The Wonderfully Unexpected Reimagined Nurse Chapel of ‘Strange New Worlds’
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We love that the character of Nurse Chapel (played by Jess Bush) in #StrangeNewWords, has gone from a typical 60’s TV female character afterthought to “feral bisexual crawling in the walls of a starship who will attack and destroy you with a hypospray.”
With the possible exception of Janice Rand, Nurse Christine Chapel is the most underused character from the original Star Trek. Played by Majel Barrett, who originated the role of Captain Pike’s XO Number One, and later played Deanna Troi’s mother Lwaxana and the voiced Starfleet computers in the 90s series, Nurse Chapel was a reoccurring character in the original series. Despite her constant presence, Chapel never got much attention from writers.
But on the prequel series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Nurse Chapel finally gets her due. Set on the U.S.S. Enterprise while under the command of Captain Christopher Pike, Strange New Worlds is filled with new interpretations of classic characters, including Ethan Peck’s romantic Mr. Spock and Celia Rose Gooding’s delightful take on Ensign Uhura. But the differences between Bush’s Nurse Chapel and that of Barrett’s original are obvious at first glance. Where the TOS Chapel wore a light blue skirt, Chapel wears a white jumpsuit on Strange New Worlds.
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While speaking to Vanity Fair, Bush attributed the difference to her interpretation of the character. Watching classic episodes such as “What Are Little Girls Made Of?,” Bush worked to “distill [Chapel]’s essence, even though she never got a lot of screen time.” Part of that essence included the character’s fiery nature, something that she wanted to underscore in her version. “I’ve been nothing but encouraged by the writers and creators of the show,” she explained. “They’ve said, ‘Here are the bones of the character’, and they’ve trusted me to explore it.”
In only six episodes, that active take on Chapel is already apparent. In the first episode, Chapel chases a visitor to the Enterprise through the ship’s hallways and injects her patients without warning, a strategy to lessen their discomfort. But the most telling distinction might be her relationship with Spock, who returns to Pike’s crew after his engagement to fellow Vulcan T’Pring (Gia Sandhu). Chapel’s flirtations with Spock have led to some striking moments, such as when she smacks the Vulcan across the head.
Bush’s role is one of the trickier ones in Strange New Worlds. Chapel is a character from deep within the lore of Star Trek; she was originally played by Majel Barrett, later Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, wife of series creator Gene Roddenberry. She rarely got more than a line or two per episode, but if you watched closely, you saw there was great potential in the character. And now that potential has been realized.
The Trek gig certainly represents a big break for the 30-year-old Bush, whose first television appearances were on Australia’s Next Top Model. Speaking to V.F. via Zoom from Toronto, where Strange New Worlds is shooting its second season, the self-taught visual artist (more on her project involving dead honeybees in a moment) told us about her favorite concert (Prodigy), her comfort movie (Ferngully), and made some observations about Canadian living that, perhaps, only someone from Sydney would make.
“The white jumpsuit was a collaborative effort. At first they asked if I wanted to wear a tunic or if was I interested in a jumpsuit—and I said absolutely jumpsuit. This iteration of Nurse Chapel is all about agility. She’s active and gets stuff done.”
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We’re obsessed.
