Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has never shied away from getting a little weird, but the upcoming puppet episode might just take the cake.
Captain Pike, Number One, and the rest of the Enterprise crew are turning into full-blown puppets in a wild and ambitious episode that’s already making waves before it even airs.
And this isn’t just some quick gimmick. According to co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers, this puppet-filled episode took over six months to bring to life. He told EW: “I wanna say there was easily more than six months of work on it.”
Fellow showrunner Akiva Goldsman, added: “Alongside all the other prep meetings for every episode, there was always a separate puppet meeting.”
Every week, while planning out space battles and alien diplomacy, the team was also sitting down for what can only be described as the most delightfully bizarre production meetings in Trek history.
Myers dove deeper into the process, revealing just how complex and fun this episode turned out to be.
“In production, we’d have long conversations with our director in mind, specifically about how to handle puppets… We had to have a lot of conversations about making puppets. We had to have a lot of conversations about how to handle our crew, because we also have to have a whole crew of puppeteers. It’s just like doing a very different type of episode, and it requires a lot of time and care to do it.”
This was new territory for everyone involved.
While we’ll have to wait until season 4 drops in 2026 to experience the episode in full, fans got their first look during SDCC with a brief teaser clip featuring puppet Captain Pike, voiced by Anson Mount, coolly seated on the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise. It’s bizarre. It’s charming. It’s exactly the kind of unexpected twist that makes Strange New Worlds so fun.
The cast’s reactions to the script say it all. Christina Chong, who plays La’An Noonien-Singh, called the experience of reading it “insane.” For Jess Bush (Nurse Chapel), it was “pure joy.” And Rebecca Romijn, who plays Number One, praised it plainly: “It’s an amazing script.”
Even with all the technical and creative challenges, Myers said the sheer joy of seeing the final puppets made it all worth it:
“There’s so many things that are hard and challenging about this, but then you’d go and look at the puppets and everything was okay.”
So, if you’ve ever wanted your Star Trek with a side of The Muppet Show, this one’s for you. It’s weird, it’s crazy, and I’m sure it’ll be awesome.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 is currently airing on Paramount Plus, with new episodes every Thursday. The puppet-packed Season 4 is set to launch in 2026, and fans can also look forward to a fifth and final season that’s already been greenlit.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
