In space, everybody can hear you sing. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is boldly going where no Star Trek has gone before: to a full-on musical episode. Which makes a certain kind of sense; they had to one-up last year’s fantasy-space-land interlude, right? How better to do so than to give Captain Space Daddy a song?
I mean, I’m assuming he gets a song. There are ten songs, after all—space jams written by Kay Hanley and Tom Polce of the band Letters to Cleo.
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If you don’t think the name “Letters to Cleo” rings a bell, go back and watch the end of 10 Things I Hate About You, where they play on the high school rooftop during the end credits (several Letters to Cleo songs appear in the film). Polce was also the composer for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and has written music for a whole lot of other TV shows, including The Good Wife and Charmed. Hanley was the voice for the title character in Josie and the Pussycats, and has composed songs for animated shows including Doc McStuffins and DC Super Hero Girls.
The Star Trek folks have been keeping this news top secret, and even now have shared very few details: The episode is called “Subspace Rhapsody” and is the ninth episode of this season.
Okay, but who sings? The tiny teaser shows some group numbers, exultant dancing, and definite singing from Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), Captain Pike (Anson Mount), and Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush). Will Spock (Ethan Peck) sing? Will it break people’s minds and/or continuity if he and Kirk (Paul Wesley) sing now and never again? Is the shivery light pulse thing a weird anomaly that makes it so people can only communicate their true feelings in music? (Yes, this is a Buffy reference, at least in my heart.) Are they going to have the entire theme for the episode be this sweet, bouncy vocal version? I certainly hope so.
In less than two weeks, we’ll find out. “Subspace Rhapsody” premieres August 3rd. Here is a lovely poster for said jaunt:
