Is There a Musical Episode of Star Trek in the Works?
Musical episodes have been a television trend for over two decades. The television episode often credited for kicking off this trend is Once More With Feeling from the late 90s/early 2000s science-fiction show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode aired in 2001, and it was incredibly well-received by both critics and fans. Soon, several more popular television shows started airing musical episodes. Doing a musical episode became so commonplace that its now its own TV Trope. Theres never been a musical episode of Star Trek. However, it is something that the writers and showrunners have considered. In a recent appearance on The Pod Directive, current Trek showrunner Alex Kurtzman talked about his thoughts on a Star Trek: The Musical episode. Kurtzman Wants a Musical Episode  Kurtzman dropped by The Pod Directive to chat with hosts Tawny Newsome and Paul F. Tompkins. At one point, the topic of a musical episode came up in a joking manner. However, Kurtzman revealed that hes completely serious about making one. Nothing would make me happier. Ive thought about this. And if we ever did [more] Short Treks, that would be the perfect format for it. The thing is, if youre going to do a musical, it would have to be as brilliant as Once More, With Feeling From Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It has to have a concept that makes a musical necessary, or you have to come up with a really, really good reason for people to start breaking out in song. And we have yet to really explore that. But nothing would make me happier. I would die to see that.  Newsome and Tompkins agreed that they would be delighted to watch a musical episode of Star Trek.  This isnt the first time that Kurtzman has expressed his desire to create a musical episode of Star Trek. In an interview with Gold Derby in August 2020, Kurtzman said that hed thought a lot about how to make a musical episode of Short Treks.  A Trek Musical Episode Has Been Pitched Before  Kurtzman isnt the first Star Trek producer to pitch a musical episode. In fact, the idea of a Trek musical episode has been around since Star Trek: The Next Generation. One of Treks most influential writers, Ronald D. Moore, started circulating the idea for a musical episode of TNG back in the 90s. In an interview with IGN in 2003, Moore revealed that he wanted to do a musical episode long before they were mainstream. Oh, and I was agitating for a musical, man. On record, I wanted to do a musical version of Trek well before Buffy or Chicago Hope. I wanted to do a musical episode, and nobody would f***in do it.  Moore has hinted that hed pitched a musical episode for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as well. In an AOL Q&A with fans, posted to Memory Alpha, a fan asked what story ideas Moore never got to do that he still wanted to pursue. He answered, the DS9 Musical.  So, the idea of a Star Trek musical episode has been around for an incredibly long time. Though one isnt solidly in the works yet, it sounds like it might happen in the future. Follow the Heavy on Star Trek Facebook page for the latest breaking news, rumors and content!