Logline
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.
Written by Dana Horgan & Bill Wolkoff
Directed by Dermott Downs
Some of the lyrics were really clever and fun:
Spock: “I solved for the Y in my computation … but the variable so devastating: I’m the ex / X”.
At the same time: “When we gain control again, I confess”
- La’an / Pelia: “I’ll miss the singing”
- Spock: “I won’t miss singing”
Spock: “I solved for the Y in my computation … but the variable so devastating: I’m the ex / X”.
Thanks. Now I get it. IIRC the subtitles had “solved for the why” and then the X didn’t make any sense. That is indeed clever.
My favourite Spock bit came at the end during the grande finale. Everyone was singing “we know our purpose, to protect the mission – our prime directive”, and Spock just goes “not exactly”. 😄
Can we talk about how great it is that they keep tinkering with the opening credits for the special episodes? Because I love it every time they do. Fukkin acapella man.
I’m a huge sucker for altered opening credits. Enterprise still wins for the best one of these with its mirror universe episode.
+1 for that theme in In a Mirror Darkly.
Oh yeah, great idea. Kinda like the Simpsons gag or so:
- If they ever have a mirror episode, the opening credits should be horizontally mirrored
- If they ever have a time travel episode, the opening credits should go backwards
- Another cross-over episode? DS9 or some other ship better appear in there! etc.
I love this as well! And doing fun stuff with the star trek brand intro as well, I hope they continue both of those in the future
Reminds me of how Community would change up things all the time.
thoughts after rewatch. This episode is solid. The second gimmick episode this season BUT like the last they keep the story lines going. I mean important stuff is dropped in this one. Some earned heartbreaker stuff (Discovery crew did cry a lot but I never felt it was earned. Not the case here. Some of the heartbreak feels real. Chapel trying to wash away her love for Spock is more complex then her just dumping him.)
I was wondering why the Klingons were all pissed off about singing. They love their opera.
…and then I saw the performance and was like ah yeah I bet that would be completely humiliating for them. 😂
I loved this episode!
I think it’s because the pop Hamilton style singing they were forced into does not constitute Opera in their tradition. Thus dishonor
It was wacky and I loved It! I laughed my ass of with the Klingon part
Me too I wanted more of them tho lol
Oh my god, we had to rewind that twice. I haven’t laughed so much in a star trek show as I have with that.
Thoughts/Observation as I watch:
-
Where will this stand in the long history of Star Trek gimmick episodes? After all, this is the franchise that gave us “Trials and Tribble-ations”, “Take Me Out To The Holosuite”, “In a Mirror, Darkly”, the OG “Lower Decks”, and most recently… “Those Old Scientists”. Holy shit, that was just two episodes ago and in between we got the darkest Star Trek thing in years!
-
Uhura having to be the operator sounds like the most stressful thing to do that doesn’t involve imminent danger.
-
“Even if it’s not fully necessary.” That basically sums up every contrivance to get Kirk on board.
-
KORBY ALERT
-
Ah, spatial distortions, the cause and solution to everything.
-
The facial acting as they enter musical-land is priceless.
-
Acapella theme song!
-
“So… that happened.”
-
“Quantum uncertainty field”. That’s some Hitchiker Guide type stuff.
-
Ah, they brought back the Gilbert and Sullivan stuff.
-
I like how they are hanging a lampshade on just how BIZARRE it is that people sing out their biggest secrets and deepest feelings in musicals.
-
Good save, La’An.
-
“Surprisingly beautiful baritone”
-
It could have been worse for the crew. Imagine if Uhura had broadcast opera into it, then they’d ALWAYS be singing.
-
Shaxs would suggest blowing it up by ejecting the warp core.
-
Gratuitous zero-gee is gratuitous.
-
Oh god, singing Klingons.
-
Yeah, the Klingons would also like the “let’s just blow it up” plan.
-
Wait were those extras twins?
-
Apparently the improbability field also affects the lighting of the bar.
-
Isn’t K’tinga the later type of Klingon ship? Ah, screw it, musical rules.
-
“I don’t love rules but I think you’re about to break a big one.”
-
This totally is going into Temporal Investigations Kirk file.
-
CAROL MARCUS REFERENCE
-
Oh shit, David Marcus reference!
-
“I’m the Ex” standing as if X in a math question is a good bit of workplay.
-
Kind of surprised it took this long to give Celia Rose Gooding a full-on solo.
-
Grammy-Award winning singer!
-
A grand finale. How meta!
-
Boy Band Klingons was not on my bingo card.
-
Lol, playing the TOS theme as a curtain-closer
-
“You sang about lying to me.”
-
“Sorry, Earworm.”
-
All-and-all, it was a good enough gimmick episode. But it was no “Take Me Out To The Holosuite.” (“DEATH TO THE OPPOSITION!”)
Isn’t K’tinga the later type of Klingon ship?
The three Klingon vessels that got rekt by V’Ger at the beginning of TMP were K’Tinga class ships. That was less than 20 years after this episode was set. However, the K’Tingas did remain in service well into the 24th century, likely for the same in- and out-of-universe reasons that the Excelsior class did.
-
If I had a nickel for every time Uhura solved a problem by singing at it, I’d have two nickels. That’s not a lot, but it’s the same number as how many times Chakotay’s been lost in the Delta Quadrant.
This was a fun episode. Some bangers, though I agree with some of the people who think some songs could have been shortened. The unexpected Klingon boy band was an amazing gag that didn’t overstay its welcome. Overall, I think it’s great to have Trek embrace the old-school campiness from time to time.
Anyone else convinced Captain Batel is kinda doomed? Pike got off the relationship trauma fairly easily in this episode.
I suspect she’ll die in this season finale. I just get those vibes.
Personally, I want to see Pike and Una happen. They’re already mom and dad to the rest of the crew (which skews really young).
I mean never say never? If I’m remembering the Cage correctly the Talosians at least thought there would be potential there. Though this is the much younger and possibly a little sexist Pike.
Anyone else convinced Captain Batel is kinda doomed?
spoiler
The preview clip from “The Ready Room” suggests she’s about to have a very bad day, but maybe it’s a fakeout.
D:
SNW continues to break new ground really well. This was a really refreshing episode and very well done. I for one loooved this episode.
Alright, I get that musicals are not everyone’s cup of tea, but as a person who watched multiple dozens of Broadway musicals, I must say that the songs were really on par with actual musicals. The cast can really sing well – I expected many great things from Cecile Rose Gooding and wow she did not disappoint. I was very pleasantly impressed by Christina Chong, Rebecca Romijin, Ethan Peck’s performances as well.
I think the director made sure to highlight those actors that can sing well and put those that can’t sing into secondary positions. Clearly Grammy-Award winning/Tony Award-nominated Gooding was at the center of the story, and they cut off Anson Mount’s song, because well, he isn’t the greatest singer. They even fully acknowledged that Babs Olusanmokun can’t sing in universe as well. :) The ensemble pieces in the teaser and the finale were superb though and was a lot more entertaining than the solo pieces (which I get is probably much easier to rehearse/record and produce).
I loved that the episode intertwined music as a piece of the story, pushed the character arc forward between Spock/Chapel and La’an/Kirk. I am not so much of a sucker for La’an/Kirk but the alternative universe scenes were really a nice touch. The only cringey part was the Klingon K-pop/rap, but I suppose it was intentionally cringey/funny.
Whether you like this musical episode or not, you gotta admit that SNW really boldly goes where no one has gone before.
The Klingon bit was the best part. Imagining them being forced to sing like that while having no context for that style of music is hilarious.
Poor guys didn’t even get to sing Klingon opera. “Aktuh Maylota!”
Or is this what Klingon Opera is really like? What we heard with worf was the “edgy emo” version
That has to be right! Worf would absolutely listen to the emo version, and he’s probably just calling K-Pop “opera” to impress Picard and the other 90s-Trek captains.
Makes the line earlier in the episode about their dishonor even better.
Hehe, yeah, I guess, there’s no honor in that. :)
Yeah, they used the songs well to pack huge amounts of character work into one episode for most of the cast. Clever move in a ten episode a year TV landscape.
If someone would have asked me a year ago if I thought Spock/Chapel and La’an/Kirk were gonna be my favorite ships in the Star Trek universe I woulda laughed at them.
Yes, this a starship joke lol
I honestly never fancied musical episodes, but this was so well done, I loved it!
Are those actually all of the actors singing? I thought they just got separate singers
I think they are real cuz they included Chapel’s song and the amount of autotune they added probably wouldn’t have happened if they hired a professional singer. Still liked the song, it was just very noticeable.
deleted by creator
Fosse
It was kind of swingy, big band esque I’d say. Not miles away from the lounge stuff in DS9.
They also didn’t have a great deal of time to record. They did their studio work over weekends.
For those who weren’t musical theatre performers (Gooding, Chong, Romjin) earlier in their careers, getting a clean run through or even portion of a song would be a difficult challenge. Just the stress of getting it done in a single day or two of sessions would be likely to put them out of tune.
Gooding and Chong came from musical theatre though.
Oh no. Those are the actual actors singing.
Anybody who went to acting school has some background in music and dance. Obviously not their best talent or else they’d be a singer instead of an actor. I often consider that most people on television can sing and absolutely knows how to dance, we just never see them do it.
Sweeny Todd is a good example of this. You know almost the entire cast from something else and had no idea they were capable of doing music all this time. But, a classically trained actor has definitely been in a musical before, we just never knew about it. Alan Rickman wasn’t exactly a vocalist, but he could keep up with one.
I’ve come to the conclusion that SNW is the entry point series.
Do you like legal dramas? Perfect, here’s a great LGBTQ allegory episode!
Do you like goofy animation like Rick and Morty? Here’s the crossover with Lower Decks!
Do you like gritty serious war stories? We’re still dealing with the trauma of the Klingon War!
Do you like showtunes? Somehow we pulled that off too! (also Chapel’s song is a straight banger)
SNW is the show I’d introduce my friends to in order to get them into Star Trek as a larger thing. I think it’s an easier entry point than any other series.
You can also use the episodes they liked to recommend other Trek shows. Someone that likes the zany episodes would probably like TOS or VOY, for example.
When they announced this episode I hated the sound of it… Not Trek at all I said but I have to say after watching it was like ok that was fun lol
Star Trek had a long history of taking cues from capital-T Theater, so a musical was kind of a logical extension of that.
I didn’t think they’d skip the opportunity to give us singing Klingons but the end result was just…wow. chef’s kiss
I absolutely love Pike’s “exasperated” face. It’s possibly a bit overused this season but it cracks me up every single time because it’s how I’d probably react if I were in his shoes and it’s so unlike how the previous Starfleet ship captains would react, even when the situation fully merited it.
Picard had a face like that. I think he mostly used it with diplomats.
Kirk had a face like that too. I’ve seen him use it with Tribbles.
maybe we could get a crossover with Shaw so they can make that look together
Loved it. I was most surprised that the whole cast all had such beautiful singing voices.
La’an’s song touched me the most because I’m someone who also doesn’t really dare to do the things I’d like to do.
A bit sad that we didn’t get a Klingon opera but the alternative was … well, interesting too. 😄 Also, I kinda hope that Spock solving diplomatic crises with the Klingons by drinking excessive amounts of blood wine will become a running gag.
La’an’s song was the most emotional and heartfelt, but it went on way too long.
Uhura had the best song and the best performance, I thought. Celia Rose Gooding is a goddamned treasure, and it’s a treat to see them finally really putting that character to good use on a consistent basis.
Addendum: after watching it again I realized that (for the first time?) several male background extras were wearing the dress-type uniform variant that only the women used to wear.
Are we getting the unisex skant back? Hell yeah! I love this show.
Boimler wears a skant a bunch of times in Lower Decks.
I missed the skants? How could I have missed the skants?
They can both be seen in the corridors. The first one (in a red uniform) walks by Ortegas when the ship is hit by the energy field at the beginning. The other one (in a blue uniform) walks by Number One and Kirk during their song.
There may be more but those are the two that I spotted.
Yep, there they are. It’s less noticable because everyone wears pants/leggings under them, unlike in TOS/TNG, where a skirt/skant meant bare legs. The effect is almost more like a long tunic or jacket.
Maybe Pike keeps the ship’s environmental settings a little colder than the others, so nobody wants to free the knees.
Maybe Pike keeps the ship’s environmental settings a little colder than the others, so nobody wants to free the knees
I dunno about nobody considering the recuring background andorians (give me slim blue men in skimpy minidresses you cowards!/s) clearly 23rd century fabric just breathes really well.
@UESPA_Sputnik I was hoping for a klingon opera too. But, yes, an interesting alternative.
Just like all Orions aren’t pirates, not all Klingons like opera. Some of them like…whatever that was that they sang.
That was obviously K-Pop.
My thoughts immediately went to boy bands but then again, K-pop is probably the modern equivalent so you’re probably right?
“K”lingon-pop
deleted by creator
In between the first watch earlier this week and a rewatch tonight, I’ve listening to and humming the songs over and over again. I don’t know why people say the songs aren’t catchy. “Status Report” is sooo catchy, and it even has a little reprise with the “Apologies” at the beginning of the “Private Conversation” which is also very catchy actually.
“How Would That Feel” is beautifully rendered. I’ve started to listen to other Christina Chong’s songs now, and they are pretty good (listen to her “Twin Flames”).
Also, in the last seconds of the episode we had Uhura humming a theme. The closed caption says “Uhura humming ‘Keep us connected’”, which I believe is incorrect. She is humming the opening of Chapel’s “I am Ready” and Spock’s “I am the X”, not Uhura’s “Keep us Connected”.
I’m unexpectedly enjoying Christina Chong’s own music as well.
I posted the official music video for her release of two weeks ago ‘No Blame’ to our Quark’s community (which seems the better fit for following for non-Trek credits).
She has another song being released later today. I’ll post that there as well.
Uhura’s humming seems to intentionally lead into the instrumental medley during the end credits.
This episode will forever be the test of whether someone who likes Trek is a fun person.
10/10.
I don’t know. I generally like the fun episodes and I think I like this one overall (and there are some incredible voices in this cast), but most of the songs just plain missed for me. Most are rhyming words set to music but not enough structure. I’m not sure how often I’d want to see this episode.
Maybe my headache last night made me grumpy.
Yeah same, I am only posting here now since it took me a bit to actually finish the episode. I really don’t like musicals much in general so this was a hard watch.
I am not saying it was not well done, for what it was they really put their soul into it which is great. Just not at all for me. And I loved the Lower Decks crossover, so its not about it being silly.
It’s funny to think that the return of Trek in 2016 had Klingons eating captured Federation officers and Starfleet commiting war crimes out the gate in the first episode and now we’re getting an animated comedy series and musical episodes. Trek shouldn’t be afraid to be a bit silly and camp sometimes and I’m glad it’s free to be again.
Looks like the test is already working!
Don’t go around being a dick to people who have different tastes to yourself.
I was making a very obvious joke and you didn’t even respond with a comment, you just dropped a link with no context. You’re the one taking things overly serious here and broaching “dick” territory for absolutely no reason.
Go back to Reddit if you wanna be a troll.
Removed by mod
Mate, you’re literally the one who showed up here saying that if you don’t like this particular episode then you’re not a fun person.
deleted by creator
I am just the opposite. I love musicals and I love Star Trek, but this one was my least favorite of the season. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate them trying something innovative for the Trek series. I enjoyed seeing the actors working outside the box. But overall it didn’t give me the joy that the other episodes have.
