Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Musical Episode is an Effective Storytelling Format
by Clara Tan, Guest Editorial
Spoilers for the episode “Subspace Rhapsody” of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds follow
Every performer has heard the adage, “You sing when you can no longer speak” when it comes to summarizing the format of the musical. Drama leads to rising action which eventually climaxes in an outburst of song, dance, or a combination of the two.
For the characters, song is a means of expressing their emotions and moving the story's beats forward. Numerous scientific studies have confirmed what we already know about the power of music, that it can generate powerful emotional responses that go beyond speaking, through the release of dopamine to the parts of the brain that generate and regulate emotions.
So what happens when we combine the musical with a critically praised sci-fi show? We get “Subspace Rhapsody”, the penultimate episode of the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. While it may seem illogical, this lighthearted episode was a successful vehicle to tie up the emotional plot and character arcs for the season.
Taking inspiration from the classic Buffy, the Vampire Slayer episode “Once More, with Feeling”, the crew of the USS Enterprise finds themselves compelled by a force beyond their control to sing their innermost feelings, leading to the bridge crew confronting their otherwise unexamined or actively suppressed emotions. Now, as military personnel living together on what is effectively a giant submarine in space, there’s no escaping from your crewmates and whatever uncomfortable feelings they might engender. So the crew of the Enterprise tend towards the facade of professionalism.
This literal stew of emotions serves as excellent fodder for a musical, as being compelled to sing forces one to not only confront one’s emotions but makes it everybody else’s problem as well (at least, if they were in the number). In this way, the writers of “Subspace Rhapsody” were able to effectively have characters experience an outpouring of emotional development through the medium of song.
Music as a medium is uniquely suited for grand emotional deliveries, thanks to the heightened nature of song as well as its effects on the brain. In this particular setting, forcing these outwardly stoic individuals to sing also ensures that they confront their emotional quandaries and take steps to resolve them. In essence, the format of the musical is what allows these individuals to take bigger strides in their character development that might take more time otherwise. A character being changed significantly by their song and moving the plot forward was the revolution that was pioneered with the opening of Show Boat in 1927, and that moved musical theatre away from the vaudevillian format of “stop the action to perform a song”. There is an irony in the conception of musicals as “people singing for no reason” because that hasn’t been the major driving force of the musical for almost a hundred years.
By utilizing the basic building block of charged emotion leading into song, “Subspace Rhapsody” runs through almost every classic musical theatre trope in quick succession. “Status Report” is the introductory number that gives every character a featured line. “How Would That Feel” is a classic ingénue “I Want” Song, performed by a character who is very much not in that mold.
Interestingly enough, the songs of “Subspace Rhapsody” do not suffer from some of the issues that plague contemporary musicals, in that each number has a clear progression of its own that also clearly fits into the larger plot of the musical. Each number is clearly about this particular Star Trek episode and has a clear beginning, middle, and end for the character. Each character has changed by the time their number is completed, which is something that does not necessarily apply to some more contemporary musicals.
If one were to examine the bulk of musical theatre, there is a platonic ideal of A Musical that emerges that “Subspace Rhapsody” adheres to almost perfectly. It might be a useful teaching tool, with the characters frequently commenting on the manner in which their heightened emotional states lead to the outbursts of song.
To quote Sondheim, “The way you get into the character — the way you get in the song, both musically and lyrically — is to become the character.” Each song in this particular episode has a distinct character to it, that demonstrates how they’re all specific to the character performing them. Here’s an example of successful musical theatre storytelling, and to defer to Sondheim once more, “You don’t write a line for Stanley that’s supposed to be said by Blanche.”
The musical has a long tradition and its impact on American popular culture cannot be overstated. Yet, it seems that the creators of current media shy away from the medium. It is refreshing when shows take this particular format on as a means of character exploration and development, and musical episodes of TV tend to be very popular with their respective fanbases.
There is probably something to be examined about the parasocial relationship a viewer develops with an actor performing a character that becomes heightened when they sing, engaging the limbic system of the brain and further cementing those neuronic pathways. The very act of singing leaves one emotionally vulnerable because one’s air pathways have to be open in order to produce a clear, clean sound, and that requires the body to be in an easy, open, relaxed state. Potentially, by watching characters one has grown to enjoy opening themselves to more vulnerabilities by singing encourages the viewer to invest more emotional energy in their attachment to the show. What I’m saying is we need more musical episodes of TV, people love them and they definitely make money for those in charge.
If there is one critique to be made of this particular episode, it’s that every single song ended without a button. And when you’re writing a musical that is inspired by those of the Golden Age (alluded to in-universe as well), you gotta have a button. It’s only logical.