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

In episode five, âLevel-Five Transporter Accident,â 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 âstuffingâ out of him. Spock eyes the doll warily before excusing himself for a meeting with LaâAn.

Spock and LaâAn are supposed to practice dancing, but LaâAn calls it off. Spock is disappointed; he says it helped him âquiet his mind.â 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. âThere is no tragedy in a romance reaching its natural conclusion.â Thatâs a line to remember, folks!

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

Spock is meditating in his room until he hears screams (all in his head). He stops and video chats with TâPring instead. He tells her that his time on the Griffin was difficult and he planned to spend time on Vulcan butâ¦

TâPring assumes she was the next best option, which Spock admits. TâPring suggests that Spockâs 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 TâPring is already there. Scotty takes Little Ricky onto the transporter deck, saying he plans to âmake history.â He turns on the transporter and Little Ricky seems to disappear⦠but then thereâs a transporter malfunction, complete with blaring alarms and blinking lights. Â

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 canât get anyone to answer him. Suddenly, the Enterprise returns. Spock flies back to the ship and goes looking for the crew. Heâs stunnedâas is the entire crewâto discover theyâre all puppets. Even TâPring. This definitely violates her âno hijinksâ policy.

The crew gathers to discuss what happened. Everyone is a puppet, except for Spock. Scotty insists itâs just a transporter malfunction, but Spock points out it was a level-five accident. Scotty sheepishly says at least it wasnât 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 theyâre puppets, they canât do anything they would normally be able to do. LaâAn canât operate any of the weapons. Uhuraâs fingers canât operate the communications console. In fact, nothing on the ship recognizes their fingers. Everyone turns to Spock, realizing that heâs 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 theyâre 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 canât recognize his hand.

Spock then arrives in the transport room to assist Scotty and LaâAn with fixing the transporter, but it doesnât work. To make things even worse, LaâAnâs arm pops off in the process. They head over to the med bay, where Spock sews LaâAnâs arm back on while Doc and Chapel look on in fascination. No blood, no lasting damage.Â

LaâAn tells Spock that she realized she canât become what she has feared as long as sheâs a puppet. Spock admits he has felt âfrazzled.â She asks if he has talked to TâPring since she became a puppet. He hasnât, so he leaves to do just that.

TâPring isnât happy, though she admits the puppet thing isnât Spockâs fault. He gets a slew of calls from crew members who need his help, which triggers a panic attack. In response, TâPring slaps him and says he canât 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. LaâAn gets a notification of an Orion interceptor moving close to the Enterprise. Chin-Riley thinks itâs probably a pirate ship, but LaâAn canât get access to any of the weapons. The interceptor hails the Enterprise, but Uhura canât operate the comms. Pike instructs Spock to help Uhuraâaudio only. No one can know about the puppet situation.

Pike asks the captain of the interceptor why itâs 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 formâshe was just checking to make sure they were okay. Pike insists everything is fine, not that itâs any of Ch’Rolâs business. 

Ch’Rol offers to come aboard and help, figuring that there must be something wrong if they canât scan their people and the video isnât working. Chin-Riley points out Ch’Rolâs ship is still moving towards the Enterprise and Pike threatens to fire on them if they donât stop. Ch’Rol is quiet for a while, then says âOf course,â 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 theyâre puppetsâyou know, since she can see that theyâre puppets. Pike tries to deescalate the situation, explaining theyâre 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. Itâs actually quite amusing to watch: puppets running around, flinging their limbs as theyâre rocked on a damaged ship. Itâs like that Kermit GIF, but with panic instead of the joyful âYaaaaaaaay!â 

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. Heâs 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 TâPring, who offers to bring him a phaser, since she canât 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.Â

Suddenly, Captain Ch’Rol and a couple of minions appear at the end of the hallway. Spock promises to distract them while TâPring escapes. He takes one of her phasers and starts firing. This doesnât 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 shipâs control codes. She leaves him with one of her crew as his guard.

LaâAn and Chin-Riley are waiting outside the bridge for Ch’Rol and her cronies. A fight immediately ensues. LaâAn gets tossed aside and Chin-Riley punches a minion until sheâs out of breath. The minion gets the upper hand and tosses Chin-Riley atop LaâAn, 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 Pikeâs 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, âLet the puppets go.â

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. TâPring points out that itâs useless without Spock and they need to find a way to get him back. Pike is adamant: âI am shorter and fluffier than normal, but Spock needs me.â

Meanwhile, Spock is sitting with the minion Ch’Rol left to guard him. Spock tells him that he wonât give up the control codes. The minion says that heâs 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 wonât share the codes. The minion knowsâhe 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 sheâs going to throw him out of the airlock, though that doesnât make sense since heâs 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. âIâll throw him out instead,â she says. The minion tosses Pike into the airlock and shuts the door.Â

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. âThe needs of the manyââ Pikeâs final words are interrupted as the airlock is purged and heâs sucked out of the ship. Ch’Rol threatens to start throwing out more of the Enterprise crew if she doesnât 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 deadâin this form, they can survive things they wouldnât normally be able to. Pike floats by the window, knocking and waving. Doc finally figures it out: âSpace canât kill puppets.â

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 donât need oxygen to survive. Pike insists that because the situation is absurd, theyâll need to embrace chaos if they want to survive.Â

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 heâs even more shocked when they throw open the coat and reveal Pike, LaâAn, and Chin-Riley underneath. The minion trips over LaâAn, which knocks him out. âGreat. Time for phase two,â Pike says. As they leave, Pelia compliments Scotty on the glove he created to manipulate like a hand.

TâPring 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. TâPring tells Spock that Pike is alive, which stuns both Spock and the minionâso much so that TâPring manages to light the minion on fire while heâs distracted. He bounces around, panicking, until he runs into the wall and knocks himself out. TâPring unties Spock and mind-melds with him to share Pikeâs 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. Theyâre full-on puppet-fighting, which is hilarious and highly enjoyable. Spock enters and tries to figure out a logical solution. TâPring tells him that the hijinks are not the obstacle; they are the solution. He knows what to do.

Spock needs Pikeâs help. He throws Pike across the room onto Ch’Rol, which scares her out of the captainâs 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 firstâ¦

They go outside and fly through space, which they enjoy immensely. Spock and TâPring are inside; she didnât want to challenge physics by going outside. She finds the crewâs 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 TâPring.

Spock wakes suddenly, and finds TâPring 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 TâPring 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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