IGN's review of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4, Episode 5, "Level Five Transporter Accident," criticises the show's latest high-concept gimmick episode, in which most of the crew is accidentally transformed into puppets during a transporter experiment. Reviewer Scott Collura argues the concept, while visually inventive thanks to puppets built by the Jim Henson Company, feels derivative of similar "gag episodes" done elsewhere (such as Angel's puppet episode over two decades ago) and largely fails to land as comedy, with only Ethan Peck's Spock performance holding the episode together.

The mishap begins when Scotty (Martin Quinn) pushes the ship's transporter technology too far while testing it on his childhood puppet, "Little Ricky," causing the crew to be beamed back as puppet versions of themselves while battling forgettable Orion villains. The review praises small moments, including a wordlessly panicking background character and a sweet closing shot of the puppet crew floating in space, but criticises the jarring effect of familiar actors' voices (including Anson Mount and Christina Chong) coming from puppets, and pans the episode's ending twist. Peck, who has played Spock since 2019, is singled out for skilfully balancing comic and dramatic Vulcan acting despite the episode's shortcomings.