‘Musical Episode to Feature in ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 2′
Paramount has announced that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 will introduce the first official Star Trek musical episode. Titled Subspace Rhapsody, it will be the ninth episode of the season and will premiere on Paramount Plus on August 3rd at 7PM ET. This marks a significant departure from the previous tradition of Star Trek musical parodies, making it a highly anticipated event for fans.
The news was announced at San Diego Comic-Con during the Star Trek Universe panel along with a video (below, US only). It features 10 new songs composed by Kay Hanley and Tom Polce of the rock band Letters to Cleo.
Strange New Worlds has been a hit with both critics (including ReturnByte’s Daniel Cooper) and audiences since its debut, thanks in large part to a cast led by Anson Mount (Captain Pike), Rebecca Romjin (Number 1) and Ethan Peck (Spock). It also brought a lighter touch to the Star Trek universe after darker shows like Picard. As we detailed yesterday, the series dropped its Lower Decks installment earlier than expected, and it’s now available to stream.
Musical TV episodes are nothing new, with some of the more notable ones being Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Scrubs and Xena, Warrior Princess (yep). Sometimes these are, well, unmotivated, with everyone suddenly breaking into song (Scrubs), or the musical is built as a bottle episode outside the reality of the main show (Xena).
However, Subspace Rhapsody seems to have set plot events in motion, even some sort of (insert your favorite Trek MacGuffin here) event that brings out the characters’ inner theater children. As you can see from the trailer and retro poster, it’s staged and performed as a full-on musical, and it looks like silly fun.
