M ' Benga Doctor M ' Benga was a male Starfleet medical officer who served aboard the under Captain James T . Kirk , during a five - year mission the starship undertook . In the event of Chief Medical Officer Leonard McCoy ' s absence , M ' Benga became the ranking CMO . He conducted his medical internship on , an experience that made him particularly skilled in treating members of that species . In 2268 , M ' Benga treated First Officer Spock for a serious gun shot wound . He had to slap Spock violently to bring him out of his Vulcan healing state . ( ) Later that year , Dr . M ' Benga supervised Dr . Sanchez , a colleague of his , with an autopsy of transporter operator Ensign Wyatt , who had died after the merely touched him . M ' Benga reported that Wyatt ' s entire body had suffered cellular disruption : the touch had " blasted " every in his body from the inside out . In reply to Spock ' s inquiry regarding the incident , M ' Benga explained that his fellow clinician , Sanchez , had found that no known disease - causing organism had been responsible for the death . He later reported that Engineering Technician John B . Watkins had also died from a similar cellular disruption . ( ) Appendices . Background information . Doctor M ' Benga was played by Booker Bradshaw . He appeared in " A Private Little War " and " That Which Survives " . This character was actually created by Darlene Hartman , in her purchased ( but never produced ) TOS script entitled " Shol " . The notes for that script give Dr . M ' Benga ' s first name as " Joseph " , and note that he was originally a native of Uganda . His brother , Commander Simon M ' Benga , was the first officer of USS " Hope " , a Federation hospital ship , in the planned - but - never - developed " Star Trek " spinoff " Hopeship " . An early draft of the script for ( dated ) included a character by the name of " Nurse M ' Benga " . However , in research notes submitted for that episode ( on 29 September 1966 ) , de Forest Research noted , " " M ' Benga is the name of a doctor in ' A Private Little War ' . " " In a later inter - department communication between Gene Roddenberry and John Meredyth Lucas ( dated ) , Roddenberry noted that regarding " " Nurse M ' Benga . There is no such Nurse existing on our spaceship . If we need a Nurse , we use our semi - regular Nurse Chapel . " " The first draft script for " That Which Survives " misspelled this character ' s name " Mboya " . Apocrypha . Jean Lorrah ' s novel " The IDIC Epidemic " gave his first name as " Geoffrey " . Meanwhile , David Mack ' s " Harbinger " established his first name as " Jabilo " , a word for " healer " in Kenyan according to the author , and set his assignment before the " Enterprise " as Starbase 47 , also known as " Vanguard " . " The Vulcan Academy Murders " presented M ' Benga ' s time at the Vulcan Academy hospital and McCoy ' s subsequent recruitment of M ' Benga for " Enterprise " . Tying into this , " The Klingon Gambit " , by Robert E . Vardeman , established that his internship on Vulcan lasted four years . , a great - granddaughter of this character , is portrayed in several non - canon novels written by William Shatner . M ' Benga ' s mirror universe counterpart appeared in the novel " The Sorrows of Empire " . Following ' s death from xenopolycythemia in 2269 , he succeeded him as the chief medical officer of the . He continued to serve in that position until at least 2287 . The novel likewise stated that his first name was " Jabilo " .