‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’: Rachael Harris & Joe Lo Truglio Loved Being in the ‘Incredible’ Puppet Episode

Even as puppets, the Enterprise crew is like no other, as the villains of the latest Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode learned — and they’re played by none other than Lucifer‘s Rachael Harris and Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s Joe Lo Truglio! TV Insider spoke with both about “Level-Five Transporter Accident.” Warning: Spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 5 ahead!

The Orions, upon realizing that the crew are all puppets, make an attempt to take over the ship, trying to force Spock’s (Ethan Peck) hands in handing over the control codes — he’s the only one to not be a puppet — but it doesn’t take them long to realize that no matter what they do, including cutting Pelia (Carol Kane) in half and throwing Pike (Anson Mount) out the airlock into space, they can’t stop them or kill them. Puppet logic. Puppets also don’t need oxygen, so turning off life support causes the Orions to pass out and allows the Enterprise crew to regain control of their ship.

Below, Rachael Harris and Joe Lo Truglio rave about joining Strange New Worlds for this episode.

This is obviously a very different episode. Had you known it was the puppet episode when you first signed on? How much did you know?

Joe Lo Truglio: No, we didn’t know. Rachael has a good story about that.

Rachael Harris: I didn’t know. I had no idea. And I remember thinking — they were like, “Well, you’re going to be green.” And I was like, “OK. All right, that’s great. I’m glad that I — That’s great. But how much in the story am I?” And I was kind of hedging because I was like, I didn’t really know what the character was. And then finally they said, “OK, you’re going to be with the Muppets, but you can’t say.” And I was like, “Oh! What?!”

Lo Truglio: Yeah. Well, yeah, same. When they told me. Well, first of all, I’ll say that my question was, do I get to be green or wear some type of prosthetic? I was all over that. I’m like, “Star Trek? Yeah, can I please put something on me?” And then I found out about the Muppets and I was like, “Oh, this is going to be super cool.”

Harris: No, as soon as they said it’s the Jim Henson puppets and that you’re going to be working with the puppeteer, we knew that this was going to be like no other episode of Star Trek.

Lo Truglio: Yeah. Nine, 10-year-old Joe was bouncing out of his brain like, “Oh my God, this is incredible. Star Trek and the Muppets, what?” Again, pinch me.

But because of that, talk about filming the episode because Ethan is the only one main cast member whose character is not a puppet. And then the entire episode is really about leaning into the absurdity of it, which makes for something fun to watch, but I imagine it makes for a very different onset experience, too.

Lo Truglio: I just want to say something about Ethan right now. I saw the episode last night and loved it, but watching Ethan act with the Muppets is just incredible because as an actor, look at him go. It’s absurd. It’s ridiculous. You zoom out and you’re like, he is crushing this and he’s about to kiss a Muppet. He’s about to kiss a Muppet and he’s kissing the Muppet.

Harris: And spoiler, he does it! And it’s beautiful.

Lo Truglio: That’s what I mean. It works. He sold it.

Harris: Yeah. No, that’s the whole thing. I think that’s why it worked. Not to pat ourselves on the back, Joe, but I mean, I think it worked because we knew the assignment. We were like, it’s going to work. We have to fully commit.

Lo Truglio: It’s like anything.

Harris: It was a dream. It was a dream.

Lo Truglio: You gotta commit.

Harris: But I was going to say that Joe and I both experienced this with watching the puppeteers pretzel themselves into the craziest positions and know all of their lines and do it in the dialect of, if somebody had an accent. They were doing the accent and they did the cadence even correctly of the actor they were portraying. I know, and I’m sure Joe had this experience, you kind of step out of your body for a minute and you’re like, “I am getting to do this. I’m getting to throw a Muppet across the room. I’m getting to cut not just a Muppet, but Carol Kane in half.” [Lo Truglio laughs] Everybody wants to manifest everything. There is no way I could have manifested that experience except for just to be like, “I’m ready to do anything and everything.” So, working with them, you wanted to be really ready to go because they just –

Lo Truglio: They raised the bar. They raised the standards so high that you didn’t want to disappoint. I mean, certainly you don’t want to disappoint Akiva and the producers and everyone else. But also you see these Muppet artists just crushing it, zooming around on their butts on these little seat dollies, not getting in your way as you’re trying to do a walk and talk with a steady cam, know their lines, work the sticks. You’re just like, “This is outrageously skillful.”

Harris: Yes. And sometimes they’d have to get an assist from another puppeteer that was just doing the arm for one of them. And it was like a ballet to watch the choreography of all of that and act on top of it was impressive.

Lo Truglio: And I have to say between, it’s not easy to have a funny comic timing of a reaction shot of a Muppet, but that’s Jordan and that’s the Muppet artist because it happened several times in that episode where it’s emotional moments or even a look. And at the end of the day —

Harris: Or even just a trot away.

Lo Truglio: – a piece of material and a camera that is put in a certain position and they have to know their stuff. And both Jordan and all of them did. And it’s why the episode works and why I think it holds such great emotion in it.

Harris: Yeah. And we’re talking about Jordan Canning, who’s the director.

Joe, your character talks to Spock about how stressed he was and offers him advice in the middle of holding him captive. And he says he’s distracting him until his captain is ready. That’s just who your character is, right?

Lo Truglio: It is. I mean, Ajachi loves having Ch’Rol as his dominatrix, and that was the relationship that Rachael and I discussed to really enhance. And so when Ajachi’s talking to Spock, who in this case is the submissive, he gets to kind of role play a little bit as the dominatrix and give a little bit of power and some advice. And so it was like Ajachi just kind of projecting a little bit in a way that he’s not used to doing. So he’s definitely out of his element, which is why I feel it’s kind of funny and a little awkward to hear him do that.

Harris: I think that whole scene is great. And I love it also when Ajachi catches on fire. And that whole, just the physical comedy of you trying to get out with your arm on fire is genius. I just need to say that.

Lo Truglio: Well, that was very kind of you to say. I love doing my own stunts. I do as much as I can. Not that that’s out super hard, but I did it on Brooklyn as much as I could. And I was very happy that Jordan and Woody [Sidarous], the first AD allowed me, and the stunt coordinator allowed me to give a whack at it. So I’m glad it turned out well.

I mean, Charles got up to a lot of stuff on Brooklyn.

Lo Truglio: [Laughs] Yes, yes.

Rachel, it feels like your captain didn’t stand a chance simply because she never could have imagined the way the puppet versions of the crew would use their forms to their advantage like they had, right? So that was her downfall.

Harris: Yeah, no, that was totally her downfall. But I just love it from the beginning, she just was always just so cocky. There’s just no way that they’re puppets. It’s like a big ball of material. But what was the moment that I — I did love the moment where she says I cut her in half. And we’ve talked about this before, but it just made me laugh out. There were so many moments of reactions that made me laugh out loud. But yes, the fact that I didn’t think that they were going to turn off the oxygen that they did.

Lo Truglio: Good twist.

Harris: Yeah, it was a great twist. And then I just loved all of us falling one by one like dominoes. It was great. Even doing that, doing that with the puppets and the timing of that and everything, it just was so much fun.

Well, also because once you cut an enemy in half, if that doesn’t stop them, then there’s really nothing you can do.

Harris: [Both laugh] That’s true. And if you throw — that scene with Ethan, when we eject Pike out into the ether, right? So moving. I don’t think you realize, I mean, maybe you kind of do that he’s probably going to be OK because the series has to go on. But I’m just saying they were so committed and that even space, it was kind of so beautiful and poetic to see them at the end just floating. They were like, “We want to get to do one more thing before we turn ourselves back into mortals.” It’s just a beautiful episode and great for the 60th anniversary. I got it in there.

Lo Truglio: Yeah, nice. Way to get it in there.

Harris: Yeah, it’s a real great celebration.

If the Enterprise crew hadn’t been puppets, how do you think this encounter would’ve went?

Lo Truglio: I don’t think it would’ve gone well for them.

Harris: Yeah, it would not have gone well at all.

Lo Truglio: They are opportunists for sure.

Harris: Yes. Oh, I think the second that we saw that it was fully occupied, we would’ve run.

Lo Truglio: Yeah. They’re like little hyenas. They’re like, “Oh, what’s that? Is that a dead carcass? That’s easy.” And then the lions come, they’re like, “OK, we’re out. We’re done. All right, cool. Yeah, it’s all you.”

Harris: Yeah. The Orions are the hyenas of the Star Trek —

Lo Truglio: Universe.

Rachael, this isn’t your first Trek series though because you were on Voyager.

Harris: That’s right.

How was it to come back into this world?

Harris: It was great. It was an honor and a privilege. And that sounds so rote, but it was exciting because, my brother and I pretended we were on Star Trek when I was a kid. We made an entire bridge with buttons, and we would pretend that we were all the different characters. And so just getting to do it twice, I don’t know how many people have gotten to come back and be on different versions of Star Trek and different characters, but I love that they allowed it, that I got to be an Ocampa in one, and then now in Orion in the next. It’s the best.

What was your favorite puppet?

Lo Truglio: I kind of liked the M’Benga’s puppet. They all looked so great, but there was something about his voice and that Muppet that just was really kind of landing for me.

Harris: And I really did love Carol Kane’s. The hair –

Lo Truglio: Oh, the hair was incredible.

Harris: So fantastic. And I want to give a shout-out to all the puppeteers that were so extraordinary.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Thursdays, Paramount+