I think the premise is interesting. Klingons are interesting. Spock in command is interesting. M'benga and Chapel fist fighting Klingons? God save us all. And then to face no consequence. It's a shame such an interesting premise is muddied with all of the nonsense.
From what I understand based on what they said in BTS stuff, the fight was partly inspired by the fact that Babs Olusanmokun is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Why they had to have him be juiced-up fighting Klingons, I don't know. Lord knows he could have been fighting humans without steroids.
I think the reason was simply that klingons (like vulcans) are usually depicted as significantly stronger than humans on a baseline, which is why we usually deal with them with weapons rather than fist fights. That being said, I think it was an answer looking for a question, and agree it wasn't entirely necessary for the plot.
Given the history of dangerous substances radically changing a person's physiology in Star Trek, they'll be fine. People turn into completely different species and then return to normal without any scarring, or indeed even a hair out of place.
I wish there was some time given to recovery from such extreme bodily trauma, but the precedent has been long established that you just spend a minute in sickbay, maybe get a hypospray, and you're back on duty in no time.
I mean, the way it was portrayed, it seems like M'Benga has done this before, and that it's dangerous and/or has long-term effects. I assume this will be picked up again later in the season.
Chapel’s question to M’Benga whether he wanted to do that to himself again clearly implied there is a physiological or psychological cost to using the substance, perhaps even an addiction that he’s already struggled with.
Yeah I think there are probabllllyy consequences to taking that substance, maybe the show won't deliver on them but I would be a bit surprised if it didn't. I don't feel like they are just not going to mention that again.
I have a feeling the go juice will resurface in later episodes with consequences, it did seem to have ominous introduction so don't think it will be forgotten....hopfully.