Musical fannish5
Name five series that should have had a musical episode (and how it could have been explained).
1.) Alias. Especially given they had a genuine star of the genre among the cast (Victor Garber), they so should have gone there. Yes, there was one episode where Sydney's alias was a singer, but that just sufficed for measly one and a half songs and is not the same thing. How it could have been explained: if in doubt, via a Rambaldi invention - only by singing will Our Heroes And Villians discover the key to his most mysterious masterpiece/prophecy yet! Or, more mundanely, they simply have to go undercover. Not on Broadway, no; the villain of the hour conducts his operation hidden in Rio during the carnival, and for the grand climax, Sydney & Co. have to dance and sing through the Sambadrome. (Originally only Sydney was sent on the mission, with Dixon as her back-up, but Jack, being the concerned SpyDad he is, went as well to keep an eye on her and ended up having to perform a solo so we can finally hear Victor Garber. Also, Sloane perfectly embodies an agent and gets roped into singing "I am a sentimental man" from Wicked because he gets confused with Ned Bolger. *Joel Grey joke*)
2.) Babylon 5. Instead of showcasing both writerly exhaustion and pettiness in the last season 4 episode, The Deconstruction of Falling Stars, JMS uses the same basic idea but in a different and more original format. So we don't get debating historians bashed or holo reconstructions, oh no. Instead, we see the story of B5 as narrated a century later in a glorious Centauri opera, with the regular cast playing their roles, but with a musical twist. Christoph Franke rises to the challenge, and we get an episode nearly threatening to outshine the s5 finale.
3.) Ashes to Ashes or Life on Mars, I'd be happy with either. Justifying it would not be a problem, given the nature of both shows (i.e. the ambiguity as to whether any of this happens anywhere outside of Our Timetravelling Cops Heads). That convenient sudden attack of illness which has been known to hit both Sam and Alex mid-seasons to heighten suspense and make everything even more surreal strikes again, and suddenly Gene sings, Chris and Ray duet, and Ray, depending on whether this takes place in the 70s or 80s, has a particular moment of musical revelation. Also, if it's the 80s, there's a tango number of Alex, and if it's the 70s, Sam gets to to stepdance (we know John Simm can do it).
4.) Star Trek: The Next Generation. It's Q's fault, obviously. Our Heroes have to solve the mystery of the hour before they're allowed to speak instead of sing again. Surprisingly, Worf - who loves Klingon opera, after all, and has been known to belt out tunes of same when alone - adopts quite quickly, though not as quickly as Data who sounds mysteriously like John Adams in 1776. Beverly Crusher stuns everyone with a dance number, and Deanna duets not with Will but with Reg Barclay, who has practice for these kind of scenarios thanks to the holodeck and thinks his hour has finally come. But because it is a Q story, the final challenge has to involve a solo from Picard. (Sidenote: the reason why I picked TNG instead of the others is that DS9 basically went there already with the various Vic Fontaine episodes, and Voyager with the Doctor and Seven, more than once.)
5.) Farscape. If in doubt, blame John Crichton's mind. He came up with cartoon scenarios to indulge in while in a coma, so why not with a musical? Most likely setting would be s3, which means Moya-John, but because we're in his mind, he gets a terzett with Talyn-John and Aeryn. More importantly, he also gets a shared step dance number with Harvey and a duet with Scorpius, while his imagination resurrects Zhaan for a Zhaan/Chiana/Aeryn number. The breakaway hit is a song from Pilot to Moya, though. When John finally visits Earth again in s4 and collects the Buffy tapes his sister recorded for him while he was gone (remember, he was a BTVS fan and explicitly lamented the missing of episodes as one of the drawbacks of his existence in the UTs), he thinks Joss must be in a conspiracy with the Ancients because clearly Once More, With Feeling is directly ripped off his mind.
1.) Alias. Especially given they had a genuine star of the genre among the cast (Victor Garber), they so should have gone there. Yes, there was one episode where Sydney's alias was a singer, but that just sufficed for measly one and a half songs and is not the same thing. How it could have been explained: if in doubt, via a Rambaldi invention - only by singing will Our Heroes And Villians discover the key to his most mysterious masterpiece/prophecy yet! Or, more mundanely, they simply have to go undercover. Not on Broadway, no; the villain of the hour conducts his operation hidden in Rio during the carnival, and for the grand climax, Sydney & Co. have to dance and sing through the Sambadrome. (Originally only Sydney was sent on the mission, with Dixon as her back-up, but Jack, being the concerned SpyDad he is, went as well to keep an eye on her and ended up having to perform a solo so we can finally hear Victor Garber. Also, Sloane perfectly embodies an agent and gets roped into singing "I am a sentimental man" from Wicked because he gets confused with Ned Bolger. *Joel Grey joke*)
2.) Babylon 5. Instead of showcasing both writerly exhaustion and pettiness in the last season 4 episode, The Deconstruction of Falling Stars, JMS uses the same basic idea but in a different and more original format. So we don't get debating historians bashed or holo reconstructions, oh no. Instead, we see the story of B5 as narrated a century later in a glorious Centauri opera, with the regular cast playing their roles, but with a musical twist. Christoph Franke rises to the challenge, and we get an episode nearly threatening to outshine the s5 finale.
3.) Ashes to Ashes or Life on Mars, I'd be happy with either. Justifying it would not be a problem, given the nature of both shows (i.e. the ambiguity as to whether any of this happens anywhere outside of Our Timetravelling Cops Heads). That convenient sudden attack of illness which has been known to hit both Sam and Alex mid-seasons to heighten suspense and make everything even more surreal strikes again, and suddenly Gene sings, Chris and Ray duet, and Ray, depending on whether this takes place in the 70s or 80s, has a particular moment of musical revelation. Also, if it's the 80s, there's a tango number of Alex, and if it's the 70s, Sam gets to to stepdance (we know John Simm can do it).
4.) Star Trek: The Next Generation. It's Q's fault, obviously. Our Heroes have to solve the mystery of the hour before they're allowed to speak instead of sing again. Surprisingly, Worf - who loves Klingon opera, after all, and has been known to belt out tunes of same when alone - adopts quite quickly, though not as quickly as Data who sounds mysteriously like John Adams in 1776. Beverly Crusher stuns everyone with a dance number, and Deanna duets not with Will but with Reg Barclay, who has practice for these kind of scenarios thanks to the holodeck and thinks his hour has finally come. But because it is a Q story, the final challenge has to involve a solo from Picard. (Sidenote: the reason why I picked TNG instead of the others is that DS9 basically went there already with the various Vic Fontaine episodes, and Voyager with the Doctor and Seven, more than once.)
5.) Farscape. If in doubt, blame John Crichton's mind. He came up with cartoon scenarios to indulge in while in a coma, so why not with a musical? Most likely setting would be s3, which means Moya-John, but because we're in his mind, he gets a terzett with Talyn-John and Aeryn. More importantly, he also gets a shared step dance number with Harvey and a duet with Scorpius, while his imagination resurrects Zhaan for a Zhaan/Chiana/Aeryn number. The breakaway hit is a song from Pilot to Moya, though. When John finally visits Earth again in s4 and collects the Buffy tapes his sister recorded for him while he was gone (remember, he was a BTVS fan and explicitly lamented the missing of episodes as one of the drawbacks of his existence in the UTs), he thinks Joss must be in a conspiracy with the Ancients because clearly Once More, With Feeling is directly ripped off his mind.