You know, I first learnt about "Subspace Rhapsody" when I was a reactionary anti-woke dingus who was addicted to culture war dumbassery. When I broke free of the grift and eventually got myself a subscription to Paramount Plus and began watching Strange New Worlds two years later, I was loving the hell out of it. Both seasons 1 & 2 are bloody brilliant seasons of Trek, and they gave us so many great Trek stories, too. But... I was dreading "Subspace Rhapsody" as it seemed to me like the SNW equivalent of "Spock's Brain".
I finally began watching it. And. it. SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why is this episode so terrible? Four words: Star. Trek. MUSICAL EPISODE. Yes, a musical episode in a mainline show that just cannot work with the format. Sure there have been plenty of theatrical allusions in the franchise, and there was the "British Tar" scene from the also dire Star Trek: Insurrection (among other diegetic moments), but doing a musical episode is not compatible with shows like TOS, TNG, ENT or in this case, SNW. Goldsman and Myers really let their urges get the better of them here, and by god does it show.
It's a rip-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "Once More With Feeling" where the Enterprise crew come across a subspace anomaly, try to communicate with it by playing an old song from a musical, and cause the anomaly to make them and every other ship a twenty-mile radius start singing their hearts out. It's a spectacle of poorly made, cringe-inducing musical numbers that cause everyone to act out of character and behave embarrassingly, like a Psi-2000 infection of tone-deaf forced karaoke nights. We get such delightful scenes as La'An singing an emo power ballad about how she can't handle the fact that Kirk just did a duet with Una, a pep talk song between La'An and Una where they begin defying gravity, and, in the utter worst moments, Chapel celebrating herself hooking up with another character by performing an Amy Winehouse pastiche, leading to Spock performing a song about how he feels bad about her breakup whilst declaring "I'M THE X". You cannot make this shit up, and it's every bit as dumb as it sounds. And not even dumb in a fun way like "The Naked Now", but dumb in the worst way possible. And needn't we forget about "KPop Klingon Hunters"!!!! [groan]
Now, I know what you're thinking. That I despise musicals. On the contrary. I love musicals. Musicals are meant to be an artform where characters sing whenever words don't cut it; its a form of storytelling where characters are so emotional that they can't speak anymore and express their thoughts and actions in the only other manner they know of. One of the movies I really want to add to my home media collection is Moulin Rouge, a jukebox musical melodramedy which arranges pop hits in a way that benefits the film and plot. I consider Disney Animation's The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast two of the greatest cinematic achievements of all time, and though it's been a while since I've seen it, "Once More with Feeling" managed to make a musical episode that was really good. Say what you will about Joss Whedon as a person; as a writer, he was genuinely good and he managed to make some genuinely fantastic musical numbers that benefitted the story; there's a reason why Buffy's number, "Going through the motions", is so catchy and is a brilliant piece of songwriting on its own merits. That song and the others in that episode were written to serve the story, and "Once More with Feeling" wound up being considered the highlight of the otherwise-maligned UPN era by fans.
"Subspace Rhapsody" on the other hand is an apocalyptically misguided pretender to the throne that doesn't understand what a musical is and why the good ones work so well: The episode genuinely thinks that it could have characters spontaneously burst into song, provide a ham-fisted excuse in the form of an anomaly, and be all cute and meta about it as it makes the cast do some truly embarrassing things. And that's not how to do it. It's a musical for the sake of being a musical, and it feels unearnt. And it's because it feels so unearnt, so lousy, and so irritatingly meta that I can't help but consider it a major "jump the shark" moment for Strange New Worlds. The next season is full of unearnt gimmick episodes like "Subspace Rhapsody", and the ratings for its episodes on IMDB are substantially lower than those of Seasons 1 & 2. So, yeah. This episode is just terrible. It's "Spock's Brain" for the SNW gang, and then some.
P.S. Maybe it could've worked if they saved this story for Mariner, Boimler and the rest of the Lower Decks instead.
P.S.S. Well... Guess I'm in the minority here. A lot of people seem to like this for some reason.
