Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2x09 - "Subspace Rhapsody"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
I suppose all those Klingons will make for the nearest one-way mission available to restore their collective honor.
Ethan Peck's song voice reminds me of Tom Rush's.
Discovery should have had an episode like this. Saru belting one out would have been wonderful!
Ethan Peck's song voice reminds me of Tom Rush's.
Discovery should have had an episode like this. Saru belting one out would have been wonderful!
IDK, a holiday special didn't do Star Wars any favors.
Banger
I've now re-watched this twice to collect the bits on the rewatch that I hadn't picked up. For example, Ethan sings this, literally, as Spock, and not Ethan.
It struck me how much I absolutely love this charismatic cast.
And yes, the crew and scribes as well have played on a treacherous cliff edge and not fallen over.
It struck me how much I absolutely love this charismatic cast.
And yes, the crew and scribes as well have played on a treacherous cliff edge and not fallen over.
My only regret is that I can’t give this an 11.
Hands-down the best episode of the season, quite possibly the entire series, and definitely one of my new top 10 favorite episodes of all time. La’an’s solo was heartbreakingly beautiful.
I cannot believe what a fantastic job the cast and crew did with this. No wait—strike that. SNW has had a stellar sophomore season. I think they can do anything they want to at this point. I’m fresh out of superlatives… i’ll just end with LLAP!
Hands-down the best episode of the season, quite possibly the entire series, and definitely one of my new top 10 favorite episodes of all time. La’an’s solo was heartbreakingly beautiful.
I cannot believe what a fantastic job the cast and crew did with this. No wait—strike that. SNW has had a stellar sophomore season. I think they can do anything they want to at this point. I’m fresh out of superlatives… i’ll just end with LLAP!
Where can I pre-order this season's soundtrack? 
Give it a rest.
At least we got Boba Fett out of it!
At least beat that particular dead horse in the Discovery sub-forum
Uhura's song was really spectacular. (Not to be confused with Uhura's Song, which I didn't much care for).
Man, I can't believe they pulled it off. Not every choice made in the episode was my cup of tea, but my hats go off to them.
I'm not really a musical fan - I wouldn't say I'm a musical hater by any means, but they're not something I go out of my way to look for. But the songs were serviceable to certified bangers, and it turns out everyone on the cast can sing (aside from maybe Babs - M'Benga singing little here makes sense, though. Otherwise, he would have confessed to being a murderer). The penultimate song - the solo by Uhura - was fantastic, though I know Celia Rose Gooding actually has a musical theatre background, so they were saving the best for last. The inclusion of Pelia here was a bit weird to me because she contributed nothing to either the plot or really the singing (I wouldn't expect Carol Kane to have a golden singing voice).
The emotional beats worked well for the characters also. We got a culmination of several character arcs built up across the show to date, with Spock/Chapel and La'an's internal turmoil around Kirk. Also, Uhura getting to reflect upon her own pain. I didn't find the Pike/Batel stuff very convincing, but it seems like they're just setting up Batel to die horribly in the finale anyway, so whatever.
The plot was, of course, total nonsense, but there's no way that a "musical episode" could have a sensical plot. It was either this or something like "a Q did it." All of that is completely forgiven.
Still, even though they hit it out of the park in terms of executing what they wanted to do, some of it didn't work for me. I felt a few of the songs just dragged a bit too long, particularly Una's song to La'an, and La'an's solo. I found myself drifting out of focusing on the episode, reflecting on how different the storytelling is for a musical than a regular drama. Musicals don't show, they tell - the characters just directly say what they're feeling, which you can't get away with in books/movies/TV. This makes sense as shorthand within a musical because things have to move quickly, and that's actually how we get to know the inner voice of the characters. But...the songs here basically told us stuff we already knew about the characters. Yes, there was drama related to the other characters finding out, but from a narrative perspective, we didn't really need the songs to understand what was going on between the characters ourselves. They were just there for fun, which is why - once they made their point - I thought a few overstayed their welcome.
Final thought: The Klingon "boy band" scene was possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen in Trek and will live rent-free in my head for the rest of my life.
I'm not really a musical fan - I wouldn't say I'm a musical hater by any means, but they're not something I go out of my way to look for. But the songs were serviceable to certified bangers, and it turns out everyone on the cast can sing (aside from maybe Babs - M'Benga singing little here makes sense, though. Otherwise, he would have confessed to being a murderer). The penultimate song - the solo by Uhura - was fantastic, though I know Celia Rose Gooding actually has a musical theatre background, so they were saving the best for last. The inclusion of Pelia here was a bit weird to me because she contributed nothing to either the plot or really the singing (I wouldn't expect Carol Kane to have a golden singing voice).
The emotional beats worked well for the characters also. We got a culmination of several character arcs built up across the show to date, with Spock/Chapel and La'an's internal turmoil around Kirk. Also, Uhura getting to reflect upon her own pain. I didn't find the Pike/Batel stuff very convincing, but it seems like they're just setting up Batel to die horribly in the finale anyway, so whatever.
The plot was, of course, total nonsense, but there's no way that a "musical episode" could have a sensical plot. It was either this or something like "a Q did it." All of that is completely forgiven.
Still, even though they hit it out of the park in terms of executing what they wanted to do, some of it didn't work for me. I felt a few of the songs just dragged a bit too long, particularly Una's song to La'an, and La'an's solo. I found myself drifting out of focusing on the episode, reflecting on how different the storytelling is for a musical than a regular drama. Musicals don't show, they tell - the characters just directly say what they're feeling, which you can't get away with in books/movies/TV. This makes sense as shorthand within a musical because things have to move quickly, and that's actually how we get to know the inner voice of the characters. But...the songs here basically told us stuff we already knew about the characters. Yes, there was drama related to the other characters finding out, but from a narrative perspective, we didn't really need the songs to understand what was going on between the characters ourselves. They were just there for fun, which is why - once they made their point - I thought a few overstayed their welcome.
Final thought: The Klingon "boy band" scene was possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen in Trek and will live rent-free in my head for the rest of my life.
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Of course, if Disco had done this episode just as well, or even better, it would still have been smothered with hatred by much of the fandom and the incel contingent.
Seriously though, though you've got Cruz, Rapp, Del Barrio with strong musical backgrounds, the Disco cast seems a lot thinner on the ground with potential strong singers.
IIRC when the DIS cast did the song from Rent, several of them had extremely shaky vocals. Doug Jones, in particular, couldn't hold a tune.
I love music, so I knew I'd probably love this episode, but man did I LOVE this episode..!
The quality of the songs was incredible, and the highlight for me was 'Keep Us Connected'..! That song deserves more exposure beyond this episode..!
The Klingon boyband scene was very risky, but I'm not going to lie: I thought it was beyond hilarious..!
The best thing about the episode was that despite everything, the core focus was still the character dynamics.
I think Strange New Worlds has now officially become my favorite of the new Trek series, replacing DSC..! This show is a wonder..!
The quality of the songs was incredible, and the highlight for me was 'Keep Us Connected'..! That song deserves more exposure beyond this episode..!
The Klingon boyband scene was very risky, but I'm not going to lie: I thought it was beyond hilarious..!
The best thing about the episode was that despite everything, the core focus was still the character dynamics.
I think Strange New Worlds has now officially become my favorite of the new Trek series, replacing DSC..! This show is a wonder..!
So, why didn't Spock try drinking the Klingons under the table to keep Kirk and McCoy out of Rura Penthe?
Hey, I grew up finding myself singing songs from the Albert Finney Scrooge soundtrack in the middle of the year and to this day will break into a spontaneous rendition of "Thank You Very Much" with no prompting whatsoever and nobody else to listen. I can roll with this episode.
My all time Favorite filmed version of a Christmas Carol. Watch it every year....