel kind of petty for having that thought. In any event, this does seem to recontextualize their future dynamic. When Spock rejects her in TOS, it's apparently not because he can't reciprocate her feelings, but rather because he doesn't want to get hurt again.