Subspace Rhapsody (episode)

Real world article

(written from a production point of view)

An accident with an experimental quantum probability field causes everyone on the USS 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.

Summary[]

Teaser[]

The USS Enterprise is on the site of an unusual phenomenon – a naturally-occurring subspace fold, which Spock has theorized could triple the speed of subspace communication. Unfortunately for Uhura, the amount of computer power required for his experiment has resulted in her having to essentially become a switchboard operator: a call from Captain Batel to Captain Pike, another from Dr. Roger Korby for Nurse Chapel, Una checking on Lieutenant James Kirk's imminent arrival from the USS Farragut, and Spock in engineering asking if she was ready to continue their experiment. Once these were all sorted, Uhura takes a deep breath to recenter herself, before going right back to work.

Batel is planning her and Pike's first vacation to Crivo, a planet Pike considers "touristy". Batel is enthusiastic, wanting to see the Planetary Museum, and take day trips to the Glass Islands and Smoke Lakes. She sees the look on Pike's face and stops short, wondering if something was wrong. Pike muses that perhaps the timing was bad, and he was uncertain he could get away. Batel wonders if there was something he wasn't telling her, and he assures her there wasn't, but suggests delaying for a few days. Batel curtly agrees, before closing the channel.

In the transporter room, Una is joined by La'an, explaining that the Farragut is sending Kirk to the Enterprise so that the crew can "show him the ropes"; the captain's note adds that Kirk is "full of talent" but still has "one or two issues" to work out before beginning his commission as the ship's first officer. La'an thinks punctuality is one of those "issues". Una notes that La'an is unusually energetic, to which La'an simply replies she is waiting for their guest to run a security clearance. Una, however, thinks La'an came in "hot", but La'an again assures her she was fine, and it was standard procedure. Una activates the transporter, and welcomes Kirk back to the Enterprise. He notices his brother Sam is absent this time; Una explains Sam was busy, and they'd find him later. Kirk thanks Una for agreeing to do this, even if he felt it was not fully necessary. Una recalls that when she took her commission, she spent a week shadowing Pike, which made all the difference for her, and she hopes it will do the same for him on the Farragut. Kirk then notices La'an, and reminds her she owes him a drink. La'an is flustered somewhat as she leads him to undergo his security clearance.

In sickbay, Chapel paces nervously, wondering if the message from Dr. Korby would be another rejection notice. Ortegas tells her to forget the Vulcans and their Science Academy, and Chapel seems to go along with this… but this fellowship she had applied for was different, knowing of Korby's reputation. So does Dr. M'Benga, who calls him the "Louis Pasteur of archaeological medicine". Thousands of people apply for his fellowship every year, and only five are accepted. Mustering her nerve, Chapel reads the message… and her expression tells both Ortegas and M'Benga that her application was accepted. M'Benga jokingly wonders what she would do without her for three months, and Ortegas points out he wouldn't be the only one who would miss her. Chapel's joy is dampened somewhat as she realizes she had to tell Spock.

In engineering, Spock is engrossed in the experiment, having failed twelve times in sending a message through the subspace fold. Pelia corrects that to thirteen, and asks why he thinks this particular fold would lead to faster communications. Spock explains that frequencies propagate through it three times faster than normal. With their current subspace relay network, Uhura adds, it takes weeks to get a message across; if their experiments work out, they could have real-time communications across thousands of light years… only so far, no one has heard them. As she returns to work, Uhura begins humming a tune, which gives Pelia an idea: sending music through the fold. They were attempting to communicate through a medium with different laws of physics, so perhaps fundamental harmonics were the answer. Pelia off-handedly says it was "just a thought"... but Spock thinks it may be an excellent one, and leaves Uhura to pick the song. Uhura hopes subspace was a "fan" of the Great American Songbook, and selects the song "Anything Goes".

The music does indeed cause a reaction, but not what they had been hoping for. A wave of energy projects from the fold and goes through the entire ship, momentarily disorienting everyone on the crew as it passed through them – including Pike, in the turbolift on his way to the bridge. As he exits, he asks Mitchell what hit them. She reports that there were no other ships in the sector, and that whatever it was had come from the fold. Pike calls to Uhura in engineering, asking for a full report. When Uhura checks in with Spock, he surprises her by singing his response, that the intermix chamber and containment field generator were stable ("Status Report"). Pike wonders where the music is coming from, and Ortegas knows it was not anywhere on the ship. Spock apologizes for the most "confounding" thing, that he appeared to be singing his answers. Sickbay seems to catch onto it as well, as M'Benga and Chapel musically report no injuries, "just the mundane".

The musical "infection" spreads to the bridge, as Ortegas, then Una, then La'an and Kirk sing their status reports from their stations. The entire crew is caught up in the music, which ends at that moment with Pike's question: "But why are we singing?"

Act One[]

"So… that happened," Pike comments, meeting with the crew in the ready room. La'an reports "musical outbreaks" all over the ship. Kirk had assumed it was something the crew had rehearsed, but he had sang too – as did M'Benga, who emphatically says he does not sing. Pike knows the surge came from the subspace fold, and asks Spock to help him "connect the dots". Spock explains how they had sent a series of transmissions, the last being a song. When asked why that would make them sing, Spock theorizes the frequency of the transmission dislodged a quantum uncertainty field, asking them to imagine an area of space where multiple quantum uncertainties collapse so rapidly and randomly that new realities were created; in one of which, the inhabitants sang uncontrollably. La'an sarcastically wonders if that meant more uncertainty or if the crew would just "poof into bunnies", to which M'Benga makes clear he'd prefer not to be a bunny, either. Spock assures them that was unlikely, but they may not be done with the music: the Enterprise has become tethered to that particular improbability field, and attempting to fly out would widen it. Pelia notices it looks similar to a zipper, and asks if it could work like a zipper. Pike, seeing where she's going, points out that zippers work both ways, and asks if they could somehow "zip" the improbability field back into the fold. Spock thinks it possible, if they combined shield harmonics with the Heisenberg compensator and connected it to the navigational deflector to generate a beam. Una knows this would have to be done manually. Pike tells them to go ahead with it, not knowing how the singing would affect them and wanting to "nip it at the bud". Kirk jokingly adds that Spock explained that very well, and that he almost understood it.

The "zipper beam" had to exactly match the resonance of the fold, and Spock asks Uhura about the frequency of the song she sent through. As he observes, he sees the message from Dr. Korby to Chapel, asking if it was about her recent fellowship application and if the news was "favorable". Uhura reminds him that she didn't look at personal correspondence, and Spock agrees it would be unethical. Uhura realizes that Spock and Chapel have become close, and Spock confirms that it would be accurate to say they had become "more than colleagues". Uhura jokes about that "classic Vulcan romance" she had heard about, then more seriously asks why he doesn't ask Chapel about it. Spock admits that their communications have run into challenges. Una calls to report that she and Kirk were in place, and asks Uhura for the harmonics data.

Down below, Kirk is working inside a Jefferies tube connecting the relays. "One down, only four to go," he says. Una wonders if he was running out of steam already. Kirk recalls what his brother told him about her, calling Una the first officer that he should be – keeping distance from the crew because of the hard decisions a first officer had to make. Una is aware of her reputation, and has elected to take a more "hands-on" approach. Kirk recalls the last first officer on the Farragut definitely kept his distance. Una calls that style of command a "first mistake" – and the music starts again as she advises Kirk to "connect to [his] truth" and interact more with his crew than other first officers would ("Connect to Your Truth"), admitting (as she normally wouldn't) that she would enjoy taking to the stage regaling others with her renditions of her favorite composers, Gilbert and Sullivan. They actually begin to dance their way to the next access tunnel, while La'an watches from around the corner.

La'an, caught in the music herself, questions how Una was able to express herself ("How Would That Feel"), and wonders if she can do so herself, wondering how it would feel to be "flying blind", but has "never met that part" of her. Her words harken back to the time she first met Kirk – in an alternate reality, then shifted back in time to the 21st century – and fantasizes about having a future with him, taking out the wristwatch she had used during that incident. As the song ends, she comes to a realization, one she shares with Pike in the turbolift to the bridge: the singing was causing them to express highly personal emotional information about themselves. Pike is somewhat dumbfounded at the idea that their emotions could constitute a security threat, but La'an is sure that they do. Seeing how uncomfortable she is, Pike hopes that whatever she's holding back doesn't turn out that way, and assures her Spock and Uhura have a plan.

As they arrive on the bridge, Spock reports that the Heisenberg compensator is adjusted with the shield harmonics to collapse the musical reality. Uhura calls to "Lieutenant Kirk", saying she wasn't rushing him, but then says she was. It turns out both Lieutenant Kirks are down in the transporter room making the final adjustments, and both acknowledge. Jim thinks she was talking to him, but Sam points out that he worked there. Jim reminds him that it wasn't his department, that he was in xenoanthropology; Sam counters that he had been assigned at Jim's request, because Jim "missed" him. Jim activates the deflector, and Una gives the order to fire the "zipper beam".

At first, it appears to be working, but the fold releases another surge of energy, and Ortegas sees it was not "zipping". Pike asks Spock what happened, but Spock is unable to determine. Just then, a message comes in from the USS Cayuga. "When it rains," Pike says, given who the captain is. He tells Spock to determine what happened, before he has Uhura put Batel through. Batel seems to be caught up in the same trouble as the Enterprise, as her message is a rhyming request to have a private conversation, in a more discreet location, about their cancelled vacation… and then sings her apologies for the rhyming. Pike tells her he will have to call her back, but Batel musically cuts him off, accusing him of always running away ("Private Conversation"/"Status Report (reprise)"). Pike is now caught up in the song as well, questioning why all the blame was on him, and about to make a comment about her choice of vacation destination… before he catches himself, not willing to speak so in front of his crew.

As their musical duel goes on, trying to have a "private" conversation about their frustration, La'an springs into action and cuts the communication. Pike is confused as to why he was admitting all of what he had just sang, and La'an again emphasizes it was a security threat. He then asks why the Cayuga was also affected, and Spock reports that the improbability field was expanding across the entire subspace communications network… affecting all of Starfleet.

Act Two[]

Una has been in contact with Admiral April, who informed her that the improbability field has spread to twelve starships, and let her know (in a "surprisingly beautiful baritone", she adds) that he would like it stopped. Pike asks if they had any idea why the reality was compelling them to confess their deepest emotions; at that, La'an glances slightly behind her at Kirk. Uhura has a theory: because it was a musical reality, they were following the rules of musicals – and Una, a fan of musicals, knew that characters in musicals began to sing in them when their emotions were so heightened that words would not suffice. Pike suggests firing a spread of photon torpedoes to "bring the curtain down" on it, and Spock thinks it possible; a sufficient explosion of matter and antimatter could untether them from the improbability field and release the affected ships from the musical reality. However, he wants to test it in a controlled environment first, in case the results are more explosive. La'an has the thought (and Kirk completes it) of beaming subatomic particles from the fold itself. Una points out it requires cross-targeting, which makes it a two-person job. Kirk replies that they had "two persons" right there.

To Una's surprise, La'an refuses the assignment, and Una knows that was not like her. La'an confesses that she wasn't feeling like herself; indeed, none of them were. Una realizes that she is uncomfortable of the idea of singing to Kirk, seeing how she was acting around him. La'an, struggling to admit it without actually admitting it, says that "hypothetically", she might have feelings for him, and those feelings pose a potential space-time security risk. La'an finally gets fed up enough to say she should just tell him and "stop being a child" about it, before it got out of her control. The music starts again, Una telling her about the people who would complicate her life ("Keeping Secrets"), and urging her to tell as much of the truth as she felt, "no drama". She deactivates the artificial gravity in the ready room, dancing in the air with La'an as the song continues. Throughout the ship, others in similar situations are contemplating their own futures with someone else: Chapel in sickbay, Spock in engineering, and Pike in his quarters. Una also points out her own skill with keeping secrets, and how that skill didn't serve her anymore.

La'an joins Kirk in the transporter room, trying to beam the particles aboard; he apologizes for sounding as if he was giving orders, as he was on her ship. The molecular imaging scanner was unable to focus the signal, but La'an adds power, and they successfully bring the particles aboard. Kirk then transports them to engineering, then sarcastically notes it was "exciting", though not as exciting as Spock and Uhura getting to blow them up. Nonetheless, he thinks he and La'an make a good team, and should work together more often. La'an, struggling to put her feelings into words, is unable to go much further before the ship violently rocks.

The test explosion nearly destroyed engineering, leading Pike to wonder what would happen if they applied it to the fold itself. Spock's analysis shows that the effect would spread through the entire subspace network, destroying everything; he compares it to soaking the improbability field in kerosene and holding a match to it. Uhura then picks up an incoming transmission, and Pike warns her not to answer for fear of spreading the musical "infection" further. Spock triangulates the source, detecting a signature coming in at high warp speed, with Klingon encryption. Una thinks the last thing anyone would want is singing Klingons. Pike orders Uhura to send a proxy message through Starfleet Command, telling them to turn back immediately. The ship has stopped hailing, but Uhura gets a message... the improbability field has already hit them.

Uhura plays back the message. The sender identifies himself as General Garkog of the Imperial Klingon Defense Force, who tells them that their "evasion" has raised suspicions, and that the Klingons have identified the source of their "dishonor". He intends to destroy it, and warns the Enterprise not to try to stop him. Pike realizes they were going to fire on the subspace fold.

Act Three[]

In the ready room, Pike informs the crew that Garkog's ship will arrive in two hours. Spock warns that if the Klingons completed their mission, everyone affected by the improbability field would be destroyed. "So, just the entire Federation and half the Klingon Empire," Kirk sums up. Pike knows they had to be stopped at all costs, and asks for options. Una points out that firing first constituted an act of war, but Pike sees little option, asking if they could just disable the Klingons' disruptor cannons; La'an adds the torpedo launchers. Una asks La'an for a tactical strategy, and La'an gets on it… then asks Kirk to join her. Pike then turns to Spock and Uhura, asking what the odds were of disabling the improbability field before the Klingons arrived. Spock concedes they were not good with the data they had. Pike suggests he find new data, urging them both to fix the problem; they were applying old rules to a new reality, and suggests finding a different tempo – and fast.

Spock proposes using the songs themselves, and the frequency they generate, as their means. He wonders how to generate a song, and Uhura reminds him that per the musical rules, songs began during moments of intense emotion… and she looks into the open door of the crew lounge, where Chapel is sharing a drink with Ortegas and Sam Kirk, celebrating Chapel's fellowship. Chapel thinks it strange to celebrate in a time like this, but Sam is adamant that their lives shouldn't end every time the ship got into trouble, and Ortegas agrees, saying they were there to celebrate her win. Spock approaches then, believing the toasting indicated good news about her fellowship. He then asks why she didn't tell him, and whether it was intentional or merely an oversight. Chapel wants to discuss it later, but Spock insists that he was "merely curious". On cue, the music starts, and Uhura begins her scans. Chapel thinks that it was a "distant dream", and that she confesses she didn't think she deserved it, but now the fellowship saw her as "one of their own" (""I'm Ready"). The entire crew in the lounge get in on the spontaneous singing and dancing that breaks out, celebrating Chapel's accomplishment, and Chapel admitting that she was ready for it, and "won't fight it" if she had to leave Spock behind. Spock stares for a moment, then quietly leaves.

La'an and Kirk are going over the specifications of the K't'inga-class they will be facing; Una had suggested the disruptor cannons and fore torpedoes, but La'an knows the aft launchers were the ones to worry about. Kirk elects to trust her aim, then asks about that "thing" she was going to tell him before in the transporter room. La'an finally admits, choosing to do so before she broke out into a 17th century sea shanty, that she had met an alternate version of Kirk. Kirk, though admittedly not one for rules, can see that La'an is about to break a big one. La'an tells him that the other Kirk had met her "real" self, because he had never heard her name or all it stood for, and admits she had liked it, liked the way he had looked at her. In his eyes, she could see who she wanted to be, someone who could feel, take chances… and make connections. Kirk asks if he was anything like that other self, and La'an at first says no… but then adds that yes, because she likes the way he looks at her, too. Kirk confesses that he had felt a similar connection when she first called him, but reminds him he was not that other Kirk. His life was complicated, perhaps not by time travel, but he admits he was in a "sometimes" relationship with Carol Marcus, a scientist on Starbase 1. He thinks La'an would like her, and that they were both very similar in that they were dedicated to their work. He admits he didn't tend to stay in one place for very long, which was a growing problem… because Carol was pregnant. "Wow," is all La'an can say to that.

Uhura finds Spock in engineering, clearly looking unhappy; he has been analyzing the data they gathered. He is looking for a pattern, and finding none. He adds that he was not expecting Chapel to be definitive about ending their arrangement. Uhura knows relationships are difficult. For Spock, who is half-Human, he feels things differently compared to most Vulcans. He knows Chapel's decision was logical, but nonetheless he is hurt. Taken by the music, Spock admits he had "betrayed" his core philosophies for the relationship with Chapel, and did not intend to make the same mistake again, accepting that he was "the ex" ("I'm the X"/"I'm Ready (reprise)"). The song done, he apologizes and leaves Uhura alone – to also be taken by her own song (""Keep Us Connected"), searching for the pattern, and knowing she would have to do the work alone. She also thinks on her memories of her parents and elder brother, and the shuttle crash that killed them, as well as her meeting with Hemmer when she was a cadet. She wonders if her life is meant to be lived "solo", and engrossed in her work in keeping people connected. She then has a realization, seeing the patterns repeating, and soon accepts that she was "good with solo".

Act Four[]

Uhura reports to Pike that the singing causes spikes in the quantum probabilities in the field. She believes if they can get the spikes to 344 giga electron volts, it would shatter the field. Spock enters then, seeing she has found the improbability-breaking event they need to escape. Pike asks how they can do it, because two more K't'ingas have been detected en route. Uhura reminds him that song could be communal – used in worship and celebration. With just a solo with some backup vocals – Chapel and Uhura earlier – they generated a spike of 40 electron volts. Uhura thinks they require a "grand finale", needing melodies and harmonies with tone ratios with both algorithmic and logarithmic balance on a mass scale. To do that, the entire crew had to sing together. Spock sees the challenge of inspiring all two hundred members of the crew to spontaneously break into song, and Pike thinks this a job for a communications officer. Uhura protests that she couldn't get the entire ship to sing, but Pike is confident that she can, as she sees the connections between them, while all the others can see was empty space.

Pike addresses the entire ship, remarking on the challenging situation, and how they may not have all been acting like a crew, but he believes they would get through together by following one voice: the voice of the Enterprise. He then turns it over to Uhura, who introduces herself, saying that while they may not all know her, she knows them. She used to think of herself as always alone, but not on this ship; each of them were connected as a crew. As she brings up the improbability field levels, Pike silently encourages her to keep going. Uhura asks what the odds were of all of them being there, together, on that ship and at that moment. The music begins, and Uhura guides them all in singing of their purpose – "to protect the mission" – and the others in the crew join in ("We Are One"), some praising Uhura for saving them, and Kirk believing it will be thanks to them that he makes captain. Little by little, the crew gets in on the music, singing and dancing through the corridors, as the electron volt levels rise. But even with the entire crew, it was not enough, and Pike has Uhura hail the Klingons. Garkog resists at first, then he and his crew break into a pop number threatening vengeance "at the ends of [their] mek'leths". The Enterprise and the three Klingon ships spin in a musical pattern as the song reaches its climax, hitting the required levels, causing the subspace fold to explode in a shower of light. The Enterprise crew celebrates the success, though some tensions remain. For a start, Pike has Uhura hail the Klingons, thinking they had to "mend some fences".

In the crew lounge afterward, La'an is alone with her thoughts when she is joined by Una. La'an admits she told Kirk the truth, and it didn't go well; while it hurt, she is still glad she took the chance. She thinks that maybe she could be someone who took chances more often. Una toasts to that.

In his quarters, Pike is preparing dinner for himself and Batel, who is still incensed about the fact that Pike had lied to her about not wanting to go to Crivo, asking why he didn't just say he hated it. Pike tries to deflect at first, before he confesses that it sounded like his nightmare; he preferred something simple and quieter, like camping. Batel reminds him that they wouldn't work out if he couldn't be honest about something as small as a vacation, and he is apologetic. However, she has "good news and bad news" – they had more time to plan their "compromised vacation", as she had been called on a priority one mission. Pike jokingly asks how he could be sure she wasn't the one making excuses now, and Batel answers that when she comes back, they can go somewhere they both want to go, adding that she wouldn't do any camping unless it had room service. Pike calls it a deal.

All Federation ships return to normal, and Spock was able to again engage in diplomacy over bloodwine, entering the bridge feeling the effects of another hangover. As Pike enters, he thinks it might be an idea to share their findings with non-Federation ships as well, and suggests opening a channel to anyone who's nearby. As she gets to work, she begins humming the song she had sung to herself in engineering, causing the bridge crew to all look over at her. "Sorry, earworm," she says apologetically, before returning to work.

Soundtrack[]

As a musical, the episode features the following songs:

"Status Report"
"Star Trek Strange New Worlds Main Title" (Subspace Rhapsody Version)
"Connect to Your Truth"
"How Would That Feel"
"Private Conversation"
"Keeping Secrets"
"I'm Ready"
"I'm the X"
"Keep Us Connected"
"We Are One"
"Subspace Rhapsody End Credit Medley"

Though not included in the official soundtrack, Uhura plays a clip of "Anything Goes", specifically the 1962 off-Broadway cast recording by Eileen Rodgers. "We Are One" concludes with a rendition of the Star Trek: The Original Series theme by Alexander Courage.

Memorable quotes[]

"So... that happened."

- Pike, after the first song

"So, what's next? More improbability? Or will we just suddenly poof into bunnies?"
"I would prefer not be a bunny, either."
"I doubt we will be bunnies."

- Noonien-Singh, M'Benga, and Spock

"Mr. Spock, you explained that very well. I almost understood it."

- James T. Kirk

"When people sing, they are confessing highly personal… emotional information."
"Lieutenant, are you telling me our emotions constitute a security threat?"
"I am."
"Well, whatever you're not saying, hope it doesn't come to that."

- Noonien-Singh and Pike

"Wow. That was exciting. I mean, Spock and Uhura get to blow it up which is the real fun part but, uh… we make a good pair."

- James T. Kirk, to Noonien-Singh, after beaming up subspace particles

"I tend not to stay in the same place for very long, which is… a growing problem because Carol is… pregnant."
"Oh, um… wow."

- James T. Kirk and Noonien-Singh

Log entries[]

Background information[]

Title[]

The title was revealed on StarTrek.com on 22 July 2023. [1]

Production[]

This is the first licensed Star Trek production to be a musical.
Production for this episode began approximately six months before filming to allow for dance rehearsals and singing lessons for the actors. (Entertainment Weekly)
Actress Christina Chong campaigned for a musical episode, commenting: "My persistent nagging did it. I started pitching the idea. They said, “Funny you should say that … .” (Emmys)
Director Dermont Downs wanted to specifically shoot the episode like a typical musical. Showrunner Henry Myers commented that this required the shots to be "...a little more wide and you really see people doing things, you're not in their faces all the time. It was a lot of work from a lot of people, but the one thing I remember waking up and thinking was that everyone will expect this to be silly. We should surprise them and have it be gut-wrenching and emotional." (Entertainment Weekly)
Downs further commented: "They gave me two weeks for additional prep. We didn’t have a full script then. We had songs, an outline and a temp track. It was scary, like, “What’s this going to be?” And then we got the songs." (Emmys)
Showrunner Akiva Goldman recounted how the episode came to be as a way to further the character arcs: "I'm a huge fan of musicals, but had no idea what it took to actually make one...When we started on season 2, a small voice, like a gremlin kept going, 'Music. Musical. Musical.' And Henry [Meyers] kept going, 'Not yet. Not yet. Not yet,' We were going back and forth on the story, and we sort of knew where the character arcs were. Then, to our delight and terror, the idea of what we needed to do emotionally in episode 9 and the idea of a musical went hand in hand." (Entertainment Weekly)
Goldman further recounted: "All I remember was people being like, 'Okay, sure,' This is basically the tenor of all the [meetings], which is somebody will say a bunch of stuff and then somebody else will go, 'Wow, that sounds cool.' Subtext: 'Please don't f--- it up.'...We were like, 'If we're gonna do this, we gotta do this.'" (Entertainment Weekly)
The writers included the character's discussion on possibly being turned into bunnies as a reference to the musical episode in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Emmys)

Music[]

The songs were written by Letters to Cleo band members Kay Hanley and Tom Polce. (Entertainment Weekly)
The closing credits feature an instrumental medley of three of the songs previously sung during the episode proper: "I'm Ready", "Private Conversation", and "Connect to Your Truth".
As the episode establishes that the characters hear the music diegetically, the fact the Alexander Courage TOS theme is heard at the conclusion of the grand finale means the melody is heard in-universe for the first time.
In the episode "Children of the Comet", it became apparent that actress Ciela Rose Gooding had singing talent. This in part is why she was featured singing the song "Keep us Connected". Goldsman remarked: "What we do like to do is write to our cast. It suddenly became clear that a lot of the folks who we work with had musical theater in their backgrounds or real musical training. The universe was conspiring to get us to throw down in that way." (Entertainment Weekly)
Myers also recounted how actor Ethan Peck was nervous about filming this episode: "I don't think Ethan thought that he could do it, and he surprised everyone by having this crazy deep voice, the baritone, that was kind of beautiful." (Entertainment Weekly)
Actor Ethan Peck commented how this episode, and particularly when he sings I'm the X, is a turning point for Spock's character: "His experience with Nurse Chapel could arguably set him on his path to being much more like Leonard Nimoy’s Spock. With my Spock, we are definitely exploring much more of what’s useful, or not, about being human. We can trace his development back to this moment." In the same interview, he also stated, "It was only a two-minute song, and it probably took me nine hours to nail it, which blows my mind. (Emmys)
Actress Christina Chong described her part in "How Would That Feel?": "My solo is fricking hard. Vocal acrobatics." (Emmys)

Continuity[]

The opening credits feature an a cappella choral version of the usual main title theme. This is the second Strange New Worlds episode in which the opening credits sequence has been significantly altered, following the Star Trek: Lower Decks-style credits in "Those Old Scientists".
First introduced in the series premiere "Strange New Worlds", this is the first episode in which Captain Marie Batel's first name is spoken onscreen. It was previously introduced as text on a PADD in "Ad Astra per Aspera". [2]
This episode marks the earliest chronological appearance of the K't'inga-class, and the first time the name of the class is spoken aloud.
In TOS: "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", set in 2266, it is revealed that Nurse Chapel and Dr. Roger Korby had become engaged at some point prior to his 2261 disappearance. As this episode is set in 2259, their relationship progressed to that point within a span of two years.
James T. Kirk mentions his relationship with Carol Marcus and her pregnancy. Dr. Carol Marcus (as well as her and Kirk's son, David Marcus,) were originally introduced in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Media[]

Subspace Rhapsody (soundtrack)

Links and references[]

Starring[]

And

Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley

Special guest star[]

Paul Wesley as
- James T. Kirk
- Alternate Kirk (fantasy; no lines)

Guest starring[]

And

Carol Kane as Pelia

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Season 2

Next episode:
"Hegemony"

Subspace Rhapsody (episode)

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