In Review: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ( S2 – EP9) – Subspace Rhapsody

Synopsis: In Subspace Rhapsody, An accident with an experimental quantum probability field causes everyone on the Enterprise to break uncontrollably into song.

The Story

When an accident involving an experiment with a Quantum Probability field goes wrong. Everyone on the Enterprise suddenly find themselves breaking into song whenever they become emotionally triggered. However, the real problems start when the Probability field begins to expand and starts to impact other ships including allies and enemies alike.

Both a comment on the structure of musical theatre as well as a means of resolving some of the character story arcs. Subspace Rhapsody goes boldly where no Star Trek show has gone before.

The Acting

I suspect we should change the heading above to The Singing, but given that this episode was a one-off. I’m going to remain with the status quo. We get some great performances in this episode, but the most impressive vocal performances from a musical and singing viewpoint came from most of the female cast members. Christina Chong proved herself a brilliant actor and vocalist when it came to giving us a resolution to La’an’s unrequited love character journey when it comes to her feelings for James T. Kirk. The musical number that Chong performs when she sees Kirk and Una-Chin Riley dancing through the corridors of the Enterprise is particularly heartfelt.

Celia Rose Gooding also puts in a solid performance as Uhura, who eventually winds up being the problem solver of the crew when she figures out that it will need a massive musical number to break the hold that the probability field has on the crew.

Overall. The musical performances are really solid. So much so that you’d think that many of the cast have done musical theatre at some stage in their careers.

Overall

Subspace Rhapsody is an episode that I had reservations about. But surprisingly it worked out quite well. And yes there are even a few earworms among the songs. I quite enjoyed the number that Uhura performs when she figures out the solution that will put an end to the probability field.