Scotty attempts to break the distance record for a transport, using a childhood puppet as the test subject. But then an accident transports the entire crew, fuses them with the toy in the pattern buffer, and returns them all as puppets. Only Spock, who was alone on a nearby shuttle, is unaffected. Before the crew can solve their problem, Orion pirates attack and seize control of Enterprise. Can the puppet crew regain their ship and their original forms?
There was plenty about this episode that I loved, and quite a bit I found disappointing. Two past episodes of Star Trek loomed large in sifting those two categories. One was a Strange New Worlds episode from season two, "Subspace Rhapsody." I loved that episode, in spite of (or maybe because of) the big swing. The writers made some effort to explain away the absurd premise in Star Trek terms, then just ran with it. It worked. So did the only slightly less absurd cartoon crossover, Freaky Friday, and "Spock becomes human" episodes. I think one of the big reasons was, they just went for it!
I'm spoiling the end of the "puppet episode" here... but this time, they didn't go for it. Instead, they went for an "it was all a dream" cop out. Is that supposed to make people happy who weren't on board with the puppets? They didn't even fully embrace the cop out. If this was all Spock's dream, then it should follow that we see nothing he isn't present for. (But we get several scenes without him.)
The other episode that looms large for me is the one that "Level-Five Transporter Accident" is pretty much straight-up remaking: Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Rascals." A transporter accident does something unthinkable to the characters, something so wild and outside the box that a chunk of the audience is going to just reject the idea outright. In this compromised and distracted state, an enemy you wouldn't normally have to take seriously is able to gain control of the Enterprise. Then, the victims of the transporter accident must learn to embrace what's happened to them to overcome the invaders.
That last bit is crucial to the episode, the thing that keeps it from being a total lark and that makes me like "Rascals" more (a lot more) than I think the average Trek fan does: the affected characters actually learn something from their experience. In "Accident," not only does "it's all a dream" rob us of the growth for every character but the dreamer, the script doesn't have an arc for them. Right away, the puppet characters are cowering behind consoles, engaging in Three Stoogery, and generally acting out of character. That's good for laughs, but it totally undermines the eventual revelation that they must start acting like puppets to get out of this situation; they've been doing that the entire time.
Now, if you wall off all those serious considerations (which the episode itself clearly wanted to do), I have to admit... it was entertaining. More of the jokes worked for me than didn't -- and not just when it came to the puppets. (For example, I loved casting Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Joe Lo Truglio as an affable Orion pirate.) You'd probably think from reading the above that I "harrumphed" my way through this episode... when in fact the opposite was true. I smiled often, laughed occasionally, and generally enjoyed it.
And of course, a large part of the reason why was that the puppetry was pretty great. Fantastic design from The Jim Henson Company captured the essence of each character in felt form. Amped-up vocal performances from the cast tapped into the unhinged vibe. The puppeteers did fantastic work. And Ethan Peck excelled as this Muppet Show's human "guest star."
So yeah, I did rather like this episode. I just didn't like that it didn't go all-in on what it set out to be, and was a bit disappointed that what it set out to be was "Rascals" remade. I give "Level-Five Transporter Accident" a B. I imagine that might be a rare lukewarm opinion between more prevailing white-hot and ice-cold takes, but there you have it.
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