Star Trek musical parodies have been around since Shatner’s days, but no official Star Trek musical has ever been officially released. That will change though, like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 will feature the first Star Trek musical episode, Paramount announced. Called Subspatial rhapsodyit will be the ninth episode of the season and will debut on Paramount Plus on August 3rd at 7:00 PM ET.
The news was announced at San Diego Comic-Con during the Star Trek Universe panel, along with a video (below, US only). Contains 10 new songs composed by Kay Hanley and Tom Polce of the rock group Letters to Cleo.
Strange new worlds has been a success with both critics (including Engadget’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 Star Trek universe following darker shows like Picard. As we detailed yesterday, the show went down Lower decks crossover episode earlier than expected and is now available to stream.
Music TV episodes are nothing new, and some of the more noteworthy ones come from them Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Peelings and Xena, the warrior princess (That). Sometimes these are, well, unmotivated, they start singing with everyone at once (Peelings), or the musical is built as an episode in a bottle outside the reality of the main show (Xena).
Subspace Rhapsody seems to be set in motion by plot events, with some sort of (insert your favorite Trek MacGuffin here) event that brings out the characters’ inner theater children. As shown in the retro-styled trailer and poster, it’s staged and performed like a real musical and looks like some silly fun.