This week the penultimate episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 arrives and it is something different indeed. We have details along with new images, a trailer, and a clip from the musical episode. SPOILERS.
“Subspace Rhapsody”
Episode 9 of Strange New Worlds’ second season is called “Subspace Rhapsody.” The special musical episode was written by Dana Horgan & Bill Wolkoff and directed by Dermott Downs with original songs by Kay Hanley and Tom Polce. It debuts on Paramount+ on Thursday, August 3
Synopsis
An accident with an experimental quantum probability field causes everyone on the U.S.S. Enterprise to break uncontrollably into song, but the real danger is that the field is expanding and beginning to impact other ships—allies and enemies alike.
NEW images
Anson Mount as Pike in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Credit: Best Possible Screengrab/Paramount+
L-R Carol Kane as Pelia, Christina Chong as La’an, Ethan Peck as Spock in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Credit: Best Possible Screengrab/Paramount+
Jess Bush as Chapel in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Credit: Best Possible Screengrab/Paramount+
Celia Rose Gooding as Uhura in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Credit: Michael Gibson/Paramount+
L-R Rebecca Romijn as Una and Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Credit: Michael Gibson/Paramount+
Anson Mount as Pike in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Credit: Best Possible Screengrab/Paramount+
Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Credit: Michael Gibson/Paramount+
L-R Ethan Peck as Spock, Anson Mount as Pike and Rebecca Romijn as Una in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Credit: Best Possible Screengrab/Paramount+
Ethan Peck as Spock, Babs Olusanmokun as M’Benga, Celia Rose Gooding as Shura, Anson Mount as Pike, Christina Chong as La’an and Rebecca Romijn as Una in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Credit: Best Possible Screengrab/Paramount+
Clip
The latest episode of The Ready Room, the official Star Trek aftershow, includes a clip from the musical episode. Uhura and Spock are in engineering testing a new way to send messages in subspace, Pelia walks by and suggests they try sending music. (The clip starts at 32:50.)
Trailer
A trailer for the episode was released at Comic-Con.
Here’s an alternate link to trailer on StarTrek.com for international readers
Poster
Also released at SDCC…
Soundtrack
The special musical episode “Subspace Rhapsody” will feature 10 original songs, plus a “Subspace Rhapsody” version of the series’ main title, with music and lyrics by Kay Hanley (Letters to Cleo) and Tom Polce (Letters to Cleo, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend). Please click HERE to pre-save the “Subspace Rhapsody” soundtrack on all available digital music streaming platforms, it will be released Tuesday, August 1.
Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
Oh, please tell me the field is going to hit a D7 and we get some full-on Klingon opera.
I had the same thought! An earlier iteration of Dax could cameo and set up their love for Klingon opera.
This is certainly a much touted “big swing.” Hope it’s a home run and not a strike out.
That was my thought too. But why do klingons prefer opera? Should’t extreme musical styles like Death Metal (or the klingon equivalent) be appropriate for their taste?
Ensign Tendi is a fan of Klingon acid punk, which I would very much love to hear.
opera: honor, betrayal, death, vengeance, elaborate costumes…why WOULDN’T they like it?
The examples we have heard seemed very Wagnerian, which tracks with their quasi-fascist society in general
The same exist in various extreme metal styles too and some even cite Wagner as influence. Wuy wouldn’t they like these topics combined with brutal music? The sound of the klingon language even fits to extreme metal.
maybe it’s too much like Jono’s Talarian metal
Klingons also love theater
Klingons love Acid Punk more
They don’t even love it, they invented it! :-)
I don’t know much about opera but don’t a lot of people die in them? Klingons love love talking about death. They even mark certain days on their calendars when its the best day to die. That’s just being obsessive.
Guess which musical style uses lyrics about such topics…
And by the way, I just found this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOirKrzSVgI
That would be a nice idea and a nice contrast for the next episode. ;-)
LOL nice one! Wow, Klingons are passionate, I give them that.
Off topic, I feel a little bad for Mary Chieffo, she has committed herself to playing a Klingon like we never seen and the last time we seen her on a show was four years ago now. If you’re never going to bring back L’Rell, then give her another role, she’s fantastic.
Klingons would he cool, but I want some singing Gorn.
‘feed me’ or ‘mean green mother from outtaspace’ from littlespaceshipofhorrors
it was a total eclipse of the canon
If we’re on a bonnie tyler streak, then if there are any 09 fans out there, they should be holding out for a return, clamoring, ‘i need a ne-ro!’
Haha! I’m late to the party but it seems everybody is already having fun only because of the announcement of a musical episode
Klingons would love musicals. They’d be having a great time. I know it’s true.
On the flip side, won’t happen because it can’t but I want to see it hit a Romulan ship.
It could still happen so long as the audience sees the dancing Romulans and the Enterprise crew does not.
Sigh.
So many hands extended, I wonder if this is a musical about Zefram Cochrane’s statue.
Trek is Trek…
sigh…JTK still on the ship. Farragut going to mark him AWOL pretty soon.
And, they just had to have Kirk and Khan…
Musically – that sounded like two-week run then closed Broadway genericism at it’s finest.
I would love to be wrong fwiw, but I have low expectations.
The episode synopsis says the wave strikes allied ships as well so I am hoping that at least makes Kirk’s appearance plausible. Although I confess to struggling with the Kirk character. The acting and the writing is fine. I think it’s just my general lack of enthusiasm for Kirk. We know so much about him that SNW has very little to play with. To give credit to the SNW team the relationship with his brother is one area left unexplored and they are trying to go there. But his appearances this season have been very frequent both prime and alternate timelines. I feel they are doing too much with him. However, I feel like I am in the minority. As for the low expectations, I feel you but I am hoping this episode proves me wrong. If not I am sure others will love it! As the viewpoints seem polarizing ahead of actually viewing it.
Kirk is being used quite a bit for not even being assigned to the Enterprise, but I do like seeing what he was like before he became Captain.
Since it is looking like something might be developing between Kirk and La’an, I’m just waiting for Carol Marcus to show up and spoil it all. Kirk and Carol’s meeting would be kind of neat to see.
I disagree that we know so much about him. We certainly know a ton about Captain Kirk, but I don’t have the slightest problem with seeing Lieutenant Kirk and getting stories about how he became the man we know. If those stories are well-written, that is. So far, they are.
I think that’s my point. I don’t think I am the target audience for Kirk hence why I think he is too much and others think he is great. You are their target audience. Glad there are fans that are really appreciating what he brings to this season even if I don’t get it. Personally I would rather see other legacy characters with more of a blank slate or even brand new ones.
Kirk is by far my favorite captain. I was too young during the original run in the 60’s to relate, but watching in the 1970’s when I was older was when his character really struck a nerve with me.
This Kirk just doesn’t appeal to me at all. They’re trying, but not hitting the mark. Maybe it’s the actor, and maybe it’ll take him more time to find Kirk’s mojo.
But, IMO, they should not have used Kirk at all. I agree with you about other legacy characters which they should have expanded on from The Cage, or new characters unique to Pike’s Enterprise. Using TOS legacy characters, other than Spock, just seems like another easy way out.
are you saying that like a poor marksman he
keeps
missing
the
target!
I’m the target audience and, unfortunately for me, I still can’t see him without thinking of Jim Carrey.
He is utterly unconvincing as Kirk. He actually does strike me as a bit of a young Matt Decker from “The Doomsday Machine.”
Yeah I still think he sucks too. He just doesn’t appeal to me at all. I really wish they kept a Kirk off the show completely.
🎶The best is yet to come 🎶
Haha that Sisko and Vic Fontaine (Avery Brooks and James Darrin) duet was outstanding, especially considering the song was extremely diificult to sing.
Also liked Nana as Kira singing Fever, plus the DS9 finale version of The Way You Look Tonight!
Star Trek is loaded with great music… We Reach!
I forgot that one. Good point. And yeah.
Yes that duet was fantastic. Brooks is quite the signer.
“Praise the Lord” is more like it, judging from that blocking on the bridge…
Contrary to my usual rants about this show, I’m not opposed to doing something like this. But I do think it should completely break the 4th wall, and not exist within any form of canon. I’m 98% sure that’s not the route they’re going though.
This seems like a “And now let us vow to never speak of this again” kind of thing. I’m excited to see what the BS scientific explanation is for this. Should be funny.
Yeah, exactly.
I, too, wish they’d just declare this a non-canon, sui generis musical take on Star Trek, without trying to shoehorn in some ridiculous pseudoscience explanation.
No one is claiming that BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL is somehow a fourth installment of that franchise; that allows the audience to enjoy it for what it is.
If they stick to their own canon (“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”), Ensign Uhura will receive a visit from the Department of Temp Track Investigations asking that she pinky swear to never discuss this with anyone.
Awesome- please do The Wrath of Khan opera in Italian next.
Mark my words – instant classic.
The degree of success in execution will depend on how well the songs do in speaking to things that cannot be said any other way. Star Trek has always been really great at dramatizing certain emotions that are difficult to express while wrapping wonder/sci-fi around it; so, in Star Trek terms I’m not sure how they’ll do anything interesting with the concept beyond “here’s a gimmick we spent $10 million on.” I’m, like, 10% open to being surprised, though, even though I can only see laziness and cynicism dripping off of this right now (I really don’t think very much of the people making this show, which I get is a *me* problem).
Same here!
The problem is.. there is no organic reason to do this. No letting the story take you where it would naturally go… no reason other than the creator’s indulgence. Not one person anywhere has asked the question ‘What is Star Trek Missing?” and answered with a musical. So we’ll see if they manage to pull It off.
I love musicals, yet I am dubious that this will work. It feels much too gimmicky. That said, however, i’m withholding any judgement until I actually watch the episode.
Seems like we’re going to have a lot of people fighting the “gimmick” label on this one right up until Thursday when they’ll whip around and say they LOVE gimmicks and we should too and who cares if it’s a gimmick because everyone had a good time!
Yeah that is 1000 percent a you problem. It also has no correlation with reality.
My dislike of the people making the show has no correlation with reality or the sweaty, desperate gimmicky, warmed over because it’s already been done before appearance of this concept/episode does?
I heard samples of all the songs and they sounded very good. I don’t know if the episode will be good or not but you may enjoy some of the numbers themselves.
I read the synopsis and the first thing that crops into my head is the lyrics to the opening number of Starkid Productions’ The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals: “so tonight we’re gonna chronicle a story so astronomical.”
Isn’t this the same clip that was posted on this site four days ago?
And not much of a spoiler to be honest.
I was dubious back in the day (2001) with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode, but I ended liking a few of the songs. So, I’m cautiously optimistic to see how Star Trek handles this kind of thing.
I’m only happy with Paul Wesley being in this episode if he sings “Rocket Man.”
Ooops! I swear I didn’t read your post before mine!
This would only work for me if Spock sings “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins” and Kirk “sings” “Rocketman”.
Apple Music actually had a preview list of all the songs a few days ago. Someone on Reddit linked it there. It was about 10 songs so there are many. I have to say they actually sounded pretty good. Even the title credits will have a different score with people singing (they are getting really creative with those credits this season).
You could only listen to about 30 seconds of each one, but yeah not bad. The episode still might the worst idea in bad musical TV history but I think people will be humming a few of them.
I was going to link it here, but sadly Apple has taken it down.
This show is getting a bit ridiculous.
Yeah, I’m not totally certain it’s earned a musical episode this early.
Its really not needed at all. Granted DS9 had Vic Fontane but those were isolated parts of the story. Not need a whole 40-50 minute musical number.
How much would the tears of Old School Trek fans go for on Ebay? Just asking for a friend.
Not much, there seem to be gallons of them.
I found the franchise in the mid 70’s, and this old school fan thinks this is (potentially) great.
We’re crying for the poor simps who think this new stuff is any good.
Of.course.Kirk. is. gonna.sing..
ROCKET MAN!
I hope, just to keep in theme, they do the intro with (at least some of) the lyrics that Gene Roddenberry wrote so that he could
steallegitimately claim half of the royalties for the musicHard pass. Not even going to entertain the thought of this episode. Who’s idea was this in the first place????? Just as bad idea as having the Vampire guy play dress up with a Kirk costume.
*whose*
Wont be watching this episode. Last season it was the fairy tale episode. Now this. Im sorry but shows like Buffy The vampire Slayer did it and went downhill since. Pass on this one. Whomever gave the greenlight to this idea should get a pay cut.
Funny thing is, the musical Buffy was probably the only decent episode in a dumpster-fire season.