Doctor Joseph M'Benga

Universe :	Prime Timeline
Name :	Doctor Joseph M'Benga [1]
Species :	Humans

Joseph [2] M'Benga [1] was born on Earth on 29 December 2223 in Nakuru, Kenya to Wangera and Gichinga M'Benga. He had a brother, Nicolas, and two sisters, Nyawira and Sikudhani. [3] He had four wifes over the years, with three divorces and one annulment. [4] He had a daughter Rukiya with his wife Debora. [5]

In 2235, he was attacked on a colony world. Even at this tender age of 12 he was forced to kill his attacker in self-defence, taking a life for the first time ever. [6]

During his medical training he interned on a Vulcan ward and was became an expert on Vulcan medicine. [1]

Early in the Federation - Klingon war he was stationed on the moon of J'Gal in the beta quadrant. There he was co-opted to be a member of Starfleet special forces. Known as "The Ghost", he had highest number of confirmed hand-to-hand kills in his unit. He also developed Protocol 12, a drug containing large quantities of adrenaline and other stimulants which would boost an operatives combat abilities. Afterwards, he returned to his main work as a Doctor, where he served in the Mobile Combat Surgical Unit and met nurse Chapel for the first time. When his old special forces unit failed to take out the Klingon leadership he was believed to have taken on the mission himself and he was rumoured to have killed General Gra'Val, Commander Kiff and Captain Ruh'lis. History shows that this was actually the act of the Butcher of J'Gal, Dak'Rah. [3]

M'Benga served aboard the USS Cuyahoga, where he lost some crewmates, which he memorialised on Federation Remembrance Day. [7]

After the war; he became senior medical officer for the USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain Pike, where he would be re-united with Nurse Chapel. [2] During this time his daughter, Rukiya, suffered from a progressive disease Cygnokemia. He would keep her in the sick bay transporter buffer as a form of stasis and would occasionally bring her out to read to her. [5]

In 2258, the USS Enterprise was surveying the Jonisian Nebula. Doctor M'Benga found himself taking part in a recreation of his daughter's favourite book with characters being acted out by members of the Enterprise crew, seemingly without their knowledge. Later, he was to discover that the nebula was an emergent lifeform called a Boltzmann brain, which Rukiya had named Debra after her mother. Debra had observed Rukiya's loneliness in the pattern buffer and sought to entertain her. Doctor M'Benga also noticed that while Rukiya was with Debra that her condition was cured, however, when they separated the condition returned. Rukiya and her father agreed that it was better for her to stay with Debra and have a full and interesting life without the disease than to remain trapped for all time in the transporter buffer. Prior to departing the nebula M'Benga saw Rukiya once more, this time as an adult. [8]

Later that year the Klingon Dak'Rah, known as the Butcher of J'Gal, came aboard the USS Enterprise. Now a reformed character, he had defected to the Federation and was working as an Ambassador. He had successfully completed a peace treaty with three inhabited planets in the Prospero system and was being transferred to his next assignment. For Ortegas, Chapel and Joseph his visit brought back bad memories of the war. M'Benga tried to avoid Dak'Rah, but, being senior staff he was obliged to attand diplomatic events with the Ambassador. Eventually, things got too much for him and he confronted Dak'Rah who expressed remorse for his actions on J'Gal. M'Benga's anger grew the more they talked and when Dak'Rah put a hand on him; he attacked and killed Dak'Rah. Claiming it was an act of self defence, he was backed up by Chapel, who had witnessed the tail end of the encounter. He was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing. [3]

In 2260, M'Benga was part of the away team that was captured and taken to a Gorn ship. He was inserted into a digestion pod and was only rescused by the quick actions of La'An Noonien-Singh. [9]

In 2261 he attempted to find a cure for Marie Batel's infection with Gorn eggs. He and Captain Pike visited the quarantined planet of Kenfori, in order to obtain a chimera blossom. Unbeknownst to Pike, the intent was to use it for hybridising Batel's Human DNA with that of the Gorn eggs, effectively turning her into a Human-Gorn hybrid. [4]

In 2265 he served on Starbase 47 (Vanguard) in the Taurus Reach. [10] By 2265 M'Benga had relinquished the role of chief medical officer, but remained a member of the Enterprise medical staff, under Doctor Mark Piper [11] and subsequently Doctor Leonard McCoy. [12]

His expertise with Vulcan medicine was invaluable when Spock was shot whilst visiting the planet Neural, knowing that he had to violently to bring him out of his Vulcan healing state. [1]

Colour key

Canon source

Backstage source

Novel source

DITL speculation

Associated with

Crew of the Enterprise 1701/1701-A

Played by

Series	Season	Actor	Film / Episode Title
TOS	2	Booker Bradshaw	A Private Little War
TOS	3	Booker Bradshaw	That Which Survives
SNW		Babs Olusanmokun

References

#	Series	Season	Source	Comment
1	TOS	2	A Private Little War
2	SNW	1	Strange New Worlds
3	SNW	2	Under the Cloak of War
4	SNW	3	Shuttle to Kenfori
5	SNW	1	Ghosts of Illyria
6	SNW	3	New Life and New Civilizations
7	SNW	1	Memento Mori
8	SNW	1	The Elysian Kingdom
9	SNW	3	Hegemony, Part 2
10			Star Trek : Vanguard, Book 1 - Harbinger
11	TOS	1	Where No Man Has Gone Before
12	TOS	1	The Corbomite Maneuver

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Last updated : 21 Oct 2025

Series :	TOS Season 2
Episode :	A Private Little War

Series :	SNW Season 1
Episode :	Strange New Worlds

Series :	SNW Season 2
Episode :	Under the Cloak of War

Series :	SNW Season 3
Episode :	Shuttle to Kenfori

Series :	SNW Season 1
Episode :	Ghosts of Illyria