‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Cast Takes Us Inside Musical Episode (VIDEO)

Meredith Jacobs December 14, 2023

“We beat Taylor Swift for 10 minutes!” Celia Rose Gooding cheers, referring to the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds musical episode album.

With the end of the year comes the perfect time to take a look back at some of 2023’s highlights, among which is, of course, this first in Star Trek history: that musical episode. TV Insider had Christina Chong (La’an), Gooding (Uhura), and Ethan Peck (Spock) do just that in the video interview above.

Spock was the one to kick it off, with “Status Report” featuring the crew, confused, as they sang what would in other circumstances be dialogue. “It was an honor to sing first,” Peck, who was the most hesitant about the musical, says. “I was very surprised, but it kind of makes sense because Spock would be the one you wouldn’t expect to sing first.”

Adds Gooding, “They reminded us where we are in our headspaces. Some people are excited, some people are confused. And I remember trying to tone down my inner excitement because I think Uhura, as a singer at heart, had of course that confused energy, but it immediately shifted to ‘Whatever this is, it’s very cool and exciting.'”

While Spock and Uhura were in engineering when everyone begins singing, La’an walks onto the bridge during that first song. For Chong, “the fact that we could play up to the fact that we’re not supposed to be singing, this is ridiculous, as the characters, I think is what made it work.”

Paramount+

Talking to Chong, Gooding, and Peck, it’s clear how much fun this cast has together and how proud they are of each other and what they’ve accomplished across the first two seasons, especially this musical episode — with no complaints from anyone, Chong notes. “Everyone really shows up in such an enormous way for every single episode and every single way, and so I think that’s one of the reasons they allowed us this episode and took this risk with us specifically,” Peck says.

Production on the musical episode took, in total, about six weeks (including on weekends), when it came to prep, rehearsals, and recording the songs in addition to filming (both this and the previous episode). “I feel like no matter where you started, everything was a little bit out of everyone’s comfort zone, so the fact that we all showed up and just gave it our all, I had so much pride,” raves Gooding.

Another sign of the respect that these actors have for each other? When asked for their favorite songs, each picks someone else’s. Chong names Peck’s “I’m the X” and Chapel’s (Jess Bush) “I’m Ready,” explaining, “I love how it’s the same song, reversed kind of.”

Inside 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Musical & That [Spoiler] Mention

Gooding, too, chooses two “powerhouse numbers,” Chapel’s and Una’s (Rebecca Romijn) “Keeping Secrets,” describing the latter as “an underrated bop” and “very slow jammy.”

For Peck, it’s “Keep Us Connected” because, as he tells Gooding, “I was there for it, and it was just really amazing to experience and see you in that space, doing what you love and what you’re so good at.”

Watch the full video above to see Chong, Gooding, and Peck talk about doing this musical episode, break down their solo numbers as well as the grand finale, and share what didn’t make the cut — besides T-shirts with a misprint of the last line of “We Are One,” so it reads “boldy explorational crew of the Enterprise” instead of “boldly.” (That’s now the name of their WhatsApp group chat.)

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Seasons 1 & 2, Streaming Now, Paramount+ (Season 3, TBA)