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Strange New Worlds Finally Explains Nurse Chapel's TOS Spock Feelings
Warning! SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1, episode 7 "The Serene Squall"
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is finally explaining where Nurse Chapel's feelings for Mr. Spock come from in Star Trek: The Original Series. In Strange New Worlds season 1, episode 7 "The Serene Squall", a resourceful Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) and hostage Mr. Spock (Ethan Peck) are the only remaining crewmembers when the Enterprise is stolen by pirates. It's another Strange New Worlds episode that elaborates on the origins of the original Nurse Chapel's (Majel Barrett) feelings for Spock (Leonard Nimoy) in TOS.
In Star Trek: TOS, Nurse Chapel's romantic feelings for Spock were well-documented. Interestingly, given the character's role in Strange New Worlds, Dr. M'Benga (Booker Bradshaw) is the only Enterprise crew member who's sympathetic to Chapel's unrequited love for Spock. The rest of the crew treat it as a recurring joke, or even an irritation, with a frustrated Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelly) telling her to put aside her feelings for the Vulcan in order to do her job properly in Star Trek season 1, episode 29, "Operation -- Annihilate!" Strange New Worlds is finally exploring where these feelings originated from, and in doing so suggests that Spock isn't the emotionally ignorant, unobtainable object of desire that he appears to be throughout TOS.
In Strange New Worlds season 1, episode 7 "The Serene Squall," the Enterprise is hijacked by space pirate Captain Angel (Jesse James Keitel.) Angel plans to use the Enterprise as a bargaining tool to negotiate the release of Spock's half-brother Sybok with T'Pring (Gia Sandhu.) Knowing what would happen if Sybok was released, Spock quickly tries to put distance between himself and T'Pring by claiming he's having an affair with Chapel, kissing her on the bridge of the Enterprise in full view of T'Pring. It's a gamble that pays off, but it also implies that Spock is fully aware of Chapel's feelings for him long before she reveals them in TOS season 1, episode 6 "The Naked Time."
At the end of "The Serene Squall", Star Trek's Chapel and Spock discuss their "performance on the bridge" and it's clear that both of them were doing a little more than acting. While Spock has definitely utilized Chapel's feelings for himself to save the Enterprise, she brushes it off by saying she "did what she could" to make up for the Vulcan's inability to lie. She also assures him that she knows there's nothing there because Vulcans are honest and logical and wouldn't "chase another woman while they had a girlfriend." However, this also feels like a lie on Chapel's part. Spock is only half-human, suggesting he may feel something for Chapel. It's established earlier in the episode that this humanity is proving to be a stumbling block in Spock's physical relationship with T'Pring, when she admits to studying human sexuality.
It's not the first time that Strange New Worlds has explored T'Pring and Spock's eventual parting in the classic Star Trek episode "Amok Time." Season 1, episode 5 "Spock Amok" also tackled the couple's anxieties and put Nurse Chapel right in the middle of their relationship struggles. Rather than portraying Chapel as a lovelorn and, as actress Majel Barrett once described her, "a namby-pamby type of woman," Strange New Worlds is portraying the character to be an incredibly resourceful and emotionally astute character. She swiftly avoids kidnap by the pirates and plays her part in retaking the Enterprise beyond a mere romantic "performance." It's easy to see why, after years of not-quite-platonic friendship and stoically hiding her feelings in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds that Nurse Chapel finally snaps under the influence of the inhibition stripping contagion in Star Trek: The Original Series and confesses her undying love for Mr. Spock.
