Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Season 4, ep. 5: Yeah, This is the 'Muppet' One

As Star Trek: Strange New Worlds enters its second last season, Original-Cin genre writer John Kirk will preview new episodes weekly.

By John Kirk

Rating: B-

In the latest episode of Strange New Worlds, Star Trek goes full Muppet

The question is: why?

Look, I want to truly dislike this episode for the pure goofiness of it. I mean, I like comedy in Star Trek, but there’s something about this particular episode that irks me. The one reason why it bothers me is actually the end of the episode and I can’t reveal it for … spoilers!

Spock (Ethan Peck) is the only one not Muppet-ized in this episode.

But trust me: when you see it, I bet you’ll dislike it as much as I do.

But I digress.

Here’s the story premise: Montgomery Scott (Martin Quinn), our favourite engineer, is feeling insecure. It’s a Starfleet Academy thing, yada yada yada. But it’s affecting his latest transporter project. He uses an old puppet as test subject and as soon as you can say over-used plot device, the transporter crosses the material of the puppet with every single crew member of the ship and instantly turns the crew into puppets.

Well, except for Spock (Ethan Peck).

This leaves Spock as the only crew member with opposable thumbs. When the Enterprise encounters an Orion Pirate Marauder, well, you get the idea.

It’s a terrible story idea. Its one saving grace is that it could be taken out of the canonical pages of a textbook on writing TOS stories. Again, moving closer back to TOS canon. However, in this case, they are moving very, very slowly.

The technical difficulty of shooting with puppets, the puppeteering, the total change in mentality to voicing a puppet instead of playing the character – it’s a real challenge. If I was to give credit to this episode, it would be for that. I mean, I can’t say I hate the episode though, because for the sheer technical production value and challenge. I still have to admire the artistry.

I just wish it wasn’t for this show. The last thing that Kurtzman era Trek needs is another reason to point out why this show should be hated.

But the level of challenge does get in the way. If you listen very carefully, the way that the dialogue is delivered by the cast who turned into puppets, it’s less in the moment. It’s more like it’s read than it’s performed. It may be a slight thing, but to me it was apparent. Literally, it was like they could have just called it in.

Also, the physical requirements of acting with puppets detracts from the performance. Anyone who was on The Muppet Show can tell you that relating to a puppet like it was a living person is hugely demanding. It also comes across as less than realistic and if you’ll remember from my previous reviews of the season, the need for the audience’s ability to willingly suspend their disbelief is critical to the success of this show.

I mean, have you ever seen hand-to-hand combat with a puppet?

Okay – that’s clearly for laughs. To be fair, this episode does have its fair share of laughs. But, if I wanted to watch Star Trek comedy, I’d have watched a re-run of Lower Decks (which I loved, for the record).

However, it’s the resolution of the episode that really bugs me. It’s lazy and if this had just stayed on the puppets, I think I could have liked the episode more. All this episode needed was the inclusion of Scooby-Doo squiggles.

I’d still like an answer to my question though.

Why puppets?

Season Four – Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Episode 405: “Level Five Transporter Accident” Director: Jordan Canning. Cast: Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Babs Olusanmokum, Celia Rose-Gooding, Melissa Navia, Rebecca Romijn, Martin Quinn, Carol Kane

Episode 405, “Level Five Transporter Accident” debuts on August 20 on Paramount Plus and CTV’s Sci-Fi Channel.