Dee Bradley Baker Talks About Murf’s New “Upgrade” On ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ – TrekMovie.com

The lovable blob Murf has been a fan-favorite character even before the debut of Star Trek: Prodigy. The hype around the “metamurfosis” evolution of the character began earlier this year, but was finally revealed in last week’s episode “Crossroads.” Now voice actor Dee Bradley Baker is revealing more of what to expect from the alien recently identified as a Mellanoid slime worm.

Murf gets an upgrade

The big change for Murf as he emerged from his cocoon was the development of arms and legs. In an interview with startrek.com, Dee Bradley Baker explained how this change impacts his performance:

Murf wasn’t really human in any aspect of its appearance other than eyes and a mouth, apparently. But now that it can move around, it’s a bit of a linguistic upgrade as well. There’s an evolving that’s happening. There’s a revealing of a metamorphosis, or metamurfosis… It’s interesting to see that, as with a child, with the growth and the expansion and the development of limbs, the body, the head, the feet, and the ambulatory abilities, comes an upgrade with language and an upgrade and a change in the capacity to problem-solve and to engage and communicate.

The original Murf from episode 7

Baker previewed some of what is to come from him and Murf:

I bend the vocals and evolve the vocals as the writers and the directors develop the unfolding of what Murf is to be. That’s clearly something that’s going to be playing out.

The new Murf arrived in episode 14

The voice actor also offered some insight into what he puts into Murf’s vocalizations:

He’s almost like a puppy or this happy little child that is always optimistic and open in an improvisational way. Clearly, Murf’s aware and engaged with what they’re dealing with because he’s often helping to solve the matter at hand, although it seems like he’s just kind of oblivious and just kind of babbling in a happy way. There’s actually more involved here, and he seems to be more connected.

Preview of Murf in action from episode 15

Murf science

Paramount+ also released a new video featuring science advisor Dr. Erin MacDonald talking about the real science behind metamorphosis.

New episodes of Prodigy debut on Thursdays exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., and on Fridays in Latin America, Australia, and the U.K.  The series will air later in the year in South Korea, Germany, Italy, France, Austria and Switzerland.

Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.