DIY VIRAL
The author Chris Snelgrove
| Published
When Star Trek: Strange new worlds aired its musical series Subspace Rhapsody, it was impossible not to compare it to most fans of the genre Buffy the Vampire Slayermusical masterpiece episode “Again With Feeling”. That Buffy the episode managed to combine insanely catchy earworm tunes with the brilliance of a character-driven plot, making it the gold standard for musical episodes. If we're being honest, Star Trek's musical episode is subpar Buffyis pretty much in every way except one: “Subspace Rhapsody” features all the main cast members, while “Once More With Feeling” has two cast members refusing to sing.
Buffy's musical bug
Even before the Star Trek musical episode aired, BuffyOnce More With Feeling gave almost all of its leading members their own songs. Buffy channels pop stars singing about existentialism, Giles makes a powerful ballad about holding her back, Spike becomes a rock star complaining about his conflicted feelings about Slayer, and so on. However, Hannigan's Willow doesn't have any songs of its own. In fact, she only has two musical lines, including the hilariously meta lyric: “I think this line is mostly filler.”
As for why Willow doesn't feature in the musical's tunes, showrunner Joss Whedon claims that Hannigan “asked me on my knees to sing as little as possible.” He granted that request, so Tara sings all over their adorably romantic song 'Under Your Spell'. Meanwhile, the only non-singing lead actor is Michelle Trachtenbergbecause she had asked to use her ballet training and do a dance sequence instead.
A Star Trek musical masterpiece
Like we touched on earlier, Star Trek's musical episode pales in comparison Buffycomes in most forms. The songs aren't as catchy, the emotional stakes aren't as high, and some plot points occasionally fall flat. However, there is exactly one area where Star Trek stands out Buffy in the musical department: all the main actors sing. Sure, some voices are stronger than others, but it's nothing short of impressive that no one backed out, especially given that Trek had never made a musical before and expectations were going to be insanely high.
After Star Trek: Strange New Worlds brought us the ambitiously flawed “Subspace Rhapsody,” showrunners Henry Alonso Mayer and Akiva Goldsman gave a wide-ranging interview in which they discussed their surprise that the entire cast was willing to sing. According to Goldsman, “We got an absurdly good cast,” and he expected “a bagpiper who either couldn't sing or didn't want to sing.” Instead, he concluded, “it's like they've all secretly been lusting after the idea of a musical their whole lives,” making filming the episode much easier.
The ghost sings
It also helped that these Star Trek showrunners had the opposite problem Buffymanufacturers had. 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. Discussing Ghost actor Ethan Peck, Goldsman said, “I didn't know Ethan could sing until I was like, 'Holy shit, Ethan can sing!'” Amusingly, he noted that his reaction is essentially the same as viewers watching the famous Vulcan tune for the first time : “You're thinking, 'Wait, the Ghost is singing now?'
Right now, Star Trek's first musical episode isn't as beloved as it is Buffyand for good reason. At the end of the day, the songs sung by the Enterprise crew just aren't as catchy or fun as the ones sung by Sunnydale's Scooby Gang. however Strange new worlds can be proud of the fact that all its leading actors rushed to sing from the heart Buffy kept two of its actors out of the limelight (albeit at their own request). And it's something worth singing about again, with feeling. Even if these feelings, as Ghost reminds us, are completely illogical.
Source: Diversity
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DIY VIRAL
