Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Introduces A Doctor From The Original Series

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Thursday's "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."

Is there a doctor on the ship? Yes, there are several, actually, this week on "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."

In Thursday's episode, the Enterprise faced a crisis when a space vortex threatened to pull them inside, turning the episode into a real-time thriller with only 40 minutes to save the ship. In the chaos, Dr. M'Benga was crushed by a large table, with Chapel fighting to save his life. But earlier, M'Benga revealed he was thinking of leaving the Enterprise, and another doctor came on board in a shift change as a potential replacement: Dr. Phil Boyce, played by Brian Markinson. (You may remember Markinson for playing another TV doctor: Don Draper's neighbor Arnold Rosen on "Mad Men.") 

Boyce was a bit of a jerk, actually, telling Chapel to leave M'Benga for dead when she reported his dire condition. (She didn't listen, thankfully.) But Boyce isn't just some random one-off character: He actually served as the Enterprise's chief medical officer a long time ago... on the original "Star Trek" TV series.

Now any Trekkie worth his Vulcan ears can tell you that the Enterprise's chief medical officer on the original "Star Trek" series was Leonard "Bones" McCoy, played by DeForest Kelley. But we also caught a glimpse of a previous doctor in the Season 1 two-parter "The Menagerie," which used footage from the rejected "Star Trek" pilot "The Cage" to show us the pre-Kirk Enterprise, with Christopher Pike as captain and Phil Boyce (played then by John Hoyt) as chief medical officer. The episode featured flashbacks to Pike's journey to Talos IV and his encounter with the Talosians, which has since been referenced on "Star Trek: Discovery" and "Strange New Worlds."

In "The Menagerie," Boyce joined Pike in the landing party and examined the survivors of a crash, remarking on how healthy they seemed — not knowing it was all an illusion orchestrated by the Talosians. But that was Boyce's only appearance on "Star Trek": He left the Enterprise before the original series began, and "Strange New Worlds" has previously mentioned that M'Benga replaced Boyce as the Enterprise's chief medical officer. 

We will get a look at Bones McCoy before "Strange New Worlds" signs off, though: Thomas Jane is set to play the good doctor in the fifth and final season, expected to air next year.