Star Trek: Discovery Deprived Us Of A Book And Ryn Song Duet
At the beginning of the third season of "Star Trek: Discovery," the titular starship was thrown forward in time to the 32nd century, nearly a millennium from its home time. There, the crew of the Discovery found a very different galaxy. It seems that years before, every starship in the quadrant had exploded in an unpredicted cataclysm called the Burn. In the wake of the disaster, Starfleet went into hiding to rebuild, while control of the galaxy fell into the hands of an evil Orion trading firm called the Emerald Chain. The Emerald Chain brought the previously post-capitalist world of Trek back into a greedy, exploitative, money-forward society, which gave rise to abuse and slavery. It would take the crew of the Discovery a lot of wherewithal to combat the Emerald Chain and help get the ultra-advanced Starfleet back on its feet.
One of the people Discovery meets in its new adventure is an Andordian named Ryn (Noah Averbach-Katz). Ryn was a "long-time contract worker" (read: slave) for Osyraa (Janet Kidder), the leader of the Emerald Chain. Ryn once tried to lead an uprising, but it wasn't successful, and Osyraa chopped off his antennae in response. Thereafter, he was ordered to implant bombs into the necks of other slaves. He has an unhappy life. He ended up escaping bondage with Booker (David Ajala), a free agent and would-be paramour of Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green).
There was a scene from Ryn's and Booker's violent, phaser-forward escape wherein he and Booker, getting into the spirit of rebellion, sang a rousing song together. About two years ago, Averbach-Katz took to Reddit to answer fan questions about "Star Trek: Discovery," and he recalled shooting the scene, but also, quite unfortunately, that it had been cut.
Na-Na Riot
"Star Trek: Discovery," like most TV shows, is being tinkered with, adjusted, and re-written, even as shooting occurs. Laypeople may assume that a TV script is completed and approved before shooting even begins and that it remains permanent throughout production, but in live-action TV, that's hardly ever the case. As such, actors can film scenes just to see them cut, just like they might on a feature film. Indeed, a fan of "Discovery" revealed that they had seen a shooting script for an earlier episode, and they were shocked at how many drafts it had gone through (one can discern drafts by the colors of the pages they're printed on).
When asked about the script for the episode in question, Averbach-Katz was able to tell the story of "Na-Na Riot," the battle song that Ryn and Booker were to sing during a phaser fight.
"The script is constantly being re-written, and even on the day you're trying alt lines out as well. I didn't have to deal with many major re-writes. HOWEVER, in the scene where book and I make out last stand, we were supposed to sing a song called "Na-Na Riot" ... both of us had come up with our own versions in our head (because they hadn't given us any clue what it sounded like) but they cut it the day of shooting! It would have been legendary."
Such a pity.
Averbach-Katz doesn't say if "Na-Na Riot" was inspired by the indie rock back Ra Ra Riot (the thin-voiced "Dying is Fine" and "Water" guys), but given that band's mellow sound, it's safe to assume that it wasn't.
There wouldn't be a musical episode of "Star Trek" until "Subspace Rhapsody" in 2023, three years later.