Why Does Dr. M’Benga Keep Trying To Quit Starfleet? Star Trek Future After Strange New Worlds Explained

Published Oct 6, 2026, 11:30 AM EDT

John Orquiola is a New & Classic TV Editor, Senior Writer, and Interviewer with a special focus on Star Trek. John has over 5,000 published articles at SR, and he has interviewed the biggest names in Star Trek on the red carpet and VIP events, among other beloved shows, movies, and franchises.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4There has never been a Chief Medical Officer quite like Dr. Joseph M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), who has spent Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 looking for ways to quit Starfleet. Dr. M'Benga is a legacy character who appeared in Star Trek: The Original Series, where he was played by Booker Bradshaw. Strange New Worlds has vastly expanded M'Benga's backstory and character, which helps explain why Joseph wants off the USS Enterprise.

Dr. M'Benga is a calm and genial physician with a reassuring bedside manner, but the USS Enterprise's CMO is a tortured soul. M'Benga's skills at healing are exceeded by his ability to take lives. During the Klingon War seen in Star Trek: Discovery, M'Benga was known as "The Ghost," an elite Starfleet assassin who racked up multiple kills. Joseph is haunted by his past and the blood on his hands.

Dr. M'Benga had an ulterior motive for accepting his friend Captain Christopher Pike's (Anson Mount) request to join the Starship Enterprise. Joseph smuggled his terminally ill daughter, Rukiya (Sage Arrindell), aboard, holding her in a transporter pattern buffer while he searched for a cure. After Rukiya was saved by joining with the sentient entity in the Jonisian Nebula, M'Benga remained on the Enterprise as CMO.

However, Dr. M'Benga now wants out of Starfleet entirely, and his potential exit grew more complicated in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4.

Why Does Dr. M’Benga Keep Trying To Quit Starfleet?

Image via Paramount+

In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4, episode 6, "Off-Hour," Dr. M'Benga upset Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) by revealing his plans to quit Starfleet. M'Benga arranged for the return of Dr. Phil Boyce (Brian Markinson) to replace him as Chief Medical Officer. Although M'Benga is still CMO at the end of Strange New Worlds season 4, he will eventually get his wish.

When Rukiya was saved in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1's "The Elysian Kingdom," M'Benga fulfilled part of his original reason for joining the USS Enterprise's crew. Of course, as a physician, Joseph felt bound to continue as Chief Medical Officer. However, the Enterprise is a difficult ship to serve on because of the constant chaos it attracts and endures.

Since becoming CMO, Dr. M'Benga has murdered Klingon Ambassador Dak'Rah (Robert Wisdom) and got away with it. Joseph has killed more Klingons, as well as battled Klingon zombies and the Gorn. M'Benga tragically lost his protégé, Ensign Gamble (Chris Myers), to the malevolent Vezda. Then there are the times M'Benga was intoxicated on shore leave, was stuck with Klingons on a black-and-white planet, and had "space madness" in a soap opera.

For M'Benga, who yearns for peace after the trauma of the Klingon War, the "pandemonium" of the Enterprise has taken its toll and fuels his desire to leave. The turning points in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 are Joseph nearly dying from being bisected in Sickbay, and voluntarily taking the fall when Lt. Commander James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) poisoned Admiral Simon Reeger (Joe Morton) with cordrazine in Strange New Worlds season 4, episode 8, "Orders of Magnitude."

What Happens To Dr. M’Benga After Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Star Trek: The Original Series canon dictates that Dr. M'Benga will get his wish to leave the USS Enterprise. Joseph spends time on Vulcan to study the physiology of Mr Spock's (Leonard Nimoy) people. Although he does return to the Enterprise, it's not as alpha shift Chief Medical Officer, the position held by Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley).

In the one-year-later alternate future of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4's finale, "Tomorrow's Enterprise," Dr. Boyce is CMO while M'Benga is on Vulcan. However, McCoy is preparing to take over as Chief Medical Officer full-time.

The big question is how Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will connect Dr. M'Benga's dots to Star Trek: The Original Series. M'Benga's original plan to exit Starfleet on his own terms now depends on whether Admiral Reeger will court-martial him for his actions in "Orders of Magnitude." M'Benga took the fall to protect James Kirk's career, and he is sanguine about Reeger potentially drumming him out of Starfleet.

Dr. Leonard McCoy (Thomas Jane) will debut in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' series finale, which will depict Captain Kirk's first day in charge of the Enterprise. Presumably, Dr. M'Benga will exit before then, although whether Joseph goes to Vulcan or is court-martialed by Reeger remains to be seen in season 5. Regardless, M'Benga will eventually leave the Enterprise, if only temporarily.

Dr. M'Benga's days as Chief Medical Officer are numbered, and how he exits is predicated on what happens in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 5. However, M'Benga's hopes of leaving Starfleet entirely are up in the air. Joseph will still serve on the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Original Series, but after that, he may finally get the retirement he desires.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 is streaming on Paramount+

• 

  Captain Christopher Pike

• 

  Spock