‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Team Talks Chapel & M’Benga Fighting, Pelia’s Boredom & More

Where No One Has Gone Before

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 premiere “The Broken Circle.”]

The healers become fighters in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 premiere and show that they’re a great team on and off the Enterprise, in and out of sickbay.

Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) and Dr. M’Benga (Babs Olasunmokun) are among those who leave the Enterprise to help La’an (Christina Chong) after they receive a distress signal; Spock (Ethan Peck), as acting captain with Pike (Anson Mount) off ship trying to help Una (Rebecca Romijn) goes against orders. And, in the course of dealing with some Klingons looking to restart the war (peace is not good for business, primarily profit), Chapel and M’Benga end up having to fight themselves out of trouble.

“It was so fun,” Bush raves to TV Insider. “That was the most fun ever. I think by the end of the episode, Babs and I were both just like, ‘We need a massage. We need a holiday.’ [We were] just like kids in a candy store, rolling around.”

Olasunmokun agrees, adding, “lots of stunt rehearsals and all of that, that’s how it goes. And yeah, we had a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun. We kicked a lot of ass, threw a lot of people around.”

Michael Gibson/Paramount+

It’s the history that the two share that make them such a great team. “We’ve been through a lot together and have been each other’s safety for a long time,” Bush notes. “And so we really understand what the other person needs without having to say it on an emotional level — and then also in an action sense.”

And we’ll get more about that history, Olasunmokun reveals. “You will find out the circumstances under which they met,” he says. “Some of that will be answered, but the place they came from, the origin of their history is quite interesting.”

While Spock does go against Admiral April’s (Adrian Holmes) orders to help La’an, he is, as Commodore Tafune puts it, let off easily. That’s because, April tells him, he kept them from potentially having to defend two fronts at the same time, even if they don’t know it. If a war happens, they’re going to need every officer they get. The map in front of them then shows a Gorn attack ship.

So how much of the season is about that threat versus stand-alone adventures? “The only thing I can say with certainty is you will see the Gorn again,” executive producer Henry Alonso Myers teases.

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The premiere also introduced Carol Kane‘s Pelia, who is inspecting the Enterprise when their unsanctioned mission begins and tags along. As is revealed, she is Lanthanite, who offers to fill the chief engineer hole (after Hemmer’s death last season) and remarks that the worst thing about living forever is the boredom — which she knows she won’t have with this crew.

Kane knew “very little” about Pelia when she joined the series. “When they first asked me to come aboard, as it were, I hadn’t even read anything,” she shares. “But I was just thrilled. And then the more I found out about this backstory, the happier I was. They explained to me — which makes total emotional sense to me, Carol — that being asked to be on the ship, that alleviated the boredom for me because I’m with all those people and having to deal with the crises that come up.”

Considering how many people she’s met along the way, what does Pelia think of this crew? “I want them to just fall in line. I know better,” Kane says with a laugh. “I mean, I like them, but clearly I know more.”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Thursdays, Paramount+