Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to Feature Puppet Episode

Every season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds delivers an episode that drops Spock, played by Ethan Peck, into bizarre circumstances. In the season 2 episode “Charades,” directed by Jordan Canning, the stoic half-Vulcan becomes fully human. In the season 3 episode “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans,” several human crew members transform into Vulcans instead. Canning pushed the concept even further in the season 4 episode “Level Five Transporter Accident.”

The episode begins when Enterprise engineer Montgomery Scott tries to outdo a Starfleet Academy rival by beaming a puppet across deep space. The experiment backfires, transforming Scotty and the rest of the ship’s crew into puppets. Because Spock is off the ship during the accident, he remains human and must defend the Enterprise while Scotty searches for a solution.

“The Strange New Worlds crew just dove in with open minds and open hearts for this very different process,” Canning said in a video interview with Polygon. “Like with all the amazing genre swings they do, the characters stay grounded. The world stays real and grounded despite what sort of insane things are happening within it that week.”

Canning brought relevant background to the production. Along with directing earlier comedic installments of the series, she directed two seasons of Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock on Apple TV. Most of her puppeteer crew from Fraggle Rock joined her for the episode, working with figures crafted by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Canning also advised writers Dana Horgan and Henry Alonso Myers as they developed the script.

“They embraced all of this stuff that puppets are kind of bad at, like holding certain things or really dextrous hand movements,” Canning said. “They built that into the storyline, which I think was so brilliant. We’re not pretending that they’re not puppets. They are aware that they’re puppets. What comes along with that is the pros and cons of being puppets.”

Because the puppet crew cannot operate the controls, Spock must fly the ship and fire its weapons alone. Orion pirates spot the defenseless vessel and launch an attack. The ensuing battles send puppets flying across the bridge, running from loose medical carts, and catching tumbling glassware in the ship lounge.

“Chaos is truly what puppets do best,” Canning said. “I say this with all the love in my heart: With puppets, the dumber the better. How can we make this sillier, bigger, and more chaotic?”

Rachael Harris guest-stars as the Orion captain, alongside Joe Lo Truglio as her subservient second-in-command. Their characters engage in several physical fights with the crew, slicing fabric with swords, singeing Spock’s former fiancee T’Pring, played by Gia Sandhu, and blowing a hole through an ensign’s felt chest.

“It was amazing getting to just throw these little puppets around,” Harris said. “It was actually hard to be mean to them.”

The danger remains serious to Spock. When the pirates demand the command codes to the Enterprise, they throw the puppet version of Captain Christopher Pike, played by Anson Mount, into the airlock. Spock presses his hand against the viewing window in a Vulcan salute as Pike recites the line about the needs of the many from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

“There were so many takes I probably ruined because I was laughing,” Canning said. “Ethan’s little mouth just kind of popping open like a little fish just killed me. What makes this episode work so well is how grounded Ethan is throughout. All this bedlam is going on around him and he just feels so real and anchored in it.”

Lo Truglio spends much of his screen time pestering Spock with personal questions about his relationship with T’Pring.

“Ethan is such a terrific guy and a great actor that it was very easy to act with him on a more serious level and insert some moments of lightness in,” Lo Truglio said. “He was super thoughtful and sweet to both Rachael and I. He was always saying ‘You guys are so funny but I can’t laugh. I can’t react to you guys. I’m Spock. But just know that you guys are doing great and we’re so happy you’re here.'”

Framing human actors and puppets in the same shot created unusual physical demands on set. The production added a bulky new command chair for Pike early in the episode so a puppeteer could hide inside it, while crew members cut holes into couches and consoles across the set.

“The puppeteers were all working off the floor, and so they were crammed under consoles and sliding around on dollies flat on their back,” Canning said. “The puppeteers will cram themselves into any little corner to make something work.”

The first five episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 are streaming on Paramount Plus, with new episodes arriving every Thursday through Sept. 24.

Source: Polygon