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

A silly one, and also one of my favorite TOS episodes, right along with "The Trouble with Tribbles." When Star Trek was on it's game, it did silly very well.

Interestingly enough, Christina Chong has an album, and it's very good, IMO.

 

She has released a few songs.

 

You do know that Celia Rose Gooding was on Broadway in A Jagged Little Pill, and has won a Grammy award and also been nominated for a Tony Award, right?

 

Yeah the guy playing Sam has the looks and charisma for Jim Kirk. I see it.

Paul Wesley has the Vampire Diaries audience. I wouldn't be surprised if the Sam Kirk actor was a runner-up for Jim.


I'm fine with Paul Wesley's Jim Carrey. It blends into SNW. If young Shatner appeared with this cast he would have overshadowed all of them IMO. He just had that RDJ-type energy. Bill was a scene stealer.

 

Heh. Nope.

And Shatner "overshadow" Anson Mount? Not on his best day. The Downey comparison is...beyond being a reach.

 

Easily. Mount is totally underwritten on this show. The restrained boyscout. And Pike was a rather passive presence this season.

I enjoyed the range of performances that was allowed to do in some of his other work on AMC.

Shatner's Kirk was like a ball of energy. A lot of that was Bill's doing though, ensuring the other actors were diminished.

 

I like life!

 

They should have had Captain Batel join the cast for the episode:

"I've got a theory. It could be tribbles."

*Everyone rolls their eyes*

*rock anthem begins*

"Tribbles aren't just cute like everybody supposes! They've got them furry coats, explosive breeding, and lack of noses! TRIBBLES! TRIBBLES! IT MUST BE TRIBBBLLLESS!" beat "Or maybe Klingons."

 

Well, I certainly said that! It left me with a big grin.

 

I thought lyrics were quite clever at points. Particularly Spock's "I'm the (E)X", but others as well. The melodies were typical musical fair but I didn't think they brought the episode down at all.

But each to their own!

 

It was fun. Not one of my favorite episodes of SNW, but I still enjoyed myself. Celia's voice, tho.

 

Agreed. I love SNW's aesthetic as well. They really got that right. Up until now, I had to give Voyager the best looking Trek award (despite the fact it's my least favorite ST series). But SNW has top honors now in that department!

And the crew has to be the most relatable overall as well. I think certain crewmembers of other series feel relatable, but not as much on an entire crew basis. At least, IMO. Pike feels like he's be wonderful to work with.

 

It was a gutsy move. Some times you have to take chances to keep things fresh. And it paid off big time in my book. I thoroughly enjoyed that because it was a change of pace. And it also advanced some of the characters along their journeys.

 

Yeah, he's winning me over too.

 

I'm an outlier in that I didn't care in the slightest for this episode. I by nature detest musical theatre, so this isn't surprising. I'm not going to slam anyone who does like it - it was ambitious and good for them for liking it. I continue to enjoy Wesley's Kirk.

With this in mind, I can't help but believe they've fallen a bit flat on the 'big swings'. You have this and the LDS crossover, and possibly T&T&T (one of the show's best so far). Rigel VII was a fun destination and good for them for trying a courtroom episode (which also fell flat for me personally). I don't think making three of the ten episodes as pure comedies was a good use of the newer season structure. Big swings for me would have been expounding on the crazier lore bombshells, like that this is almost certainly not the TOS timeline as we've come to know it, but rather that timeline as it's been infected by previous incursions into the 20the century as seen on Voyager and First Contact. But I digress.

I agree with the concept of an anomaly causing characters to behave more openly, and even the idea of it causing everyone to break out into song. I think my issue is how I found the songs neither catchy or creative. A musical episode need not be a musical how they do it on other modern shows, but something more organic to Star Trek. It'll sound like I'm trolling but honestly I found the "Brother" song from The Way to Eden more seamless in its integration in the episode, and it's a corny space hippie jam from almost 60 years ago. Alas.

I'm glad other people have enjoyed it.

 

I don’t think I’ve ever disliked a musical episode of a TV show. Though I’ve only ever seen 3, Buffy, Scrubs, and this.

so not a very big sample size.

 

Same here. I actually teared up at that scene. I don’t think I would have if it was a duet.

I watched the rest of the episode with a big grin on my face. It was just so much fun, especially because the cast all looked like they were having a great time.

I liked all the songs but my favorites are Uhura and La’an’s. Rent is my absolute favorite musical, so I’m predisposed to like the types of songs in this episode more than if they went more “traditional” like Les Miz or Phantom of the Opera. (I didn’t find the music in Hamilton memorable at all, so maybe my taste in music is just questionable. )

I think Buffy had better songs overall because there was more variety in the styles of music, so each song was more memorable. But I think SNW has better singers overall than Buffy. I didn’t catch all the lyrics, so I’ll be rewatching with close captioning, but the parts I caught seem to have as much cleverness and emotional weight as Buffy’s.

The bunnies reference was great Buffy callback too. And from now on, I’ll think of Klingons when I hear the term K-Pop, not Koreans.

I don’t have a musical ear, so I’m curious about who was autotuned.

 

I didn't care for much of the music in Hamilton, either. It may just come down to musical preference.