K-pop beats Klingon opera in Star Trek's musical.
Summary SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' musical episode, "Subspace Rhapsody", the Klingons break out into a K-pop style choreographed musical number, and not Klingon opera. Kay Hanley and Tom Polce, who wrote the songs for Star Trek's first-ever musical, say that they did have options for the Klingons' performance, and explain why they picked k-pop over Klingon opera.
In an episode of The Melodology Podcast, Kay Hanley and Tom Polce give their first interview discussing the making of Strange New Worlds' musical. Polce reveals that one concept for the Klingons' scene was opera, calling it a "no-brainer," before crediting Hanley with the out-of-the-box K-pop idea, and confirms that both versions were filmed for the episode.
"When Kay pitched the K-pop thing ... it was just going to be that. We did it, we delivered it, and ... some folks [thought] we may have just got a little far past where we need to go here. Why don't we have a little something in our back pocket, as a just in case? And of course that's going to be the Klingon Opera. So we wrote a little thing for that [that was] very straightforward. It's Baritone ... Klingon Opera -- in English, not in Klingon -- and it came out great.
As Tom Polce describes in the interview, it "speaks to the audaciousness" of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to include this twist, which cheekily trades "Klingon" for "Korean" in its definition of K-pop. For audiences who want to see the more traditional take on singing Klingons, the Klingon opera version of the scene will be included as an extra on the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 Blu-ray, scheduled to be released December 5, 2023.