It’s become something of a rite of passage for big name TV shows to throw in a musical episode, but very few have come close to matching Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s classic “Once More With Feeling”. However, Star Trek producer Alex Kurtzman is still holding out hope that the long-running sci-fi series will finally get the chance to scratch an itch he’s been living with for years.
There’s certainly going to be plenty of opportunities for Kurtzman to get his wish, looking at the sheer volume of content in the works. In addition to Paramount+ hoping to debut a new show every quarter, further seasons of Picard, Discovery and Lower Decks are all on the way, with spinoff Strange New Worlds also in the midst of production and Prodigy premiering on Nickelodeon later this year.
However, in a new interview, Kurtzman hinted that short film anthology Short Treks might be the ideal place to get away with it, even if there’s been no word on a third batch being ordered as of yet.
“Nothing would make me happier. I’ve thought about this, and if we ever did a Short Trek, that would be the perfect format for it. The thing is, if you’re 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 into song, and we have yet to really explore that. But nothing would make me happier. I would die to see that.”
Scrubs, How I Met Your Mother, That ’70s Show, Fringe, Grey’s Anatomy, Xena: Warrior Princess, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Lucifer are just some of the hugely popular shows to have tackled a musical installment over the years, and for the most part they tend to go down pretty well with the fanbase.
That being said, a song-and-dance Star Trek would definitely come burdened with the potential to split audiences right down the middle, and you can only imagine the online reactions were it to be officially announced. Like Kurtzman said, though, Short Treks would be the perfect format with which to make it a reality.
