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Strange New Worlds’ Controversial Death & Alternate Versions Explained By Star Trek Director-TGN

Warning: This Article Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2, Episode 8 – “Under The Cloak Of War”

Summary

  • Director Jeff W. Byrd explains the controversial death in “Under the Cloak of War” and reveals alternate versions of the scene exist.

  • The episode plays with ambiguity, leaving viewers questioning whether Dak’Rah’s death was murder or self-defense.

  • Nurse Chapel helps cover up the truth by lying to Captain Pike about the circumstances of Dak’Rah’s death, adding a moral and ethical quagmire to the story.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds director Jeff W. Byrd explains the controversial death in his episode, “Under the Cloak of War,” and reveals alternate cuts of the scene exist. Written by Davy Perez, Strange New Worlds season 2 episode 8 ends with a violent altercation where Dr. Joseph M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) stabs Klingon Ambassador Dak’Rah (Robert Wisdom). But was Dak’Rah’s death murder or self-defense? The episode toys with ambiguity, but Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) helps M’Benga cover up the truth by telling Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) that Dak’Rah attacked M’Benga, who was forced to kill the Klingon,

In an interview with The 7th Rule podcast hosted by Cirroc Lofton and Ryan T. Husk, director Jeff W. Byrd details the different versions of the controversial fight between Dr. M’Benga and Dak’Rah he shot for Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 8. Check out his quote below:

I love the fact that Davy (Perez) in the script played with whether (M’Benga) wanted to do it or whether it was self-defense. All the different versions of how this death happened. Was M’Benga… 100% responsible for that death? … There were 3-4 different endings to the actual episode. I did not envy the DPs on this because I gave them basically 3-4 different endings that they could choose from.

There is a version which I did shoot where we actually shot the fight and the knife going into (Dak’Rah), the whole thing. There’s a whole version of that… We definitely had a version where you literally see the stabbing, Chapel comes in (and) also becomes an accomplice to it because she knows (M’Benga) killed him. And she’s like, “Okay, so what are we gonna say? How are we gonna spin this?” Which was a very interesting scene between the two of them.

Strange New Worlds Had One Of Star Trek’s Darkest Moments Since DS9

Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 8, “Under the Cloak of War” was an intense and harrowing episode that shows the horrific experience Dr. M’Benga and Nurse Chapel endured during the Klingon War, and how they continue to cope with the trauma of war years later on the USS Enterprise. M’Benga’s revelation that he, not Dak’Rah, was the “Butcher of J’Gal” and their subsequent fight that led to M’Benga killing Dak’Rah as vengeance for the Klingon’s war crimes is a moral and ethical quagmire that brings to mind similar moments Star Trek: Deep Space Nine explored with the Dominion War.

Like Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), who covered up his role in manipulating the Romulans into the Dominion War in DS9‘s classic episode, “In The Pale Moonlight,” Chapel and M’Benga lied about how Dak’Rah really died with their own cover story. M’Benga revealing he massacred Dak’Rah’s Klingon soldiers on J’Gal in an act of vengeance, which Dak’Rah took credit for and spun into a peacemaking career as an Ambassador for the United Federation of Planets, adds disturbing layers to the bloody conflict of the Klingon War. Director Jeff W. Byrd told The 7th Rule he hopes the alternate versions of M’Benga killing Dak’Rah on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will be seen someday, which would provide a fascinating new perspective and insight into the ending of this haunting episode.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.

Source: The 7th Rule