#dr m’benga

[dax9616]

I really appreciated how Strange New Worlds portrayed PTSD in ‘Under the Cloak of War’

From the way Chapel and M'Benga disassociated when they were triggered.

To how the two and Ortegas talk about their experiences during the war... Bravo

My favorite line is when Chapel says 'Why is it so hard to explain to people that weren't there?'

When we go through a traumatic experience, it can be hard to connect because we feel that nobody understands what it was like to experience what we have.

Connection is often the first step in healing and just as often it’s the hardest step to take.

[myenterpriseisparked]

Star Trek SNW Characters Who Say "Dude":

- Chapel. All the time.

- Ortegas. Even more all the time.

- Pike, but only to a few people and usually as a bit.

- Spock said it once to try it out and it was so jarring coming out of his mouth that he never said it again to prevent any shock.

- Hemmer said it once when he was feeling kinda silly (like in Elysian Kingdom) but denies ever saying it to anyone who asks.

- La'An said it once during an interrogation of an ensign caught playing Enterprise Bingo because she was repeating his words back to him. Immediately hated it.

- Uhura says the equivalent of "dude" in other languages but rarely in Fed Standard.

SNW Characters Who Have Never Once In Their Lives Said "Dude":

- M'Benga. Chapel tries so hard to get him to say it but he will not.

- Una. She plans to say "dude" someday, but is saving it for the correct moment that will shock some poor cadet and/or Chris Pike.

[ichayalovesyou]

Broken Circle Reaction:

The more fuel they put into the fire of Chapel & Spock’s little forbidden romance the BIGGER and uglier the explosion is going to be later when it inevitably just crushed under its own weight because they are obviously not together by TOS.

🎶I can’t wait for the DRAMA🎶 it’s literally only gonna get worse if these emotions continue to go unchecked 👀 I think all my hunches and most of my predictions about it will be right. FEED ME YOUR DOOMED ROMANCE YOU FOOLS 😋

Also holy crap M’Benga can kick ass when he wants to! Also no more sad reveals for him please this poor man needs a break! Dude lost his wife, kinda sorta lost his kid, AND is a kilo gon war vet from one of the uglier locations of the war? Damn!

I expected to love Carol Kane’s character pretty much immediately, and I did! Interesting choice to make her an alien that’s borderline immortal! I wanna learn more about her and her species already!

Also thank YOU M’Benga for giving our boy his therapy lyre!! I can sense them building up to Spock and Uhura having a real jam session together, ka’athrya and singing and all! Can’t wait!

I’ve been cautiously optimistic about what they’ve been doing with the Gorn and I really hope they don’t disappoint me. At the very least, the more desperate the conflict becomes, the more impressive it makes it that Kirk was able to finagle a non-violent stalemate between himself and that Gorn captain in The Arena.

I also can’t wait to see the inevitable court drama that is next week’s episode play out. We already got a glimpse of Pike being a dramatic and stubborn bitch and I hope that energy continues lol.

[captainpikeswoman]

Okay so I had this wild idea... we've seen what a dinner at Chris's quarters looks like... how about a movie night with the crew?

Cuteeeeee!

Movie night with the crew includes:

•well first and foremost, the movie night can’t begin until after dinner has been served and cleaned up from- Chris isn’t not going to feed his family. This Daddy makes sure his family eat well!

•but once that’s done the inevitable bickering over what to watch begins. Erica and La’an want to watch a Horror movie, Christine and Una want an action film, Dr M’Benga and Chris want a rom-com, and Spock is adamant that that what way to make use of this time is to watch a documentary…everyone groaned at Spock’s suggestion- it was the first one knocked out of the running.

•eventually a sort of truce- a sci-fi/apocalyptic show was chosen, an old Earth production called The Day of the Triffids.

•as soon as he read the synopsis Spock had deemed it ‘fascinating’, and everyone else had jumped on board!

•while Chris saw to making some popcorn, and Una dealt with pouring everyone a drink of whatever they’d asked for, the ‘kids’ all fought and bickered, even going so far as to physically move other people as they argued about seating.

•La’an and Spock were the first settled. They sat stiffly beside each other in the corner of the sofa…glaring at anyone who dared to come too close.

•Erica and Christine ended up squeezed together on a bean bag, crammed close and potentially closer to the screen than they should’ve been!

•as he settled in the arm chair Dr M’Benga joked that they’d both get ‘square eyes’ from sitting so close to the screen- something that humans apparently used to say. It tickled him a little.

•only once snacks were distributed, drinks were handed round, and Una was sat on an inflatable vintage armchair did Chris turn down the lights and set the screen playing- the surround sound was incredible!

•once the show was on no one talked- there were a few jumpy moments where Chris chuckled as his crew turned to each other for comfort.

•Erica and Christine ended up holding hands, Dr M’Benga was hiding behind his fingers and Una…well she wasn’t scared, she was scarily calm as she ate her popcorn, not in the least bit scared.

•as for Spock and La’an…Chris looked over at them and quickly looked away again. La’an was practically sat in Spock’s lap…Chris understood how why they were essentially sat in ‘the back row’. They were making out as Vulcan’s would- stroking their fingers together, their eyes weren’t even on the screen, they were locked onto each other’s.

•Chris sighed. Movie nights with the family were always an important part of his schedule, and even if two of them were necking in the back row, Chris was just glad to see them happy.

[best-star-trek-character]

[enbycrip]

Even with my concerns about disableism, I have to admit I’m enjoying the absolute *shit* out of Strange New Worlds. I’m glad the whole series hasn’t been Daddy Pike stressing about future serious disability. I’m glad he and his Amazing Hair (tm) have had a chance to be the sweet corny motherfucker he is.

It’s actually really *nice* to watch a series with standalone episodes again where there’s room for daft eps and random character development.

I didn’t actually realise that part of my problem with finding the energy for watching TV these days actually may well be the *relentlessness* of so many modern shows written for streaming platforms and thus designed for bingeing.

My OH and I were talking the other night about how if The X-Files was made now it would *only* be the Conspiracy episodes. Which, plus point in they would then presumably have been written with an actual arc in mind to make some kind of actual narrative sense instead of being continuously pulled out of Chris Carter’s ass and padded out with an Air of Mystery to make up for the giant plot holes, but minus in that honestly we’d have missed out on a lot of the actual best episodes of the series that way.

I absolutely *adore* the humour laced through SNW. Including but not limited to the clever and affectionate dialogue with TOS it has all written through it.

I *adore* pretty much every character in it. Cadet Uhura is a fucking *delight* from start to finish. I *love* Una and La’an both seperately *and* the way their relationship is a central pillar of their lives while being absolutely free of so much of the bullshit about how female relationships are depicted in media. I absolutely fucking treasure Christine Chapel’s warmth, brilliance, agency, honesty and emotional straightforwardness that veers into clumsiness. I *need* more Ortegas! I adore M’Benga’s deep gentleness and sadness. And ofc Spock continues to be the utter joy he was in Discovery season two.

I maintain they owe Ursula Le Guin a writing credit for “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach”.

[the-stone-of-queer]

M’Benga noticing Spock’s readings on the medical slut-trometor 2000 skyrocket when Chapel walks into the room: 🤔🤔🤔

[inchwormfan]

You know, I’m really enjoying Strange New Worlds. It’s a great blend of classic Star Trek and modern tv that’s not afraid to be silly or get a little dark.

I’m having a lot of fun watching it and it really seems that the cast and crew had a great time making it.

5/5 stars

[thelaststarship]

just wanna hang out and go fly fishing with my blorbo doctor m’benga

[righthandedleftturn]

Star Trek CMO’s (Chief Medical Officer)

[captainkaseykirk]

I am the biggest SNW apologist in the Alpha Quadrant. SNW is like that little sibling of yours that you can talk shit about but if anybody else does they’re getting the beat down immediately

[shyravenns]

Meet the Enterprise’s newest team of medical professionals!

I just think they would be good friends 🥹🥹🥹

[stoplookingup]

Dr. M’Benga is Walter Bishop. Both are outwardly gentle but damaged people — scientists , healers — with mysterious pasts, when they were very different kinds of people. Both take extreme and morally questionable actions to save a dying child. Both have made scientific breakthroughs that create major ethical quandaries. Both seem to be on tragic trajectories. Since I’m only up to S2E17 in Fringe and S2E8 in SNW, I can’t say how far the parallels go, but I’m certain M’Benga will end up paying a hefty price.

(By coincidence, I watched the Fringe ep “Peter” shortly after SNW’s “Under the Cloak of War,” and when the name Akiva Goldsman appeared in the closing credits, a lightbulb went off in my head.)

Please don’t spoil me for Fringe!!! This is my first viewing!

[ichayalovesyou]

Listen I know this totally subjective, seriously no shade on the people who feel this way. This isn’t even a complaint I’ve seen a whole lot

But I am? A little confused??? About the occasional complaint that SNW focuses too much on Spock?

He gets like, two character-centric plot in the whole season (Spock Amok, The Serene Squall). For the rest of it he’s just reacting to what’s happening with everyone else? Or y’know, generally mattering to the arcs of people who care about him. More specifically the Chrises, Pike and Chapel.

So I decided to like, mull things over about who got focus where and how, because Now I Am Super Curious and wanna see exactly what we got going on character/time allocation wise:

Captain Pike got major screentime in pretty much every episode cuz, uh, he’s the Captain. Essentially the main character of any given Star Trek show. Special emphasis on the season’s book ends and the halfway point, which tracks when you wanna pace out the character arc of somebody whose important in every episode.

Hemmer got three major focuses in Memento Mori, Elysian Kingdom, & All Those Who Wander (which makes sense, considering).

La’an got two major focuses in Memento Mori and All Those Who Wander.

Uhura got two major focuses in Children of The Comet & Memento Mori.

M’Benga got two major focuses in Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach & The Elysian Kingdom.

Chapel got major focus in Spock Amok and Serene Squall. Some plot stuff independent from Spock would be nice, but she’s operating in a pair like La’an & Una and Hemmer & Uhura were so like… ehhhh.

Una got major focus in The Ghosts of Illyria (and a tandem B-Plot with La’an in Spock Amok) and is the heart of the finale’s cliffhanger which probably means she’s gonna matter A Lot next season so that’s good! Hopefully we’ll get the Spock & Una & Pike trio that was advertised in the promotional material.

Ortegas didn’t get major focus at all really, she has major speaking roles in three episodes (Spock Amok, Elysian Kingdom & A Quality of Mercy) she was Sir Adya in EK and a clunky stand in for Stiles. But hey! Navia implied on Twitter that we would be seeing more of her character in the near future.

So like, all things considered, Spock got like, an average amount of screentime, Pike followed by Hemmer getting the biggest focus, everyone else in the middle-ish, while Una and Ortegas (and Chapel, kinda) got the short end of the stick with the promise of more focus next season.

If you don’t LIKE what they’re doing with Spock’s screen time that’s fine, but I also don’t feel like he’s getting overly favored personally. It probably feels like A Big Deal because It’s Spock. But honestly, he gets way more focus in Discovery S2 than he did in SNW and he’s not even physically there for half of that lmao!

Idk, just got me thinking about how they handled character screen time overall and wanted to write down my observations that’s all.

[gigawatt-conduit]

I’ve only seen one episode of Strange New Worlds, and it is peak Star Trek being hot people who are good at their jobs

[best-star-trek-character]

Round One