Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Cast Breaks Down The Season's Most Emotional Moment
The latest episode of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," called "Under the Cloak of War," is all about unresolved trauma, violence, and wrath. In the episode, Dr. M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) and Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) recall the all-too-recent Klingon War and the horrible things they had to do during it. The two were both stationed at a remote outpost that was under constant bombardment. They regularly received injured soldiers to treat, but had no resources to treat them. Dr. M'Benga had taken to storing injured people inside a transporter buffer for extended periods, hoping to beam them out and treat them when the situation wasn't so dire. Before long, both he and Chapel realize that's not entirely practical.
The flashbacks are paired with a story of a visiting Klingon defector named Dak'Rah (Robert Wisdom). It seems that Dak'Rah led a brutal campaign at the very site where M'Benga and Chapel were stationed, and they both resent, fear, and aim to punish the Klingon. Dak'Rah, meanwhile, has devoted his post-war life to peace and diplomacy, trying to put his crimes behind him. Dr. M'Benga is not about to let Dak'Rah off the hook, and may have a few violent secrets of his own; recall that the doctor has access to a secret drug that turns its users into violent kill machines for a few minutes.
In a roundtable interview with Bush and Olusanmokun conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike began, /Film's own Vanessa Armstrong asked about the most intense moments of "Strange New Worlds" to date, and both actors cited "Under the Cloak of War" as the most difficult episode yet. They admired that their characters were given additional dimension; the ordinarily professional and oftentimes twinkling Dr. M'Benga, in particular, was given moments of depth, horror, and, most importantly, vulnerability.
The hard stuff is best
Bush admitted that, as an actor, the most fun one can have is when one is stretching. In her view, a dark, difficult character moment will be more satisfying to play than, say, something light and whimsical.
"I think as a performer myself, the ones that are the most challenging emotionally are the ones that are most enjoyable, actually. It's where there's the most to be found artistically and there's a lot of that in ['Under the Cloak of War']. I loved doing [this episode] with Babs. It was one of my favorites from the entire two seasons. And working with Jeff Byrd, he's incredible. He's really ... he's an actor's director. He's really, really, really wonderful. And I think he made us both feel really safe to find the truth of that episode. Yeah, I think that stretched me and stretched Chapel a lot, that experience."
Byrd is a TV director whose career started back in the 1990s with music videos for acts like Xscape, Shug, and Naughty By Nature. He also previously helmed an episode of "Star Trek: Discovery."
Olusanmokun agrees with Bush that "Under the Cloak of War" was the most intense, most emotional episode he worked on. The episode's climax involves a dark confession from his character, as well as a shocking act of violence that is out-of-character for "Star Trek." Most importantly, though, Olusanmokun appreciated the scene's dark emotional truth. He said:
"I would say likewise. Discovering or revealing the vulnerability of a character is ... There's always something and it's always a challenge, but revealing it truthfully is also a bigger challenge. And if one can get to it, if one can make something of it, it is very rewarding. Yeah, it is a part of the work that I embrace very much also."
'It felt epic'
At the time of the interview, Olusanmokun and Bush were sworn to secrecy about the content of "Under the Cloak of War" as well as several other episodes that hadn't yet aired. As such, they weren't allowed to discuss particular plot details. This was, naturally, quite frustrating, as they could only discuss character moments in the abstract. Bush, for instance, said that Nurse Chapel reveals several moments of "pure joy," a description which could refer to multiple moments.
Thankfully, Olusanmokun was at least able to allude to "Under the Cloak of War," the season's eighth episode, and the climax therein. He knew his character would have to reveal horrendously violent thoughts, leaving the actor in a much more exhilarating place. When asked what his favorite moment to dive into was, he said:
"[P]erhaps somewhere in episode eight. I can't reveal much of it, but somewhere in there, there was a moment where I was like, 'Okay, this is going much deeper.' It felt epic, should I say? And I hope that was captured, or I hope that is what you then see on screen. But it felt epic as we made a good chunk of episode eight, for me personally."
As of this writing, only two episodes remain unaired in the second season of "Strange New Worlds." One of them will be a musical called "Subspace Rhapsody." Perhaps that will incorporate the "pure joy" that Bush alluded to.