Chapel Character Teaser

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' started by JoaquinSlowly, Apr 1, 2022.

  1. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    First, I'm pretty sure that they're not trying to tell you anything about "your" Christine Chapel. They're making a TV show, not taking orders at a diner.

    Second, there's really zero chance that they'll "evolve" a clever, feisty character into a dull cypher and there's not a good reason in the world that anyone would want to do that.
     
  2. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    It's hard to accept a character being made more interesting as a valid complaint.
     
  3. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    Exactly so.

    I mean, there's "You think this is good, but I don't," which makes sense - I feel that way about some current entertainment, including some Trek. But "I don't like it because it/they are too good?"
     
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  4. StarMan

    StarMan Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Watching this with an eye to how it perfectly segues into TOS is a recipe for a migraine. I'm happy to view it as an interpretation of this (fictional) historical period. TOS was one interpretation, this is another. Easy.
     
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  5. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    "That was then, this is now" pretty much covers it.
     
  6. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I don't get a sense of sarcasm here. Without even considering whatever correlation there is between her extreme obsession with the author's works and her actions as the story unfolds, maybe you should process Misery in the context of Bates' character being criminally insane?
     
  7. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    Uh, yeah, that business was supposed to clue us that Bates was pretty troubled.
     
  8. Sci

    Sci Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    That's a weirdly hostile reaction. Did I piss in your cornflakes this morning or something?

    Yes. A good significant difference. It's a prime example of taking an inferior element of an otherwise decent older work, and retroactively improving it by giving that inferior element greater quality in a related work. Giving Chapel an actual personality just makes TOS a better show retroactively.

    Well, I don't necessarily think they included her to get TOS fans to watch. Really, they had Spock for that already. I think if you look at the non-"Cage" legacy characters they added to SNW (Uhura, Chapel, M'Benga), the thing you'll notice they all have in common is that they are members of marginalized groups that weren't given three-dimensional personalities in TOS. I think this is an example of the writers deciding that they wanted to explore these characters in greater depth than their appearances in TOS allowed more than just attracting TOS fans per se.

    I really don't think they need to do that. Creatively reinterpreting characters from older works to give them greater depth is a very common thing, and there's no reason they have to exactly match the bad decisions made in the past. Elphaba in Wicked doesn't need to resemble the version of the Wicked Witch of the West depicted in The Wizard of Oz, for instance.
     
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  9. Belz...

    Belz... Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    The only hostility is your interpretation. You asked me to justify what I said based on your own opinion of the character, which makes no sense.

    No it doesn't, because when you watch your TOS episodes again her old "inferior" personality is unchanged. Again, you're not making any sense.

    And this is just a distraction anyway. That the character in a previous incarnation was bad or good is irrelevant. The point, as I've now said three times, is that the character is radically different, which I find jarring.
     
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  10. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    It makes perfect sense.
     
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  11. Belz...

    Belz... Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    - "I prefer ketchup to mustard"
    - "Given that ketchup tastes like feces, how can you even tell?"

    See what I mean? The question assumes that everyone agrees that Chapel has no personality in TOS. Why would anyone ask someone else to operate from their personal opinions?

    And again, it's irrelevant. I'm talking about the difference in personality, not the quality of it.
     
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2022
  12. Pauln6

    Pauln6 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I think the intimation was that she found out that the ship was scheduled to check on EXO3. It may be that Starfleet notifies next of kin in a scenario like that.

    Then she said, well I want to come and they said no passengers so she said, I'm a trained research biologist, can't I sign on, and they said, not without proper training, and she said, what's the least amount of training, and they said, basic astronaut training and a medical course can get you in as a nurse, and she said, hold my coat.

    It actually feels less realistic to put her on ship as a nurse at this point unless she is going to leave to branch out and study under Korby at some point in the future.

    Chapel always has a bit of sass professionally. The character was just rarely asked for any input. She wasn't afraid to stand up to McCoy, which he even acknowledged in TMP.

    She was attracted to emotionally distant men though, so her love life feels a mess.

    Plenty there to work with IMHO.
     
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  13. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Nah, I think what @UssGlenn said upthread nailed it in terms of what's plausible.

     
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  14. ChallengerHK

    ChallengerHK Captain Captain

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    If you understand the concept of bait and switch then you understand why this is a problem.
     
  15. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I understand it fine, thanks.

    Feeling that it applies here sounds fairly pathetic.

    To be clear, given that you feel wronged enough by the teaser to discuss hobbling the producers as you did upthread, whether you were "just kidding" or not, I pity you.
     
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2022
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  16. Belz...

    Belz... Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Assuming that's directed at me, mind you I'm not complaining about that; just noting that continuity-wise it doesn't quite work.
     
  17. Belz...

    Belz... Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Right. If one just ignores continuity it's a lot easier to sit back and enjoy. That's how I got to enjoy Enterprise. But the slight obsession that I naturally have with continuity is always at the back of my head, nagging me. That's why I generally dislike prequels.

    Which, in a way, is a stereotypical 2020s female character. ;)
     
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  18. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    It wasn't. A poster opined that in order for this to be the Prime Universe, a demonstration of the evolution of feisty-Chapel into drab-cypher-Chapel would be necessary. I was indicating that I do not agree. To elaborate as to why, boring characters are generally boring, so that sort of character arc would be the opposite of interesting.

    Yep.
     
  19. UssGlenn

    UssGlenn Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Then why didn't she she do that one of the the first two times?

    Even if the writer picked 5 years to give her time to go though the full academy (which wasn't a thing yet), She'd have no way of knowing there was even going to be a third search after she missed the first two.

    Slightly off topic but, is there any hint of an explanation why the first two teams didn't find anything? Korby clearly didn't want to be found yet, but I'm not sure why. Nothing about the use/capabilities of the alien equipment changed did it?
     
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  20. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    Christine Chapel, Star Trek’s most controversial character. Here’s why…

    Coming soon to a click bait site near you. ;)