I Can’t Believe Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Is Copying Buffy Twice

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has already done one episode inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and season 4 will have an episode inspired by Buffy's spin-off, Angel. Since its 2022 premiere, Strange New Worlds has experimented with numerous genres and storytelling techniques, swinging from humor to horror and everything in between.

At San Diego Comic-Con's Star Trek Universe Hall H panel, which ScreenRant attended, the folks behind Strange New Worlds revealed a brief teaser for the show's upcoming fourth season. While Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 is currently streaming on Paramount+, the fourth season recently wrapped filming.

The Comic-Con teaser reveals that season 4 will feature an episode in which Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) is transformed into a puppet. The episode will feature puppets created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop, although it remains to be seen who else besides Pike will get the puppet treatment. Check out the teaser below:

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Is Copying A Buffy Universe Gimmick Again 

First A Musical, & Now A Puppet Show

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is not the first series of its kind to feature an episode with puppets. Angel, the spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, delivered an episode that saw the titular vampire, Angel (David Boreanaz), get turned into a puppet, much to the amusement of his friends.

The excellent Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode, "Once More, With Feeling," also inspired the creative team behind Strange New Worlds. In season 2, the show delivered Star Trek's very first musical episode, entitled "Subspace Rhapsody,' which ended up being one of the best episodes of the series so far.

As in "Once More, With Feeling," "Subspace Rhapsody" featured entirely original songs that revealed the personal feelings of the characters, allowing them to express things they may have otherwise kept hidden. "Once More, With Feeling" is widely regarded as one of Buffy's best episodes, and with good reason.

While magic was typically the cause of the shenanigans on Buffy and Angel, Star Trek generally provides a more technobabble-type solution, sometimes involving aliens or strange space anomalies. But ultimately, if the episode is good enough, the reason behind the sudden singing or puppet transformation becomes incidental.

Why A Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Puppet Episode Will Probably Work

Strange New Worlds Has Seen Great Success With High-Concept Episodes

In only two full seasons so far, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has proven its ability to pull off high-concept episodes that play with genre and tone. Clearly created by people who love and understand Star Trek, Strange New World's "Subspace Rhapsody" was a great musical episode full of important character development, with creative (and catchy) musical numbers.

Strange New Worlds also delivered a brilliant crossover with the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks, which saw Ensigns Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) and Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) make the jump to live action. "Those Old Scienists" was packed with references to Star Trek history and even featured a brief scene of Captain Pike and his crew in animation.

With the success of episodes like these, it's no surprise that Strange New Worlds continues to take "big swings," and "Once More, With Feeling" and "Smile Time" are both great episodes to draw from. The creative team behind Star Trek: Strange New Worlds clearly knows what they are doing, and it's hard to imagine a puppet episode being anything other than a success.