Spoilers for “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” observe.
One benefit of “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” being a prequel to the unique “Star Trek” is the way it can have Klingon unhealthy guys, no clarification wanted.
The present is a spin-off of “Star Trek: Discovery,” which adopted the transient and brutal conflict between the Federation and Klingon Empire throughout its first season. “Unusual New Worlds” retcons “TOS” characters Dr. Joseph M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) and Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) into Klingon Struggle veterans. They particularly served collectively on the moon J’Gal, the place M’Benga developed a steroid for Starfleet troopers (“Protocol 12”) and even took it himself. The notorious “Butcher of J’Gal” who killed some senior Klingons officers? That was really M’Benga.
So M’Benga’s PTSD flared up in the “Unusual New Worlds” season 2 “Beneath the Cloak of Struggle” when the Enterprise needed to escort Klingon ambassador Dak’Rah (Robert Knowledge). Dak’Rah, who defected to the Federation, took credit score for the deaths of his officers, claiming to be the “Butcher of J’Gal” himself. The stress between M’Benga and Dak’Rah slowly boils over all through the episode. Dak’Rah professed to be ashamed, each for previous atrocities and being a coward on J’Gal. He wished to make amends with M’Benga, however appeared pushed extra by his personal guilt than empathy for M’Benga.
Finally, M’Benga killed Dak’Rah with the d’okay tahg (Klingon knife) that he used because the Butcher of J’Gal. The demise was dominated as self-defense as a result of Dak’Rah attacked M’Benga, however the episode left it ambiguous whether or not it really was or it was really homicide … till now, in “Shuttle to Kenfori,” when M’Benga admits it was homicide. The sins of M’Benga’s previous didn’t die with Dak’Rah.
M’Benga faces the daughter of Dak’Rah in Unusual New Worlds season 3
Within the “Unusual New Worlds” season 2 finale/season 3 premiere “Hegemony,” Captain Christopher Pike’s (Anson Mount) girlfriend Captain Marie Batel (Melanie Scrofano) got here down with a Gorn larvae an infection. “Hegemony” ended with Batel’s situation stabilized, however not cured. In “Shuttle to Kenfori,” the an infection has regressed and once more threatens to kill her.
Marie’s solely hope is a “Chimera blossom,” a uncommon plant possible solely discovered on planet Kenfori — which is positioned in contested Federation/Klingon territory. Pike would not let a mere treaty cease the Enterprise from going to Kenfori. However as soon as he and M’Benga land on the planet, they run into two massive issues. One, a local plant has taken maintain of lifeless Starfleet scientists and Klingon troopers, reworking them into, as Pike places, “the Z-word.” Second, there is a group of alive Klingons on the planet searching our heroes.
The Klingons’ chief (Christine Horn) is out to kill M’Benga and asks if he sees the face of an previous enemy taking a look at her. “I’ve killed too many Klingons to know which home you are from,” he solutions, so she reveals herself to be the daughter of Dak’Rah. She is not out to avenge her father, no. She wished to kill Dak’Rah herself for dishonoring their home, and now she desires to kill M’Benga for robbing her of the prospect.
“Our title stays dirty until I kill my father’s murderer,” she declares, so she and M’Benga should duel to the demise. When Pike claims that Dak’Rah’s demise was self-defense, M’Benga reveals that it wasn’t:
“I might have stopped him, however a mass assassin gave me the chance to kill him… and I did, willingly. I’d do it once more. So sure, his blood is on my arms. Was that dishonorable? I do not know. However there was justice. I lied to guard the monster that also lives inside me, ought to the day come when he’s wanted once more.”
Joseph M’Benga: Starfleet physician or Klingon butcher?
M’Benga wins the d’okay tahg duel, no Protocol 12 wanted, however this time he holds again the “monster” and spares his opponent. Dak’Rah’s daughter as a substitute finds a warrior’s redemption by staying behind to maintain the zombie horde again as M’Benga and Pike escape.
As soon as they’re again on the Enterprise, M’Benga asks if Pike will flip him in for Dak’Rah’s homicide. Pike geese the query; because the entire mission was unsanctioned, he will not be submitting a report on something that occurred. If he had been to, “hypothetically,” M’Benga asks? “[I’d say] I had a knife to my throat and also you advised a narrative to avoid wasting my life… You are not a monster, Joseph, only a man.”
“Shuttle to Kenfori” ends very like how “Beneath the Cloak of Struggle” did, when Pike suspected M’Benga may be responsible however did not press the problem. That episode made the 2 pals into foils; Pike, as common, represented the Federation’s idealism that even the evil deserve second probabilities. M’Benga, who solely confessed then to being glad that Dak’Rah was lifeless, thought the victims deserved justice greater than the penitent.
It is becoming, then, that Pike is the one who learns the reality in “Shuttle to Kenfori.” M’Benga mentioned within the closing moments of “Beneath the Cloak of Struggle” that Pike has “the privilege of believing in what’s finest in individuals.” On this episode, Pike chooses to use that to his good friend Joseph, as a result of he noticed M’Benga maintain the monster inside him again on Kenfori. If our enemies deserve second probabilities, so do our pals.
“Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” is streaming on Paramount+. New episodes warp in on Thursdays.
