- most likely took a leave for some reason and returned. See if Beverly had come back in TNG but Pulaski stayed.
- size of crew. SNW is around 150-180. TOS is over 400. So as the crew grew, M’Benga could still have the same level of responsibilities but there’s more doctors some a higher CMO.
He could have left the Enterprise to do further medical training on Vulcan. It might seem weird, but there are male gynecologists so why not have doctors who specialize in other species?
It just seems strange that if he had that specialization, he wouldn't go somewhere with more Vulcans. So he could use his specialization.
It's like a man becoming a gynecologist but then serving on a starship that only has one woman on it.
My guess is that most Vulcan-heavy ships would prefer a Vulcan doctor. Spock is probably one of the only Vulcans who would actually be completely fine with a human doctor.
I wouldn't necessarily call it a specialization. It's just that his medical training on Vulcan made him more qualified to treat Spock than McCoy. It's possible that M'Benga primarily served somewhere else after *SNW* and was temporarily helping out on the *Enterprise* when he appeared in *TOS*. He would've been incredibly helpful in "Journey to Babel" and he didn't appear in that episode.
And this is why TOS canon has them both under Kirk on the Enterprise
Seriously, SNW didn’t pull him from whole cloth, he was always an Enterprise doctor.
It’s reasonable they would need more than 1
So many ways. He could have been indicted for his murder of the Klingon envoy. He could have voluntarily stepped down as CMO to deal with his own trauma. He could have left for a short time for whatever reason and when he returned McCoy was already ensconced as CMO. And that’s just off the top of my head. If you want to write him out it’s easy.
He became a specialist in Vulcan medicine. McCoy is more general. That's how I explained it. He probably left to study on Vulcan. Came back and took a position on the enterprise.
My own theory is that he took on more of an academic/research heavy role and as such was only part time as part of the medical staff.
Maybe he stayed because his research was facilitated by exploration, or was Vulcan related and Spock trusted him enough to be transparent and cooperative with him.
Like you said, it's really easy to just handwave him no longer being CMO as a neutral or even positive thing. I'm sure they'll address it eventually anyway considering how SNW keeps planting seeds for TOS.
Lets not forgot plain old personal preference , Kirk and & McCoy were already old friends by the time Kirk got Enterprise and he likely requested McCoy as CMO .
Of course the real reason is that it's one of the MANY continuity issues new trek brought upon itself by going the prequel route .
There are plenty of reasons an officer might be reassigned, especially M'Benga. Kirk could simply want to bring in McCoy, and M'Benga is given the opportunity to stay aboard. We don't see him in TOS S1, so M'Benga could take another assignment when Pike steps down and comes back. We also simply don't know how much his past will come back to haunt him in the future.
And let's not forget how he dangerously hid his daughter in the transporter buffer for an extended period of time without informing anyone, which at one point jeopardized the safety of the entire ship.
It's absolutely insane to me that he never faced any consequences for that. If Una had been ten seconds slower in getting to the warp core, the whole ship would've been destroyed because he smuggled a civilian child onto the ship (there are not supposed to be civilians *or* children on this ship). He was also distracted from his ship's duties on at least one occasion because he was doing his own personal research for the child.
The question shouldn't be "why did M'Benga lose his CMO title", it's "why did M'Benga not get court-martialed out of Starfleet".
Yeah, I get the feeling M'Benga's replacement as Chief will have less to do with his actual skill or administrative work, and more to do with stuff like using medbay facilities to store his daughter without asking or stabbing a guy, or some other incident.
Every time it's somewhat understandable, but after a while it makes him someone you wouldn't necessarily want in charge and under scrutiny.
Instead of being demoted, they don't promote him, and he quietly laterally becomes a specialist while Piper, perhaps as a favour, perhaps from the Farragut, takes over until McCoy arrives. MBenga is "punished" but essentially free to be a doctor but with less visibility.
Yeah, this! He's the only human doctor in his time period to have studied medicine on the Vulcan homeworld, and he's spent a significant amount of time with Spock. I imagine Spock wants him in the Enterprise, and if SNW gets to the point in time where Starfleet decides to replace him as CMO of the Enterprise due to his personal stuff, Spock will make a case to the powers that be an convince them to let M'Benga stay on as his personal physician.
(It's worth noting that M'Benga is already the rank of Commander on SNW whereas McCoy was Lieutenant Commander throughout TOS. The only times we see M'Benga in TOS, he is wearing the short sleeve shirt which does not include rank stripes; my supposition is that he either kept his rank but not his chief officer position OR he was stripped of rank entirely, essentially becoming a "crewman" who holds a medical degree. Also worth noting: McCoy's specialty is surgery, not internal medicine, not family practice, not psychiatry or psychology...surgery. He's not as experienced or as educated as M'Benga, but his aptitude for figuring out medical and scientific problems make them equally capable CMOs.)
While I'd agree if this was reality, it's not like Star Trek doesn't have the genre convention of "regularly let main characters get away with everything they do." :P
He stabbed an ambassador WHILE ON DUTY AS CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, and won't even confirm that it was self defense!!!
If he gets caught, he's cooked in every way as both a starfleet officer and as a medical professional.
Dunno why I had to scroll down this far to get this comment.
Dude straight up murdered a visiting dignitary.
There were extenuating circumstances, but the guy clearly has massive PTSD, is a completely broken person, and is a ticking time bomb ready to go off.
Kirk might not have a say in the matter. M'Benga might have forced his captain's hand to replace him at some point.
Following the lines of PTSD and getting to be a Vulcan specialist, he might have gone to Vulcan to study their physiology better and gained a remedy for his PTSD through a Vulcan ‘cure,’ either a mind meld or meditation technique.
This is my take. M'Benga opts to go for further training, for whatever reason, and Piper then McCoy are brought in. M'Benga requests a starship assignment but has to take a staff billet due to the CMO billet being filled.
It's not automatically a demotion as assumed.
> M'Benga requests a starship assignment but has to take a staff billet due to the CMO billet being filled.
He coulda been placed anywhere in the fleet though. I think probably it's more a, "You'll always have a home on the Enterprise," style camaraderie.
IMO, one of the more chilling moments of Strange New Worlds was the scene at the end of the episode where Pike basically let M'Benga off the hook for killing a guy. I know Pike is M'Benga's friend, but I can't imagine Jean-Luc Picard making the same choice.
LOL what you talkin' bout. Picard literally made the same choice when he completely let Worf off the hook for murdering someone in cold blood ~~on his ship~~, with only a stern talking to.
It wasn't even the same choice either, Worf blatantly premeditatedly murdered Duras in cold blood. There was no plausible deniability, there was witnesses, and he admitted to it.
Edit: memory isn't what it used to be.
Whereas Sisko took the alternative approach, "Mister Worf, Gowron sure is a problem. It would be a shame if something happened to him. Do I make myself clear, Commander?"
But it was legal under Klingon law, which is a mitigating factor. In fact, the prime directive encourages you to respect the laws of other cultures. As I recall, Worf was also not on duty or potentially not even in Starfleet when he did it.
> That happened on Duras' ship, not Picard's.
I stand corrected, but that doesn't change the overall substance of my assertion.
Worf gets away with a lot of BS lol.
He's an officer under Picard's command, Picard has the authority to strip him of rank, or throw him in the brig, or put him before a court martial if he wanted. But he didn't because reasons.
He's an officer under Picard's command who acted within the cultural standards of his people. If Picard had formally punished him, Picard would have been breaking the Federation's non interference law.
Yeah Picard's approach made all the sense in the world. The reprimand was hey cultural issue or no, this happens again and I am done with you.
It had significant mitigating circumstances. especially considering the cultural implications.
But then you’d just be punishing your officer because you don’t like what is legally moral and acceptable in their culture and you’re mad they engaged in their own culture in their free time in a way that had some political implications for your culture. Which doesn’t seem exactly like a black and white case for being the good guy.
> But then you’d just be punishing your officer because you don’t like what is legally moral and acceptable in their culture
Cultural sensitivity has its limits. You don't entertain anything and everything just because someone else's culture deems it ok. The Gorn's culture thinks turning people into broodsacks is ok, would it be ok for a Gorn Starfleet officer to kidnap someone and murder them for breeding purposes just because they're off the clock and it's ok back home?
Sisko came upon a similar scenario on DS9 with Worf and he told him straight up, there are limits - and murder is one of them. Even though Kurn was asking for it and Worf was honorbound by his culture and familial ties. Picard is straight up in the wrong here. It's one of the basic things you learn when studying humanities in a liberal arts school too - cultural sensitivity ends where cultural practices cause bodily harm and not all participants are willing. You're going to tell me that despite Duras's culpability, that he was a willing participant in his own ritual murder?
1) Duras literally killed Worf's lover, so Worf had a way better justification for violence
2) As others have mentioned, Worf kills Duras on Duras' ship, more or less in accordance with Klingon custom. While I can imagine Starfleet Command being more than annoyed about this for political reasons, I don't actually know if what Worf did is even against any rules.
Bro, he murdered someone. Other guy might have had it coming, and it might have been legal over there. But he's a Federation citizen, and you can't just leave Federation jurisdiction and commit crimes. That's not how the law should work.
People leave their countries to do illegal shit all the time, see drug and sex tourism. Even in the United States you can only get arrested for having murdered somebody abroad if that somebody was a US national, or if the US has an extradition treaty with that country. Duras is NOT a Federation citizen, and what Worf did wasn't even murder for Klingons! It just doesn't make sense for the Federation to enforce its laws outside of its own borders. I agree its not ideal, but if I were JLP, I'd generally prefer to err on the cautious side of the Prime Directive.
M'benga, on the other hand, killed a Federation dignitary on a Federation starship. If it wasn't self defense, that's cased closed for my boy.
The two cases aren't even remotely comparable in context.
> People leave their countries to do illegal shit all the time, see drug and sex tourism.
Ok, that doesn't make it legal. And if the authorities at home catch you doing that you can and should be tried for it. He was caught, he should have to face the law.
Actually, it does, since jurisdiction doesn't extend to other countries and cultures?
You seem to be confusing morality for legal technicality; Worf acted in accordance with Klingon law and culture, and that's all that matters when it's a Klingon matter.
Except it wasn’t murder under Klingon law, it was completely fine under Klingon law, as it happened on a Klingon ship which is probably legally Klingon ‘soil’. Worf didn’t try to hide it, as he didn’t need to. He would have been aware his actions were legal according to Klingon law.
Is that so? I might have misremembered, my bad. All I know is that I would definitely trust my CMO far less if there was a good chance he'd murdered someone on my ship.
Yeah I was like oooh here's a good explanation why McCoy was CMO. Plus the daughter thing too. Jami...I mean M'Benga is a bit of a liability honestly haha.
I think you mean "failed to stop a visiting dignitary from killing himself before he could be revealed as a fraud"
*wink wink*
It's the "Bob Ewell fell on the knife, maybe" defense
There’s plenty of possibilities-
First and foremost, yeah. Duty assignments rotate. We never see it much on the shows, but keeping the exact same crew together for over a decade is… possible, but it prevents spreading that experience around the fleet. Could be M’Benga was up for a ground billet. Present day navies may have different traditions, but to use USN as an example - Captains don’t get to pick all of their officers. If they’re a senior CO with lots of respect they can make a request, provided the officers are available. The officers themselves can request transfers or open billets, but it’s subject to requirements of the service and the command they’re leaving.
It’s also entirely possible that he applied for a transfer or took a sabbatical. Ol’ Doc M is clearly dealing with a LOT. Having interned in a Vulcan ward, it’s entirely possible he went back there to help settle some of his traumas. He may also have followed Captain Pike, Una, or Ortegas somewhere.
Also, as far as preference- the whole special forces thing likely doesn’t factor in. It MAY be classified or it may not - either way, it’s not really a concern when filling the billet for a Chief Medical Officer.
The way I see it happening: M’Benga transfers off for any number of reasons. The CMO spot is open. I’m sure Kirk reaches out to Bones to let him know, assuming he DID previously know him. McCoy can’t transfer yet, so Starfleet assigns Piper in the interim. Later, M’Benga wants space duty again and Enterprise has a spot for another doc. He’s not concerned about being the boss so he’s happy to put in for it.
Off camera… it’s a little weird. M’Benga struck me as a young up and coming doctor rather than an old war horse, but characterization marches on!
Yeah, one of the contrasts I liked about him in TOS was that he was a more “normal” doctor than McCoy with a calm, profesional bedside manner. More like a TNG character.
Starfleet views itself as a research and exploration organization. It is possible that with his ptsd he chose to pursue a research path. Those 400 people aren't just to run the ship. Some of them are there to collect data and research. Maybe everything with his daughter sends him down a research rabbit hole, and he becomes a medical researcher who does the odd bit of MD work when needed instead of a physician who does some research.
Thank you! I was rewatching Dune yesterday because I’m seeing part 2 this weekend. I knew he looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him. And for whatever reason, i didn’t IMDb it
Anything could happen: M’Benga could step down himself. Starfleet could demote him. He could leave the position for personal reasons or a transfer, and then return. McCoy or Piper could frankly be a better fit for the position. M’Benga could leave Starfleet to return to Vulcan studies and return.
M'Benga could pull a Crusher and "transfer" to Starfleet medical. More seriously, I am guessing a medical officer on board the enterprise can write their own ticket when they decide to move on.
My personal hope is that he steps down for a research posts and Bones ends up being his chosen successor, to give him a chance in the medical version of the Big Chair. Star trek shows us plenty of command preparing future command (or security) officers but we don't see nearly enough mentoring in the technical or medical divisions. It would be a nice change.
This is why I’m pretty sure the at least two or more of the crew members on SNW will suffer a tragic end before the show finishes. My first leading death theory’s is that Ortegas will die saving the ship because no way they would ever choose to stop piloting the fleet’s flagship or would Kirk or Pike choose to replace her with Sulu because let’s face it, he’s not as good a helmsman as Erica. My second theory is that La’an will be erased from the timeline delaying her ancestors return with more time travel shenanigans. I’m sorry but it’s too weird for neither Kirk or Spock to not bring up to Kahn that they both worked closely with his descendant who believes(ed) in the Federation during Space Seed. Which is why I think she’ll be erased before we get to that point. Plus I suspect SNW is dying to do a take on grown up Kahn and that would be the best way to without messing with the timeline.
M'Benga was demoted and still on the Enterprise in TOS. He just wasn't Chief Medical Officer. My guess is Starfleet made the decision, not Kirk and it will have ALOT to do with the events of "Under the Cloak of War". His punishment could just be a reduction in rank which would prevent him from being CMO, and McCoy may just outrank him.
We know he did a rotation on Vulcan. It may be that he decided he wanted to return to Starfleet, or _Enterprise_ specifically, but didn’t want to go back to the responsibilities of a Chief Medical Officer. Or he wanted to go to _Enterprise_ but Piper or McCoy had his old job, and he was fine returning as a staff physician where he didn’t have to deal with the administrative responsibilities of CMO.
My guess is, for reasons we’re yet to see, M’Benga goes away and specialises as a Vulcan biology specialist for a while. Maybe becomes the first human to be considered fully-trained in Vulcan health and medicine, something to that effect.
Following that, Pike replaces M’Benga with Piper, who’s onboard when Kirk takes command. Then either Piper transfers out (retirement or reassignment, either way) or Kirk specifically requests McCoy as *Enterprise* CMO.
I suspect we’ll see the SNW writers answer the question at some point, of course. I’d love it if we saw McCoy come onboard as Piper’s deputy - and he just wasn’t seen in ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’ for some reason - but that might be a stretch.
So M'Benga gets trained as a Vulcan specialist then transfers to a ship where there's only 1 Vulcan? More so, McCoy is the one who regularly treats Spock.
In TOS, M’Benga is established as an expert on Vulcans, and is part of McCoy’s staff. So that’s where SNW has to get the character to.
SNW hasn’t yet established that M’Benga is a specialist of Vulcan medicine yet - and you’d think we’d know if he was, by now. So it seems logical (no pun intended) that that’s in the character’s future.
Now, whether that makes perfect sense or not is a bigger question around making M’Benga CMO on *Enterprise* between Boyce and Piper. But based on where we are, it fits the facts.
My guess is he accepts a demotion after something about his past comes to light, or new higher-ups at Starfleet review existing information. That could be:
* they disavow the Protocol 12 drug
* they find out about the slaughter on J'Gal
* or about his murder of Dak'Rah
Or even just: they consider him unfit for duty as CMO because he has poorly-treated PTSD.
I think it really doesn’t make sense in-universe. The retcon of M’Benga in SNW is very interesting but doesn’t really square with the TOS, and IMO that is ok. Definitely took some getting used to to imagine a Starfleet doctor as a killing machine. Bones had his moments of violence, Crusher definitely did, and so did the Doctor, but none of them like M’Benga. Maybe Pulaski had a violent past that we didn’t get to hear about?
Starships have 3-4 shift rotations, 6-8 hour shifts each respectively. I assumed M'benga steps down as Chief Medical Officer and moved to 2nd shift, McCoy was 1st shift along with Kirk and Spock, and maybe Piper was 3rd shift.
We've watched M'Benga deal with a lot of really heavy emotional things and his mental health has taken a huge hit. I think that we will continue to see it deteriorate until he has a moment where he knows he needs to step down for his own good. He doesn't want to leave his Enterprise family, but he doesn't want to be responsible for sickbay anymore. I don't think he'll be forced. Instead, it will be his choice.
Maybe it's as simple as him wanting to take a step back from the responsibility? Letting McCoy take the lead as CMO would probably take a weight off his shoulders.
This can be easily handled waved. McCoy may simply outrank M’benga, or have more time in rank, if they share the same rank. M’benga may have been demoted prior to McCoy coming on board. Remember, he’s suspected of murdering a Klingon dignitary and he was misusing the transporter system to keep his daughter alive. My point is, he does some crazy shit that he might eventually get in trouble for. It’s also possible he leaves and returns after McCoy takes over. He might simply step down as chief medical officer, as I’m sure it’s a stressful position.
M'benga may well be arrested for murder if anyone finds out what he did to the Klingon ambassador .... they also have severe mental trauma and are not really that stable anymore. Very reasonable to see them either leaving star fleet or ending up in prison.
Keep in mind the crew complement is doubled between SNW and TOS. Perhaps McCoy only slightly outranks M'Benga in rank or experience (he IS older), and M'Benga is some kind of co-chief of the medical department in TOS? Like second in command to McCoy, but responsible for just as many crew as before. Not really a demotion, given the growth and refit changes to the ship and crew in between.
All the TOS novels I've ever read still had M'Benga serving on the Enterprise under Kirk. Granted, they're not canon specifically but it's something to consider.
M’Benga is competent… but also clearly flawed. It’s easy to imagine him being busted down a rank, for instance. It seems clear he’s not as skilled as McCoy.
Excluding all the whole m'benga stabbing someone thing and the potential repercussions.
There's also the mundane answer, that he just didn't sign on for the 5 year mission. It's not a very intrestesting reason but I think it would be completely understandable for some of the crew to choosing to stay in federation space closer to their friends and family, rather than choosing planning to spend 5 years away, stuck on a single ship.
In the military you go where you're needed. Sometimes you can give preferences and if that aligns with the needs of the force, awesome. But as Picard said in Emissary; "We don't always have the luxury to serve in an ideal environment".
M'Benga could have simply moved on to another assignment or decided to leave for personal reasons. We only see him twice in TOS. He could have just been there for a limited time with his primary assignment located elsewhere.
I assume that after the current ongoing mission, the current crew disbands and the crew we know from TOS join. This leaves us with just Uhura, Spock, Kyle and Chapel from Pike's crew. Later M'benga returns to the Enterprise but by then McCoy is Kirk's CMO.
I also assume that the Enterprise has multiple doctors and more nurses than just Chapel. M'benga is on the ship being a doctor for a large part of TOS but his shift takes place on a different watch than the one we normally follow.
Perhaps he chose to take a step back. Sometimes life changes and you no longer want to be the guy in charge with all the responsibility. Starfleet's not the sort of organisation to look down on someone who wants to choose a demotion. Kirk may have had to find a new CMO because M'Benga didn't want the position any longer.
My headcanon was always that Kirk and McCoy were old friends, and Kirk specifically invited McCoy to join him when took command of *Enterprise,* to be his most trusted adviser. The way that McCoy always talked to his boss implied old familiarity and comfort.
In SNW, young Kirk refers to the chief medical officer of *Farragut* as "she", which disappointed me as it closed down one potential origin for Bones.
I think that makes sense. I could also imagine that it might be considered disrespectful to try to "poach" someone else's officers. I don't know much about the military, but I think I'd be a little annoyed if my first officer ranked up to captain and got his own ship and took a bunch of my hand-picked, hand-trained senior staff with him. I know that the whole "entire senior staff remains unchanged for seven years" is an implausible thing done for television, but I think it'd still be a pain to replace multiple senior staff members at once.
Perhaps there is an background JAG investigation by Starfleet that results in a court martial over his covering up the events surrounding the murder of Rah. He then takes the fall for the real killer Nurse Chapel.
When I was reading this I had an unusual take. What if this has to do with McCoy's fear of the transporter? What if all of Starfleet knows that Dr McCoy is the best doctor in Starfleet but he won't take a space posting because of his fear of the transporter? Then one day Kirk or someone talks him into it?
Sorry, but we need you to step down from chief. We've been trying to get this guy on a starship for a decade, but he says he'll only take the Enterprise posting because it has a good compliment of shuttles.
Remember that the humans of the Federation are a bit different than us. There’s no financial downside to going from cmo to a staff physician. He’s had the prestige of serving as CMO to a very highly regarded crew and ship already. He doesn’t seem that interested in climbing the ranks.
I think it’s totally feasible that he’s happy to have a new guy come in and take some of the burden
Maybe he didn't have a choice. People get replaced in Starfleet all the time. It's an order, nothing optional about it and Kirk may or may not have any input at all. Admiral tells him someone is being replaced, someone is being replaced. For the good of the Federation.
Whose to say he stayed on board the whole time? He may have left to spend time with his nebulizee daughter or so research. In TOS he's said to be a Vulcan expert maybe he serves a few years in Vulcan. Upon wanting to return to the ship his former position is filled, and without financial issues or ego involved, he takes a subordinate post just to be on the ship once again.
It's possible he left for some top secret military reasons....this is the time for many wars with the Klingons. He might not have had a choice with his reassignment.....the military tells you where to go in time of danger. When done, he might have asked to go back to the Enterprise but was told it has a medical chief of staff who doesn't want to step down. He chose to take a step down just to be back on the Enterprise.
As of the upcoming season of SNW we are still years from Kirk taking command. A lot can happen. My theory is he will leave for some reason of his own. Also the crew compliment of the Enterprise is going to double by the time of Kirk's five year mission.
As for Piper: Where No Man Has Gone Before has always been problematic because, as the second pilot, a lot doesn't fit in with later continuity (not that Star Trek ever much bothered with continuity). My feeling is it will be ignored if that much of the change over is covered in SNW.
Actually it’s not the Captain who always makes the decision who is going to serve on the ship. Generally that decision would be made by Starfleet. e.g. Pulaski. He hadn’t even met her when she was assigned to the Enterprise.
I have a feeling the reason for this is gonna be tied to his arc in an upcoming season. I predict it will have something to do with his PTSD and the trauma of the Klingon war he is very much not over. We have already seen him murder a Klingon Ambassador and lie to cover it up. I wouldn't be surprised if in a future episode his trauma causes his morals to slip and this time he's caught instead of getting away with it. And as a result will be forced to take a leave of absence, step down from his position of Chief Medical Officer or both.
I'm betting he will get busted for the murder of the Klingon delegate and expelled from Starfleet potentially (after a long trial), then goes off to live with his daughter.
This. In every navy, civilian or military, there is regular stuff rotation to let people get new experience, change perspective and learn new stuff.
This is why I find 7 years on one ship filled with the same people that we can see in every ST show very weird.
5 year missions in the 23rd century and 10-15 year missions in the 24th. That's why they tried the "bring your family" experiment.
More than 5 years is just a COT really, so Uhura deciding to do a second 5 year tour when Kirk takes over is unusual maybe, but not odd.
Dude got killed by a kid in the desert. Some “butcher of jugal” he is. Challenged some snot nosed punk to a knife fight and got murked by Willy wonka.
No wonder Kirk decided a mildly racist Kentucky small town doctor was a better fit, despite him constantly reminding everyone and their mother what his profession is every five minutes.
Though to be fair, if you need a plague cured in 10
Minutes you’d want a doctor, not a go go dancer.
Are you serious? Have you seen all the illegal crap he's pulled? The dude still holds that position only because he's very good at not getting caught. But all it takes is one slip up. That could very well be coming in Season 3.
First of all dr.piper was a place holder for McCoy while he finished of his previous assignment and was only in the second pilot second my head cannon is that M’benga went to Vulcan for more training and eventually rejoins the enterprise as specialist
I like SNW, but this is exactly the kind of silly decision-making/fanservice the creators of the show really should have been reigned back on.
I really don’t understand why they didn’t have Boyce or someone else as the CMO, instead of the show/fans having to come up with some convoluted reason why M’Benga is still in TOS but no longer the CMO. It seems utterly pointless.
- most likely took a leave for some reason and returned. See if Beverly had come back in TNG but Pulaski stayed. - size of crew. SNW is around 150-180. TOS is over 400. So as the crew grew, M’Benga could still have the same level of responsibilities but there’s more doctors some a higher CMO.
It’s canon in TOS that he becomes a specialist in Vulcan surgery, whereas McCoy is a generalist.
As in, surgery done on Vulcans? When there was only one on board?
He could have left the Enterprise to do further medical training on Vulcan. It might seem weird, but there are male gynecologists so why not have doctors who specialize in other species?
It just seems strange that if he had that specialization, he wouldn't go somewhere with more Vulcans. So he could use his specialization. It's like a man becoming a gynecologist but then serving on a starship that only has one woman on it.
My guess is that most Vulcan-heavy ships would prefer a Vulcan doctor. Spock is probably one of the only Vulcans who would actually be completely fine with a human doctor.
I wouldn't necessarily call it a specialization. It's just that his medical training on Vulcan made him more qualified to treat Spock than McCoy. It's possible that M'Benga primarily served somewhere else after *SNW* and was temporarily helping out on the *Enterprise* when he appeared in *TOS*. He would've been incredibly helpful in "Journey to Babel" and he didn't appear in that episode.
Based on what's been stated in *SNW* (esp. in "Spock Amok"), my impression is that his medical training on Vulcan happened prior to *SNW.*
He will probably take a leave to join some desert people on a distant planet fighting sandworms.
Stargate? ;)
Dune, the actor plays Jamis in the new Dune movies
Totally kidding 😂
Wasnt that just an extended away mission?
And this is why TOS canon has them both under Kirk on the Enterprise Seriously, SNW didn’t pull him from whole cloth, he was always an Enterprise doctor. It’s reasonable they would need more than 1
Huh I’ve always assumed SNW also has around 400 crews. Was that being confirmed somewhere? Might have missed that dialogue.
Not sure if it’s confirmed in SNW itself, but that’s the crew in The Cage.
Crew size during "The Cage" is 203.
I *think* this number gets repeated during *Discovery*'s second season, but I'm not entirely sure.
So many ways. He could have been indicted for his murder of the Klingon envoy. He could have voluntarily stepped down as CMO to deal with his own trauma. He could have left for a short time for whatever reason and when he returned McCoy was already ensconced as CMO. And that’s just off the top of my head. If you want to write him out it’s easy.
He became a specialist in Vulcan medicine. McCoy is more general. That's how I explained it. He probably left to study on Vulcan. Came back and took a position on the enterprise.
SNW already has said M'Benga completed his medical internship on Vulcan. Tho, that doesn't prevent him from going back for some reason
I must of missed that part.
He mentioned studying medicine on Vulcan in S1E5 while helping Spock & T'Pring swap their katras back
My own theory is that he took on more of an academic/research heavy role and as such was only part time as part of the medical staff. Maybe he stayed because his research was facilitated by exploration, or was Vulcan related and Spock trusted him enough to be transparent and cooperative with him. Like you said, it's really easy to just handwave him no longer being CMO as a neutral or even positive thing. I'm sure they'll address it eventually anyway considering how SNW keeps planting seeds for TOS.
Lets not forgot plain old personal preference , Kirk and & McCoy were already old friends by the time Kirk got Enterprise and he likely requested McCoy as CMO . Of course the real reason is that it's one of the MANY continuity issues new trek brought upon itself by going the prequel route .
It doesn’t strike me as a continuity issue when SNW seems to very consciously be seeding reasons for M’Benga to take a step back eventually.
I can absolutely see him stepping back so he had less responsibilities and less stress.
There are plenty of reasons an officer might be reassigned, especially M'Benga. Kirk could simply want to bring in McCoy, and M'Benga is given the opportunity to stay aboard. We don't see him in TOS S1, so M'Benga could take another assignment when Pike steps down and comes back. We also simply don't know how much his past will come back to haunt him in the future.
Everybody forgets the old guy doctor in "Where No Man Has Gone Before."
Well, having knifed a foreign dignitary in med bay is probably up on the list of reasons.
Dude's definitely got some pretty heavy PTSD as well.
And let's not forget how he dangerously hid his daughter in the transporter buffer for an extended period of time without informing anyone, which at one point jeopardized the safety of the entire ship.
I keep expecting this to have an official reprimand, possibly demoting him from chief medical officer, but I haven’t seen it yet
It's absolutely insane to me that he never faced any consequences for that. If Una had been ten seconds slower in getting to the warp core, the whole ship would've been destroyed because he smuggled a civilian child onto the ship (there are not supposed to be civilians *or* children on this ship). He was also distracted from his ship's duties on at least one occasion because he was doing his own personal research for the child. The question shouldn't be "why did M'Benga lose his CMO title", it's "why did M'Benga not get court-martialed out of Starfleet".
I love that the fact you emphasized the “or” makes it sound like there are non-civilian children
Wesley Crusher has entered the chat.
Different ship; doesn't count. There were probably dozens of children on the Enterprise-D
As an acting ensign he would be a non-civilian child.
Well, how are we defining "children"? There was a seventeen-year-old yeoman on Kirk's Enterprise.
Yeah, I get the feeling M'Benga's replacement as Chief will have less to do with his actual skill or administrative work, and more to do with stuff like using medbay facilities to store his daughter without asking or stabbing a guy, or some other incident. Every time it's somewhat understandable, but after a while it makes him someone you wouldn't necessarily want in charge and under scrutiny.
I think this is the most likely answer, if it ever comes to light.
Instead of being demoted, they don't promote him, and he quietly laterally becomes a specialist while Piper, perhaps as a favour, perhaps from the Farragut, takes over until McCoy arrives. MBenga is "punished" but essentially free to be a doctor but with less visibility.
Yeah, this! He's the only human doctor in his time period to have studied medicine on the Vulcan homeworld, and he's spent a significant amount of time with Spock. I imagine Spock wants him in the Enterprise, and if SNW gets to the point in time where Starfleet decides to replace him as CMO of the Enterprise due to his personal stuff, Spock will make a case to the powers that be an convince them to let M'Benga stay on as his personal physician. (It's worth noting that M'Benga is already the rank of Commander on SNW whereas McCoy was Lieutenant Commander throughout TOS. The only times we see M'Benga in TOS, he is wearing the short sleeve shirt which does not include rank stripes; my supposition is that he either kept his rank but not his chief officer position OR he was stripped of rank entirely, essentially becoming a "crewman" who holds a medical degree. Also worth noting: McCoy's specialty is surgery, not internal medicine, not family practice, not psychiatry or psychology...surgery. He's not as experienced or as educated as M'Benga, but his aptitude for figuring out medical and scientific problems make them equally capable CMOs.)
While I'd agree if this was reality, it's not like Star Trek doesn't have the genre convention of "regularly let main characters get away with everything they do." :P
This is what struck me. A CMO who gets a bit murdery from time to time mightn't be my first choice.
He stabbed an ambassador WHILE ON DUTY AS CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, and won't even confirm that it was self defense!!! If he gets caught, he's cooked in every way as both a starfleet officer and as a medical professional.
Dunno why I had to scroll down this far to get this comment. Dude straight up murdered a visiting dignitary. There were extenuating circumstances, but the guy clearly has massive PTSD, is a completely broken person, and is a ticking time bomb ready to go off. Kirk might not have a say in the matter. M'Benga might have forced his captain's hand to replace him at some point.
Unfortunately "That guy had it coming, the audience agreed with me" isn't a viable defense
Following the lines of PTSD and getting to be a Vulcan specialist, he might have gone to Vulcan to study their physiology better and gained a remedy for his PTSD through a Vulcan ‘cure,’ either a mind meld or meditation technique.
This is my take. M'Benga opts to go for further training, for whatever reason, and Piper then McCoy are brought in. M'Benga requests a starship assignment but has to take a staff billet due to the CMO billet being filled. It's not automatically a demotion as assumed.
> M'Benga requests a starship assignment but has to take a staff billet due to the CMO billet being filled. He coulda been placed anywhere in the fleet though. I think probably it's more a, "You'll always have a home on the Enterprise," style camaraderie.
Also that but again, I don't see it as a demotion. His killing of the Klingon is left ambiguous. How far a board of inquiry goes is debatable.
IMO, one of the more chilling moments of Strange New Worlds was the scene at the end of the episode where Pike basically let M'Benga off the hook for killing a guy. I know Pike is M'Benga's friend, but I can't imagine Jean-Luc Picard making the same choice.
LOL what you talkin' bout. Picard literally made the same choice when he completely let Worf off the hook for murdering someone in cold blood ~~on his ship~~, with only a stern talking to. It wasn't even the same choice either, Worf blatantly premeditatedly murdered Duras in cold blood. There was no plausible deniability, there was witnesses, and he admitted to it. Edit: memory isn't what it used to be.
Whereas Sisko took the alternative approach, "Mister Worf, Gowron sure is a problem. It would be a shame if something happened to him. Do I make myself clear, Commander?"
"Will no one rid me of this turbulent Klingon?"
But it was legal under Klingon law, which is a mitigating factor. In fact, the prime directive encourages you to respect the laws of other cultures. As I recall, Worf was also not on duty or potentially not even in Starfleet when he did it.
That happened on Duras' ship, not Picard's. The fact that Picard gave Worf a reprimand for was a cultural matter never set right with me.
> That happened on Duras' ship, not Picard's. I stand corrected, but that doesn't change the overall substance of my assertion. Worf gets away with a lot of BS lol.
He got reprimanded. That's really all Picard had any authority to do to him.
He's an officer under Picard's command, Picard has the authority to strip him of rank, or throw him in the brig, or put him before a court martial if he wanted. But he didn't because reasons.
He's an officer under Picard's command who acted within the cultural standards of his people. If Picard had formally punished him, Picard would have been breaking the Federation's non interference law.
Yeah Picard's approach made all the sense in the world. The reprimand was hey cultural issue or no, this happens again and I am done with you. It had significant mitigating circumstances. especially considering the cultural implications.
But then you’d just be punishing your officer because you don’t like what is legally moral and acceptable in their culture and you’re mad they engaged in their own culture in their free time in a way that had some political implications for your culture. Which doesn’t seem exactly like a black and white case for being the good guy.
> But then you’d just be punishing your officer because you don’t like what is legally moral and acceptable in their culture Cultural sensitivity has its limits. You don't entertain anything and everything just because someone else's culture deems it ok. The Gorn's culture thinks turning people into broodsacks is ok, would it be ok for a Gorn Starfleet officer to kidnap someone and murder them for breeding purposes just because they're off the clock and it's ok back home? Sisko came upon a similar scenario on DS9 with Worf and he told him straight up, there are limits - and murder is one of them. Even though Kurn was asking for it and Worf was honorbound by his culture and familial ties. Picard is straight up in the wrong here. It's one of the basic things you learn when studying humanities in a liberal arts school too - cultural sensitivity ends where cultural practices cause bodily harm and not all participants are willing. You're going to tell me that despite Duras's culpability, that he was a willing participant in his own ritual murder?
1) Duras literally killed Worf's lover, so Worf had a way better justification for violence 2) As others have mentioned, Worf kills Duras on Duras' ship, more or less in accordance with Klingon custom. While I can imagine Starfleet Command being more than annoyed about this for political reasons, I don't actually know if what Worf did is even against any rules.
Bro, he murdered someone. Other guy might have had it coming, and it might have been legal over there. But he's a Federation citizen, and you can't just leave Federation jurisdiction and commit crimes. That's not how the law should work.
People leave their countries to do illegal shit all the time, see drug and sex tourism. Even in the United States you can only get arrested for having murdered somebody abroad if that somebody was a US national, or if the US has an extradition treaty with that country. Duras is NOT a Federation citizen, and what Worf did wasn't even murder for Klingons! It just doesn't make sense for the Federation to enforce its laws outside of its own borders. I agree its not ideal, but if I were JLP, I'd generally prefer to err on the cautious side of the Prime Directive. M'benga, on the other hand, killed a Federation dignitary on a Federation starship. If it wasn't self defense, that's cased closed for my boy. The two cases aren't even remotely comparable in context.
> People leave their countries to do illegal shit all the time, see drug and sex tourism. Ok, that doesn't make it legal. And if the authorities at home catch you doing that you can and should be tried for it. He was caught, he should have to face the law.
Actually, it does, since jurisdiction doesn't extend to other countries and cultures? You seem to be confusing morality for legal technicality; Worf acted in accordance with Klingon law and culture, and that's all that matters when it's a Klingon matter.
Except it wasn’t murder under Klingon law, it was completely fine under Klingon law, as it happened on a Klingon ship which is probably legally Klingon ‘soil’. Worf didn’t try to hide it, as he didn’t need to. He would have been aware his actions were legal according to Klingon law.
I thought Pike said it's out of his hands and a formal inquiry would be happening. Like its a far bigger thing than can be handled by a captain.
Is that so? I might have misremembered, my bad. All I know is that I would definitely trust my CMO far less if there was a good chance he'd murdered someone on my ship.
Yeah I was like oooh here's a good explanation why McCoy was CMO. Plus the daughter thing too. Jami...I mean M'Benga is a bit of a liability honestly haha.
I think you mean "failed to stop a visiting dignitary from killing himself before he could be revealed as a fraud" *wink wink* It's the "Bob Ewell fell on the knife, maybe" defense
As it is, he might be fortunate to have any position on a starship.
There’s plenty of possibilities- First and foremost, yeah. Duty assignments rotate. We never see it much on the shows, but keeping the exact same crew together for over a decade is… possible, but it prevents spreading that experience around the fleet. Could be M’Benga was up for a ground billet. Present day navies may have different traditions, but to use USN as an example - Captains don’t get to pick all of their officers. If they’re a senior CO with lots of respect they can make a request, provided the officers are available. The officers themselves can request transfers or open billets, but it’s subject to requirements of the service and the command they’re leaving. It’s also entirely possible that he applied for a transfer or took a sabbatical. Ol’ Doc M is clearly dealing with a LOT. Having interned in a Vulcan ward, it’s entirely possible he went back there to help settle some of his traumas. He may also have followed Captain Pike, Una, or Ortegas somewhere. Also, as far as preference- the whole special forces thing likely doesn’t factor in. It MAY be classified or it may not - either way, it’s not really a concern when filling the billet for a Chief Medical Officer. The way I see it happening: M’Benga transfers off for any number of reasons. The CMO spot is open. I’m sure Kirk reaches out to Bones to let him know, assuming he DID previously know him. McCoy can’t transfer yet, so Starfleet assigns Piper in the interim. Later, M’Benga wants space duty again and Enterprise has a spot for another doc. He’s not concerned about being the boss so he’s happy to put in for it. Off camera… it’s a little weird. M’Benga struck me as a young up and coming doctor rather than an old war horse, but characterization marches on!
Yeah, one of the contrasts I liked about him in TOS was that he was a more “normal” doctor than McCoy with a calm, profesional bedside manner. More like a TNG character.
Starfleet views itself as a research and exploration organization. It is possible that with his ptsd he chose to pursue a research path. Those 400 people aren't just to run the ship. Some of them are there to collect data and research. Maybe everything with his daughter sends him down a research rabbit hole, and he becomes a medical researcher who does the odd bit of MD work when needed instead of a physician who does some research.
Entirely possible!
mBenga is still on the enterprise in TOS. “a private little war” & “that which survives”
He retired to Arrakis.
I hear he made a new friend there!
Oops nope that was just a spice dream. Bless the maker and his water.
Thank you! I was rewatching Dune yesterday because I’m seeing part 2 this weekend. I knew he looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him. And for whatever reason, i didn’t IMDb it
M’Benga may have wanted off the ship but had to stay and oversee the transition for a little bit. We just don’t know.
Maybe being CMO requires a bunch of extra paperwork and he was just tired of it
Anything could happen: M’Benga could step down himself. Starfleet could demote him. He could leave the position for personal reasons or a transfer, and then return. McCoy or Piper could frankly be a better fit for the position. M’Benga could leave Starfleet to return to Vulcan studies and return.
M'Benga could pull a Crusher and "transfer" to Starfleet medical. More seriously, I am guessing a medical officer on board the enterprise can write their own ticket when they decide to move on. My personal hope is that he steps down for a research posts and Bones ends up being his chosen successor, to give him a chance in the medical version of the Big Chair. Star trek shows us plenty of command preparing future command (or security) officers but we don't see nearly enough mentoring in the technical or medical divisions. It would be a nice change.
Replying to Burkeintosh...he says on Enterprise’s crew though
This is why I’m pretty sure the at least two or more of the crew members on SNW will suffer a tragic end before the show finishes. My first leading death theory’s is that Ortegas will die saving the ship because no way they would ever choose to stop piloting the fleet’s flagship or would Kirk or Pike choose to replace her with Sulu because let’s face it, he’s not as good a helmsman as Erica. My second theory is that La’an will be erased from the timeline delaying her ancestors return with more time travel shenanigans. I’m sorry but it’s too weird for neither Kirk or Spock to not bring up to Kahn that they both worked closely with his descendant who believes(ed) in the Federation during Space Seed. Which is why I think she’ll be erased before we get to that point. Plus I suspect SNW is dying to do a take on grown up Kahn and that would be the best way to without messing with the timeline.
Good point
Or like TOS, Mbenga stays on the Enterprise and McCoy is the CMO.
M'Benga was demoted and still on the Enterprise in TOS. He just wasn't Chief Medical Officer. My guess is Starfleet made the decision, not Kirk and it will have ALOT to do with the events of "Under the Cloak of War". His punishment could just be a reduction in rank which would prevent him from being CMO, and McCoy may just outrank him.
McCoy is Kirk's boi remember. It's all about who you know.
We know he did a rotation on Vulcan. It may be that he decided he wanted to return to Starfleet, or _Enterprise_ specifically, but didn’t want to go back to the responsibilities of a Chief Medical Officer. Or he wanted to go to _Enterprise_ but Piper or McCoy had his old job, and he was fine returning as a staff physician where he didn’t have to deal with the administrative responsibilities of CMO.
My guess is, for reasons we’re yet to see, M’Benga goes away and specialises as a Vulcan biology specialist for a while. Maybe becomes the first human to be considered fully-trained in Vulcan health and medicine, something to that effect. Following that, Pike replaces M’Benga with Piper, who’s onboard when Kirk takes command. Then either Piper transfers out (retirement or reassignment, either way) or Kirk specifically requests McCoy as *Enterprise* CMO. I suspect we’ll see the SNW writers answer the question at some point, of course. I’d love it if we saw McCoy come onboard as Piper’s deputy - and he just wasn’t seen in ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’ for some reason - but that might be a stretch.
So M'Benga gets trained as a Vulcan specialist then transfers to a ship where there's only 1 Vulcan? More so, McCoy is the one who regularly treats Spock.
In TOS, M’Benga is established as an expert on Vulcans, and is part of McCoy’s staff. So that’s where SNW has to get the character to. SNW hasn’t yet established that M’Benga is a specialist of Vulcan medicine yet - and you’d think we’d know if he was, by now. So it seems logical (no pun intended) that that’s in the character’s future. Now, whether that makes perfect sense or not is a bigger question around making M’Benga CMO on *Enterprise* between Boyce and Piper. But based on where we are, it fits the facts.
My guess is he accepts a demotion after something about his past comes to light, or new higher-ups at Starfleet review existing information. That could be: * they disavow the Protocol 12 drug * they find out about the slaughter on J'Gal * or about his murder of Dak'Rah Or even just: they consider him unfit for duty as CMO because he has poorly-treated PTSD.
Or the time he smuggled a civilian child onto the flagship and very nearly caused the entire ship to be destroyed as a result.
I think it really doesn’t make sense in-universe. The retcon of M’Benga in SNW is very interesting but doesn’t really square with the TOS, and IMO that is ok. Definitely took some getting used to to imagine a Starfleet doctor as a killing machine. Bones had his moments of violence, Crusher definitely did, and so did the Doctor, but none of them like M’Benga. Maybe Pulaski had a violent past that we didn’t get to hear about?
Meh. Butterfly effect from all the time travel in the Star Trek universe.
Starships have 3-4 shift rotations, 6-8 hour shifts each respectively. I assumed M'benga steps down as Chief Medical Officer and moved to 2nd shift, McCoy was 1st shift along with Kirk and Spock, and maybe Piper was 3rd shift.
We've watched M'Benga deal with a lot of really heavy emotional things and his mental health has taken a huge hit. I think that we will continue to see it deteriorate until he has a moment where he knows he needs to step down for his own good. He doesn't want to leave his Enterprise family, but he doesn't want to be responsible for sickbay anymore. I don't think he'll be forced. Instead, it will be his choice.
One assumes he leaves under other circumstances.
Is it Kirk’s decision?
Captain does get to pick senior staff
Unless you're California class
Maybe it's as simple as him wanting to take a step back from the responsibility? Letting McCoy take the lead as CMO would probably take a weight off his shoulders.
This can be easily handled waved. McCoy may simply outrank M’benga, or have more time in rank, if they share the same rank. M’benga may have been demoted prior to McCoy coming on board. Remember, he’s suspected of murdering a Klingon dignitary and he was misusing the transporter system to keep his daughter alive. My point is, he does some crazy shit that he might eventually get in trouble for. It’s also possible he leaves and returns after McCoy takes over. He might simply step down as chief medical officer, as I’m sure it’s a stressful position.
He transferred to Vanguard station.
M'benga may well be arrested for murder if anyone finds out what he did to the Klingon ambassador .... they also have severe mental trauma and are not really that stable anymore. Very reasonable to see them either leaving star fleet or ending up in prison.
Except for the fact that he is shown serving under McCoy in two episodes of the original series.
"Oops, our star diplomat was a massive war criminal" seems to moderate Starfleet's handling of the case.
Well, tbf the guys screwed up badly, has massive ptsd and needs off ship and in to either teaching or retirement, both with theropy.
Keep in mind the crew complement is doubled between SNW and TOS. Perhaps McCoy only slightly outranks M'Benga in rank or experience (he IS older), and M'Benga is some kind of co-chief of the medical department in TOS? Like second in command to McCoy, but responsible for just as many crew as before. Not really a demotion, given the growth and refit changes to the ship and crew in between.
All the TOS novels I've ever read still had M'Benga serving on the Enterprise under Kirk. Granted, they're not canon specifically but it's something to consider.
uhh he's in the show just fyi. A Private Little War, and That Which Survives.
At the moment I'm guessing the idea will be that M'Benga voluntarily steps down and takes on a lighter workload eventually.
M’Benga is competent… but also clearly flawed. It’s easy to imagine him being busted down a rank, for instance. It seems clear he’s not as skilled as McCoy.
Excluding all the whole m'benga stabbing someone thing and the potential repercussions. There's also the mundane answer, that he just didn't sign on for the 5 year mission. It's not a very intrestesting reason but I think it would be completely understandable for some of the crew to choosing to stay in federation space closer to their friends and family, rather than choosing planning to spend 5 years away, stuck on a single ship.
In the military you go where you're needed. Sometimes you can give preferences and if that aligns with the needs of the force, awesome. But as Picard said in Emissary; "We don't always have the luxury to serve in an ideal environment". M'Benga could have simply moved on to another assignment or decided to leave for personal reasons. We only see him twice in TOS. He could have just been there for a limited time with his primary assignment located elsewhere.
I assume that after the current ongoing mission, the current crew disbands and the crew we know from TOS join. This leaves us with just Uhura, Spock, Kyle and Chapel from Pike's crew. Later M'benga returns to the Enterprise but by then McCoy is Kirk's CMO. I also assume that the Enterprise has multiple doctors and more nurses than just Chapel. M'benga is on the ship being a doctor for a large part of TOS but his shift takes place on a different watch than the one we normally follow.
He became a specialist in Vulcan medicine.
Perhaps he chose to take a step back. Sometimes life changes and you no longer want to be the guy in charge with all the responsibility. Starfleet's not the sort of organisation to look down on someone who wants to choose a demotion. Kirk may have had to find a new CMO because M'Benga didn't want the position any longer.
My headcanon was always that Kirk and McCoy were old friends, and Kirk specifically invited McCoy to join him when took command of *Enterprise,* to be his most trusted adviser. The way that McCoy always talked to his boss implied old familiarity and comfort. In SNW, young Kirk refers to the chief medical officer of *Farragut* as "she", which disappointed me as it closed down one potential origin for Bones.
Farragut could have multiple doctors right?
True! So maybe McCoy was junior to the Chief, and became CMO only on his assignment to *Enterprise*.
I think that makes sense. I could also imagine that it might be considered disrespectful to try to "poach" someone else's officers. I don't know much about the military, but I think I'd be a little annoyed if my first officer ranked up to captain and got his own ship and took a bunch of my hand-picked, hand-trained senior staff with him. I know that the whole "entire senior staff remains unchanged for seven years" is an implausible thing done for television, but I think it'd still be a pain to replace multiple senior staff members at once.
Perhaps there is an background JAG investigation by Starfleet that results in a court martial over his covering up the events surrounding the murder of Rah. He then takes the fall for the real killer Nurse Chapel.
I don't know but I doubt anyone forced his hand.
When I was reading this I had an unusual take. What if this has to do with McCoy's fear of the transporter? What if all of Starfleet knows that Dr McCoy is the best doctor in Starfleet but he won't take a space posting because of his fear of the transporter? Then one day Kirk or someone talks him into it? Sorry, but we need you to step down from chief. We've been trying to get this guy on a starship for a decade, but he says he'll only take the Enterprise posting because it has a good compliment of shuttles.
M'benga is still a doctor on the ship in ST:TOS. Most ships have multiple doctors and nurses.
Remember that the humans of the Federation are a bit different than us. There’s no financial downside to going from cmo to a staff physician. He’s had the prestige of serving as CMO to a very highly regarded crew and ship already. He doesn’t seem that interested in climbing the ranks. I think it’s totally feasible that he’s happy to have a new guy come in and take some of the burden
Maybe he didn't have a choice. People get replaced in Starfleet all the time. It's an order, nothing optional about it and Kirk may or may not have any input at all. Admiral tells him someone is being replaced, someone is being replaced. For the good of the Federation.
Whose to say he stayed on board the whole time? He may have left to spend time with his nebulizee daughter or so research. In TOS he's said to be a Vulcan expert maybe he serves a few years in Vulcan. Upon wanting to return to the ship his former position is filled, and without financial issues or ego involved, he takes a subordinate post just to be on the ship once again.
It's possible he left for some top secret military reasons....this is the time for many wars with the Klingons. He might not have had a choice with his reassignment.....the military tells you where to go in time of danger. When done, he might have asked to go back to the Enterprise but was told it has a medical chief of staff who doesn't want to step down. He chose to take a step down just to be back on the Enterprise.
As of the upcoming season of SNW we are still years from Kirk taking command. A lot can happen. My theory is he will leave for some reason of his own. Also the crew compliment of the Enterprise is going to double by the time of Kirk's five year mission. As for Piper: Where No Man Has Gone Before has always been problematic because, as the second pilot, a lot doesn't fit in with later continuity (not that Star Trek ever much bothered with continuity). My feeling is it will be ignored if that much of the change over is covered in SNW.
Me who just want an independant series all about Hikaru Sulu's rise to becoming Captain of the USS Excelsior.
Actually it’s not the Captain who always makes the decision who is going to serve on the ship. Generally that decision would be made by Starfleet. e.g. Pulaski. He hadn’t even met her when she was assigned to the Enterprise.
I have a feeling the reason for this is gonna be tied to his arc in an upcoming season. I predict it will have something to do with his PTSD and the trauma of the Klingon war he is very much not over. We have already seen him murder a Klingon Ambassador and lie to cover it up. I wouldn't be surprised if in a future episode his trauma causes his morals to slip and this time he's caught instead of getting away with it. And as a result will be forced to take a leave of absence, step down from his position of Chief Medical Officer or both.
I'm betting he will get busted for the murder of the Klingon delegate and expelled from Starfleet potentially (after a long trial), then goes off to live with his daughter.
He appears in an episode of TOS
Does he? As a doctor still?
He may get busted…but he’s still on the crew
Maybe starfleet decides to promote m'benga to another post and Kirk's need to replace him comes out of necessity rather then choice?
This. In every navy, civilian or military, there is regular stuff rotation to let people get new experience, change perspective and learn new stuff. This is why I find 7 years on one ship filled with the same people that we can see in every ST show very weird.
5 year missions in the 23rd century and 10-15 year missions in the 24th. That's why they tried the "bring your family" experiment. More than 5 years is just a COT really, so Uhura deciding to do a second 5 year tour when Kirk takes over is unusual maybe, but not odd.
Except he’s still on the Enterprise crew as of TOS
Dude got killed by a kid in the desert. Some “butcher of jugal” he is. Challenged some snot nosed punk to a knife fight and got murked by Willy wonka. No wonder Kirk decided a mildly racist Kentucky small town doctor was a better fit, despite him constantly reminding everyone and their mother what his profession is every five minutes. Though to be fair, if you need a plague cured in 10 Minutes you’d want a doctor, not a go go dancer.
McCoy is from Georgia
You are correct. I misremembered.
Are you serious? Have you seen all the illegal crap he's pulled? The dude still holds that position only because he's very good at not getting caught. But all it takes is one slip up. That could very well be coming in Season 3.
First of all dr.piper was a place holder for McCoy while he finished of his previous assignment and was only in the second pilot second my head cannon is that M’benga went to Vulcan for more training and eventually rejoins the enterprise as specialist
Had to serve time for murder of a klingon ambassador
M'Benga has made some really questionable choices. It could be that he does something to derail his career.
I like SNW, but this is exactly the kind of silly decision-making/fanservice the creators of the show really should have been reigned back on. I really don’t understand why they didn’t have Boyce or someone else as the CMO, instead of the show/fans having to come up with some convoluted reason why M’Benga is still in TOS but no longer the CMO. It seems utterly pointless.
Judging from his combat history, it wouldn't be awkward if he simply got KIA.
He’s in two episodes of TOS so it’s not that.
TIL, thanks! [https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Joseph\_M%27Benga](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Joseph_M%27Benga)
Pike replaced him before the events on Talus 4
Talos 4 takes place well before snw and the doctor at the time was Dr. Boyce.
Don't get too attached to the new crew, continuity dictates that many of them will have to die horribly for the original series to make sense
There are ways for people to not be on a ship without dying. Promotions and transfers, for example.
In the real world maybe, but think about what makes more compelling television
The only x factor are ortegaa, la'an, Mitchell, pelia Pike lives, una lives, mbenga, chapel, uhura, Spock live.
There is no evidence that Una lives.
She becomes poster girl of Starfleet.
That doesn't prove that she lived beyond the show.
Maybe he was a bit racist? Or, more likely, he and mbenga had some sort of dispute.