Star Trek #1624: Subspace Rhapsody

CAPTAIN'S LOG: Star Trek, the Musical.

WHY WE LIKE IT: Did I stutter? STAR TREK. THE. MUSICAL.

WHY WE DON'T: The Klingon Boy Band? Kirk in the series too often? Are we really complaining here?

REVIEW: Seeing as I spent the next few days after this broadcast rewatching the musical numbers practically on a loop - and several times since - I want to get into every song, but generally, I think it's pretty amazing that SNW has JUST done a crazy crossover with a cartoon show, and two episodes later, is doing a full-blown musical. Even more amazing is that they pull it off. The granddaddy of this type of event is Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "Once More with Feeling", which this episode has been compared to a lot, and not always favorably (it may even acknowledge its ancestry with a fun reference to bunnies). When the numbers started, I was initially unimpressed with the Disneyfied pop ballad style they were going for, which isn't my favorite musical genre for a musical (I'm more Sondheim than Frozen, and more Miranda than Gilbert & Sullivan), and I do think some of the lyrics gave metric flaws (putting odd stresses on words so they fit the line, but these are minor points. The fact is that most of the songs are bangers, in the context of the characters actually have something to say, and 80% of them reduce me to tears every time I listen. Buffy had more varied styles, matching different characters' attitudes, but SNW's take is more triumphant, and has better voices. Seeing as many shows have done musical episodes since Buffy's, I don't consider it a rip-off, just part of the same lineage.

The important thing with a heightened reality (whether a musical or Shakespeare) is that the poetry/songs actually move the characters forward. They are singing their truth, from emotion, and on that score Rhapsody does the job. Chapel has gotten that fellowship with Dr. Korby and means to break things off with Spock before she goes (a hay fire). Pike is still having trouble committing to Captain Battel. Uhura is at the tail end of her workaholic subplot and admitting that she's driven by grief. Jim Kirk is once again on board, shadowing Una before he becomes First Officer of the Farragut, and you can see how he really IS learning about leadership, making small mistakes and trying to correct them. La'an will end up telling him something of their past relationship - to prevent it coming out in a song uncouched in the Temporal Prime Directive - and while he feels it too, he's with Carol Marcus at the moment... and she's pregnant (yes, the math adds up). All this is part and parcel of the musical's themes: Connection and Communication. And so it's only right that Uhura be the star of the show (and not just because Celia Rose Gooding has a Grammy and a Tony nom - both for the Jagged Little Pill musical). Because of [tech reasons], she has to actually play "phone operator" in this episode and literally keeps the crew connected because the automation won't work, and it becomes the key to closing the subspace fold that's threatening the quadrant. Before that point, Pike-Batell, La'an-Kirk, Chapel-Spock, all are having problems communicating and connecting. You can even throw in the two Kirks if you reference Jim's last visit (here, they're thrown together working in deflector control, a possible nod to Generations). And indeed, Uhura herself feels alone despite being the connective tissue, she's a conduit, not on the receiving end.

Brilliantly, what activates the "improbability field" is Uhura sending a song through the fold. Brilliantly because that song is "Anything Goes", so you've been warned. From there, it causes embarrassment, but are those the stakes? Well, the field expands to subspace network, infecting the whole of Starfleet (I love the reference to Admiral April's beautiful baritone) and to part of the Klingon Empire as well. Thw Klingons are none too happy about this, and their loss of face makes them send ships (led by Captain Garkog, played by Bruce Horak - formerly Hemmer - so it's great to have him join in the fun too) to blow up the fold, which according to the Enterprise's experiments, would essentially destroy everyone affected. They have 2 hours to find a solution, and that solution is perfect. Everything works according to a musical's rules, and therefore, it can only end with a massive finale (which Uhura is almost too happy about), and as "the Voice of the Enterprise", she'll be the one to lead the entire crew in song and dance. The "science" checks out. The bigger the musical number, the higher the NUMBER number is on the improbability chart. Heck, they probably came closest on their first song, but couldn't possibly know it. But that's the story, but for the epilogues. Let's just get into those songs already, which are more or less structured alternating between fun ones and sad ones.

It all starts with "Status Report" (which I rather call "Apologies", as it has a bit of a meta sentiment), a pretty funny piece in which the crew are confounded by their own singing. Overlapping voices hint at what's possible at the end, but also add to the sense of confusion even if the voices are well harmonized. Cleverly, it turns into a military march when La'an makes her entrance. I also M'Benga's looking into Chapel's eyes when doing part of the song as if she's helping him with it rather sweet ("I do not sing" was no doubt Babs Olusanmokun's line). As soon as it ends, we're in an a capela version of the theme music and I. Was. SOLD!

Unfortunately, Una's duet with Kirk, "Connect to Your Truth" is the least memorable song on the soundtrack, and the weakest melodically. An avowed Gilbert & Sullivan-style tune, and though it seems standard for a naval-ish show to dip into that canon (like Data in Nemesis), I've never been a big fan. Still, we have the two XOs discussing whether to keep a distance from the crew, and how she feels that was her early mistake. This may be the origin of Kirk's command style (best epitomized in the post by Riker), and the easy friendships of the TOS era. Spock will of course take the opposite tack.

From there, directly into THE heartbreaker of the episode, a companion piece to episode 3's focus on La'an (in Again and Again and Again). This power ballad has her wishing she were more open and vulnerable (which is the effect the songs are having), but knowing that'll never be her. It's tragic and Christina Chong is Gooding's only real peer in the cast. The way she ends it, catching on the last word is a real punch in the gut. Cleverness: When she sings specifically about Kirk, the song breaks down because it's part of another timeline and is much more difficult, risking a "mistake" like the one she fears. She gets me every time.

A cute reprise of "Status Report", entitled "Private Conversation" gets Batell in on the musical and exposes Pike's relationship problems to his bridge crew. It's amusing, but a puff a piece, though I like the link back to The Cage. Pike is a man with a track record for wanting to run from his problems. Another minor piece is "Keeping Secrets", which serves as a conversation between Una and La'an about the things the latter is keeping from Kirk (and thus related to those Una kept from Starfleet but has been released from this season). I don't love the staging - the anti-grave stuff seems pointless and Una leaves the room as soon as it's over, which is strange - but I like how it's intercut with shots of other crew members who relate well to the lines. So on Chapel and M'Benga, we have secrets that "keep you awake" and "cut like a knife", a reference to their time in the war. On Pike looking at vacation spots, the bit about the "island, population 1". And the "nice people who couldn't keep secrets" are Spock and Uhura, of course. This one grew on me after a few listens, but it'll never be my favorite.

The jazzy La-La Land number, "I'm Ready" is bouncy and fun, but ultimately a downer - a bangin' dumping song - and the first to trigger spontaneous crowd dancing as well as singing. Chapel goes from euphoric about her new opportunity to cold-hearted in her treatment of Spock (which comes as a realization mid-singing). To be fair, he was literally asking for it. At this point, he and Uhura have determined that they have to scan a musical number and thus provoke an emotional moment. It's happy/harsh and is then followed by "I'm the X", which is the same basic song, but in a minor key. Spock's solo uses some of the same lines "this news really changes everything" and the word "possibility" (he is robbed of them) and therefore makes these two tunes the most "Sondheim" of the episode. It's also got great puns I might have missed at first without the subtitles. At first he's the ex looking for the why, but by the end, his mathematical mind will have turned this into an equation where he's looking for Y, but is the X (in other words, the variable he wasn't taking into account). This is HIS failure and the song pushes the pendulum back the other way. The Spock we know from later may in large part be the result of this ill-considered brush with his humanity. Note how, in the finale, he states that science is what he's meant to do. Not this relationship nonsense.

In "Keep Us Connected", Uhura gets a powerful solo which also contains a clever pun. She's says she's "solo", but it can sound like "so low", the first part of the song decrying her status as a loner, someone who lost family and mentor and still takes care of others, though no one takes care of her. But through the song, she'll find a way to fix/save the ship, and those same "flaws" become strengths. She's a communicator, and therefore an empath, and it's that empathy that will allow her to connect to the crew and the crew to each other. They use Gooding's voice to great effect by opening up on Engineering and letting it resonate in the large chamber, and yet my favorite part of the performance is her quiet little breath at the very end when she's found the answer.

Finally, the finale, "We Are One". This is meant to be fun and big and triumphant, with blaring horns and everyone getting in on the fun (sorry, Dr. M'Benga, you HAVE to do this). Uhura plays on the one thing they have in common, being part of the crew of the Enterprise. Even the computer sound effects are part of the melody. Spock makes jokes (he's had a LOT of great deadpan humor throughout). Pelia, La'an and Spock stand like they're in the Bohemian Rhapsody video. And... I do wish we didn't cut away to the Klingons. Or rather than they sang the same melody and didn't interrupt the groove. It's a funny moment, and when I showed it to non-Trekkie friends, they laughed at the autontuned boy band voices and K-pop dance choreography (Sam Kirk is into it too). Ultimately, the plan works, the fold explodes (confusingly, it seems to destroy the Klingon ships, but doesn't really), and the original Star Trek theme plays as the cast start shaking hands exactly as if they'd just done a musical and the curtain has fallen. Like the dancing in "I'm Ready", it feels half improvised, and I especially love Pike dancing with Pelia in the background. They've earned this little SNL moment, and I like to think the fold is playing them off-stage and that fanfare is diagetic.

In epilogue, Batell and Pike have a talk that makes me think she's doomed (even before the next episode sets her up for disaster). Pike is too close to happiness. Though I would like there to be a happy twist on this score. And in the final moments, Uhura hums what the subtitles erroneously say is "Keep Us Connected" (her song), but is really "I'm Ready" (which is more of an earworm and leads us into the end credits medley). The bridge crew is a little spooked, but regardless, this is without a doubt the origin of Uhura singing over the P.A. system as she does in The Naked Time.

SECONDARY WATCHING: I just want to remind people that though the singing wasn't as spontaneous, Deep Space Nine often included musical numbers through Vic's, with several cast members getting in the action. However, we should also ask whether Kirk's now more than passing connection to La'an here motivates his going easy on Khan in Space Seed. If he doesn't have at least a friendship with her, does he give Khan a second chance and settle him on a planet? And then there's Chapel and Spock (still too early to rewatch What Are Little Girls Made Of?). In the wake of this episode, their TOS relationship also takes a new color. On Kirk's Enterprise, she's extremely sorry about this whole thing and reaches out to him; he's put a cold front and is especially careless with her feelings.

LESSON: There's ABSOLUTELY nothing nuTrek won't do!

REWATCHABILITY - High: Another maverick episode from Strange New Worlds. Bold, amusing, poignant, and it doesn't forget to advance the characters. A lovely experience to revisit again and again, impressive on a TV schedule.