One of the greatest strengths of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is the way it honours the franchise’s legacy while finding new depths in characters fans thought they already knew. Some, like Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, arrive with decades of expectation attached to their name. Others, like Dr. Joseph M’Benga, have been transformed from little more than a footnote in The Original Series into one of the franchise’s richest and most compelling figures.
As the Enterprise embarks on another season of strange new worlds, emotional reckonings and impossible missions, our Peter Gray spoke with Martin Quinn and Babs Olusanmokun to discuss stepping into the weight of Star Trek history, how Scotty and M’Benga continue to evolve through wisdom as much as intellect, and why hope remains one of the most powerful forces aboard the Enterprise.
I feel like Star Trek often says that intelligence is a superpower, and watching these two characters it feels like wisdom might be an even bigger one. What have they each had to unlearn to become the people that they are now?
Babs Olusanmokun: That’s a good question.
Martin Quinn: I mean, I think Scotty has always tried, up until now, to push people away and do everything on his own, because he’s had to. A lot of that comes from what happened on the Stardiver, his previous ship, when he let someone else take responsibility for something and it all went wrong. Because of that, he stopped trusting other people, and that’s what’s kept him alive until now.
However, he’s got to kind of unlearn that in order to survive. He needs to ask for help. That was the big lesson in Season 3, and in Season 4 he’s got some more lessons to learn that involve reaching out for help.
Babs Olusanmokun: Yeah, and for me, I’d say hope. I think he’s he’s learning to hold on to hope, to optimism, to hold on to the light, really.
I feel like M’Benga has seen almost every kind of horror imaginable, whilst Scotty approaches impossible situations with curiosity. Do you feel they almost secretly envy something about the other person?
Martin Quinn: I suppose they’re similar in some ways, yeah. Someone said earlier, “I’m the doctor of the Enterprise.”
Babs Olusanmokun: Yeah, you’re the doctor of the ship. Of the machine.
Martin Quinn: Yeah, and I’m never quite as calm as M’Benga. It would probably be good if I could learn from that.
Babs Olusanmokun: Because you’re in a different moment in your journey, but it’s the same dynamic. I think that’s really cool. You’re the doctor of the machine. You heal the machine.
Martin Quinn: Yeah, that’s true. I’ve got to resuscitate the machine constantly. Hopefully, with time and the journey that Scotty’s about to go on, he will become a little bit closer to M’Benga and (the) confidence in his abilities.
Because Scotty arrives carrying decades of audience affection already, and M’Benga is a character you’ve largely defined yourself, Babs. Did either of you feel the weight of expectation in opposition ways?
Babs Olusanmokun: No. Initially it was really just to serve. Yes. I should say yes. In all respect to the fact that this character had been on two episodes, and I now had the sense of responsibility of now really giving him life for a longer form. The weight of that responsibility was there. But in terms of an audience having opinions about the character, it was to a lesser degree for me. I could form and shape something that ultimately very few people could say (that’s not the character). I had that privilege. For Martin, it’s quite different.
Martin Quinn: Yeah, it’s different. For the most part, people have been really positive and wanted to see what Scotty’s like when he was younger. I think it’s hard because a lot of people love the character so much, so they have their own idea in their head of who he should be and how he should be. Living up to people’s expectations has been quite tricky. I suppose I did feel that pressure a bit, but I think it was written so well that the pressure was kind of off me and I discovered so much about him.
I feel like he’s slowly becoming James Doohan (from The Original Series), and it’s great that I didn’t start off there. Do you know what I mean? It’s kind of padded out the world in that sense, and there was less to worry about than I kind of initially thought. It’s hard to please everyone, but I think they will be happy by the end.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 premieres its first episode on Paramount+ on July 23rd, 2026, with each subsequent episode airing weekly before the season finale on September 24th.
