Season 3 First Look

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

And presumably it was either more about boosting her own self-esteem or the challenge of trying to make Spock smile in those instances.

There's no reason to think that even were the circumstances perfect for cultivating a relationship (seeing each other regularly in classes he taught, her attending and him teaching at the Academy at the same time, serving on the same ship as early as they did - a direct result of her request, stemming from their previous closeness), they still would never begin one.

 

[Yistaan]

Nowhere else in TOS is it seen or even implied that Uhura and Spock had any romantic interest in each other.

JJ: So what happened every 7 years after Amok Time? Who was helping Spock out in 2274, 2281, and 2288? We don't see any other women hanging around Spock in that time period so the only, ahem, *logical* choice is...

 

[Nerys Myk]

I don't really feel like there was much more than a workplace crush in all honesty. McCoy and Nancy Crater were far more demonstrative of two people with a past than Spock and Chapel, and we never actually got to know Crater.

It wasn’t actually Nancy.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Though it was mimicking how McCoy expected her to act, based on their past interactions.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Though it was mimicking how McCoy expected her to act, based on their past interactions.

Human memory is a tricky thing filled with rose colored glasses.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

True - it did the best it could with what it had to work with, and it was good enough to fool him for a while.

 

[Nerys Myk]

True - it did the best it could with what it had to work with, and it was good enough to fool him for a while.

He was a pretty easy mark.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

When we see what we want to see, we miss what we should have seen.

 

[Daedalus]

It wasn’t actually Nancy.

Exactly, we didn't get to know her, it was the salt-vampire. Even a fake version of a woman that McCoy had feelings for was able to put across a history that Spock and Chapel never did.

*Bearing in mind that I have no problem with SNW showing that they do.*

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Or rather, was able to speak of and extrapolate reactions based on a history the real Nancy and Leonard were written to have shared.

 

[Daedalus]

Or rather, was able to speak of and extrapolate reactions based on a history the real Nancy and Leonard were written to have shared.

Yes, if you like. Leonard McCoy and Nancy Crater shared a meaningful romantic past that left McCoy with warm, lingering feelings for her and I never got that from the TOS versions of Chapel and Spock.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Because nobody could likely argue they passionately loathed or were completely apathetic about each other, either, at least if erring, it's in the previously indicated direction.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Yes, if you like. Leonard McCoy and Nancy Crater shared a meaningful romantic past that left McCoy with warm, lingering feelings for her and I never got that from the TOS versions of Chapel and Spock.

Their relationship was the centerpiece of the episode. If the writers, Kelley and Bal couldn’t convince the audience of that they failed in their jobs.

There’s no denying that Chapel’s feelings for Spock were written in a different way in TOS and SNW has reinterpreted it for their own purposes. But there is just enough wiggle room for it to work.

 

[Kor]

Subspace Rhapsody would be perfect for a sing-along viewing party. With costumes, and party foods.

Another thing from Season 2: I was reflecting on "Among the Lotus Eaters" on my recent re-watch, and how the landing party members were affected by the memory loss within mere hours of landing on the planet. Apparently that hadn't been a problem on the Enterprise's first visit to Rigel VII. I guess that was because they were all in that fortress which protected them from the effects of the asteroid field radiation. But in the episode the crew of the Enterprise up in orbit were also affected, so why had that not happened on the first visit? Maybe that visit had been too brief for the effects to become noticeable.

Or maybe the cognitive effects did happen on the original visit to Rigel VII, but everyone forgot about it.

I'm sure this was hashed out in the episode discussion thread; I tend to avoid those as I often end up watching an episode some time after release.

Kor

 

[Turtletrekker]

The original series may or may not hint that there had been a past between Spock and Chapel, but their interactions on that show makes so much more sense when put into the context of them having one In Strange New Worlds. It's not changing or altering anything, it's recontextualizing what we know by adding new information. It's certainly makes the scene in The Naked Time that much more powerful with both Chapel's admission of (still) loving Spock and Spock's very emotional reaction immediately thereafter. One can say that it was just the virus making their hormones charged, but there's so much more pathos involved with the recontextualization. And, again, I would like to bring up Spock's supreme act of trust in Christine Chapel in Return to Tomorrow where he hid his katra inside of her mind. Where did that level of trust come from?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

In both katra-carrying circumstances, it was a move of desperation, as he was either about to be murdered (RTT) or sacrifice his life (TWOK). One wonders what he would have done if nobody he trusted was near enough at the time to give his katra to.

 

[fireproof78]

There’s no denying that Chapel’s feelings for Spock were written in a different way in TOS and SNW has reinterpreted it for their own purposes. But there is just enough wiggle room for it to work.

Yes, indeed. I really don't watch a prequel to reaffirm what I already know. I might disagree with a reinterpreting of a relationship but that doesn't make it incompatible; just not what I expected.

It might even be...new!

 

[Nerys Myk]

Where did that level of trust come from?

It was really good soup.

 

[Dukhat]

JJ: So what happened every 7 years after Amok Time? Who was helping Spock out in 2274, 2281, and 2288? We don't see any other women hanging around Spock in that time period so the only, ahem, *logical* choice is...

I'm going to assume that JJ actually said this, and that you're not making it up, for my response: That's complete nonsense on so many levels.

 

[Kor]

Well, whether Chapel and Spock's backstory we're getting in SNW fits together perfectly or not as an overarching narrative with TOS, I find Chapel to be a much more interesting and compelling character in SNW than in TOS.

Edit: a typo

Kor