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The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 episode 5.
We’ve known that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was going to do an episode that involved the cast turning into Jim Henson Company-style puppets since last year’s San Diego Comic-Con, during which Paramount dropped a teaser clip featuring a felt version of Anson Mount’s Captain Pike with majestically coiffed hair. And, honestly, at this point in the series’ run, nobody should be surprised about it—this is the kind of story this show lives for, a boundary-pushing romp that’s both ridiculous and heartfelt, silly and strangely moving by turns.
Weird stuff happening in space is, in many ways, the beating heart of almost every Star Trek episode, and that goes double for Strange New Worlds, which has so gleefully played with different kinds of genres and storytelling styles. Episodes have been reimagined as fairytales, musicals, 1960s-esque sitcoms, film noir thrillers, and bodyswapping comedies of manners. At this point, why not puppets? Particularly because while the crew may look quite a bit different than we’re used to, the larger messages of the episode still embrace deeply familiar themes. That it’s a Spock episode is just the icing on the cake, if only because he’s somehow the character who seems to most need to hear that it really is okay to be who you are, even when that person is complicated.
To be fair, Spock has been going through it lately. In the wake of the events on the ghost ship USS Griffin, he’s been suffering from something that looks an awful lot like PTSD, and is desperate to reconnect with his more logical side in the hopes that it gives him some much-needed perspective on all that he’s been facing. He’s planning to spend a few days on Vulcan to do so, but his best-laid plans are derailed when Scotty, determined to push the boundaries of transporter technology and break a record held by a former classmate, accidentally manages to turn the entirety of the Enterprise crew into puppets using a nightmarish doll from his own childhood. (For the record, Little Ricky definitely seems to have more in common with, say, Chucky than Kermit the Frog.)
Happily—and no thanks to Little Ricky—the Muppet-style versions of each Strange New Worlds cast member are crazy adorable, so much so that you have to wonder if there’s not a significant merchandising opportunity being left on the table here. And the individual flair given to each puppet is such fun: Apparently nothing can subdue Carol Kane’s chaotic curls. Do some of the puppet gags go on a bit too long? Yes. (We get it, we get it. They’re small!) Is it enough to take away from the fun of the episode? Not for a second. A puppet Christopher Pike getting hurled through the air like a Hail Mary pass is always going to be great.
Spock being forced to play the straight man to a bunch of freakish human shenanigans is a plot device that’s as old as time in this franchise, and Ethan Peck acting alongside a bridge full of stuffed cloth creatures that are each maybe a fourth of his size is fantastic television. He’s particularly great at conveying the Vulcan’s exasperation and steadily growing frustration with the fact that his now-puppet shipmates are essentially useless at almost every aspect of their jobs. (Tiny felt hands aren’t great at touchscreens, apparently.) As Spock races from station to station trying to do everything from piloting the ship and handling communications to fixing engineering problems, well…let’s just say it’s not great for all that anxiety he’s been having lately. And things get even more complicated when the Enterprise crosses paths with an Orion pirate ship, whose captain—upon learning the Federation vessel is currently being crewed by puppets—decides to take over the ship for herself.
What follows is…basically chaos, as the puppets battle (what ought to be) life-threatening injuries, conquer seemingly impossible obstacles (namely, doors), and fully embrace the absurdity of their situation to survive. Puppet Pike even gets thrown out an airlock—complete with a heartfelt farewell that’s basically a riff on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan—before someone realizes that puppets don’t actually need to breathe. A story about teamwork, thinking outside the box, and the freedom that comes with embracing your inner weirdness, “Level Five Transporter Accident” rejects the darker tones that its title implies in favor of lighthearted silliness and wonder. (It’s not an accident that it’s Pelia, a delightful freak on her best day, who immediately takes to being a puppet.) And it seems that Spock, on some level, may need to learn to roll with his real life in the same way. Or, at least, that’s what his apparent dreams seem to be trying to tell him.
Much of Spock’s journey over the course of Strange New Worlds has been about finding a comfortable balance between the human and Vulcan sides of his personality, a necessary quest if he’s to become the man we know him to be on Star Trek: The Original Series. This has played out in a variety of ways onscreen, most often through an irritating hyperfocus on his love life. (He even gets dumped by La’an in this very episode!) But thanks to a little help from his sometimes fiancée, sometimes ex, T’Pring, he seems to gain something that feels like perspective. (For now, at least.) Gia Sandhu is such a quiet MVP throughout this hour, her bone-dry delivery and consistent side-eye serving as a necessary counterweight to some of the more ridiculous puppet-based hijinks. (Also her puppet fashion is great.) Strange New Worlds has added a lot of necessary depth to Spock and T’Pring’s relationship, and it’s easy to see how good the two actually are for one another, whether its as friends or something more.
This is why it’s so unfortunate that the episode ends with the question of their romantic status once again up in the air. (In his dream, Spock kisses Puppet T’Pring, but doesn’t mention it to her afterward.) Their relationship is extremely charming—in all honesty, I’m kind of rooting for these crazy kids at this point—but with the clock ticking down to Strange New Worlds’s end, the “who should Spock be with romantically” plots are wasting time that could be better spent elsewhere.
New episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 premiere Thursdays on Paramount+, culminating with the finale on September 24.
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