Why did Majel stop playing Chapel in the movies?

[Terok Nor]

Apart from her cameo appearances in The Motion Picture and The Voyage Home is there a reason Chapel stopped appearing alongside the original crew? By Season 3 I certainly think she was appearing on a regular basis alongside the other supporting characters but didn't join them on the screen for 2-6.

Something to do with Roddenbery being booted out? I always found it strange how Majel went on to play a different character later on. I couldn't imagine that happening with any of the other original cast members.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Chapel was never an especially important character. Likely, there just wasn't ever much for the character to do that couldn't have been done better by McCoy.

Except for mooning over Mr. Spock, of course, but there wasn't any life left in that subplot by the movie era.

 

[drt]

I've always attributed it to Rodenberry's ousting, he was on better terms with Paramount by the time of TVH, so she participated there.

With regard to her character having nothing to do, this is also sort of true for Sulu, Uhura and Chekov, who were just as interchangeably useless, but they usually found at least one beat per movie to give them something to do. If she had been part of a hypothetical "Big Eight", I'd assume they would have also written in something similar for Chapel as well.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I know what I'm about to say isn't going to go over well, so here it goes.

Honestly, other than Kirk, Spock and McCoy (and maybe Scotty) — the other characters should've moved on after the first movie. Or not appeared in the first movie at all. It strained credulity to have Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov serving in the same roles on the same ship movie after movie.

 

[Mudd]

Yeah, I think that's reasonable.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

I know what I'm about to say isn't going to go over well, so here it goes.

Honestly, other than Kirk, Spock and McCoy (and maybe Scotty) — the other characters should've moved on after the first movie. Or not appeared in the first movie at all. It strained credulity to have Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov serving in the same roles on the same ship movie after movie.

Yeah, but the films served as a reunion of an old, well loved TV series. So, with the 1960s/70s fanbase wanting to see this so-called "family" all together again (despite the disparity in popularity / series identification between the big three & the rest), it was necessary for Sulu, Scott, Uhura and Chekov to be active participants.

Its no different than the TV reunions of other series with a good sized cast (e.g. Return to Mayberry, Rescue from Gilligan's Island, etc), where leaving out the smaller, but still "family members" would have rendered the reunion sort of incomplete.

 

[Kor]

^ Ginger was played by a different (and younger) actress in "Rescue from Gilligan's Island" and "The Castaways on Gilligan's Island". That was a bit odd.

Kor

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Apart from her cameo appearances in The Motion Picture and The Voyage Home is there a reason Chapel stopped appearing alongside the original crew?

Majel Barrett's appearance in TMP was not a cameo. That in TVH was, though.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

Majel Barrett's appearance in TMP was not a cameo. That in TVH was, though.

So much so that I can't even remember it.

 

[Tim Thomason]

I know what I'm about to say isn't going to go over well, so here it goes.

Honestly, other than Kirk, Spock and McCoy (and maybe Scotty) — the other characters should've moved on after the first movie. Or not appeared in the first movie at all. It strained credulity to have Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov serving in the same roles on the same ship movie after movie.

Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov were all promoted in rank prior to The Motion Picture (which is just "2 1/2 years" after the Original Series). It seems reasonable that they would be on the same ship here.

Star Trek II was a three-week training cruise that spread into a major three-movie series of events. But mainly, there's nothing that pegs Sulu and Uhura as assigned to the Enterprise permanently. And, of course, Chekov is first officer of the Reliant, and just joins the Enterprise through the course of the narrative.

Star Trek V is the odd one out, but I assume it was still shortly after Voyage Home and they were bought together due to the Nimbus crisis.

Star Trek VI explicitly opens the film with the crew brought back together on Earth to help facilitate the Khitomer Accords. There's nothing that says Chekov is permanently the navigator on the Enterprise at this time (and, of course, Sulu is off on his own ship). Dialogue implies that Uhura is an Academy lecturer during the film, so her posting on the Enterprise must be temporary or soon-to-end.

 

[Frontier]

My money is on the rift between Paramount and Roddenberry.

With "The Voyage Home" you had Leonard Nimoy at the helm, and his film was more something Gene would have thought of than TWOK/TSFS. Plus, things where doing well and TNG was in the early stages, so the relationship between Gene and the studio had thawed considerably.

Her absence again in TFF and TUC can be for any number of reasons; certainly for TUC Gene wasn't keen on the story idea/script at first, and his health was very poor by then.

So basically, TWOK/TSFS = bad blood w/the studio, TFF = ? and TUC = Gene's health. I imagine if Gene was better health wise, we'd have seen Majel on the Excelsior with Sulu and Rand. Then again TPTB might not have wanted to "confuse" new fans who knew her as Mrs. Troi at that juncture either...

I wish Rand had more of a role in TSFS; but then consider how little Nichelle had to do in that film. One bridge scene in the beginning, the transporter room, and then the final scenes. She was barely in the film all things considered. So squeezing Rand in too would have been odd.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

^ Ginger was played by a different (and younger) actress in "Rescue from Gilligan's Island" and "The Castaways on Gilligan's Island". That was a bit odd.

Kor

I know Tina Louise was replaced, but my point was that the reunion films did not leave any of the regulars out of the production in the way TMP did not ditch the non-big three characters.

 

[HIjol]

IMHO, the Ensemble nature of the Main Cast would have been diminished by leaving out Sulu, Chekov and Uhura. Granted, RTR's point of them reprising their usual roles straining credulity, TT's Post has merit and makes sense.

Ok, call leaving them a part of things "FanWank" if you need to, but perhaps it partly being that is ok! As you run through your viewing of the movies, remove S,C and U and their lines in your mind. Leaving their performances out certainly will not "crash" the movie(s), but I bet you will agree that there would be something missing!

 

[FormerLurker]

^ Ginger was played by a different (and younger) actress in "Rescue from Gilligan's Island" and "The Castaways on Gilligan's Island". That was a bit odd.

Kor

I know Tina Louise was replaced, but my point was that the reunion films did not leave any of the regulars out of the production in the way TMP did not ditch the non-big three characters.

Tina Louise was replaced because she refused to do the reunions. Some nonsense about typecasting.

The non-big three were in all the movies because that's who the fans wanted to see in them, just as those characters are now in the new films(albeit recast, along with everyone else) for the same reason. The in-universe explanation which we have speculated on ever since is something along the lines of they were assigned to Kirk's crew as a way of keeping them out of Starfleet's hair, and to freeze their careers for supporting Kirk in SFS. It isn't until TUC, when everyone is at least appearing to be getting ready to retire, that Sulu and Uhura are allowed to do other things. Chekov may have been allowed to as well, we just weren't told what that might have been.

 

[HIjol]

^ Ginger was played by a different (and younger) actress in "Rescue from Gilligan's Island" and "The Castaways on Gilligan's Island". That was a bit odd.

Kor

I know Tina Louise was replaced, but my point was that the reunion films did not leave any of the regulars out of the production in the way TMP did not ditch the non-big three characters.

Tina Louise was replaced because she refused to do the reunions. Some nonsense about typecasting.

The non-big three were in all the movies because that's who the fans wanted to see in them, just as those characters are now in the new films(albeit recast, along with everyone else) for the same reason. The in-universe explanation which we have speculated on ever since is something along the lines of they were assigned to Kirk's crew as a way of keeping them out of Starfleet's hair, and to freeze their careers for supporting Kirk in SFS. It isn't until TUC, when everyone is at least appearing to be getting ready to retire, that Sulu and Uhura are allowed to do other things. Chekov may have been allowed to as well, we just weren't told what that might have been.

Tina Louise also refused to participate because she and her handlers made the decision that she was not "presentable" enough" to appear.

[Judy Carne] not aged well [/Judy Carne]

 

[Terok Nor]

My money is on the rift between Paramount and Roddenberry.

With "The Voyage Home" you had Leonard Nimoy at the helm, and his film was more something Gene would have thought of than TWOK/TSFS. Plus, things where doing well and TNG was in the early stages, so the relationship between Gene and the studio had thawed considerably.

Her absence again in TFF and TUC can be for any number of reasons; certainly for TUC Gene wasn't keen on the story idea/script at first, and his health was very poor by then.

So basically, TWOK/TSFS = bad blood w/the studio, TFF = ? and TUC = Gene's health. I imagine if Gene was better health wise, we'd have seen Majel on the Excelsior with Sulu and Rand. Then again TPTB might not have wanted to "confuse" new fans who knew her as Mrs. Troi at that juncture either...

I wish Rand had more of a role in TSFS; but then consider how little Nichelle had to do in that film. One bridge scene in the beginning, the transporter room, and then the final scenes. She was barely in the film all things considered. So squeezing Rand in too would have been odd.

This makes the most sense. I liked Chapel in the series. It's a shame she's been lost as part of the ensemble. She's not even in the new movies.

I agree about Rand. I'd have liked her to remain part of the movie cast too but obviously there's only so much to go around. Scotty, Uhura, Sulu and Chekov were the more iconic characters of the supporting cast anyway.

 

[Kor]

This makes the most sense. I liked Chapel in the series. It's a shame she's been lost as part of the ensemble. She's not even in the new movies.

She was mentioned in a dialog exchange between Kirk and Carol Marcus in "Into Darkness."

Kor

 

[Greg Cox]

^ Ginger was played by a different (and younger) actress in "Rescue from Gilligan's Island" and "The Castaways on Gilligan's Island". That was a bit odd.

Kor

Didn't The Munsters go through a least three Marilyns, counting the feature film "Munsters Go Home"?

 

[Terok Nor]

This makes the most sense. I liked Chapel in the series. It's a shame she's been lost as part of the ensemble. She's not even in the new movies.

She was mentioned in a dialog exchange between Kirk and Carol Marcus in "Into Darkness."

Kor

I remember that now that you mention it. Was it implied Kirk slept with her and she left the Enterprise in shame?

 

[Maurice]

This makes the most sense. I liked Chapel in the series. It's a shame she's been lost as part of the ensemble. She's not even in the new movies.

IMHO, the Ensemble nature of the Main Cast would have been diminished by leaving out Sulu, Chekov and Uhura...

The original cast was never an ensemble. It was three stars, one almost-lead (Doohan) and some featured players. Fans decided it was some kind of "ensemble cast" after the fact, but it never actually was.