Posted on 08/25/2026 9:34:32 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
It’s life, Jim – but very much not as we know it.
In fact, when it comes to the latest episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the life forms in question are less flesh-and-blood and more fabric-and-felt – as the series becomes the latest sci-fi show to embrace the magic of puppetry.
Level-Five Transporter Accident follows in a longstanding Trek tradition that sees crew members undergo unfortunate transformations while beaming up to the ship. This time, the crew suffers an even greater indignity: thanks to a spot of boldly sewing from the legendary Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, the Enterprise team are reconstituted into – quite literally – a bunch of muppets.
“I thought it would be a big swing for us, but we spent a lot of time discussing how to do it as a Star Trek episode,” says Strange New Worlds showrunner Henry Alonso Myers. “Because I knew if it didn’t feel like Star Trek then it wouldn’t work.”
It’s a major departure for the Trek franchise, which turns 60 next month. Across nearly 1,000 episodes and 13 movies, Star Trek has always eschewed the art of puppetry – in stark contrast to its cooler, younger sibling Star Wars. Luke Skywalker’s mentor Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back was just one of many iconic puppet characters who populated the original movie trilogy.
“The Star Wars universe has a very tangible, lived-in quality, which was different to a lot of science fiction at the time,” says Brian Herring, the British puppeteer who operated lovable droid BB-8 in the most recent Star Wars movies. “Back in the 70s and 80s, George Lucas was using every trick in the book to populate that universe, and that included puppets as well as people in creature suits.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
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13 movies? They must be counting the reboot with different actors.
Hold on thar, . . . . what happened to P I G S I N S P A C E . . . . . .
Thank you! :)
‘The Muppet Show’ was hilarious! I still watch them on You Tube when I need a laugh. :)
The Mandalorian trying to pick up chicks at a bar...
Mandalorian: Hey baby! Yeah I shoot lasers, blow shit up, and travel to distant galaxies and...what? what do you mean I have a long eared faggot looking beanie baby on my shoulder????
funny to think about, won’t work in real life
I remember seeing the first Star Trek movie in the theater with the original cast of TV actors. It was amazing.
LOVED the re-boot with Chris Pine as Kirk, too.
I grew up on Star Trek. As a kid, Dad controlled the remote and he LOVED that show.
And I will always be half in love with William Shatner. Such a shameless ham, LOL!
Shatner Of The Mount:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU2ftCitvyQ
It worked alright. It was funny. I was a silly episode, but TOS always had silly episode. Some of which are great. Some are terrible. This was pretty good, not great by any stretch, but definitely not terrible. Though the people who take Trek seriously hated it. Which might be part of why I liked it.
I have to go back and pick up this series. I wasn’t all that bad. There was a big gap between seasons…and boom! It’s already season 3!
It will be a nice break from the real crime murder shows my wife watches. It’s not so bad that she watches them…she takes notes. That makes me a little nervous.
My hands down favorite is the chaos of the Swedish Chef. Others pale by comparison.
We still have Bert and Ernie that my son slept with as a child. I may give them back to him when he retires from the USAF soon and Lord willing.
Muppets, innocence of better days than these.
Firefly should have been allowed to live a few more seasons.
Steel? Trek.
For anyone who hasn’t seen it, Jim Henson Productions produced an excellent science fiction series called Farscape which had quite a few well-integrated puppets.
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