Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2, Episode 9 - "Subspace Rhapsody"

Dermott Downs boldly goes where no director has gone before by helming the first-ever Star Trek: Strange New Worlds musical episode. Downs' impressive list of credits includes "Duet," The Flash and Supergirl musical crossover, which made him imminently qualified to direct "Subspace Rhapsody."

In Strange New Worlds' musical episode, a subspace phenomenon hits the USS Enterprise, causing the crew to sing and dance. They quickly realize that airing out their innermost feelings through song causes problems more catastrophic than embarrassment, and threatens the entire galaxy. It's up to the crew of the Enterprise to figure out a way to put an end to their "Subspace Rhapsody."

Related: Strange New Worlds' Star Trek Musical Song List Released

Screen Rant had the pleasure of chatting with Dermott Downs about the fascinating behind-the-scenes details of directing the first Star Trek musical episode, which was also his first episode of Strange New Worlds. Note: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, and the show covered here would not exist without the labor of the writers and actors in both unions.

Dermott Downs On Directing Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Musical Episode

Screen Rant: Dermott, the musical episode is fantastic.

Dermott Downs: Thank you. It's definitely a career highlight for me. I got into this business at seven [years old] because I had seen Oliver Twist and memorized the songbook. And I ran with that as a child actor until I became a cinematographer in the golden era of MTV. The real music video era, not the reality shows. And then I was fortunate when I moved into narrative and television. I've done a few musical episodes, probably most notably, The Flash and Supergirl "Duet."

Thank you for that too, by the way. That's my favorite single hour of the Arrowverse.

Dermott Downs: Mine too! I was on all of those shows for five years, like exclusively. But that was a fun sort of Bugsy Malone homage, and obviously, coming to it with a cast [where] a lot of them were versed from Glee, [they] just stepped up to the plate. But equally here with Strange New Worlds. You have people from musical theater like Celia and Chrissy, who's releasing music of her own right now. And there were many other people that had deep roots in it, but everybody was so game. Everybody came to rehearsal on the weekends or stayed after work. It was a great team effort.

And it really pays off on screen. It's a joy to behold. You are the first and only director of a Star Trek musical episode. That is Star Trek history, sir. What is that like for you now?

Dermott Downs: I grew up in the era of the original Star Trek, so I've been a big fan. But I haven't [directed] any of the Discovery or Picards or any of those. So at first, I was like, "Why are they doing another Star Trek? What's going to be different about this?: Because the original Star Trek was such a weekly examination of ethics, or morality or humor like with the Tribbles. And they were like, "That's exactly what we're doing."

Season one hadn't even aired, but it was already in the can. And they had episodes in season two left, and one they described as a sitcom. I don't have any sitcom experience. And the other was a musical. And I said, "Well, wait there." I said, "Here's my story." That first meeting was just as an intro, so I didn't know that I had it. But hey were also just talking about how it's character first, and it's such a grounded show, and as I'm getting off the Zoom, I'm like, "Grounded? Musical in outer space? Are we jumping the shark?"

To their credit, they just did a great job of letting the anomaly push music to give exposition and story because music reveals their biggest fears. So it's not just regular exposition [of] actors talking about their problems, but it's music being the conduit to share their fears. Obviously, it's a great cast, and they obviously really nailed it. Because each song is different.

"Substance Rhapsody" has all the elements of a regular episode, and then there's also the singing and dancing component to it, which is why it's such an incredible achievement. This was your first time directing Strange New Worlds. How did you approach this episode? How did you wrap your head around it all?

Dermott Downs: I saw probably half of season 1 just as prep. So I kind of understood the landscape of the ship, [because] it all takes place on the ship. Sometimes that feels it'd be limiting. It's like "Gosh, I don't get those big exteriors." But they do the giant space exteriors, and then the sets are really huge. I was fortunate in that I got two weeks of extra prep. So I came up there with the choreographer, Roberto Campanella, who's just a gift of a human being and a wonderful talent. He's got a dance company of his own, but he also does all the choreography for Guillermo Del Toro.

And so, for two weeks, we listened to the songs, and we felt where movement [or] dancing would be a distraction and, and where the song would push that, and we came up with an approach that the actors leaned into. Every song is very different, but it still feels like it's within the same show. Certainly, there are different numbers because some are solos, some are duets, some are power ballads. I did feel the pressure of the canon of Star Trek. This is going to strange new worlds we've never gone to before. But there was an amazing blueprint and obviously, great help from the cast and crew all the way through.

I love that before everybody starts singing, you kicked off with "Anything Goes," just like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom did. Which I thought was a great like signal that all bets are off in this episode. Did you have a favorite song or number in the show you directed?

Dermott Downs: I was aware of Celia's background, and so I knew she was going to [bring] it. [Uhura's song] was such a huge power ballad, and we had so much room in [the scene] that I didn't want the camera to be distracting. But I also knew that in that power ballad when she pushes those notes out, there's gonna be room to push the camera out on those crane moves. That was actually very easy to shoot because Celia is such an accomplished singer, and she knew exactly what she wanted to do with that. We had worked all the camera stuff out before [because] that's such a big huge song.

Anson's [song] was probably the one I most looked forward to everyday anticipating shooting it because it's just like a crazy duet that goes off the road with how humiliating it is to be professing his love in front of everybody and having this private conversation and yet then still getting down on his knees and professing love to Batel. But Jess and Nurse Chapel's big Grease number. I don't know that [I have] a favorite one because each one was so different. Spock's solo, La'an's solo, she had a lot of great ideas that we incorporated into that. The whimsy of Gilbert and Sullivan. Rebecca and Paul were awesome with that as we're just understanding [that] the music really is here, and I'm not going to fight it. Each song moved the story forward until the grand finale when you've got a dance-off with K-Pop Klingons.

I've got to ask you about that! You brought back Bruce Horak as the dancing Klingon Captain. That was amazing.

Dermott Downs: Yeah, Bruce! Obviously, this was my first episode, so I was only told about Bruce and was happy to accommodate that casting suggestion. He's awesome in the canon of this show. And yeah, going K-Pop was fun at the height of the craziness.

I am a diehard fan of Strange New Worlds, and I'm very invested in these characters. And the reason I loved this episode beyond the music was that everybody finally said or sang out loud what they've been needing to say since the show began. And I feel like it really lets everybody change and move forward. You had so many characters and so many beats to nail, but you hit every beat.

Dermott Downs: That's what I was really impressed with. How it wasn't a cheap conceit to let music drive the episode. It continued to drive story forward and explore the characters really deeply at the same time. That credit goes to Bill and Dana, who wrote the script, and then the songwriters for flushing those notes out into lyrics. And then the actors for performing that.

Would you come back to direct a Strange New Worlds episode that doesn't have musical numbers?

Dermott Downs: Yeah, I mean, I've got a whole story. I just came off a year of a firefighting show in Vancouver that was like Friday Night Lights documentary-style. But I'd love to do a Western on Strange New Worlds.

About Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 follows Captain Christopher Pike and the crew of the USS Enterprise in the 23rd century as they explore new worlds and carry out missions throughout the galaxy during the decade before Star Trek: The Original Series.

Check out our other Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 interviews here:

• Jeff W. Byrd
• Paul Wesley
• Gia Sandhu
• Jess Bush
• Benji Bakshi
• Melissa Navia
• Christina Chong
• Valerie Weiss
• Yetide Badaki
• Anson Mount & Rebecca Romijn
• Ethan Peck & Paul Wesley

New episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 air Thursdays on Paramount+.