At San Diego Comic Con last week it was revealed the Jim Henson's Creature Shop is boldly going where no Henson puppet has gone before - the Strange New Worlds of Star Trek!
An upcoming episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' fourth season will feature a puppet-themed episode, featuring U.S.S. Enterprise crew members as puppets. The episode is directed by Jordan Canning, who also directed Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock.
Take a brief look at the teaser trailer for the episode below:
Season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premiered with two episodes on July 17, with new episodes dropping weekly on Thursdays through the season finale on Thursday, Sept. 11, exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S.
Today marks the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry created the now classic sci fi series as sort of a "Wagon Train in the stars."
In the early 1990's, the Jim Henson Company released this "Swine Trek II: The Bath of Pig" image as a poster:
Of course this wasn't the first time The Muppets had spoofed the series - most notably in The Muppet Show's Pigs In Space segments:
These segments were so popular, they received their own book and lunch box!
Star Trek: The Next Generation was later spoofed as Pigs In Space: Deep Dish Nine on Muppets Tonight!
Which featured Leonard Nimoy:
William Shatner:
Next Generation star Whoopi Goldberg:
and Beaker taking a Star Trek inspired cruise with George Takei:
There have been many other Henson/ Star Trek connections over the years as well.
Muppet Babies had a few episodes were the characters imagined themselves as the crew of both the classic and Next Generation Enterprises:
Sesame Street, Farscape, and even Fraggle Rock had references to the final frontier too:
For a full list of Muppet spoofs and references check out the Muppet Wiki's Star Trek page.
One of the mostly unknown connections is that in the late 50's/early 60's, Sir Lew Grade wanted Roddenberry to develop a series and set up his own production company in England. If that sounds familiar, it's almost exactly what happened to Jim Henson almost a decade and a half later!
Live Long and Prosper Star Trek, one of science fictions greatest franchises!
