Three of the first five episodes this season are gimmick episodes, and Matt has had enough. Matt and Sean talk about the puppet hour, and what a 10 episode season can afford, in Star Trek SNW Season 4, Episode 5, "Level Five Transporter Accident." The puppets are beautifully built and the jokes land, but the dream reveal arrives in the final two minutes with no setup. So is this a charming lark? Or is it 45 of the season's 450 minutes spent on a sketch?

Order Sean’s next book, “In the Fields We Thirst” here: https://undecided.link/in-the-fields-we-thirst

Chapters

  • 00:00 - Intro
  • 01:36 - Listener Feedback
  • 06:14 - This Time in History
  • 10:09 - Today’s Discussion

Transcript

Sean Ferrell: In today's episode of Trek in Time, we're talking about. Can you tell me how to get to somewhere where no one's gone before? That's right, everybody. We're talking about Level 5 Transporter Accident from Strange New Worlds. This is, of course, Trek in Time, the podcast that takes a look at all of Star Trek and chronological stardate order. We're putting a pause on that for the time being as we take a look at new episodes at the time that they come out, but we also take a look at what's going on in the world at the time of original broadcast. So when we're talking about the original series, we're talking about the 60s. When we get into Next Generation, we're going to be talking about the late 80s, but for now, we're talking about now. Okay, we'll get into that in a minute. First, I'm Sean Ferrell. I'm a writer. I write some sci fi, I write some horror. As a matter of fact, I have a new novel coming out in April of 2027. For those of you who are in the future, go look it up. For those of you who are present, go look it up. And pre order, pre orders help. It's called In the Fields We Thirst. It's a horror novel set in the heady fun days of World War I. Ah, yes, trench warfare. With me, as always, is my brother Matt. He is that Matt behind Undecided with Matt Ferrell, which takes a look at emerging tech and its impact on our lives. Matt, how are you this somewhat balmy late summer day?

Matt Ferrell: Sean, I am tired, but I'm also excited to talk about this one. And, oh, boy, do. I'm sure you do, too. I've got thoughts.

Sean Ferrell: We'll get into that in a minute. What we always like to do, though, is before we get into conversations about the newest episode, we like to take a look at what you've had to say about previous episodes. So, Matt, what did you find in the mailbag for us this week?

Matt Ferrell: There were definitely. There was definitely a theme because this was all up from the episode which was a Case of Chiaroscuro.

Sean Ferrell: Chiaroscuro. Chiaroscuro.

Matt Ferrell: What you said. It was the one that was in black and white. And there was a lot of sentiment that kind of modeled after kind of what you and I had talked about of like there was good elements in it, but it was very gimmicky. But there was good elements in it. So first comment was from Scooteroo, who wrote this episode was fine, in my opinion, but it felt like the characters were on rails and had no agency on what they could do other than follow the path that Faux-Una had already laid out before them. The black and white effects in this were done amazingly well and look gorgeous, except for the Enterprise. You could tell that the sets and costumes on Enterprise were built with black and white in mind and each shift back to it should have went back to color. Showing that shields or range outside the system stopped the effect. I agree with this. I thought the black and white effects were also gorgeous. And the fun thing about black and white, when you look at black white movies, the costumes and the set designs and everything about them are designed for color tone because you don't have color but you have tone, which is shades of gray, how light it is, how dark it is. And so you're trying to create different contrasts to make things stand out from each other. So you might be picking colors and tones that you wouldn't if you had full color available to you because you'd be using the color itself to make things stand apart. You could definitely tell that they had put a lot of thought into how they were designing the costumes and sets for on the planet versus what we're used to seeing on the Enterprise. So I do. I do find that Scooteroo kind of nailed it on that one.

Sean Ferrell: It's an interesting way to look at the episode. Yeah, yeah.

Matt Ferrell: Next comment was from Paleghost69. What super bad event in quotes would cause Spock to withdraw into Vulcan philosophy and Pike to have a mental breakdown worth The Cage? Based on the events of Strange New Worlds, it's likely not just the knowledge of the upcoming explosion that disables him. I'm willing to bet that there's a significant trauma he is dealing with on top of the prophetic death which is leading to self destructive behavior. My theory is that La'an and Ortegas 50% chances on Pelia and the new Vulcan Girl too are going to end in a horrible way that breaks several members of the crew like Spock and Pike and M’Benga. There were several mentions on the characters being worshiped as quote war heroes from the lower decks crossover. And with them not appearing in the pilot it's easy tragedy points with zero retconning needed. While I do think they have the balls to kill off Erika, I think you guys are right on the La'an part. M'Benga not appearing in the original series that often could easily be explained away as trying to curing or caretaking for La'an. Edit. I just remembered There's a huge counterweight to the claim that writers don't have the balls. Hemmer. Yeah, I thought Paleghost bring up a good point with. I do like that there's a psychological trauma to Pike that we see in the future. And having some serious loss of people that he is affectionate towards does make sense that there might be characters that were attached to that they will kill off or seriously harm to give Pike extra weight in the decisions he makes that leads up to what ultimately happens to him. So I like that. I think it would be. I think it'd be very dramatic and it would be really good, strong storytelling to do. But based on the current season, Sean, I don't know if I think they will do that. Yeah.

Then we had this comment which is going to tie directly to today's conversation, which is from Jason Dumb. I enjoyed the episode. Seemed efficiently told for a relatively complicated plot. Gimmicky maybe, but still Star Trekkie. This would have fit great in a 26 episode season, but really feels like all the episodes this season are kind of gimmicky. Yeah, Jason, we'll be getting to that shortly.

Sean Ferrell: Yeah, stay tuned.

Matt Ferrell: And finally, from Mark Loveless, wrong answers only. Plot of level 5 transporter accident. During a ship inventory at a Starfleet base, tons of extra and some illegal contraband is found on Level 5 storage aboard the Enterprise. Scotty insisted it wasn't him. Even though the transporter logs tell a story where this contraband was added to Level five by Scotty, he insisted that while it was him doing the transporting, that this was a malfunction that was causing it to end up where it ended up. He insisted it was an accident. After pike says maybe Spock should mind meld with Scotty, he finally fesses up and is put on latrine duty for a month. And the contraband? Liquor, mainly green and tribbles.

Sean Ferrell: Thank you everybody for your comments. We always enjoy reading them. Keep them coming. Now, those flashing lights and that sound you hear. Yes, it's the read alert. It's time for Matt to tackle the. Which one is this Memory Alpha Description. Take it away, Matt.

Matt Ferrell: A transporter malfunction turns most of the crew into puppets. While Spike. Wrong show. While Spock fights to reclaim the ship. You know, Sean, eventually we'll learn to read.

Sean Ferrell: Yes, someday we're all. We're all pulling for you. This is of course number 35 of Strange New Worlds. This is the fifth of the fourth season level 5 transporter accident. Directed by Jordan Canning, written by Henry Alonzo Myers and Dana Horgan. Originally broadcast on August 20, 2026. And let's think back to the. Let's go back to the Wayback Machine, Matthew. And let's think back to August 20, 2026. It's so long ago. I know is what you're saying. I don't remember what we were all singing. Well, I think you do. Yes, it was Ella Langley singing Choosing Texas. Go ahead, Matt. Great. And at the movies, Matt, I'm going to let you take this one. What do you think people were lining up to see?

Matt Ferrell: Could it be Spider Man?

Sean Ferrell: It could be Spider Man Brand New Day was still the number one movie as it went on its way to rake in trillions upon trillions of dollars. And on television, you wouldn't believe how difficult it is to find recently historical information around what people have been watching. Unless you subscribe to a service like Nielsen or there are a number of different curating websites that, like, I think, scrub the Internet for data and gather information about what people are watching. But it's all behind proprietary algorithms with logins and you have to pay for the service. So it is incredibly tricky to say, like, on this date two weeks ago, what were people watching? So instead of spending yet another hour trying to figure out what was the number one show on this date, instead I took a different tag, which is what shows are popular right now, date of recording. So this is not accurate as of the release date of this episode. This is accurate as of yesterday, I. E. The middle of September. So a month after the fact, very highly watched and currently in a top slot on Netflix is the Gentleman, which is a Guy Ritchie series. It is the story of an aristocratic Eddie inheriting the family estate and he discovers that it's home to a huge weed empire and his proprietors aren't going anywhere. So a little bit of a culture clash, I think, with a bunch, with a little bit of Breaking Bad thrown in for good measure. When I read this, I thought, well, ultimately this sounds very much like what is probably a dramatic take. It's Guy Ritchie. It stars Theo James, Kaya Scodelario and Joely Richardson. And I thought, well, this sounds like a dramatic take on a similar series which is a comedy. I don't know if you've heard of this one, Matt. It's Deli Boys. It's available on Hulu.

Matt Ferrell: Yeah, I've heard of it.

Sean Ferrell: It is the story of two brothers who, upon the death of their father, think they're going to inherit his corner bodega empire. And what they discover is that their father was actually a high level drug kingpin and the bodega empire is merely a cover for that operation. So they have not inherited the bodegas, they've inherited a criminal empire which they have to learn how to run with the help of their aunt and an uncle. And it's a full blown comedy. It's actually very good. So. So I do recommend it. And in the news on this date, August 20, 2026, from the New York Times, Trump fired the watchdogs. The replacements have a different mission. President Trump is installing his allies in the offices of inspector General which are meant to provide independent government oversight. Guess what they're not doing? Exercising independent government oversight. On now to our discussion about this episode, Level Five Transporter Accident. Matt, you've already. There's, there's some of a cat poking its head out of a bag that you're holding. Why don't you just let the cat out of the bag all the way? What did you think about this one?

Matt Ferrell: Oh, Sean. Just when I think this show can't get any more gimmicky than it's been this season, they come out with puppets, the whole Muppet cast and crew. Fun. It's a fun lark, Sean. I would be more accepting of this gimmick if it was the only one of a 10 episode season. But we are now five episodes in five episodes and three of the five are squarely gimmick episodes. Three of the five and then the remaining two, you might be able to argue one of the two is still a gimmick.

Sean Ferrell: Yeah.

Matt Ferrell: What are we doing here, Sean? I'm getting really frustrated with this season. This season seems to have taken a hard right turn at Doctor who town. And it seems like the showrunners. Alex Kurtzman just wants to make Doctor who. He's kind of. It feels like he's gone. You know what? I'm bored with Star Trek. I just want to do Doctor who. And it's kind of like for me, J.J. abrams coming in to do Trek. And it was like, you know what? Trek is great. But you know what I like more? I like Star Wars. Let's make Star Trek like Star Wars. This is what this feels like to me. It feels like for some reason this season has gone completely into bonkerstown with gimmicks and just trying to have a lark. And that's fine. Star Trek does this. It does it. But in the old Trek, it was 26 episodes or 25 episodes and you'd have five or six of these a season. So it might be like 5%, 10%, maybe 15% of your season here we're talking about the majority of the season is a gimmick or comedy, and I don't know what they're doing. This is so, for me, off the rails. If I looked at this episode on its own merits, I enjoyed it. I thought it was funny. It was charming, quirky, and I loved the. I loved the puppets. The puppets were incredibly well done. Like, it was so well executed for what it is. But my problem is what it is. It's like what. What in happened in the writer's room that they kept picking the topics like this that are gimmicky. And I. I want to kind of go off the rails a little bit and just do a really quick rewrite of. What would have made this more palatable to me was a Next Generation episode where something similar happens with Dr. Crusher. So in this episode with the Muppets, it's Spock. We find out at the very end, it's all a dream, man. None of this actually happened. It's all in Spock's head. But we don't find that out until the last literal, like, two minutes of the show.

We have Dr. Crusher end up in the warp bubble. She doesn't know she's in a warp bubble, and people just start vanishing across the ship. And the first. I remember watching that. It's like the first 10, 15 minutes is a X Filesy. What is going on here? This is really weird and creepy, and people keep disappearing around her. What is happening? And then they reveal it. 10 to 15 minutes into the episode, she's in a warp bubble, and you start to see the B plot line, which is the people in reality trying to help her get out of the warp bubble. And so then you have these two plot lines that are trying to converge. She's trying to get out of the warp bubble, and they're trying to get her out of the warp bubble is how you're seeing these two sides trying to achieve the same goal. They could have done this episode with the puppets with that in mind. First 10 minutes of the episode could have been, oh, my God, are they really saying they turn into puppets? And then 15 minutes in, it's like, no. Spock is, like, seriously damaged. He's in. He's on a bio bed. They're trying to help him out. They're trying to rescue him. There might be a thing like, you know, talk to him. He can hear you. Try to talk him out of this. Like, have some kind of like real world versus in his head. Real world in his head. And you could just still had the Muppets. You could have still had the funny jokes. You could have still had the humor, but it would have rooted it in reality for the majority of the episode, and it would have made it much more palatable to me to come out the other end. This was such a cheat. They tried to have a Keyser Soze moment at the end with the. It was on his head. It felt like the end of Newhart, where they wake up in bed and it's like the entire show was a dream. It's like, no, no, no, no, no. That is such a cop out.

They didn't drop hints through the episode that this is in his head. They didn't even try. They were just leaning into this being a joke. So I'm very frustrated because on its own, it's a fun lark, really well done. But in the scheme of the season, it's such, for me, a misfire.

Sean Ferrell: I loved it. I'm joking. I'm joking. No, I agree with. I agree with everything you just said. I love the idea of building the. Rebuilding the episode around what's happening in the external world. The whole process could have been in the dream. He's having this. It's very clear. He's having this reconnective moment with his fiance, and they set up effectively that he, by the end of this story, has emotionally reconnected to his fiance. But in the real world, that has not happened. So the bridge between the two stories that you've talked about could have been her in. In the dream with the puppets, he is in hot pursuit of getting out of this scenario without realizing it's a dream, maybe beginning to have the kind of Dr. Crusher awareness of, like, oh, I'm the one who's in trouble. I'm the one who's in a different place. He could have had that beginning, but couldn't make the leap out of what is effectively maybe a comatose state back into consciousness without somebody building a bridge with him. And that could be her through a mind meld. In the real world, she could have been coming forward and saying, like, they get the Enterprise as quickly as possible to a location where they can get her on board. And then at the same time, in the fantasy, he's doing the same thing with the puppet version of her, reconnecting with that version of her. He's doing a mind meld on his side, she's doing a mind meld on her side. And that's what builds the bridge to pull him out. That could have been a great story. And then both of them would have had in the real world the connective moment of there's still something here between us, which I don't know about you. I knew they had to do that at some point with her because we have to get to amok time where he is still betrothed to her. So all of this, this stuff, I understood the, the components that were at play here.

Your version of this would have been so much more. I agree with you completely. I would have forgiven so much of this episode if that was it. Because then the puppet stuff is an amusing flip side to true drama at this point. The puppets in this. This is full blown sitcom territory. This felt like. Yep, we've, we've mentioned this before. Could this been an, have been an animated adventure of Star Trek? I don't even think it's that good. This is a. If this had been, let me put it this way, this would have been my very top level favorite Sesame street or Muppet show sketch. If you had Peck playing Spock as the only human in the shot and you had all these puppets around him for sketch. 10 minute long sketch. This is brilliant for a full episode. By the time I got past the 10 minute mark, I was bored. And like you, I was frustrated. I'm like, what are they doing? How much money did they put into building these puppets so that we could discover that all of the characterization is lacking when all we have is these actors voices.

Do you want to know which of the puppets was the one that was for me, the best puppet.

Matt Ferrell: Oh, it's Pelia. It's gotta be Pelia.

Sean Ferrell: No, it is the navigator.

Matt Ferrell: Come on it.

Sean Ferrell: No, it's the navigator who doesn't speak. And all he does is hide behind the console. He hides behind the con. Yeah, through and all he does. His facial expressions are all he's doing. He's effectively. He is the best puppet because it's all acting provided through that. As far as like the creativity of the designs of the puppets, I agree. Pelia is up there. I also liked, I really liked Spock's fiance's puppet. I thought they did a great job of the characterization being built into her, but the rest of them, they felt interchangeable. They all felt generic to me. I understood the comedy. I didn't need it. I don't come to Trek for that level of comedy. I appreciated the comedy of the very final shot of Spock. Looking back at Little Ricky, the puppet. Little Ricky has to have been named as a tip of the hat to Desilu Studios, which is where Star Trek originated. So it would have been Lucille Ball's son. So, like, this is. Like this is a deep tip of the hat to Desilu Studios.

Sean Ferrell: But what are we supposed to take away from that? We have the horror episode recently, the griffin incident, which ended on such a wonderful, cryptic, La'an looking out the window at the Griffin, which is being towed away. And in the window you see the spirit of the. The woman that they had encountered on that ship. And it's this question of, like, what is that? What is going on there? The lingering question mark that will never be answered. And I really, really like that they do the same thing here with this puppet. What are we supposed to walk away from this episode with the idea that somehow Little Ricky is involved or that this is some deeper meaning? Or is that just a comedy gag? Because it's Spock staring at a puppet and the puppet's staring back at Spock. Like, I know it's meant to be the latter, but is it worth 45 minutes of a Trek episode when you only have 10 episodes to build this? And when I looked for information about the episodes, I dig into various sources. I look at Wikipedia, I look at IMDb, I look at Memory Alpha. And when I went to IMDb, I inadvertently caught an image of. They have a chart showing the viewer ratings for the season for the episodes. This one, at the time that I was looking at that, this one gets below a 5 out of 10. Like, other episodes that we talked about already were all at sevens and eights. I think the lowest one was maybe the first episode of the season, which was maybe or somewhere around a six. This is below a five. It didn't land. And I'm like, with everything. I mean, like, and to not, like, I don't want to sound like I'm beating a dead horse here. There was a way to do this, like you said, that could have been really entertaining, really compelling, compelling, fun and funny and smart. And instead, like this you mentioned, like, this is you.

Sean Ferrell: You mentioned that the way this was made was well done. Like, there was. They are using puppets where they've clearly CGI'd out the mechanisms for moving the puppets. We don't see any arm sticks. We don't get anything that, like, gives the tell of there's somebody below the camera doing these things. So they spent time and effort doing these things. But some of the things that they have doing that they have happening in order to sell the episode felt like it waters down Trek to a point where none of these characters. This goes back to something we've talked about before. None of this felt true to the characters. Now, of course, an easy answer there is, this is a dream, so of course it doesn't. They also, like, I appreciated the humor of they go into space and they're floating around and Pelia is like, how are we even talking right now? None of this makes any sense. Like, I get that that's a joke, but for me, the fact that Spock is in this environment having panic attacks and getting slapped by his fiance in order to snap him out of it, I'm like, none of that, none of that feels true to what you want these stories to be, because we've just had some episodes that have done some wonderful characterization work around these people. To hearken back to the episode where they go to the vacation planet and Spock doesn't realize it's actually Jim Kirk with him in the room. I walked away from that episode saying, like, those are some of my favorite Spock and Kirk moments. That's really, really an original and funny and smart way to say, here are these characters you know so well from the original series. Here's a key moment of them getting close. And then we get something like this where it's like, even in his own dream, he's not him. And I just found myself saying, like, this is what we're given. Okay, fine. You. You've spent 45 of your 450 minutes for the season.

You spent 45 of them doing this. I'm not impressed.

Matt Ferrell: I've got a conspiracy theory. No evidence to back this up. So this is just me spitballing here. It's my feels, my feelings after watching so much Star Trek and all of this. Is Alex Kurtzman still driving the bus here? His days are over. He basically got fired. His contract was not renewed. And I know producing a show like this, you've written the episodes, like, way back. Like it's, it's. Those episodes were probably being written before he got let go, but it's not that much ahead of when he got let go because they basically got let go as they were starting production of the season, from my understanding. So they probably saw the writing on the wall of what was happening because they were doing pitches for new Star Trek shows and they kept getting rejected. As you know, this is not the direction we want to take Star Trek. I feel like this is this team's last gasp. They knew this was it. This is the last bite at this apple. And they wanted to have fun. And so they. If this entire season to me feels like, what kind of episode did you want to ever make? It's like, I thought it'd be funny to do this. I think it'd be great to be on a dinosaur planet. I thought it'd be fun to, you know, like, it comes across as they're making these episodes more for themselves this season than the viewers, because this season feels like somebody hitting the wrong key every couple measures when trying to play a sonata or whatever on the piano. It doesn't feel like they're making these episodes for me as a Star Trek fan or you or anybody else that's watching the show. It feels more like they thought it'd be fun to make a Muppet episode.

Sean Ferrell: Yeah.

Matt Ferrell: You know what I mean? It doesn't feel like they were doing it for us. And to me, I don't think it's Kurtzman in the group trying to give a middle finger to CBS and Paramount at all. I just think it's. They were seeing this as this is our last shot to really have some fun. Let's go have some fun and go out on a high note for ourselves. And they've probably convinced themselves that they were doing this for the fans. And what's frustrating to me is they clearly know Star Trek. And if you know Star Trek as well as they seem to know Star Trek, how would they think this is? This is what we'd want for an entire 10 episode season? That's why I don't get my complaints always come back to the amount of episodes you have. It's not that they did this episode, it's that they chose to do this. Combined with the last one, combined with the dinosaur episode, it's like, it's. Why are you choosing to waste your time with so many of these gimmicks? This is not what Star Trek is. It's so frustrating. I feel like if I can see them, I'd be like, you guys are better than this. I know you're better than this. You're much more capable than this.

Sean Ferrell: And it's interesting because, like, I appreciate everything you just said. And you're comparing it to the original series where it was literally, this week we go to an Old west planet, next week we go to a gangster planet. The week after that we go to a Nazi planet. From a certain perspective, gimmick, gimmick, gimmick. But it was always rooted in character first. And this feels like they've removed character and said, we're just going to, like, throw these fun things because everybody loves fun. And the irony is the team that you're talking about stopping and saying, well, the handwriting might be on the wall. Let's have fun with the kinds of stories we wanted to tell. And what they end up doing is demonstrating that they shouldn't have been trusted to head the program. It's almost like it's an audition reel to say, the executives at Paramount were right to not let us do more because this is what we had in mind. And I'm like, I don't. I agree with you. I don't think if they were given another show, it would look like these things. They kind of shoot themselves in the foot to say, like, hey, how about a show where we do the first couple of years of Kirk and Spock on the Enterprise? How about we create a prequel series leading into the original series? And there was a lot of question marks of, are they going to do it? Are they going to. Are they going to let them do it? Kurtzman just did an interview recently where she said, nobody ever said yes. Nobody ever said no. I just think it's dead. I'm like, maybe they were waiting to see how well received this season was before they gave you a definitive answer. And the results, if they're being judged on these episodes, I'm like, it's no wonder you haven't gotten a yes at this point, because this is just. It breaks my heart. It really does break my heart.

Matt Ferrell: I've said it to you before that this. This show, Strange New Worlds, is one of my favorites of all the Star Treks. It really is. But this season is making me question that. It's like, I really like seasons one through. What was it, four? What are we in five or four right now? It's just like, why are they. Why are they trying to do this? The other thing that's bothering me, Sean, is the lack of attention to detail within the season of how they're doing the storytelling. They're hitting the. The broad marks like, they're hitting the check marks to make sure that the character arcs are happening where they need to go for the original series. But they're missing the marks of, like, you raised it. There's a bit of a contradiction in how they had Spock behave in this episode versus just literally two episodes ago. And for me, the horror episode and this episode are basically the same character arc for Spock, because in that episode, he hallucinates his fiance who talks him through things, but in that episode, he's like, you're not here. I know you're not here. This logic says you cannot be here. But he still has a conversation with her. He knows probably he's cutting his own ears off, but he's, you know, hallucinating it. But he's trying to fight it with that logic keep coming in. And in this episode, he never does that.

Sean Ferrell: No.

Matt Ferrell: It's like he's hallucinating Muppets.

Sean Ferrell: Yeah.

Matt Ferrell: And he's having panic attacks, but he never once says, is this actually happening? Logic says this can't happen. Physics says this can't happen. He never questioned it in that way. And I'm like, just two episodes ago or three episodes ago, you were doing exactly that. Why are you not doing it here? And that's what was driving me bonkers. Because it's like the, it felt like, it feels like each of these episodes this season are written in a silo. And it's like they, it feels like whoever wrote this episode versus that episode didn't talk.

Sean Ferrell: It feels like they were written in a silo. And then somebody came in and cherry picked moments to plant seeds about the connective lines between people like Spock and La'an have what felt like a stapled in scene of just like, our relationship is over now. Like, okay, that scene needed to happen. Did it have to happen like this feeling like it came in and out of the episode simply to, like you said, check a box. They have to break up. Check did that like, I, I'm, yeah, at this point, at this point, I retreat back to the place of I love this series. I want, I wanted it to live up to itself. And it feels like some of these gimmick episodes are not doing that. And I find myself in a place where we already know. Starfleet Academy has been canceled. Its first season overall was better than this season for strange new Worlds. And I find that surprising that a show of this caliber in its fourth season has taken such a weird. It's not even a step backwards. It's like they fell off the path and they're standing in a muddy gully and they just don't realize it. It feels a little bit like they think they're on the path, but they're just slopping through mud. Whereas Starfleet Academy felt like, oh, it's got the first season jitters, but by the end of the season, it was kind of like, okay, now it's punching above its weight in some ways, and that's really great. I find myself thinking like, I never would have guessed that the best Trek series that we'd be watching this year for this podcast would have been the first season of Starfleet Academy at this point, the third season of the original series, and this season of Strange New Worlds. This all feels a little bit less fun than I would have guessed at the beginning of the year.

Matt Ferrell: Yes, I agree. I want to point out, though, that Starfleet Academy is coming back for a second season, but it's being canceled.

Sean Ferrell: They know it's not coming back.

Matt Ferrell: I know there's not going to be a season three. Season two is the final season, and so I'm hopeful that they can make that season two land on a high note because they got the jitters out like you said, but it was by the end they found their footing. I'm hoping they can keep that going for season two, but given how this season of Strange New World is going, I am getting very nervous for season two of Starfleet Academy. I'm hoping they can kind of stay the course in that.

Sean Ferrell: Yeah, I agree with you. So, viewers, listeners, jump into the comments, let us know, did you land where we landed? That you thought that? Yeah, puppets are fine for a few minutes and for part of a story, but an entire episode focused entirely on them was maybe a little too much of a cute thing? Or did you find yourself loving this episode? And I'm very interested if any of our viewers and listeners, if you watch this with your family in particular, do you have younger kids?

Matt Ferrell: Yeah.

Sean Ferrell: Is this landing in a place where you and your family were just laughing along? Because it's full blown family entertainment. In which case Matt and I are just the old fogies and we should go back to our bedrooms and just eat soup. Let us know in the comments. As always, liking subscribing, sharing with your friends, commenting, those are all very easy ways for you to support the podcast and we do appreciate all of that. But if you'd like to support us more directly, you can go to trekintime.show. Click the join button there. It allows you to throw some coins at our heads and it will also sign you up as an ensign to our spin off podcast, Out of Time, in which we talk about things that don't fit within the confines of this program. We're very hopeful that you'll be interested in checking that out. Thank you everybody for taking the time to watch or listen and we'll talk to you next time.