When Dr. M'Benga becomes Chief Medical Officer on Strange New Worlds, he joins the proud legacy of Star Trek Doctors aboard the Starship Enterprise.
With Dr. M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) joining Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, he becomes the latest doctor to serve as Chief Medical Officer on the USS Enterprise in Star Trek. In addition, Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) will return in Star Trek: Picard season 3. The various Starship Enterprises now boast 8 doctors (including two versions of Dr. Leonard McCoy) who are among the finest physicians in the history of Starfleet.
The Chief Medical Officer is a crucial crew member aboard a starship, especially one as prone to encounter all manner of bizarre phenomena as the USS Enterprise. Most incarnations of the Starship Enterprise were assigned five-year (or ongoing) missions into deep space to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and boldly go where no one has gone before. As such, the Enterprise's doctor needs to be the very best Starfleet Medical has to offer. The Chief Medical Officers who served aboard the flagship of the United Federation of Planets in Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Star Trek: Enterprise are also among the most popular characters in the franchise, and they have inspired many in the real world to pursue the field of medicine and become doctors themselves.
Of the starships named Enterprise, which includes the NX-01, the Constitution-class NCC-1701/refit/and 1701-A, and the Enterprise-D and E, only the Enterprise-B and Enterprise-C didn't canonically establish who their Chief Medical Officers were. The Excelsior-class Enterprise-B only made one appearance in Star Trek Generations but there was no doctor aboard its maiden flight. The Ambassador-class Enterprise-C's lone appearance was in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Yesterday's Enterprise," but there was no ship's doctor seen. Interestingly, the 23rd-century USS Enterprise under the commands of Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter/Anson Mount) and Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) rotated four doctors, the most of any incarnation of the Enterprise.
Star Trek: Enterprise's Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley) is, chronologically, the first Chief Medical Officer of the first Starship Enterprise. The NX-01 Enterprise commanded by Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) was the first Warp 5-capable Earth spaceship to explore the galaxy. The Denobulan Dr. Phlox was one of the few aliens aboard, along with the Vulcan Science Officer, T'Pol (Jolene Blalock). Dr. Phlox was an eccentric physician who liked to utilize live alien species as part of his medical practice and he kept a menagerie of beasts in his Sickbay. Dr. Phlox was also a caring and deeply moral doctor who was an invaluable member of the NX-01 Enterprise's crew.
The first doctor ever cast in Star Trek, Dr. Phil Boyce (John Hoyt) made his lone appearance in the original Star Trek pilot, "The Cage." Boyce was the Chief Medical Officer of the USS Enterprise commanded by Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) in 2254 when they encountered the telepathic aliens of Talos IV. An older, wiser man, Boyce was physician, counselor, and bartender to Captain Pike, traits that would later be adapted by future Star Trek doctors. The character of Dr. Boyce was dropped when NBC opted to reshoot the pilot for Star Trek but he later appeared in the TOS season 1 two-parter, "The Menagerie."
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds reintroduces Dr. M'Benga as the Chief Medical Officer of the USS Enterprise commanded by Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount). Serving alongside M'Benga in the Enterprise's Sickbay is Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush). Both M'Benga and Chapel will reappear in Star Trek: The Original Series. Nurse Chapel (Majel Barrett) will continue aboard the Enterprise under Captain Kirk's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) while Dr. M'Benga (Booker Bradshaw) appears in the TOS episodes "A Private Little War" and "That Which Survives." But in Strange New Worlds, M'Benga relishes being the Chief Medical Officer of the flagship of Starfleet, and because he conducted his medical internship on Vulcan, his presence is invaluable to Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck).
Dr. Mark Piper (Paul Fix) made his lone appearance in the second Star Trek: TOS pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Ultimately, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry wanted a younger doctor and reconceived the role into DeForest Kelley's Dr. Leonard McCoy. Confusingly, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" was aired several weeks after the first Star Trek episode broadcast, "The Man Trap," because the pilot episode needed extra time for its visual effects to be completed. This created an odd experience for Dr. Piper suddenly appearing in Star Trek instead of Dr. McCoy, with the uniforms and characterizations of characters like Spock (Leonard Nimoy) being different and unrefined.
Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy is one of the most beloved Doctors in Star Trek history and he truly set the tone for every physician in Star Trek to follow. Bones was a surgeon who also kept a side gig as Captain Kirk's bartender and Spock's philosophical rival. For 27 years, McCoy served as the Chief Medical Officer on Kirk's Enterprise throughout Star Trek: The Original Series and the six Star Trek movies starring the original cast, which makes Bones the Enterprise's longest-tenured doctor. In the 24th century, Admiral McCoy came aboard the USS Enterprise-D in the pilot of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Encounter at Farpoint."
In the alternate Kelvin timeline of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies, a younger Dr. Leonard McCoy (Karl Urban) came aboard the USS Enterprise in 2258 as Chief Medical Officer, along with Starfleet Cadet James T. Kirk (Chris Pine). McCoy watched as Kirk rapidly rose to become Captain of the Enterprise as they defeated the time-traveling Romulan, Nero (Eric Bana). McCoy, who got the nickname "Bones" because his wife took everything in their divorce and all that was left him were his "Bones," remained the Enterprise's CMO in Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond. Urban's Bones is expected to return in the upcoming Star Trek 4.
Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) was Chief Medical Officer on the USS Enterprise-D for six seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation and four TNG movies, where she moved on to the Enterprise-E starting with Star Trek: First Contact. Gates McFadden left TNG in season 2 so that Dr. Crusher could head up Starfleet Medical but she returned the following year. Beverly is a dear friend (and love interest) of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and she is the mother of Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton). On TNG, Dr. Crusher's duty was to oversee the medical health of the thousand-plus passengers aboard the Enterprise-D. Beverly also had expertise in treating the android Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner). Last seen in Star Trek: Nemesis, the popular Dr. Crusher makes her long-awaited live-action return in Star Trek: Picard season 3, but Gates provided Beverly's voice when Crusher appeared in Star Trek: Prodigy.
Dr. Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur) replaced Dr. Beverly Crusher as Chief Medical Officer of the USS Enterprise-D in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2. Dr. Pulaski clashed with the Enterprise crew, and Captain Picard, in particular, in ways that made her unpopular with viewers. Pulaski was also unkind towards Data (mispronouncing his name) because she disliked technology. Ultimately, Pulaski and Diana Muldaur proved to be a poor fit for TNG. With a behind-the-scenes changing of the guard, Pulaski was dropped from the series and Gates McFadden returned to TNG as Dr. Beverly Crusher.
Known for his standard greeting, "Please state the nature of your medical emergency," the Emergency Medical Hologram (Robert Picardo) was the Chief Medical Officer of Star Trek: Voyager's USS Voyager but the EMH became standard issue in Starfleet ships and was installed in the USS Enterprise-E. The EMH made a surprise appearance in Star Trek: First Contact when Dr. Beverly Crusher activated him to distract the Borg while she and her patients evacuated Sickbay. The EMH would later appear on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the episode, "Dr. Bashir, I Presume?" when the EMH's creator, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman came aboard DS9 in order to design the Long-term Medical Hologram (LMH) after Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig).
