Inside the Making of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Musical Episode, "Subspace Rhapsody"

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 9 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, "Subspace Rhapsody." Read at your own risk!]

Choreographer and movement coach Roberto Campanella has introduced expressive dance and physicality into on-screen worlds one might never expect to encounter a Viennese waltz, a Brooklyn hustle or hip-hop turfing in. His varied and creative interpretations have appeared in films and TV shows as disparate as What We Do In the Shadows, The Expanse, the It films, Nightmare Alley, and The Shape of Water. 

He's already ventured into a far-flung future in the Star Trek universe, creating the lyrical dance sequence in the moving Short Treks installment "Calypso." But, as he reveals to TV Guide, no other project has simultaneously challenged and delighted him in the way his latest effort has. He called choreographing the Trek franchise's first-ever foray into full-blown musical territory with Star Trek: Strange New World's ninth episode "Subspace Rhapsody" the "best, most fun project" he's ever worked on.

TV Guide spoke to Campanella about the process of making the episode, which cast members were naturals, and how it felt to walk onto the bridge for the first time.

You're frequently tasked with bringing dance and movement into environments where audiences might not first expect they're going to have that kind of experience, and you've had a Star Trek experience before. What were the creative opportunities that you saw in "Subspace Rhapsody," and what were the immediate challenges you knew you were going to face?

Roberto Campanella: I'll start by saying right away, and I'm not putting this on because we're having an interview, but this is the best, most fun project I've ever worked on. And in 20 years that I've choreographed and done stuff for film and TV, it is special to me – really special – for many reasons. Everything clicked. When I was first approached, I thought they were pranking me. I was like, "Sorry – are you saying that Star Trek is doing a musical episode? Sorry, is it the whole episode?" I just could not believe it. And [producer Andrea Raffaghello] kept saying, "Yes, it's never been done in 50 years." 

And so I started feeling the pressure. I was like, "Oh my god, this is history. This is big, this is huge." But I don't know, after the first couple of meetings that I had with the big bosses, feeling how they were buzzing of excitement, I was like, "This is going to be fun. And they met all my needs. I could have asked for anything. They were there to make it work, to make it happen, make it happen with quality and turn it into a really special thing for everybody. And it definitely was for me, this whole thing.

Tell me about figuring out where the cast started out, because I'm sure many of them had hidden dance and movement talents, while many of them were probably a little intimidated but also excited for the opportunity. So who walked in ready to do whatever you asked of them, and who was maybe a little nervous and needed a boost?

Campanella: I would say that Christina [Chong], and Melissa [Navia] were probably the leaders in excitement. And that Christina can dance! And Celia [Rose Gooding] – I mean, Celia is, like, a musical queen. But I have to say that generally what happens is when I show up and I have to choreograph an actor, generally the actors are a little bit hesitant. So they come to me and they say, "Just so you know, I've never danced. I'm not a dancer. I have two left feet." But it didn't happen here!

Of course, it was different levels. But what really helped is that by the time we got into rehearsing, they were so excited because they've known about this for a while, so as a group they got each other very excited about it. So by the time I started working with them, even the first time I met them, that's all they could talk about – and we were two weeks before we would start rehearsing. So that was the first time I met the cast, and they were really excited about studying – and sure, there was that joke about, "Well, you're going to have to work hard with me," or whatever, but either they were really good actors that they hid it well, or… I never felt anybody was hesitant about it. 

Anson [Mount] was great. Actually, Anson, who has this really strong male character, came to me. There is a moment that he's talking to his girlfriend and then he goes down on his knees. He does this arm thing – he came to me and said, "I would like to do something. Maybe if I do some movement stuff, maybe towards the end?" And so we figured it out. So that meant a lot to me because everybody was excited. Everybody, I mean, the finale rehearsals with everybody on the Bridge… which I can't even tell you – being on the bridge of the Enterprise was a boy's dream! This whole thing. I turned 10 years old, this whole experience. And Spock [Ethan Peck] was so lovely. They would come up with ideas during the finale. It was like, "Oh no, maybe what if we do this?" And I was like, "Yeah, sure! Okay, let's explore that idea."

I was wondering if, by the end, some of the people who were a little tentative were like, "I'm a dancer now! I know what I'm doing. I can do this."

Campanella: I feel that perhaps my experience in working with actors a lot during my 20–25-year career, because before then, I was also working with theater actors, and I learned the hard way that I think I know how to communicate with actors when it comes to making them dance, making them move. Which is a completely different language and strategies than of course I do with my own dancers that I have here in Toronto. And hopefully that helped to make them feel like they can do that to start with. And so I could feel that they trusted me and that that's all I need. And then I can make anybody dance! Anybody – trust me, believe in me, and I can do it. I can.

So you've got the main ingredients: You have that great, unique environment of the Enterprise, you have what's going on with the characters in the story, and then you've got all this original music. How did those three elements come to help you set the style of choreography you wanted to bring to the episode?

Campanella: So the director, Dermott [Downs], was called in a week prior to his official prepping start time, which means he was always available. And I exploited that. I took advantage of that. And so at that point, we had an outline, plus there is Bill [Wolkoff] and Dana [Horgan], the writers, who would here and there send me some YouTube references, which had dictated everything that was the script, where they were coming from. I read [the prior episode] 208 before I got into 209.

And so that was the umbrella: the script, the dialogue, where they were coming from, where they were going, that was the main thing that dictated everything. Of course, then you add the music, which has its own feel, plus the reference videos that I will get. And Dermott's vision as to how he was going to shoot it. So there were a lot of inputs that really made my life a little bit easier. And sometimes it happens that you go in and directors or producers, they go, "Well, just do your thing." "Okay, fine – like what, for example?" But in this case, I was really helped immensely by these people with a clear vision.

Tell me about getting onto the set and, once your sort of little boy excitement calmed down a little bit, looking around the Enterprise, the Bridge, the different decks and seeing the opportunity for choreography in them. How did that come together in your head, knowing that they weren't going to move the sets around too much for you – you had to mostly work with the space that's there. 

Campanella: Yeah, so that was Dermott and I, just building ideas upon ideas – the way he wanted to shoot it, the way he was going to block it, because for a musical event like this one for TV, the blocking is the beginning of the choreography, in a way. So we will go back and forth: "We'll do this, so maybe we keep the two ladies in and from the spot because someone has to drag the Enterprise here…" So there were also certain things that would create parameters within the geography of the place. But I love that challenge, though. I love when I'm given the architecture and I have to get in and use it. That gives me excitement. 

It is challenging because the Enterprise [bridge] not only is a semicircle, but it also goes up and down. There are stairs, so we had to put our dances in a certain way, the way I was blocking it. But I didn't find that challenging so much as the [corridor] walls, actually, because, believe it or not, the walls with Rebecca [Romijn] and Paul [Wesley], we had to really nail the exact length of the hallway. They had to finish. They had to start without ever stopping, never. Dermott didn't want them to stop. And it wasn't easy. What looks easy actually was not! We knew what we had to go through to make it work. And the same is for Jess [Bush's] nightclub [sequence]. That is very, very challenging geographically. But I love that! And a lot of it came from the blocking that Dermott saw in his mind.

If you had to pick out of all of these sequences, and each one has its own tone, which was the most joyful to make? Was there one where everybody was just kind of vibrating at the same frequency, and by the time you were done, you were like, "Nailed it!"

Campanella: Jess' one, really, but also it's Christina's bedroom moment, her solo, where both her and I were excited to work together and do some dancing – I couldn't wait to do some dancing to choreograph on Christina because I knew she was going to deliver quickly. But when I heard the music and the lyrics and whatever else, I kept saying to Dermott and Christina, "I don't see dance here. I really don't." 

I mean, it's bizarre that a choreographer's saying that because I always want to choreograph. But I was like, "Story-wise, emotionally, narratively... What is she going to dance? What? It doesn't make any sense to me." So I don't know what it would've been like with some dancing. But when I saw the screener – I was also on set that day – I was so moved by the beauty of it all, of her doing almost nothing. It was just her voice and her emotion. So these two are in my heart, I have to say.

I think your instinct on the sequence with Christina was right on, because La'an is just stuck emotionally, so the way that it plays is perfect.

Campanella: Oh, she just broke my heart. And when I watched it again, I still had the same reaction. Goosebumps, watery eyes, and I was done! And I knew what was going to happen, but these two are in my heart for sure.

Now that it's all done and the pressure of putting the first musical-choreographic stamp on Star Trek is over, how do you feel about it? Are excited about the mark that you've left?

Campanella: From my part, I just hope I did justice to not only the franchise, not only the "Star Trek" world – because I don't know if the fans are going to like it or not, but just a huge amount of work went into it. There was commitment, effort, professionalism from everybody. And whether people are going to like it or not, I hope that is not overlooked: That every single one, from the big bosses to the PA, the cast, our dancers, gave that kind of honest, sincere, passionate effort and love for what we were doing. I hope that transpires, and that's the mark I would like to leave more than anything.

New episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premiere Thursdays on Paramount+.