Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Recap: The One Where They All Turn Into Puppets

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Level-Five Transporter Accident
Season 4 Episode 5
Editor’s Rating ★★★★
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Even if you’re keeping up with a show as it airs, it’s never a bad idea to watch the “previously on” intro to get a sense of what’s to come. So it would make sense to brace for a grim hour based on the clips that precede “Level-Five Transporter Accident,” the fifth episode of Strange New Worlds’s penultimate season. We get moments of Scotty being reflective and, most suggestively, scenes from space horror of “The Griffin Incident.” What a fake-out. It’s not like those moments aren’t relevant to the episode that follows, but what follows is goofy on a level unmatched even by the shore-leave adventures of “Human Best Friend.”

The opening moments, which find Spock and Scotty discussing the possibility of stretching the transporter’s abilities, don’t suggest this, however. Sidetracked by the need to help out with some pirate activity on the way to Vulcan, where Spock hopes to recommit himself to logic, the crew finds itself with some unexpected downtime. This has inspired Scotty to dream big about breaking the record for the longest transport (at least in part because an old school rival named Declan currently holds it). And what better way to stick to Declan than to transport Little Ricky, a horrifying hand puppet Declan will recognize from their shared time at Starfleet Academy? 

If having to delay his arrival on Vulcan and deal with Scotty wasn’t bad enough, Spock’s day then takes a turn for the worse when he visits La’an, who, after alluding to their time on the Griffin, tells him, “There’s no tragedy in a romance reaching its natural conclusion.” That at least partly explains why he can’t focus during meditation and, not knowing when they’ll reach Vulcan, he reaches out to T’Pring, who says she’s not offended at being “the next best thing” to Vulcan itself. But is she? Whichever the case, T’Pring agrees to visit the Enterprise to help Spock reconnect with his Vulcan side on one condition: that there be “No high jinks.” (Spoiler: There will be high jinks.)

By contrast, Pike is having a pretty good day thanks to the arrival of a new, Pelia-designed chair — a development that seemingly makes him less concerned than he should be about the possibility they’ll encounter some Orion pirates. Yet even if he should foresee that he couldn’t possibly foresee a shipwide transporter accident that turns everyone aboard the Enterprise, including the high-jinks-averse T’Pring, into living puppets (created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, hence their familiar, Muppet-y appearance). Maybe this won’t be a somber episode after all.

Let’s get this out of the way up top: They’re adorable, perhaps none more adorable than Pelia, whose oversize eyes and noodly hair make her stand out. But the Creature Shop’s puppets capture both the looks and personalities of all the characters. Also, the sight gag of a full-size Spock, who was spared the transformation by being off-ship, never gets old no matter how often the episode returns to it. 

The crew may now look silly, but figuring out a way to fix this is serious business and serious on multiple fronts. They’ll have to figure out how to reverse engineer this change and determine what exactly they’ve turned into. Further complicating matters, they’re, well, puppets, which limits their ability to work controls and tools designed for non-puppet hands, meaning Spock will have to take on a few more duties than usual (as in all of them). 

When Pike reaches out to Admiral April, having not had a crew turned into puppets before and because the nearest ship is two days away. What to do? La’an lends herself to a transporter experiment that results only in her losing an arm. The upside, as M’Benga and Chapel tell them, is that it doesn’t hurt and it’s not too hard to stitch injured crew members back together. La’an sees another, more personal, upside too. She’s been worried about her potential to hurt others, which is virtually impossible in her current form (though this, too, will later prove to be a problem). 

While La’an might be unexpectedly happy to be a puppet, T’Pring decidedly is not. Whatever she might be feeling takes a backseat to what Spock feels as he’s pelted with one request for help after another. As he starts to panic, T’Pring slaps him, bringing him back down from a state of, as he’ll put it, “freaking out.” (It sounds like a pretty hard slap for a puppet, too.) T’Pring might not want to be there, but that doesn’t mean she’s not needed. 

Then a new problem arrives: an Orion ship whose captain, Ch’rol (Rachael Harris), expresses concern about the ship having only one life sign. They’re here to help, she claims. Why would the Enterprise think otherwise? Pike wisely reaches out on an audio-only channel and seems to successfully neutralize the threat by promising violent reprisals if the Orions don’t leave them alone. Unfortunately, this is quickly undone when Nyota hits the wrong button — darn puppet fingers — and opens a video feed that reveals a ship manned by less-than-threatening-looking puppets.

Pike warns them that they face a fully operational starship, puppets or not, but Ch’rol easily susses out that only Spock can operate the ship. The Orions immediately open fire, dealing major damage to the ship. If they’re going to get out of this, they’re going to have to reclaim the ability to control the ship, so Spock heads to engineering. There he finds Scotty stuck under a torpedo (though, it’s soon revealed, puppets don’t get stuck as easily). But news of the Orions attempting to board the ship means that whatever’s going on in engineering will have to wait. Spock finds some unexpected help from T’Pring, who brings him phasers and advises him, correctly, that the Orions will board the ship at a less-obvious spot than shuttlebay. But it doesn’t take long for Spock to lose the upper hand. After being shot by the Orion landing party, led by Ch’rol, he’s taken captive.

Ch’rol’s request is simple: the ship’s control codes. After laying out all the reasons he’s going to have to give them up eventually, she leaves him with Ejachi (Joe Lo Truglio) and heads for the bridge. There the Orions meet some resistance from La’an and Una, but not much. And after slicing through Pelia, Ch’rol is able to remove an enraged Pike from his beloved new chair. Could matters get any worse? (At least it’s possible to stitch Pelia together.) What can they possibly do? It seems like any solution starts with saving Spock, but how?

Alone with Ejachi, Spock tells his captor that he’s immune to torture, which is fine since Ejachi has no plans to torture him anyway. Mostly Ejachi wants to talk about gender norms and why he’s thrilled to live in a society where men take orders from women. For an Orion, he’s actually pretty chill, even giving Spock some useful tips on minimizing stress. Of course, it’s all a distraction while Ch’rol moves on to the next stage of her plan, but it’s still kind of nice. 

About that next phase: It involves Ch’rol throwing Pike into the airlock, a moment that allows the show to make a funny, if truncated, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan homage. Rather than dispiriting the rest of the crew, it inspires them to double down on their efforts to resist the Orions. Also, a fully alive Pike soon floats by the window, so maybe the situation isn’t that bad.

Back onboard, Pike describes the semi-mystical experience he had floating in the void and his subsequent realization that they can fight back if they call on their uniquely puppet-y qualities. They might not be able to open doors, but they can squeeze into tight spaces, hurl themselves through the air, and survive in oxygen-free atmospheres. It’s a rallying cry for the crew, but seemingly a breaking point for T’Pring, who screams in anguish at the “pandemonium” around her. But since her uncharacteristic emotions only underscore Pike’s point, even she comes around and agrees to “lean into chaos.”

It works — eventually. Disguising themselves as one full-size Vulcan via a three-person piggyback, Pike, Una, and La’an take out a guard, freeing the way for the other crew members to escape. Meanwhile, Ejachi proves himself to be a little less cool than he seemed when he threatens T’Pring with a blowtorch, even going so far as to burn her hand, in an attempt to get Spock to spill the codes. After T’Pring turns the tables on her would-be torturer, she’s able to free Spock and clue him in on Pike’s plan, which is pretty simple, really: Rush the bridge and subdue the enemy via an onslaught of slapstick comedy. When Spock arrives with the battle in full swing, he seems on the verge of another panic attack, which he overcomes via T’Pring and her logical conclusion that “These high jinks are not the obstacle. They are the solution.” Though Spock claims the captain’s chair from Ch’rol, it’s hard to argue with her claim that “a ragged old pile of children’s toys” doesn’t stand a chance against her team. Until, that is, Pike reveals that the silent Spock is saving his breath as the puppets drain the ship of the oxygen they no longer need. But Ch’rol does, and when she and the other Orions pass out, they’re able to regain the upper hand.

That doesn’t stop Spock from passing out as well. When he wakes up in sick bay, he learns that Scotty has cracked the code needed to restore them to their real bodies — after a space walk, that is. T’Pring stays back to talk to Spock, who confirms his newfound commitment to logic, then kisses his onetime fiancée. Then Spock wakes up for real, greeted by the flesh-and-blood T’Pring, who’s confused about what he means when he asks when she “turned back.” Turns out it was all a dream, and the only victim of the (much more minor) transporter accident was Spock. That doesn’t stop him from giving Little Ricky, whom Scotty has placed near Spock’s bedside, a dirty look as he exits with T’Pring to have some tea. 

I didn’t realize that TV shows still did “It was all a dream” episodes in 2026. In retrospect, it mostly makes sense, particularly since the arc of this episode is Spock’s descent into chaos as he attempts to recommit to logic. But there’s not really anything in the “science” of this episode that stretches credulity any more than, say, an “improbability field” that turns the Enterprise into the setting for a musical. It’s a little disappointing that the Enterprise’s puppet crew isn’t canon, if only because it means we won’t get a return appearance unless Spock has another dream. Still, “Level-Five Transporter Accident” is an extremely fun episode, particularly for fans of the Muppets. In a way, it slots Spock into the role of a Muppet Show guest host, asking him to act the part of the full-size, normal visitor to that show’s backstage insanity. If only they’d found a way to throw in a musical number or a “Pigs in Space”–like show within the show.

Hit It!

• Putting aside the “Those Old Scientists” crossover episode, this is almost certainly the most Lower Decks–like episode of Strange New Worlds. Henry Alonso Myers and Dana Horgan, both Strange New Worlds mainstays, provided the script, and Jordan Canning, another Strange New Worlds regular, served as director.

• “Declan was a crybaby and his parents were on the board!” Pelia continues to neg Scotty to greatness. 

• It wouldn’t be a Muppets homage without shots of puppets in full panic mode, which “Level-Five Transporter Accident” supplies in abundance. 

• It may not have really happened, but what does that T’Pring kiss mean for the future of Spock’s (quite busy) love life?