‘Subspace Rhapsody’ Star Trek Musical: Track-by-Track Breakdown with Kay Hanley

In its near 60-year existence, sci-fi stalwart Star Trek, through its many incarnations, has continued to push the creative envelope, most recently having done so on the Paramount+ prequel streaming series Strange New Worlds. This series features the musical episode “Subspace Rhapsody.”

With a script by Dana Horgan and Bill Wolkoff, and lyrics and music by Kay Hanley and Tom Polce (both of Letters to Cleo), the plot has the starship Enterprise under the command of Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) encountering a fold in subspace that results in the crew sharing their private thoughts via song. While it starts off amusing, the revelations eventually turn painful and then dangerous.

“The conceit of this episode,” Kay Hanley tells Woman’s World in an exclusive interview, “is that they’re observing musical theater rules where you sing what you can’t say, and as soon as you start singing, it’s like the truth really comes out. We were given a script by Bill and Dana, and really bought it, the whole idea of a subspace fold with the music. But it was easily the most challenging songwriting job I’ve ever had. It was so hard and I ripped my guts out writing these songs, but at the same time it was so much fun.”

What follows is a breakdown of the musical episode “Subspace Rhapsody.”

“Status Report”
Performers: Anson Mount (Captain Pike), Jess Bush (Christine Chapel), Christina Chong (La’an Noonien-Singh), Ethan Peck (Spock)
Plot Elements: The crew starts to break into song while simultaneously informing Captain Pike that everything is normal. Kay Hanley commented, “It had the most Star Trek vocabulary; all of the mechanical stuff that the casual fan is not going to know how to write, so we needed an assist from the writers on making sure the correct terminology was being used in the lyric, and it was great.”

“Connect to Your Truth”
Performers: Rebecca Romijn (Number One), Paul Wesley (James T. Kirk)
Plot Elements: Based on what she’s learned, Number One informs Kirk how he should interact with his own crew as he goes forward. Kay Hanley noted, “This was the Gilbert and Sullivan tribute and obviously the most Broadway of the songs, perfect because Rebecca is a musical theater person. A song like that has to have some levity to really pull it off.”

“How Would That Feel”
Performer: Christina Chong (La’an Noonien-Singh)
Plot Points: La’an pleads with herself to emotionally express her feelings developed for Kirk in an alternate timeline, while recognizing her inability to “color outside the lines.” According to Hanley, “She can’t tell Kirk how she feels because she might embarrass herself or break the social contract, which ups the stakes even more for her.”

“Private Conversation”
Performers: Anson Mount (Captain Christopher Pike), Melanie Scrofano (Marie Batel)
Plot Points: Through singing, Pike is forced to admit that in some ways he’s closed off emotionally from Captain Marie Batel, who he’s been dating. Hanley explained, “This is when everyone starts to realize that the situation could be really bad and that the singing that has infected our ship is not adorable anymore. It’s not funny, it’s dangerous.”

“Keeping Secrets”
Performer: Rebecca Romijn (Number One)
Plot Points: The importance of keeping confidences is shared — via song — by Number One to La’an. Hanley mentioned, “Keeping Secrets” is the only song that was edited for time in the episode and I thought it worked beautifully.”

“I’m Ready”
Performer: Jess Bush (Christine Chapel)
Plot Points: A developing relationship with Spock is abandoned by Christine Chapel, whose song announces to him and everyone else that she’s leaving the Enterprise to join the fellowship offered by Dr. Roger Korby. Hanley added, “She sings more like I do. I don’t have this huge range, but she’s my kind of singer and we were able to write this really simple melody for her with attitude to burn and she just crushed it.”

“I’m the X”
Performer: Ethan Peck (Spock)
Plot Points: Emotionally devastated by Christine Chapel’s announcement that she’s leaving him and the starship, Spock realizes he needs to embrace his Vulcan philosophies and devote himself to the study of the universe and the pursuit of logic. Hanley said, “Spock is such a part of our American television vocabulary that you can’t just give Spock a broken-hearted love song. He’s half-Vulcan, half-human, so he’s not your average broken-hearted guy. Using a metaphor of a math equation, ‘I’m the X,’ felt like cracking the code for Spock.”

“Keep Us Connected”
Performer: Celia Rose Gooding (Uhura)
Plot Points: Uhura wrestles with her loneliness on the Enterprise and her role on the starship, ultimately reconciling herself with her job of keeping the crew united. Hanley shared, “I’ve never cried while writing a song in my life until that song, really. The writers gave me so much to work with for her character. The writers just gave me so much to work with and then Tom’s musical arrangement was just incredible.”

“We Are One”
Performers: The full cast.
Plot Points: To disrupt the fold in subspace (also known as an improbability field), the entire crew needs — as well as the Klingons on their vessel, who break into a K-Pop act — to sing together, all about the joy they feel in working together. Hanley said, “I almost lost my mind writing that song, because everybody had to say something about their job and my head was just spinning. We knew that it had to get loud so that they could break the improbability field, and the Klingon thing got solved pretty early on.”

Hanley expressed her pride in the episode, sharing a personal memory: “My dad introduced me to Star Trek; it was a show we would watch together on Channel 38 WSBK in Boston when I was a little kid. He died in January, but he got to hear these songs, so it was really special that I got to have that with him before he died.”

Source: Woman’s World