Episode Director Dermott Downs Reflects on "Subspace Rhapsody"

Image: Paramount+.

AUGUST 9, 2023 – As we have noted, last week’s episode of Star Trek: Strange New Words, “Subspace Rhapsody,” was unique in the franchise as a musical episode. It wasn’t just song and dance, though. The music and choreography worked with the underlying story, and the episode’s director, Dermott Downs, reflects on that and other aspects of the show in a recent interview with Awards Radar.

Downs grew up watching The Original Series and became a music video cinematographer. He also directed the “Duet” musical Supergirl crossover episode of The Flash. He calls “Subspace Rhapsody” a career highlight and “the best example of, I think, how you can blend drama and music that I’ve ever been a part of, because it’s still so grounded. The music just becomes a tool for exposition.”

He has nothing but praise for the cast, some of whom lean more or less into singing than others and for their ability to capture the inherent emotion and drama – and fun – as the music tells the story. About Celia Rose Gooding, for example, Downs says “she’s got the chops as much as anyone I’ve ever been on a set with. I mean that was a power ballad that just ranks up there with any of them.” Then he goes on to say, “But Ethan was like, ‘Look, you know, I’ve never done anything like this?’ He’s got that long solo, and he tweaked it being a Vulcan and yet there’s still this humanity that’s trying to break through. That was a really new experience. He’s just so great.”

Downs discovered that a musical Star Trek wasn’t jumping the shark after all, as he wondered going in. (Now he wants to do a Western episode.) For lots more on his experience working on Trek and how “Subspace Rhapsody” came together, head over to Awards Radar.