by Chris Snelgrove
| Published
When Star Trek: Strange new worlds The musical episode “Subspace Rhapsody” aired, and it was impossible for most genre fans not to compare it to it Buffy the Vampire SlayerThe wonderful musical episode “Once More With Feeling”. Which Buffy The episode manages to combine insanely catchy earworm tunes with a character-inspired plot, making it the gold standard for musical episodes. If we're being honest, the Star Trek musical episode is inferior to most BuffyIt is in almost every way with one exception: “Subspace Rhapsody” prominently features the main cast singing in its entirety while “Once More With Feeling” has two cast members refusing to sing.
Buffy the Musical Error
Long before the Star Trek musical episode was on the air, Buffy“Once More With Feeling” gave almost all of its frontmen their own songs. Buffy channels pop stars singing about existentialism, Giles does a power ballad about holding it back, Spike becomes a rock star to talk about his mixed feelings about the Slayer, etc. However, Hannigan's Willow doesn't have any songs of its own. In fact, it only has two musical lines, including the funny lyric, “I think this line's mostly filler.”
As for why Willow doesn't feature prominently in the musical's tunes, showrunner Joss Whedon claims that Hannigan “begged me on her knees to make her sing as little as possible.” He granted that request, which is why Tara did all the singing on her totally charming, romantic ballad “Under Your Spell.” Meanwhile, the only other main member who doesn't sing is him Michelle Trachtenbergwhere she asked to utilize her ballet training and do a dance sequence instead.
Star Trek musical hit
As we touched on before, the Star Trek musical episode pales in comparison BuffyIn most respects. The songs aren't catchy, the emotional stakes aren't high, and some of the plot points fall flat at times. However, there is one area exactly where Star Trek excels Buffy In the musical section: all the main actors sing. Sure, some voices are stronger than others, but it's nothing short of impressive that no one backed down, especially considering that Trek has never done a musical and expectations will be insanely high.
after Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Bringing us the ambitiously imperfect “Subspace Rhapsody,” showrunners Henry Alonso Myers and Akiva Goldsman gave an interview to Variety where they discussed their own surprise that the entire cast was willing to sing. According to Goldsman, “We ended up with a ridiculously good cast,” and he was anticipating a “failure in the group” that either couldn’t or didn’t want to sing. Instead, he concluded, “It was as if they had all been secretly coveting the idea of doing a musical their whole lives,” making this episode much easier to film.
Spock sings
These Star Trek showrunners have also helped address the opposite problem BuffyI had my producer. Instead of discovering someone like Hannigan who wasn't really comfortable singing on screen, they discovered that one of their biggest stars was secretly a music maestro. In the discussion Spock Actor Ethan Peck, Goldsman, said: “I didn't know Ethan could sing until I was like, 'Oh my God, Ethan can sing!'” Funnily enough, he pointed out that his reaction is basically the same as an audience seeing Vulcan's famous tunes for the first time. “You're like, 'Wait, Spock's singing now?'
Right now, the first musical episode of Star Trek isn't quite as beloved BuffyAnd for good reason. At the end of the day, the songs the Enterprise crew sings aren't as catchy or fun as those sung by Sunnydale's Scooby Gang. but, Strange new worlds It can be boasted that all the main actors stepped up to sing their hearts out during it Buffy Two actors were banned from entering the spotlight (albeit at their request). This is something worth singing about again, with feeling. Even if, as Spock reminds us, those feelings are completely irrational.
source: diverse
