This article contains FULL SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4, episode 5, "Level-Five Transporter Accident."
Despite beginning as a way to track Anson Mount's Captain Pike and his journey toward a fate he can't avoid, one of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' defining traits has become the string of storytelling gimmicks it uses to build its episodes around. While I should be desensitized to it by now, season 4 has really been ramping things up in this respect, and "Level-Five Transporter Accident" is definitely the most extreme example of what Strange New Worlds likes to do to keep its viewers on their toes.
Although the episode threatened throughout to canonize the splicing of sentient beings and fuzzy playthings to create living, feeling puppets, it was thankfully revealed right at the end that Spock (Ethan Peck) was having a stress dream about the chaotic environment aboard the USS Enterprise. That retroactively gave the gimmick far more room to breathe. Still, it doesn't change the fact that most of Peck's co-stars in the episode are puppets made by the Jim Henson Creature Shop. So, how did the cast feel about the fluffy avatars who share an origin with iconic characters like Kermit the Frog and the Cookie Monster?
What the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds cast & crew thought of the puppets
Even though Trekkies have been divided by the Jim Henson collab, no one directly involved with the episode has had anything negative to say about it. While Anson Mount revealed that the concept of a puppet episode has been something of a running joke among the cast and crew for years, there's been no public pushback from him or any other member of the Strange New Worlds cast. The closest thing to a criticism was that Mount simply asked: "How are we going to do that?" — as revealed in an interview with Syfy.
Babs Olusanmokun, who plays Dr. M'Benga, has declared himself a fan of the puppets, as has Rebecca Romijn. The Una Chin-Riley actress did, however, seem to imply that she was caught a little off-guard by her puppet's appearance. "Is this what I look like?" she said, "Do you guys think I look like this?" But her comments all came across as being in good fun. Romijn also talked about the challenge of the cast delivering a "heightened performance" with their voices, to make up for the fact that the puppets' faces lacked any changeable facial expressions.
The puppet that sparked the most discussion was that of Carol Kane's Commander Pelia, and I can certainly see why. Kane's fuzzy counterpart looks distinctly different from the others, with the most dominant feature being her head of wild, spaghetti-like hair. She's also barefoot, which Jess Bush (Nurse Chapel) said made the overall portrayal of Puppet Pelia especially "iconic." Romijn also described Kane's Muppet-inspired avatar as "the most adorable puppet ever created."
Uhura actor Celia Rose Gooding praised the puppeteers for their attention to detail, stating that seeing another version of her character from the outside helped her realize certain things she did while performing. "I do put my ear comm in with two specific fingers every time,’” Gooding said she realized. “It was so illuminating.” Regarding the episode's overall production, Melissa Navia (Ortegas) talked about how "quintessentially Star Trek" it is, despite the absurdity. Surprisingly, co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers explained the installment generally "didn't take longer than your average episode," but noted the puppet fight scenes as an exception.
What Ethan Peck thought about acting with puppets
Retaining Spock as the episode's only main non-puppet character meant Peck had to give a conventional performance in a very unfamiliar environment. Although Spock was uncharacteristically off-balance in the episode, for obvious reasons, Peck didn't make any huge adjustments to how he played Spock.
"I didn't really know how to prep," Peck explained, "because I had never worked with puppets before." He eventually got over what must have been a somewhat intimidating undertaking by simply getting "over the hurdle" of "looking at a piece of cloth." While I must say I would have liked to see Spock as a puppet, the alternative of keeping him as the Michael Caine-esque figure from 1992's The Muppet Christmas Carol was a far more effective approach.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 is streaming now on Paramount+.
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