WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 2, episode 8, "Under the Cloak of War."

Starfleet's biobeds are an integral piece of medical technology used in Star Trek's sickbays - but how do they work? A malfunctioning biobed played a key role in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 8, "Under the Cloak of War", but they've been a part of the franchise since the very beginning. In essence, the biobeds are futuristic hospital beds that serve a variety of purposes aboard Starfleet vessels and starbases. Medicine in the 23rd to 25th centuries is incredibly advanced, but there are always new diseases and ailments to contend with, out on the final frontier.

Therefore, the biobeds serve a valuable purpose for each of Star Trek's doctors in ensuring the health and well-being of their crew. Although in real-life they just look like a standard hospital bed with bleeping lights and fancy sci-fi scanners, the biobeds have multiple uses across the Star Trek franchise. Across over five decades, Star Trek's biobeds have aided experimental new surgeries, reversed Borg assimilation, and even saved the life of Porthos, the beloved beagle of Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula).

What Are Biobeds In Star Trek Medicine?

Biobeds are used for a variety of medical purposes in Star Trek. They're predominantly used by each ship's Chief Medical Officer for diagnostic purposes, usually after an away mission gone wrong, or when a crew member is suffering from an unknown ailment. Most biobeds are fitted with scanners and sensors to aid these examinations, but many doctors prefer to use tools like medical tricorders to make a successful diagnosis. Alternatively, Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley) often preferred to trust his own eyes when examining patients on Star Trek: The Original Series' biobeds.

Star Trek's biobeds also double up as operating tables for surgical procedures, with life sign scanners, a wraparound bank of sensors, and attachments for medical equipment. Larger surgical biobeds were used for more invasive surgery like the controversial genetronic procedure that reversed the paralysis suffered by Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn) in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Ethics". Other biobeds in sickbay were used to facilitate recovery from such surgery, or they were used for patients undergoing intensive care. For critical patients, it was also possible to adapt the biobed into a stasis chamber while a cure was found, in a way similar to Dr. M'Benga's life-saving transporter trick.

What Happened To Biobed 2 In Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 8?

In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, biobed two has "shut down again", and Dr. Joseph M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) says it's been malfunctioning since a battle with the Gorn. Without functioning scanners and attachments, the biobed is unable to fulfill its purpose of saving the lives of sick people. It's no coincidence that this happens at the exact moment that Klingon Ambassador Dak'Rah (Robert Wisdom) beams aboard the USS Enterprise. As Strange New Worlds' Klingon War episode builds to its dark conclusion, it becomes clear that the biobed is actually a metaphor for M'Benga himself.

Incredibly skilled in hand-to-hand combat, and with an extensive list of kills on his record, Dr. M'Benga chose to save lives instead of take them. However, in being confronted with the so-called Butcher of J'Gal, his trauma makes it incredibly difficult for him to do his job. Like the faulty biobed, he too shuts down, and takes the life of Dak'Rah, exorcising his demons and allowing him to work again. As he gets biobed 2 "working again" it's hinted that it's only a matter of time before he's forced to embrace his darker side again, proving that Star Trek's biobeds can't truly reveal everything about the inner workings of the human mind.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' season 2 finale streams Thursday, August 10th on Paramount+.