Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Funniest Scene Is One You Might Have Missed

It should immediately be acknowledged that "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" is, perhaps more than anything, a comedy series. /Film previously calculated the volume of the show's outright comedy episodes, and found that they represented more than a quarter of the series. These episodes are all delightful, but "Strange New Worlds" might have gone a little overboard, pushing the franchise into something more whimsical than it had ever been before. Spock (Ethan Peck) is depicted as a more emotional, passionate, romantic, and comedic character than he had ever been before. The tone of the series is mostly very light, the war and horror episodes notwithstanding. 

This was especially true in the episode "Four-and-a-Half Vulcans." The episode contrived a reason for Captain Pike (Anson Mount), Uhura (Celia Rose-Gooding), Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush), and Lieutenant Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) to be genetically transformed into Vulcans for a very specific rescue mission. The genetic juice used to transform them was extrapolated from Spock's own neurochemicals, so the Enterprise quartet didn't just grow pointed ears, but developed ultra-Vulcan personalities as well. The bulk of the episode was a comedy of manners, wherein the four new Vulcans had to interact with their fellow crewmates with all-new Vulcan attitudes. 

In order to deal with the crisis, Commander Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) calls in an expert, the Vulcan Doug, played by star comedian Patton Oswalt. Doug is a curious creation, as he was obsessed with human culture, and allowed himself to feel (sporadic) passion. The interactions between Spock and Doug are light and funny. They were so funny, in fact, that the showrunners added a post-credits scene of Peck and Oswalt seemingly riffing, in character, on the foibles of humanity. Because it ran after the show's credits, it's possible many Trekkies missed it.

The deleted scene is quite long, running about two minutes and 45 seconds. The quick edits in the scene, and the light music playing underneath it, make the reel feel improvised. Peck and Oswalt are, it seems, having a fun, goofy time. Doug, to reiterate, is a passionate Vulcan whose parents loved humans and humanity (hence his human name), and passed on their interests to his son. Part of the show's comedic social awkwardness is the fact that Doug and Commander Chin-Riley are still powerfully sexually attracted to one another. Doug still manages to give her the information she and Spock were seeking about Vulcan katras. Vulcans are not robots. 

Once the story is all resolved, however, Doug has a great scene where he gets to grill Spock about humans. After all, Spock is working on a starship that is populated mostly by humans, so he has the inside scoop. Spock teaches Doug about human customs. He describes the notion of a birthday cake. They talk about human jokes and gags, including the old "pull my finger" bit. Some of their interactions feel more genuine to Vulcan behavior, including their frustration that humans, however intelligent, can only read between 200 and 300 words in a minute. They riff on the notion of contractions. The humor of the scene comes from the fact that Oswalt and Peck remain staunchly in character, wholly deadpan.

The scene then ends with Doug exiting, and Spock breaking into a grin. Although, really, that seemed more like a moment when Ethan Peck was merely breaking character. The showrunners decided to leave Peck's smile in the final edit. 

The scene is fluffy and insubstantial, but it is fun and funny. It's still on Paramount+, waiting to be seen.