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 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
Episode was good. Klingon part was funny. Liked how the played the TOS theme after the “grand finale” was finished.
Touching on the actual character moments for a bit here: the events of this episode do not reflect well on Chapel.
She’d been hitting on Spock literally since the beginning of the show, and openly pining after him for most of that time. Four episodes ago, she winds up breaking down in tears explaining to an alien telephone receptionist how much she cares about him. Two episodes ago she is extremely distraught when Boimler accidentally lets slip that Spock is famous in the future, and her relationship with him almost certainly will not last. And now, she gets into a three month fellowship that she didn’t think she had much of a chance at, doesn’t say a word to Spock until she has no other choice, and then busts out a (involuntary, but reflective of genuine emotion) musical number about how “free” she feels. What the hell.
We already know Chapel has some problems with commitment, but this is a whole 'nother level. Throwing away a relationship she spent most of this show obsessively wishing for, without any apparent consideration for Spock’s feelings or non-breakup solutions to spending a couple months apart, is just wild. I’m sure the finale will touch on this with a little more nuance than a musical number was likely to give, but whatever else is said this is not a good look.
It doesn’t reflect well on her, but it does feel sort of…real, in a way that people can sometimes be shitty in real life. She’s tangled herself up emotionally for a long time with someone who for various reasons just isn’t going to be a good romantic partner for her, and there’s certainly a bit of catharsis in realizing “oh maybe I just can stop trying to make this work and stop feeling bad at how I can’t ever seem to make it work”. Because the whole Spock thing clearly has been making her miserable, because she loves him but somehow it seems impossible to turn that into a whole emotional relationship. Its just that immediately after that moment, if you really care, you still need to go check on the person you’re hurting. I really do hope they get a moment in the next episode to get some actual closure with each other.
Late to the watch party, but I agree with this.
My reading was that Boimler’s slip-up and the knowledge that she wouldn’t be a significant part of Spock’s life (at least viewed from a historical perspective) was what caused Chapel to pull away from Spock, and end up sabotaging the relationship. But tragically - time-travel shenanigans and all that - who’s to say whether or not that’s the way things were always going to happen?
The opportunity the fellowship provides allows her to envision a positive, worthwhile future for herself, where she is free from the boundaries she’d previously imagined, and can let go of her disappointment that the path she yearned to travel with Spock was one she wasn’t destined for.
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.
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.
@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
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.)
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.
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.
I honestly never fancied musical episodes, but this was so well done, I loved it!
Thoughts/Observation as I watch:
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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!
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Uhura having to be the operator sounds like the most stressful thing to do that doesn’t involve imminent danger.
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“Even if it’s not fully necessary.” That basically sums up every contrivance to get Kirk on board.
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KORBY ALERT
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Ah, spatial distortions, the cause and solution to everything.
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The facial acting as they enter musical-land is priceless.
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Acapella theme song!
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“So… that happened.”
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“Quantum uncertainty field”. That’s some Hitchiker Guide type stuff.
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Ah, they brought back the Gilbert and Sullivan stuff.
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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.
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Good save, La’An.
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“Surprisingly beautiful baritone”
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It could have been worse for the crew. Imagine if Uhura had broadcast opera into it, then they’d ALWAYS be singing.
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Shaxs would suggest blowing it up by ejecting the warp core.
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Gratuitous zero-gee is gratuitous.
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Oh god, singing Klingons.
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Yeah, the Klingons would also like the “let’s just blow it up” plan.
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Wait were those extras twins?
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Apparently the improbability field also affects the lighting of the bar.
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Isn’t K’tinga the later type of Klingon ship? Ah, screw it, musical rules.
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“I don’t love rules but I think you’re about to break a big one.”
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This totally is going into Temporal Investigations Kirk file.
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CAROL MARCUS REFERENCE
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Oh shit, David Marcus reference!
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“I’m the Ex” standing as if X in a math question is a good bit of workplay.
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Kind of surprised it took this long to give Celia Rose Gooding a full-on solo.
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Grammy-Award winning singer!
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A grand finale. How meta!
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Boy Band Klingons was not on my bingo card.
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Lol, playing the TOS theme as a curtain-closer
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“You sang about lying to me.”
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“Sorry, Earworm.”
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All-and-all, it was a good enough gimmick episode. But it was no “Take Me Out To The Holosuite.” (“DEATH TO THE OPPOSITION!”)
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Ok, a post from someone that really hate musicals and was worried about this episode. So sorry if I will over criticize the episode…
I admit the episode was so fun at the beginning and songs were nice, loved La’an and Una parts they were really good. I was thinking the episode was a banger. I loved so much the opera opening too.
Unlikely it started to lose my attention around on Chapel’s song (also because the autotune was so evident in her and I found the Chapel Spock relationship the worst part of the series) and the second part was a little hard for me to follow, the music too was less interesting and even if Uhura has a great voice her solo song was too long and def not my cup of tea, I didn’t even understand what was trying to say. It could have worked for me with less songs.
It was interesting I have fun for more than I thought and I laughed so much with Klingons, it was often close to clinginess but it was ok at the end.
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.
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’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.
What the heck, this episode must have taken so much effort like 20+ minutes of singing + music (and the writing of the songs as well), and in a good half of those requires choreographed dancing as well, the a capella version of the intro, and a few orchestra versions in the credits
I was grinning almost the entire time for this episode, it was just…fun! And it moved the plot along too! (Although you kinda need to with so few episodes in a season)
honestly who knew La’an and Uhura would be the main characters this season? And I’m crushing on Chapel and Uhura and La’an right now. This episode only made it worse. Yeah there are three damned handsome guys on the show. But those ladies… might be my favorite of all star trek. La’an’s doomed relationship was heartbreaking btw. I knew this was happening with Spock so it didn’t hit so hard (I thought they’d last longer). Meanwhile Pike’s love (who is also insanely cute with that smile) may be heading for danger now. We need to do a poll to see if the woman on SNW are more loved then the men. And good songs.
I just want a full on Erica Ortegas back story episode already. But this was a very enjoyable episode. Im not that picky with music in general, and yet also enjoy musicals generally, so I was happy.
But but lotus eaters was that “she is Erica Ortegas…she drives the ship”…/s
Yeah, strangely enough, while this kind of character development doesn’t make the show worse, it does make it more obvious (at least to me) that her character hasn’t been given the screen time the others have that dives into her backstory.
Plus that episode is a tease because she starts off excited to do something other than fly the ship with an inner monologue and everything.
Had she gone down to the planet and somehow realized by the end of the episode that she loves flying the ship, or the other characters learning that she’s so much more than just a pilot, that would have been satisfactory to me (at least for a season).
It occurs to me that her partner died around the filming of.this season, and she may not.have had it in her to be a lead for an episode.
I didn’t know that.That’s a fair assessment, and makes sense. I hope she takes good care of herself and takes the time she needs to mourn.
She has written a heart-wrenched, tragic letter about this experience and grief. It was very moving/difficult to read and gained me a lot of respect for her:
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.
