‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’: Babs Olusanmokun on M’Benga’s Calming Presence in Film Noir Episode

“It was incredible,” Babs Olusanmokun raves of the film noir episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. It certainly looks that way onscreen, too. M’Benga, Una (Rebecca Romijn), and Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) find themselves on a Klingon-operated planet, having to pretend to be people they’re not, and the doctor ends up feeling very much like a calming presence. TV Insider spoke with Olusanmokun about that and more. Warning: Spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 4 ahead!

The Paramount+ series has done a good job of showing and telling us about M’Benga’s history with the Klingons, and here, that means he knows when to take a step back and the advice to offer Uhura as she’s put in an entirely new situation, one in which she must pretend to be someone else — and in the worst place possible — all while Una is busy pretending to be her doppelgänger, a double agent who’s working for the resistance while gathering intel as a “collaborator.”

“He had to be on his toes because he’s got Una, who’s got quite a bit of experience, but then it was this thing of being super alert and guiding Uhura through these moments, these moments that could set things off,” Olusanmokun explains. “It was the idea of coaching her through this like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, careful there,’ and without being able to speak loudly or anything like that, just with a look, with just a touch. I love those. I love those moments, just really being careful. You’re in disguise essentially. You’ve got to operate in disguise because if things go wrong, you’re not going back home. So, it was the sort of suspense of it, the danger element was something to play with and it was beautiful.”

Jan Thijs/Paramount+

He also raves about working with Gooding on this episode. “That was really enjoyable, exploring that relationship and wanting to work more with Celia and she in turn,” he says. “It was really wonderful to have that.”

To us, it felt like M’Benga is more of a stable, composed force in this episode, and Olusanmokun agrees. “He’s the person we know has had some experience,” he notes. “So, for him, alone, he knows what he’s doing, but now he’s got to take care of Uhura, [and] it’s a whole different ballgame.”

But he knew that Uhura could handle it, as we see her doing — after she’s taken into custody, she not only makes it through the Klingon’s questions but she also, after, uses her language skills to pick up key information about a planned attack before she’s released.

“Uhura is smart,” says Olusanmokun. “She’s smart, she’s sharp. So I knew if I could just settle her down, she would find her way. Of course, nothing is guaranteed, but if somebody could learn in the moment, it was her.”

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Visually, this episode is stunning, and Olusanmokun tells TV Insider that he was “blown away” when he first stepped on set and walked into the salon that had been built on the AR Wall.

“Rebecca and I looked at each other and it was like, ‘What the?'” he shares. “Every morning before we start filming, there’s a safety meeting and everything, and I had to use part of that meeting to just shout out the art production and production crew big time because they had created this incredible set, incredible world, just looking at the curtains and the sofas, and just built this world that I couldn’t wait to sit in. And it’s just like, ‘We could shoot this in that corner over there.’ And the director being like, ‘Oh, maybe we just move it to that.’ It was just gorgeous. They had laid out the world for us and we just needed to step onto it. I was just deeply, deeply touched by the artistry right in front of me.”

At one point, M’Benga remarks that it’s odd they haven’t encountered their doppelgängers before after they learn of Una’s. In Olusanmokun’s mind, M’Benga’s would be “the opposite” of the doctor. “Probably he’s got glasses. Probably he’s a bit more geeky and addicted to some sort of soda that M’Benga would never drink,” he says with a laugh.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Thursdays, Paramount+