“Subspace Rhapsody” crushed it, especially with these 3 showstoppers.
We heard Lieutenant Uhura sing a few times in The Original Series. We heard Vic Fontaine croon some tunes in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. And we heard the Emergency Medical Hologram show off his operatic pipes in Star Trek: Voyager. But “Subspace Rhapsody,” the next to last episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, is the Star Trek franchise’s first all-out musical episode.
I understand people’s mileage varies where Broadway-style musicals are concerned. Some people appreciate the way song and dance on the stage can—as Uhura explains in “Subspace Rhapsody”—express “emotions . . . so heightened that words won’t suffice.” Others intensely dislike the fact that suddenly breaking out into song and dance is, in real life, a highly improbable event. As Gavin Burke once wrote for entertainment.ie, “How am I supposed to get involved with the Von Trapps’ flight from the Nazis if they’re prone to sing at the drop of a hat?”
What the premise of “Subspace Rhapsody” does so well is double down on the improbability of impromptu singing and dancing in our reality. Only science fiction can give us a plot device like this episode’s quantum improbability field, that brings a reality where “people sing uncontrollably” into existence. The episode’s sci-fi justification of its songs and dances makes “Subspace Rhapsody” much more than a gimmick—as does its deft use of the musical format to explore and develop the Strange New Worlds characters.
These were my favorite numbers in “Subspace Rhapsody.” Which were yours?
“How Would That Feel”
This number, as fandoms are wont to say, “gave me all the feels.” Granted, I’ve been fan-crushing on La’an all season long, ever since the emotionally gutting events of “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.” But Christina Chong’s performance of La’an’s sung, soul-baring soliloquy just made me want to give the Enterprise security officer a great big hug.
With the song’s clever allusion to the Noonien Singh family’s genetically engineered past (“I’m designed / To color inside the lines”) and its soaring, lyrical refrain—“It might / Be time to change my paradigm”—“How Would That Feel” is a brilliant character study set to music. Such numbers are staples in Broadway musicals (“Memory” from Cats and “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables come to mind), and this one could easily stand alongside a good many of them.
“I’m Ready” / “I’m the X”
“I’m the X” begins, at least, as a slower and more reflective version of the same melody as “I’m Ready.” So Nurse Chapel’s big number celebrating her acceptance into the Korby archaeological medicine fellowship and Spock’s sorrowful lament that their relationship appears to be ending belong together, even as both songs stand triumphantly on their own.
“I’m Ready” reminds me of something like “L’Chaim” from Fiddler on the Roof—an all-out, exhilarating exaltation over good fortune in a bar. In contrast, “I’m the X” modulates the same melody into a down-tempo song of pain and regret for Spock, cleverly punning on algebraic notation with which the Vulcan scientist is more comfortable. “I solved for Y / In my computation / But missed vital information / The variable so devastating / I’m the X .”
Given the last time we saw Spock sing was “Plato’s Stepchildren,” I worried about a singing Spock in “Subspace Rhapsody.” But the episode gives him a number that suits his character just as much as did Leonard Nimoy’s weeping recitation of the multiplication tables in “The Naked Time.”
“Keep Us Connected”
“Subspace Rhapsody” saves its brightest spotlight, logically enough, for communications officer Uhura. How I wish Nichelle Nichols had lived to see her character not only sing on screen, but sing and inspire others to sing in a way that (continuing the Strange New Worlds tradition begun in “Children of the Comet”) saves the Enterprise.
“Keep us Connected” is nothing less than a complete character arc for Uhura in just a few musical minutes. It begins as she sings her continuing sadness over her family’s and Hemmer’s deaths, but then literally switches key as she modulates into the hopeful realization that connection is her gift and her destiny. Like “Defying Gravity” from Wicked or “Before the Parade Passes By” from Hello, Dolly!, “Keep Us Connected” is the song of a character realizing at a deep level who she is and why she matters.
Did I think “Subspace Rhapsody” was perfect? No. With apologies to Uhura, I wouldn’t call “Keep Us Connected” or any of the episode’s songs “earworms.” I have watched the episode twice, and still can’t hum anything from it by memory. I thought the use of autotuning for some of the stars’ voices was too obvious. And I think the show missed a great chance to show us the origin of Klingon opera, opting instead for an admittedly funny Klingon “K-Pop” moment.
But “Subspace Rhapsody” will without doubt remain a high water mark not only for Strange New Worlds but also for the franchise. I hope it might even convince Star Trek fans who don’t already enjoy musical theater to give the medium another chance. Like Star Trek itself, it is an art form full of possibilities.