In between the first watch earlier this week and a rewatch tonight, I’ve listening to and humming the songs over and over again. I don’t know why people say the songs aren’t catchy. “Status Report” is sooo catchy, and it even has a little reprise with the “Apologies” at the beginning of the “Private Conversation” which is also very catchy actually.

“How Would That Feel” is beautifully rendered. I’ve started to listen to other Christina Chong’s songs now, and they are pretty good (listen to her “Twin Flames”).

Also, in the last seconds of the episode we had Uhura humming a theme. The closed caption says “Uhura humming ‘Keep us connected’”, which I believe is incorrect. She is humming the opening of Chapel’s “I am Ready” and Spock’s “I am the X”, not Uhura’s “Keep us Connected”.

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:

https://www.talkhouse.com/an-actor-a-helmsman-and-my-brian-boldly-going-where-no-widow-has-gone-before/

Oh yeah, great idea. Kinda like the Simpsons gag or so:

• If they ever have a mirror episode, the opening credits should be horizontally mirrored
• If they ever have a time travel episode, the opening credits should go backwards
• Another cross-over episode? DS9 or some other ship better appear in there! etc.

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.