The second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds should be wrapping production soon and we have been getting a few hints about what is in store, and now a couple of actors are dropping more hints.
Klingons and M’Benga
In his appearance on the latest episode of The Ready Room, Babs Olusomokun talked about what is in store for Dr. M’Benga in season two and he dropped this clue:
What we’ll see in the next season–that we are already shooting–is essentially exploring another side of Dr. M’Benga… a darker side of him. We can say [it’s] an exploration of his… contentious relationship with the Klingons.
Klingons have yet to appear on Strange New Worlds and while Olusomokun doesn’t come out and say that we will see them in season two, it is certainly implied. Klingons have been mentioned a few times, including by Captain Pike, who interacted with Klingon Chancellor L’Rell during season two of Star Trek: Discovery, and it was on a Klingon planet where he learned his future fate. While Pike and the USS Enterprise did not participate in the Klingon War, it’s likely members of the crew are veterans of the war, and this could be the source of the contention with Dr. M’Benga.
Klingons were introduced in Star Trek: The Original Series as recurring villains and stand-ins for Cold War adversaries. They have since become ubiquitous for the franchise and were a major part of the first season of Discovery, but they have not been seen in live-action since the second season finale. While mentioned, they haven’t shown up in the two seasons of Discovery set in the 32nd century, nor have there been any Klingons seen in the first two seasons of Picard, although Worf will be appearing in season three.
Kenneth Mitchell as Tevanik and Anson Mount as Captain Pike in Star Trek: Discovery
While the latest episode of Strange New Worlds appeared to wrap up M’Benga’s storyline with curing his daughter, M’Benga also hinted there could be more to that story as well. The actor told The Hollywood Reporter:
So, what we think is resolved, I wouldn’t say is resolved. It is an ongoing and living situation. He carries that. And in season two, he is carrying that. Even if it is not present on the surface, it is present within. So, I guess what I am trying to say is I can’t tell you that we wouldn’t come back to it in some fashion.
Babs Olusanmokun as M’Benga
More hype for season 2
Also talking up the next season is Melissa Navia (Ortegas), who told TVFanatic:
We’re almost wrapped. We’re just going right toward the end, to the very finish. We’re filming every day… and somehow some of the most incredible scenes are yet to come. I know them from the script, but we still have to film them. It doesn’t matter. Every episode is fantastic, and I think Season 2 may be even better than Season 1 if that’s possible.
She had similar hype in her chat with Cinemablend:
Season 2 we’re gonna go to places that you just didn’t expect, couldn’t expect, but you’re gonna be really happy that we did. People are already talking about Season 3 and like my head is just trying to wrap its head around Season 2, we’re like barreling toward the end. We have some of the biggest scenes we’ve filmed yet, especially for me, to come still. So, very exciting.
Christina Chong added to the hype in a discussion with Deadline, saying:
If you enjoyed Season 1, Season 2 takes it to a whole other level. I mean, we’re getting scripts in and completely in awe of everything Henry and Akiva have created… If you loved Season 1, you’re absolutely going to go crazy over Season 2!
Christine Chong as La’an and Melissa Navia as Ortegas
Find more Star Trek: Strange New Worlds articles.
Which Klingons?
Seeing a TOS style Klingon, even if it was a quick background glimpse, would make me happy. Just acknowledge that we have a variety of looks for the species.
I don’t really think that’s necessary. Do we need to see a TOS-style Constitution-class alongside the re-designed one when they are at starbase?
Productions evolve, I think it’s easier just to accept that (and very often to enjoy it).
The difference there is that Klingons, presumably, aren’t drawn on blueprints. It’s the Klingon Empire, and, despite their authoritarian nature, empires are usually more diverse than they would like to admit. If they’ve been out there conquering worlds for centuries, then it’s only natural to show some variation from all those different worlds and races. It was like that for the Romans, the Greeks, the Mongols, etc. Why not the Klingons too?
Might I add that Shakespeare, too, was a Klingon? That’s diversity, folks. ;-)
I wouldn’t mind if the last scene in Strange New Worlds is a view of the Enterprise, after another refit, looking just like the one Kirk drove around in TOS. Just sayin’.
I really really hope not.
I’d love to get your rationale on why you hope not.
Mine to go for it is: it would smooth out visual continuity differences without the need to use age-old sets, and a big refit prior to TOS is even consistent with Admiral Morrow’s comment in TSFS that the “Enterprise is 20 years old”…
Alternatively, they could ignore TOS’s visuals and go for a remake after SNW. But I think this is (1) risky, and (2) unnecessary. To just show an exterior shot of the Enterprise at the end of SNW as Kirk’s ship (similar to what we had in the ENT finale) would work out fine for me and would reinforce the illusion of continuity — something that has been sustaining Star Trek for more than half a century. (And yes, it is much more an illusion of continuity than real continuity. But it worked so far, and it could work again.)
You’ve answered your own question here. Continuity is an illusion.
I agree with Tiger 2 on this one, sorry. This was always a visual reboot or re-interpretation of TOS, and it makes no sense at this stage to downgrade the ship (including its conceptual size) in an ill-advised attempt to make the continuity fit. I frankly wish they’d stuck closer to the TOS aesthetic as with the redressed sets used on Discovery, but at least the bridge and Sickbay are reasonable upgrades to the original designs, and in any case, it is what it is.
Agreed.
I never liked the term “visual reboot”. It feels like the chicken sh!t way out of committing to what it really is. A full on “reboot”. One could update the ship some to make it work for modern audiences but that doesn’t make it a “visual reboot”. It’s just an update. But ignoring the established history from TOS… That DOES make it a full on reboot. No matter what other little details they lucked out in getting right.
I was going to respond but Micheal Hall already said what I was going to say lol. But that’s it in a nutshell. It’s already been updated and this is a visual reboot, which is the main point. It looks a bit different now because it simply IS different now, some fans just have to accept that reality. It at least looks like it fits the TOS aesthetics and that’s really enough.
The thing with the “scorch”, the last remaining piece of the original hull, seemed intended to communicate that the Enterprise has repeatedly undergone major refits that have left little of the original 2245 ship behind.
Though I also don’t think we’ve ever seen it in that launch configuration. If they were ever to show a flashback to Captain April, it could be fun to imagine what that might have been like.
It’s eminently silly to enshrine date set design and FX from the 1960s as the standard for all time.
Yeah, nothing would make my day then seeing a spaceship with visible plywood and 2×4’s….
Lol, I was thinking the same thing
or with suspended in space by fishing line…
And not only that, the last ep should be presented in 1.33:1 aspect ratio and have 325 lines of resolutions image quality.
That would certainly help. But it wouldn’t erase the other things they screwed up.
The TOS Klingon appearence have already been explained and is part of canon: they used genetic engineering to make themselves look more like human in order to camouflage themselves.
So it would be cool to actually see some Klingons changing themselves from DIS/TNG-like appearance to the TOS-like appearance in SNW s2 :D
Agreed. Changing the look of the Klingons is a production tradition in Star Trek. It shouldn’t have any relation to canon, an no, we don’t need any more fan service pandering retcon eps like that Enterprise cluster-F augment virus BS ep.
While I agree the Affliction-Divergence Enterprise episodes were not needed at least they presented a plausible in-universe explanation for it. Something the current creators don’t seem to have a clue about.
Going down that road, we would need a new ep that explained the use of plywood in the interior structure of TOS-E, and then another ep to explain why the warp nacelle intake’s use of spinning lights was inconsistent, and then a third ep to explain why the parts of the Enterprise that fired the photon torpedo’s and phasers kept changing — and these new retcon eps would need to explain why the future E’s abandoned these odd, but nevertheless standard practices of the original E.
If you want to go down that road then explain how a planet surface is not really a planet surface but rather a wrap around video screen? And they are still using plywood to make the ship, too.
I find it ridiculous to rip on production values when the stories themselves are reasonably consistent.
You just validated my point — thanks!
No, I didn’t. I pointed out how absurd your reply to my post was. You didn’t seem to understand.
Except that we have an in-universe explanation for the different looks. Enterprise went all out and gave us the full before-and-after picture.
I’m not against changing the look of things to keep up with changes in production capabilities. The Motion Picture pretty much changed the whole look of TOS in 1979.
But changing established stories is another thing for me. Trek previously acknowledged the change in Klingons and how we got the human-looking ones. It’s Trek history. It hurts no one to do a callback and acknowledge it.
If memory serves, ST:Picard also implied the reason Romulans look different between TOS and TNG is because they’re from different regions of Romulus. I like that detail. Makes the universe feel bigger, more diverse.
While true it has also been established that if Secret Hideout wants to change something for any reason, including “it would be cool if…” they will go ahead and do it not caring it completely obliterates what TOS established.
100% Correct! When Rodenberry created TMP, he pretty much told fans that the Klingon’s were always intended to look more alien and therefore fan’s shouldn’t worry about their new look. His quote was something like: “don’t worry about what’s behind the Wizard’s curtain.”
That’s why the Klingon retrovirus Enterprise eps were not needed — those eps pretty much violated GR’s directive on this, and pandered to a subset of weak-minded fans (my opinion…lol) who had been whining about the different Klingon looks for years.
Honestly, unless they start respecting the source material things like the look of the Klingons really won’t matter.
Smooth headed white ones in blackface.
I would almost like to see them try that ‘cheap make up job approach” and give us TOS-looking Klingons just to see the fans blow up on the Internet about it. Lol
I think most will be fine with that actually just as long as we see the others too. That was the main issue with the Discovery Klingons, it would’ve worked more if we saw the others along with them. Now I understand it was suppose to just be a reboot of them, but they were the only species that went such a drastic way compared to the others and why it felt so off putting. Vulcans, Andorians, etc still basically looked the same with some changes.
But I think having the TOS looking Klingons on SNW would be fine because that’s what they did look like in this era, it would just be following canon. And we also know TOS movie versions still exist as well as we saw in Lower Decks and Worf coming back next season on Picard. Now if Worf showed up as a TOS looking Klingon then fans would lose it lol.
Except that TOS Klingons look like the dated, overly simplistic, “white guy with black splotches” make-up job that they are. And then I do think the black-face issue would be brought up, and deservedly so.
I just don’t think TOS Klingons are viable for new Trek shows.
Ted Nugent, Kevin Sorbo, and Scott Baio would likely not give a second thought to slapping on the blackface and Fu Manchu ‘staches. Most self-respecting actors would have their WTF moment before saying no to career suicide.
Yeah the black face stuff would be an issue but it’s funny how it’s not an issue with the other Klingons because they just have more prosthetics on. Most Klingons are still white actors in black face makeup, they just get away with it because it’s much more elaborate in how Klingons look I guess since they look more alien than human today.
Yep, when you add all the prosthetics it does negate that concern. You take them into the realm of alien characters, properly. TOS Klingons… yeah, no.
Again true, but the Klingons were still aliens on TOS obviously. I’m certainly not condoning it being black myself but it is a very different issue. Darkening Montalban to play Khan to pay Indian in TOS is a much bigger problem IMO and obviously why he wasn’t in TWOK.
Do you really think they care about that?
Maybe?
They were supposed to be more bronze I believe but people see what they want to see I suppose.
60’s Klingons? 👀🫠🧐
White guys in blackface? Sure, why not??
I can’t wait for the day when Deep Space Nine is removed from all streaming services because Martok and Gowron are blackface.
klingface, surely?
Its about time the Klingons came back. Apart from Lower Decks, we’ve gone too long without Klingons. I hope Chancellor L’Rell comes back.
I hope all this hype doesn’t presage too much change to a formula that so far is working really, really well. That said too little change can make anything stale.
I’m interested to see if they do any sort of cliffhanger for S01E10 and if so what. The first appearance of Kirk seems quite possible, or some other hook into TOS.
It won’t be Discovery Klingons.
I could have sworn I saw a shot of some Discovery Klingons in the SNW trailer that I now wonder if it might be from episode 10. It might just have been some other aliens with a similar design though.
i REALLY enjoyed this series from the very beginning. it has flow, humour, wonder.
best first season since DS9. very much in for S2.
Well said!
AGAIN WITH THE KLINGONS!
I’ve seen all the Klingons I care to; I didn’t like the way Discovery did them (not talking about the makeup), so I’d prefer not to have any more.
Tend to agree. Given how this show has handled things established in TOS I’d really rather they just not touch any of the TOS aliens. Or do anything that had anything to do with TOS beyond the ship.
If the Doctor is tied to the Klingons, there might be some further xenobiological explanation coming for all the various Klingons. I guess it’ll be a semi-sequel to ENT, with the smooth TOS Klingons being portrayed as a disease the Klingons tried to cure by further genetic manipulation. And those attempts may have actually created the DSC Klingons with the eggheads and four nostrils, waking dormant strains in the Klingon gene pool.
Not to mention two pe–…. um, wait, maybe it’s best not to mention.
My take on that was not two dicks, but one dick with 2 urethras. As much as duplication of internal organs could be good for a warrior race, duplication of dicks really doesn’t sound practical or even beneficial from an evolutionary point of view.
It would make more sense with limbs and appendages that rather than duplication they had an ability to regrow them, a bit like lizards (and possibly other animals, including humans – though if we can do it it needs medical intervention).
I hope we see Discovery, TOS and TNG klingons.
Me, too. It makes sense. This is an Empire of conquered worlds, after all, and the TNG-era Klingons spanned a very wide variety of looks.
Consider the variety of aliens on Ruhe Penthe. I figured they were all from worlds in the Klingon Empire.
I would be OK with that too.
That was what I was hoping on Star Trek Discovery from the very beginning. That opening scene with the Klingons arguing would have been the perfect place to put in all versions of the Klingons. But they didn’t.
Secret Hideout has messed up so much I really would rather they just not touch the Klingons or anything previously established. They should go the TNG route and just do their own thing with their own aliens.
As someone who never loved the Klingons I am missing them too. We got them back in Lower Decks but crazy it’s been 5 seasons since we seen them in live action.
Would love to see L’Rell back too. It would only make sense obviously.
But season 2 sounds like it’s going to be as fun as season 1. The show isn’t perfect but they finally got the formula right of good Star Trek again after stumbling out of the gates with both Discovery and Picard.
L’Rell would make some sense, though the Empire bring what it is, she may have been assassinated by now.
Personally, I’m okay with SNW’s avoiding the Klingons. In this era they should still have that fearsome reputation that has Starfleet shaking in its boots, its a bit early to start turning them into the cliché spouting misunderstood noble warriors. We know the Breen, Orions, Cardissians, Tholians, and Gorn are out there. Lets flesh them out a little.
Well we’ve already gone to war with them so anything less than that wouldn’t be that big of a deal anymore. ;)
But I’m not asking for any major set ups like what Discovery did, just an episode here and there like how TOS/TNG did it. I don’t want some big arc with them and that’s the beauty of doing episodic stories again, you don’t have to. But it would be nice to get an episode or two next season and see what they been up to since season 2 of Discovery. And yeah I would like to see L’Rell again. And Star Trek rarely kills characters off screen. I can’t think of one so far so she is probably alive even if she’s not the chancellor anymore. And she’s a fighter. Gowron stayed Chancellor for over a decade. That must be some kind of Klingon record lol.
But I agree, I would prefer to see a species like the Cardassians or Breen over the Klingons in this time period given the choice since we know literally nothing about them here (and less difficult to break canon ;)). So yeah it would be nice to bring in species we know little about in the 23rd century. You can do so much with them. Breen as a species is still a closed book (but they really really like to keep it that way ;)).
And I’m actually way more curious about Klingons in the 32nd century and prefer to see them there if I had one place to see them.
The Breen would be cool. And what was that species from early TNG, the… Harada? Jarada? I don’t think we even got a look at them. Might be interesting to see.
I completely forgot about the Jarada’s until I looked them up. Yeah they were dicks but seem very interesting! That’s the other thing, there are so many one-off species that was done in an episode and then never really heard from again you can go back and develop some of the more interesting ones.
That basically was the Gorn lol. So there are many they can go back to if they choose to. It’s really why I’m not too bothered by the Gorn being used in SNW. Although I agree with some who feel it breaks canon I’m also completely fine with using them because they kind of been like the Pakleds were until LDS used them again; there…but not really . ;)
I had to look them up too. According to Memory-Alpha the Jarada were supposed to be “insect-like.” I’m assuming TNG didn’t have the effects budget to pull it off. Not so much an issue now.
Also, they’re a culture who are easily offended. Ahem, ahem, social commentary, ahem. Language skills, diplomacy, all that jazz.
I’d like to see an old-fashioned one-on-one ship to ship battle in deep space were Pike in the Klingon captain are both kind Trying to outguess and out strategize each other.
I’m kind of sick of seeing the Kilingon home world, so I don’t need those kind of eps again.
Me too. I really like episodes like that and why I really liked the Gorn one.
The only problem with that is that the Kurtzman Karens out there would just get off whining that all that it is a rip off of Balance of Terror. There’s no reason to go out of one’s way to feed the trolls….
Didn’t they JUST do that with the Gorn episode though? It was basically “Balance of Terror” meets “Disaster”. I guess you can compare it closer to “Starship Down” since there is never any conversation exchanges. Either way, people seem to mostly like it.
And to me, I’m sorry and I say this as a fan, SNW is basically ripping off ALL old episodes lol, but in a good way. Of course it just proves how many episodes there are out there to the point its hard to really do anything original. But one of the producers admitted in an interview they basically watch episodes of TOS, TNG, VOY, etc that follow well worn tropes but find a way to put their own spin on it. That’s why every episode so far feels like stuff we seen before over and over again. I will say while I had a lot of problems with Discovery first season, they did feel pretty original with little Star Trek call backs to other stories.
SNW is just tapping into Star Trek plots we’ve seen many times. I’m shocked we haven’t had the court room episode yet where La’an is accused of murder. That’s probably season 2.
Funny reading this again now Phil lol! Not a lot of whining though, just the opposite in fact.
To be pedantic, a picture of Worf was in Picard S1
Babs is a great actor – the doctor is my fav character now except Pike.
S2Ep1 synopsis leak: Dr Mbenga is sent back to 2014 to stop Alex Kurtzman and crew remoulding the Klingons prosthetics on star trek discovery.
Babs is from Lagos and is a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt champion. He has only a few lines in the smash hit picture DUNE yet he almost steals the show.
Klingons killed his wife?
I hope the DISCO look of the Klingons is abandoned. I mean, the TOS crew were with the original design of the Klingons and also the newer designs in the movies, and that was fine. So why can’t Pike and crew be with another design?
If the design is toned down and less busy, it would be fine.
Did anyone really think the M’Benga daughter thing was over in episode 7 of the first season? That was an awfully huge move to just jettison so quickly without future dealings.
But the thing that got me was the following…
Of course it’s possible. In fact, it’s incredibly easy. All they need to do is stop ignoring what happened on TOS. Regarding the quality of the episodes, that can be done too. The better episodes have been pretty “meh” so I don’t think it hard to improve on this show. I really hope we can believe them when they say things this time but given Secret Hideout’s past it would be extremely foolish to believe it.
Since the Eugenics virus Klingons are canon, they’re gonna have to mention them at the very least and not pretend it wasn’t a thing like Discovery.
I didn’t quite love Season 1, not after episodes 8 and 9, so I guess I won’t be going crazy over Season 2.