Star Trek’s Babs Olusanmokun on the End of Strange New Worlds

On Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Babs Olusanmokun’s Dr. Joseph M’Benga is like a guiding light to his fellow USS Enterprise crewmembers, a voice of reason whether he’s advising his old friend Captain Pike (Anson Mount), mentoring younger crewmembers like Ensign Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) and Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush), or just being a friend to someone like First Officer Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn). And the funny thing is, when talking to the actor in real life, he also exudes some of those “I’m just here to help you through this” vibes. In a word, he’s cool.

In the latest episode of Strange New Worlds, “A Case of Chiaroscuro,” M’Benga gets the chance to talk both Uhura and Una through their covert mission while on a planet occupied by Klingons. His advice to both? Solid. His demeanor? Chill. Their success rate? 100%!

When we spoke earlier this week, Olusanmokun didn’t necessarily offer me any life advice – my mistake, probably, for not asking – but we did talk about the new episode, the doctor’s other life as a lethal warrior, what it was like shooting the last episode ever of Strange New Worlds, and more.

Doctor by Day, Commando by Night

One of the things I love about the doctor is that, while he’s such a kind-hearted guy, he also has a dark history of being the ultimate soldier. He was in Starfleet’s special forces and was known as “The Ghost,” racking up the most hand-to-hand kills in the service. In “A Case of Chiaroscuro,” we learn more about this history as well, with M’Benga saying, “My calling is medicine, healing people. It’s the great mystery of my life that some of my strongest skills lie in opposition to that calling.”

Olusanmokun says that this dual nature of the doctor was a big part of what attracted him to the role.

“I loved it, because there is nothing more interesting than some duality, than some color, than some substance that’s not necessarily obvious,” he tells me. “So really when [showrunners] Akiva [Goldsman] and Henry [Alonso Myers] in the first meeting, and after I got the job, were like … ‘He’s a healer. He’s this doctor, but he used to be a man of war,’ I just loved the way that was phrased and how it came out of Akiva’s mouth. And I’m like, ‘Say no more, man. Say no more.’

“It’s just that’s what you want. You want a bit of a complexity. You want somebody that’s going to have a struggle, that’s going to give you something to think about, and you might end up hating him. So be it. But there’s a plethora of choices and obstacles that have gotten him there.”

In Season 2’s “Under the Cloak of War,” we saw flashbacks to M’Benga and Chapel’s time during the Klingon War… which included the use of Protocol 12, the super-soldier drug developed by the doctor. This back story gave Olusanmokun the chance to perform some action scenes on the show, as Protocol 12 turned M’Benga and Chapel into temporary super-warriors.

The actor laughs when I mention that escapade. “Yeah, maniacs! They’re maniacs in their off time.”

You Must Remember This

In “A Case of Chiaroscuro,” M’Benga, Una, and Uhura’s visit to the “film noir” planet Mat’aar XII meant that the actors got to jump out of their Starfleet uniforms and into some 1930s/40s-style duds. It also allowed for them to interact with sets that were about as far from spaceship-acting as you could get.

“Yeah, man, it was beautiful,” says Olusanmokun. “It was delicious. It was exciting. It was really just appreciating the artistry of the production team, art production, this beautiful salon that they created for us that we just spent quite a bit of time in. I was so blown away that the first day we worked on that set, I had to, in the early morning meeting, I had to give a shout-out to the whole production team. I’m just like, ‘This is incredible that you’ve created this space, this world for us to come into.’”

Strange New Worlds is among the handful of television shows these days that use AR walls – essentially giant digital screens that surround a set and on which backgrounds are displayed – but as Olusanmokun explains, the physicality of sets like the ones used in this week’s episode are just as important to sell the illusion of the scene not just to the audience, but to the actors as well.

“Our show, Strange New Worlds, has been great in terms of having physical sets and pieces in front of [the wall],” explains the actor. “So [the wall is] just then an extension of that world. If we actually get to play in something real, that feels real, then that stuff is just an extension of it. So it’s never a sense of truly playing in front of a green screen. We’ve never really done that.”

I mention the infamous green screen sets of George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels, but Olusanmokun says the AR walls are nothing like that.

“You step on – there’s a stage aspect of it – what you could call the set, and you’re avoiding furniture, you’re avoiding curtains, you’re avoiding physical things,” he says. “So the salon, the cafe in this [episode] was just a cafe. It’s like the bar was right there and there’s somebody behind the bar and there were the drinks there and the bottles and the chandelier and the pillars. It was gorgeous.”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Images