Star Trek Social Club

Some of the lyrics were really clever and fun:

Spock: "I solved for the Y in my computation ... but the variable so devastating: I'm the ex / X".

At the same time: "When we gain control again, I confess"

• La'an / Pelia: "I'll miss the singing"
• Spock: "I won't miss singing"

Can we talk about how great it is that they keep tinkering with the opening credits for the special episodes? Because I love it every time they do. Fukkin acapella man.

Loved it. I was most surprised that the whole cast all had such beautiful singing voices.

La'an's song touched me the most because I'm someone who also doesn't really dare to do the things I'd like to do.

A bit sad that we didn't get a Klingon opera but the alternative was ... well, interesting too. 😄 Also, I kinda hope that Spock solving diplomatic crises with the Klingons by drinking excessive amounts of blood wine will become a running gag.

SNW continues to break new ground really well. This was a really refreshing episode and very well done. I for one loooved this episode.

Alright, I get that musicals are not everyone's cup of tea, but as a person who watched multiple dozens of Broadway musicals, I must say that the songs were really on par with actual musicals. The cast can really sing well -- I expected many great things from Cecile Rose Gooding and wow she did not disappoint. I was very pleasantly impressed by Christina Chong, Rebecca Romijin, Ethan Peck's performances as well.

I think the director made sure to highlight those actors that can sing well and put those that can't sing into secondary positions. Clearly Grammy-Award winning/Tony Award-nominated Gooding was at the center of the story, and they cut off Anson Mount's song, because well, he isn't the greatest singer. They even fully acknowledged that Babs Olusanmokun can't sing in universe as well. :) The ensemble pieces in the teaser and the finale were superb though and was a lot more entertaining than the solo pieces (which I get is probably much easier to rehearse/record and produce).

I loved that the episode intertwined music as a piece of the story, pushed the character arc forward between Spock/Chapel and La'an/Kirk. I am not so much of a sucker for La'an/Kirk but the alternative universe scenes were really a nice touch. The only cringey part was the Klingon K-pop/rap, but I suppose it was intentionally cringey/funny.

Whether you like this musical episode or not, you gotta admit that SNW really boldly goes where no one has gone before.

Thoughts/Observation as I watch:

• Where will this stand in the long history of Star Trek gimmick episodes? After all, this is the franchise that gave us "Trials and Tribble-ations", "Take Me Out To The Holosuite", "In a Mirror, Darkly", the OG "Lower Decks", and most recently... "Those Old Scientists". Holy shit, that was just two episodes ago and in between we got the darkest Star Trek thing in years!

• Uhura having to be the operator sounds like the most stressful thing to do that doesn't involve imminent danger.

• "Even if it's not fully necessary." That basically sums up every contrivance to get Kirk on board.

• KORBY ALERT

• Ah, spatial distortions, the cause and solution to everything.

• The facial acting as they enter musical-land is priceless.

• Acapella theme song!

• "So... that happened."

• "Quantum uncertainty field". That's some Hitchiker Guide type stuff.

• Ah, they brought back the Gilbert and Sullivan stuff.

• I like how they are hanging a lampshade on just how BIZARRE it is that people sing out their biggest secrets and deepest feelings in musicals.

• Good save, La'An.

• "Surprisingly beautiful baritone"

• It could have been worse for the crew. Imagine if Uhura had broadcast opera into it, then they'd ALWAYS be singing.

• Shaxs would suggest blowing it up by ejecting the warp core.

• Gratuitous zero-gee is gratuitous.

• Oh god, singing Klingons.

• Yeah, the Klingons would also like the "let's just blow it up" plan.

• Wait were those extras twins?

• Apparently the improbability field also affects the lighting of the bar.

• Isn't K'tinga the later type of Klingon ship? Ah, screw it, musical rules.

• "I don't love rules but I think you're about to break a big one."

• This totally is going into Temporal Investigations Kirk file.

• CAROL MARCUS REFERENCE

• Oh shit, David Marcus reference!

• "I'm the Ex" standing as if X in a math question is a good bit of workplay.

• Kind of surprised it took this long to give Celia Rose Gooding a full-on solo.

• Grammy-Award winning singer!

• A grand finale. How meta!

• Boy Band Klingons was not on my bingo card.

• Lol, playing the TOS theme as a curtain-closer

• "You sang about lying to me."

• "Sorry, Earworm."

• All-and-all, it was a good enough gimmick episode. But it was no "Take Me Out To The Holosuite." ("DEATH TO THE OPPOSITION!")

This episode will forever be the test of whether someone who likes Trek is a fun person.

10/10.

I didn't think they'd skip the opportunity to give us singing Klingons but the end result was just...wow. chef's kiss

I absolutely love Pike's "exasperated" face. It's possibly a bit overused this season but it cracks me up every single time because it's how I'd probably react if I were in his shoes and it's so unlike how the previous Starfleet ship captains would react, even when the situation fully merited it.

It could be bunnies

I was wondering why the Klingons were all pissed off about singing. They love their opera.

....and then I saw the performance and was like ah yeah I bet that would be completely humiliating for them. 😂

I loved this episode!

I've come to the conclusion that SNW is the entry point series.

Do you like legal dramas? Perfect, here's a great LGBTQ allegory episode!

Do you like goofy animation like Rick and Morty? Here's the crossover with Lower Decks!

Do you like gritty serious war stories? We're still dealing with the trauma of the Klingon War!

Do you like showtunes? Somehow we pulled that off too! (also Chapel's song is a straight banger)

SNW is the show I'd introduce my friends to in order to get them into Star Trek as a larger thing. I think it's an easier entry point than any other series.

If I had a nickel for every time Uhura solved a problem by singing at it, I'd have two nickels. That's not a lot, but it's the same number as how many times Chakotay's been lost in the Delta Quadrant.

This was a fun episode. Some bangers, though I agree with some of the people who think some songs could have been shortened. The unexpected Klingon boy band was an amazing gag that didn't overstay its welcome. Overall, I think it's great to have Trek embrace the old-school campiness from time to time.

Anyone else convinced Captain Batel is kinda doomed? Pike got off the relationship trauma fairly easily in this episode.

Touching on the actual character moments for a bit here: the events of this episode do not reflect well on Chapel.

She'd been hitting on Spock literally since the beginning of the show, and openly pining after him for most of that time. Four episodes ago, she winds up breaking down in tears explaining to an alien telephone receptionist how much she cares about him. Two episodes ago she is extremely distraught when Boimler accidentally lets slip that Spock is famous in the future, and her relationship with him almost certainly will not last. And now, she gets into a three month fellowship that she didn't think she had much of a chance at, doesn't say a word to Spock until she has no other choice, and then busts out a (involuntary, but reflective of genuine emotion) musical number about how "free" she feels. What the hell.

We already know Chapel has some problems with commitment, but this is a whole 'nother level. Throwing away a relationship she spent most of this show obsessively wishing for, without any apparent consideration for Spock's feelings or non-breakup solutions to spending a couple months apart, is just wild. I'm sure the finale will touch on this with a little more nuance than a musical number was likely to give, but whatever else is said this is not a good look.

I found it peculiar how the Klingons were saying there was no honor in the singing—considering how into Opera the can be known to be—up until I heard how they got the most egregious of the autotune.

It was wacky and I loved It! I laughed my ass of with the Klingon part

That was so stupid. I love this show.

Episode was good. Klingon part was funny. Liked how the played the TOS theme after the "grand finale" was finished.

Ok, a post from someone that really hate musicals and was worried about this episode. So sorry if I will over criticize the episode...

I admit the episode was so fun at the beginning and songs were nice, loved La'an and Una parts they were really good. I was thinking the episode was a banger. I loved so much the opera opening too.

Unlikely it started to lose my attention around on Chapel's song (also because the autotune was so evident in her and I found the Chapel Spock relationship the worst part of the series) and the second part was a little hard for me to follow, the music too was less interesting and even if Uhura has a great voice her solo song was too long and def not my cup of tea, I didn't even understand what was trying to say. It could have worked for me with less songs.

It was interesting I have fun for more than I thought and I laughed so much with Klingons, it was often close to clinginess but it was ok at the end.

Loved it.

Some amusing details:

• For Pike's singing voice, he adopts a kind of Meatloaf/Russell-Crowe-in-Les-Miz style that is exactly the right mixture of masculine and adorable.
• The build up to the Klingon Boy Band: We know that Klingons love opera, heightened emotions, spontaneous group singing, and choreography (if you're willing to consider martial arts a form of choreography). La'an even explicitly mentions singing old sea shanties which would seem to be an obvious way to translate the Klingons into musical form. So naturally, I was shocked that the Klingons would not immediately assimilate into their new musical reality. I even told my husband, "I can't believe the Klingons would want this to stop!" And when it hit, everything made perfect sense.

Another amazing episode and a certainly fresh idea for the Klingons with their K-pop, or Kling-pop?

I think they towed a good line on whimsy, emotion and gimmicks and kept it well grounded as character exploration. Let's force everyone to process their season's emotional growth in song!

Also I have to say I love how much focus SNW gives to lower ranking officers. Classic trek always ended up focusing on a few senior officers but this is a proper ensemble number.

Only thing I want more now is this with Elle Cordova doing her Star Trek technoblabble songs in it.

That Klingon Boy Band was hilarious. The pause was just perfect.

Oh man, loved that episode. The grand finale was so good! I loved that part when

One thing I love about SNW is the variety of stuff they try.

What a lovely episode.

I saw a fair amount of skepticism across the Fediverse about how musical episodes are always bad and annoying, to which someone would always respond "well, Buffy nailed it." Apparently the SNW writers feel the same way, because "Subspace Rhapsody" isn't just a homage to "Once More With Feeling," it's a love letter. They may have swapped the demon for a subspace wedgie, but they kept the idea of using music to force the characters to confront their feelings about each other, and they even threw in a bunny callback.

10/10. I hope SNW maintains the tradition of a theatrically silly episode near the end of each season as long as it runs!

What the heck, this episode must have taken so much effort like 20+ minutes of singing + music (and the writing of the songs as well), and in a good half of those requires choreographed dancing as well, the a capella version of the intro, and a few orchestra versions in the credits

I was grinning almost the entire time for this episode, it was just....fun! And it moved the plot along too! (Although you kinda need to with so few episodes in a season)

Upfront: I love musicals. I have to say this episode is just so creative and original. I think it is one of my all time favorites across all the series. Strange New Worlds has done such a good job bringing back the light-heartedness in a franchise that had become so overly dark and serious - and this is the pinnacle of that effort. Season 2 has just been outstanding.

Another great episode. The a capella theme song was great too.

Kirk and Uhura are real ones for never telling McCoy that Spock had a phase of being proud to be human until he got dumped by Nurse Chapel. He never would have let him live it down.

According to the Ready Room, Bruce Horak played the Klingon captain!

I loved the episode overall, but that Klingon fleet should have been commanded by L'Rell herself (though that was an extremely fun way to bring back Bruce Horak without shoehorning the Ghost of Hemmer into it).

We all must have done some pretty amazing stuff in our past lives, to deserve this season we are getting.