The Puppet Episode of ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Is Finally Here

We finally got the Muppets episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds! Okay, technically they’re just puppets—that’s how they refer to themselves. But the Henson company made them, so they’re at least Muppet-adjacent. 

In episode five, “Level-Five Transporter Accident,” the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise is headed to Vulcan, where Spock plans to spend some time studying logic. However, there are pirates in the area, so the Enterprise slows down. 

When the episode opens, Spock is with Scotty. Scotty is trying to extend the transporter’s range, but he needs something to test it on, so he pulls out Little Ricky, an old puppet he says his brothers used to hide in his room to scare the “stuffing” out of him. Spock eyes the doll warily before excusing himself for a meeting with La’An.

Spock and La’An are supposed to practice dancing, but La’An calls it off. Spock is disappointed; he says it helped him “quiet his mind.” She admits she has been struggling since the Griffin. He apologizes for not being there for her, but she turns it into a good old-fashioned break-up. “There is no tragedy in a romance reaching its natural conclusion.” That’s a line to remember, folks!

Pike comes onto the bridge and waves off Chin-Riley, who is keeping an eye out for pirates. He’s more excited about his new chair. Pelia designed it herself and engineering set it up just a few hours ago. 

Spock is meditating in his room until he hears screams (all in his head). He stops and video chats with T’Pring instead. He tells her that his time on the Griffin was difficult and he planned to spend time on Vulcan but…

T’Pring assumes she was the next best option, which Spock admits. T’Pring suggests that Spock’s trouble with logic may stem from serving on a ship of chaos. She offers to come aboard and help him with his problems, but she has two requests: first, he must arrange transport for her. Second, she requires there not be any hijinks while she is aboard. Spock says he will do his best.

We then see Spock on the shuttle. Scotty calls him back, saying T’Pring is already there. Scotty takes Little Ricky onto the transporter deck, saying he plans to “make history.” He turns on the transporter and Little Ricky seems to disappear… but then there’s a transporter malfunction, complete with blaring alarms and blinking lights.  

Throughout the ship, everyone is affected by the transporter issue, and seems to disappear. Then the entire ship disappears, which worries Spock, who is still in the shuttle. He radios in to the Enterprise, but can’t get anyone to answer him. Suddenly, the Enterprise returns. Spock flies back to the ship and goes looking for the crew. He’s stunned—as is the entire crew—to discover they’re all puppets. Even T’Pring. This definitely violates her “no hijinks” policy.

The crew gathers to discuss what happened. Everyone is a puppet, except for Spock. Scotty insists it’s just a transporter malfunction, but Spock points out it was a level-five accident. Scotty sheepishly says at least it wasn’t a level six. Spock attempts to logically explain what happened, but the crew is way beyond that. Pike assigns Scotty to figure out a solution. Doc says this is also a medical problem.

Chin-Riley points out that, now that they’re puppets, they can’t do anything they would normally be able to do. La’An can’t operate any of the weapons. Uhura’s fingers can’t operate the communications console. In fact, nothing on the ship recognizes their fingers. Everyone turns to Spock, realizing that he’s the only one who can manage the ship.

Pike hops on a video call with Admiral April, who is astounded. April offers to send a support ship, but the closest one is two days away. April warns Pike not to let anyone else know they’re puppets. Pike has no problem with that, and they sign off. Pike then tries to give Spock access to his special new chair but it can’t recognize his hand.

Spock then arrives in the transport room to assist Scotty and La’An with fixing the transporter, but it doesn’t work. To make things even worse, La’An’s arm pops off in the process. They head over to the med bay, where Spock sews La’An’s arm back on while Doc and Chapel look on in fascination. No blood, no lasting damage. 

La’An tells Spock that she realized she can’t become what she has feared as long as she’s a puppet. Spock admits he has felt “frazzled.” She asks if he has talked to T’Pring since she became a puppet. He hasn’t, so he leaves to do just that.

T’Pring isn’t happy, though she admits the puppet thing isn’t Spock’s fault. He gets a slew of calls from crew members who need his help, which triggers a panic attack. In response, T’Pring slaps him and says he can’t help everyone. Spock thanks her, finding her helpful even as a puppet. She slaps him again, telling him that gratitude is irrelevant, before storming away.

On the bridge, Spock is dealing with everyone who needs his help. La’An gets a notification of an Orion interceptor moving close to the Enterprise. Chin-Riley thinks it’s probably a pirate ship, but La’An can’t get access to any of the weapons. The interceptor hails the Enterprise, but Uhura can’t operate the comms. Pike instructs Spock to help Uhura—audio only. No one can know about the puppet situation.

Pike asks the captain of the interceptor why it’s moving towards the Enterprise. Captain Ch’Rol (Rachael Harris) says her ship is on an ordinary path through the area. Scans showed only one life form—she was just checking to make sure they were okay. Pike insists everything is fine, not that it’s any of Ch’Rol’s business. 

Ch’Rol offers to come aboard and help, figuring that there must be something wrong if they can’t scan their people and the video isn’t working. Chin-Riley points out Ch’Rol’s ship is still moving towards the Enterprise and Pike threatens to fire on them if they don’t stop. Ch’Rol is quiet for a while, then says “Of course,” and Chin-Riley announces the interceptor is moving away.

As Uhura is attempting to shut off the audio feed, she accidentally turns on the video feed instead. Ch’Rol can now see the entire crew are puppets. She confronts Pike and asks if they’re puppets—you know, since she can see that they’re puppets. Pike tries to deescalate the situation, explaining they’re a full Starfleet ship, while Spock rushes around in the background. 

Ch’Rol notices that Spock is the only one who can control the bridge, and orders her ship to fire on the Enterprise. The Enterprise is hit and the shields finally go up, though they have 60% damage. Spock finally gets a shot off at the Orion ship. It’s actually quite amusing to watch: puppets running around, flinging their limbs as they’re rocked on a damaged ship. It’s like that Kermit GIF, but with panic instead of the joyful “Yaaaaaaaay!” 

Spock tries to get the Enterprise moving, but the engines are only at 20%, so he goes to engineering. He finds Scotty trapped under a giant torpedo and immediately tries to free him. He’s not having any luck but, suddenly, Scotty is no longer trapped. Yay for puppet physics. Pike calls Spock, telling him the Orion captain is trying to board the Enterprise, and sends him to shuttle bay to greet/stop them.

Along the way, Spock runs into T’Pring, who offers to bring him a phaser, since she can’t fire one. She also warns him that pirates tend to invade one area as a distraction while their real focus is elsewhere. She believes it is a ruse that they are invading the shuttle bay. 

Suddenly, Captain Ch’Rol and a couple of minions appear at the end of the hallway. Spock promises to distract them while T’Pring escapes. He takes one of her phasers and starts firing. This doesn’t work; Ch’Rol fires on Spock and knocks him out handily.

After the break, Spock is awake and has been tied up. Ch’Rol is there, and she tells him she wants the ship’s control codes. She leaves him with one of her crew as his guard.

La’An and Chin-Riley are waiting outside the bridge for Ch’Rol and her cronies. A fight immediately ensues. La’An gets tossed aside and Chin-Riley punches a minion until she’s out of breath. The minion gets the upper hand and tosses Chin-Riley atop La’An, clearing the way for Ch’Rol to walk onto the bridge.

Once on the bridge, there are some hilarious shots of puppets fighting and being tossed aside. Pelia attempts to prevent Ch’Rol from taking over Pike’s new chair, but Ch’Rol takes a sword and cuts her in half, right across the abdomen. She then turns to Pike, who stands up, trying to look menacing. She just picks him up and tosses him aside. The crew all run off the bridge, and Ch’Rol waves her hand, saying, “Let the puppets go.”

The puppets take refuge in another room, where Chapel sews Pelia back together. The rest of the crew tries to come up with a plan to take the bridge back. T’Pring points out that it’s useless without Spock and they need to find a way to get him back. Pike is adamant: “I am shorter and fluffier than normal, but Spock needs me.”

Meanwhile, Spock is sitting with the minion Ch’Rol left to guard him. Spock tells him that he won’t give up the control codes. The minion says that he’s pretty good at reading people and he sees how stressed Spock is that the rest of the crew is relying on him. The minion suggests he listen to his ex: just surrender and let it all wash over him. Spock agrees that would be helpful, but he still won’t share the codes. The minion knows—he was just supposed to distract Spock until Ch’Rol was ready to do something. Which is happening now, apparently.

The minion brings Spock back to Ch’Rol. He assumes she’s going to throw him out of the airlock, though that doesn’t make sense since he’s the only one who can control anything on the ship. Ch’Rol agrees and gestures to a different minion, who pulls Pike from behind his back. “I’ll throw him out instead,” she says. The minion tosses Pike into the airlock and shuts the door. 

In an ode to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Pike puts his hand up to the window, with Spock meeting his hand on the other side. “The needs of the many—” Pike’s final words are interrupted as the airlock is purged and he’s sucked out of the ship. Ch’Rol threatens to start throwing out more of the Enterprise crew if she doesn’t get the control codes.

The rest of the crew watches in shock as Pike flies away. Pelia points out that she was cut in half and is not dead—in this form, they can survive things they wouldn’t normally be able to. Pike floats by the window, knocking and waving. Doc finally figures it out: “Space can’t kill puppets.”

The crew pulls Pike back in, and he tells them they need to take advantage of their puppet forms. They can fit into small spaces, they can hurl themselves strategically, and they don’t need oxygen to survive. Pike insists that because the situation is absurd, they’ll need to embrace chaos if they want to survive. 

They Muppet-man out of the room (three puppets stacked atop one another under a coat to fool people into thinking they are one full-sized person). The minion guarding the room is shocked that there is another non-puppet on the ship… which means he’s even more shocked when they throw open the coat and reveal Pike, La’An, and Chin-Riley underneath. The minion trips over La’An, which knocks him out. “Great. Time for phase two,” Pike says. As they leave, Pelia compliments Scotty on the glove he created to manipulate like a hand.

T’Pring is brought in to Spock, and the minion intuits that this must be his ex because she was trying to save him. The minion figures he might as well hurt her to get the codes and starts burning her hand. T’Pring tells Spock that Pike is alive, which stuns both Spock and the minion—so much so that T’Pring manages to light the minion on fire while he’s distracted. He bounces around, panicking, until he runs into the wall and knocks himself out. T’Pring unties Spock and mind-melds with him to share Pike’s plan.

Ch’Rol calls her minion to check if he has gotten the codes from Spock yet, but gets no response. Suddenly, the crew barges in on her, with Pike leading the way. They’re full-on puppet-fighting, which is hilarious and highly enjoyable. Spock enters and tries to figure out a logical solution. T’Pring tells him that the hijinks are not the obstacle; they are the solution. He knows what to do.

Spock needs Pike’s help. He throws Pike across the room onto Ch’Rol,  which scares her out of the captain’s seat and allows Spock to sit down instead. Ch’Rol threatens Spock, but he ignores her. Pike explains that Spock is conserving oxygen. He shut off life support, which means the Orions (and Spock) will soon pass out.

Later, Spock wakes up, and learns that Doc got him an oxygen mask in the nick of time. Scotty also beamed the Orions into the brig with his new hand and has figured out how to un-puppet the crew. But there is one thing they want to do first…

They go outside and fly through space, which they enjoy immensely. Spock and T’Pring are inside; she didn’t want to challenge physics by going outside. She finds the crew’s space antics endearing. They hold hands, and Spock wishes to engage with logic again. Then they lean in and kiss. Yes, Spock kisses a puppet T’Pring.

Spock wakes suddenly, and finds T’Pring sitting next to him in human form. She was never a puppet; the whole thing was a dream. In actuality, he was knocked out after the transporter accident. He is disoriented, but admits that T’Pring helped him face his anxiety. Then he notices Little Ricky at his desk. Scotty dropped him off, thinking it would make him feel better. It did not.

This was a great episode overall; it really played into the fun and silliness of the puppets. Too bad they had to go and ruin it by making it all a dream.

New episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds arrive on Thursdays on Paramount+.

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