Strange New Worlds delivered the first-ever Star Trek musical, but Dr. Agnes Jurati in Star Trek: Picard season 2 set the stage for it.
Summary
- Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ musical episode was a successful big swing, landing in the Nielsen streaming Top 10 and having its soundtrack top the Apple music streaming charts.
- Dr. Agnes Jurati singing in Star Trek: Picard season 2 set the stage for the idea that Star Trek can do a musical, which Strange New Worlds delivered.
- While it’s unclear if there will be more musical episodes in Star Trek, the success of Strange New Worlds’ musical episode suggests that it could be a possibility for other Star Trek shows, though it may lose its novelty if done too frequently.
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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds delivered the first-ever Star Trek musical, but Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) in Star Trek: Picard season 2 set the stage for it. Directed by Dermot Downs with music and lyrics by Letters to Cleo’s Kay Hanley and Tom Polce, Strange New Worlds season 2’s musical episode, “Subspace Rhapsody,” was a successful big swing by the Star Trek prequel show. It resulted in Strange New Worlds‘ musical episode landing in the Nielsen streaming Top 10 and the soundtrack topping the Apple music streaming charts.
Star Trek’s first musical episode not only showcased the vocal chops of Strange New Worlds‘ cast, especially Celia Rose Gooding and Christina Chong, but it was also a riveting exploration of the innermost feelings of the USS Enterprise crew. Ensign Nyota Uhura (Gooding) embraced her role as Communications Officer and saved the galaxy, Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck) faced his disappointment at the end of his romance with Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush), and Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh (Chong) realized she has to open up to others besides Lt. James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley). Strange New Worlds’ musical was no mere gimmick; rather, it was a new and wonderfully entertaining kind of Star Trek story.
Related: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Cast – Every New & Returning Character In Season 2
Picard Season 2’s Jurati Set Up Strange New Worlds’ Musical
However, Star Trek: Picard season 2 tested the waters for the Strange New Worlds musical episode. In Picard season 2, episode 6, “Two of One,” the Borg Queen (Annie Wershing) coaxes Dr. Agnes Jurati into hitting the stage at the NASA Europa gala. Clad in a red gown, Jurati stuns the audience by performing Pat Benatar’s “Shadows of the Night.” Agnes’ song is a genuine showstopper, as her friends in Admiral Jean-Luc Picard’s (Patrick Stewart) motley crew didn’t even know Jurati could sing. Directed by Jonathan Frakes, Jurati’s song was one of the highlights of Picard season 2.
Strange New Worlds showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers told Variety that the idea for a musical began during Star Trek: Picard season 1. Goldsman and Picard season 1’s showrunner, Michael Chabon, tried to get Lin-Manuel Miranda to help them do a Star Trek musical, but it didn’t happen. The desire for a Strange New Worlds musical persisted thanks to cast members like Christina Chong. Luckily, Myers had done musical episodes on Ugly Betty and The Magicians, and Star Trek’s first-ever musical came to be. But Agnes Jurati in Star Trek: Picard season 2 laid the groundwork for a Star Trek actor singing magnificently while also revealing some private aspect of her character.
Will Star Trek Do Another Musical Episode?
As successful as Strange New Worlds’ musical was, it’s natural for audiences to wonder if there will be more singing and dancing Star Trek episodes. Could a musical episode become a regular feature of Strange New Worlds, or something other Star Trek shows could try, or will it just be a successful one-shot by Strange New Worlds? Evidently, staging and performing “Subspace Rhapsody” was quite an undertaking that the cast and crew of Strange New Worlds passed with flying colors. But repeated musicals may lose the luster of what made “Subspace Rhapsody” so novel and special.
With Star Trek: Discovery season 5 already in the can as the final season and Star Trek: Picard over, the only other live-action Star Trek series in development that could stage a musical episode besides Strange New Worlds is Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. It’s unlikely that the Star Trek: Section 31 movie starring Academy Award-winner Michelle Yeoh would be a musical. Animated series like Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Prodigy could do a musical much more easily than the live-action series if they were so inclined. For now, singing in Star Trek had the shining moment of Agnes Jurati’s big number in Star Trek: Picard season 2 that can be seen as a build-up to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ musical episode.
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