Jess Bush has a way of talking about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds that feels less like promotion and more like confession. Like she’s leaning toward you, lowering her voice, letting you in on something precious she’s still carrying around. And when she says her favorite Nurse Christine Chapel episodes haven’t even aired yet? You can hear the weight of that promise.
By now, fans know the roadmap. Season 3 landed in June 2025. Season 4 — ten episodes, already filmed — is waiting in the wings, expected to arrive later this year. Season 5, a shorter, six-episode farewell, wrapped filming just before Christmas lights went up, and won’t reach us until sometime in 2027. The end is in sight. But for Bush, the emotional peak is still ahead.
Onstage at Farpoint 2026, answering a fan question, she didn’t hesitate long before admitting it: the Chapel stories that hit her hardest are still unreleased. One episode in season 4. One in season 5. That’s all she’d say — but her tone did the rest of the talking.
These weren’t just scripts. They were tests. Challenges. The kind of material that makes an actor both nervous and grateful.
She described them as “so moving and so deep” for Chapel. The kind of episodes that don’t let you hide behind charm or quips. The kind that ask uncomfortable questions and don’t rush to answer them. And for Bush herself? They were demanding in the best possible way — the sort of work that reminds you why you wanted to act in the first place.
Then she laughed and pivoted, as if realizing she’d gone a little raw.
Because if the future holds Chapel’s emotional reckoning, the past already gave Bush some unforgettable joy. Her face practically lit up when she talked about the musical episode — now legendary among Strange New Worlds fans. It was exhausting, she admitted. A mountain of work. But also pure magic. The writers nailed it. The cast leaned in. Everyone trusted the absurdity and somehow turned it into something sincere. Those episodes don’t come along often.
And then there’s “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans.”
Just mentioning it made her crack up.
She talked about those two weeks of filming like a comedy boot camp, where the hardest part wasn’t the timing or the blocking — it was not laughing straight through every take. The episode moves fast, barely pausing to catch its breath, and apparently the set felt the same way. Mile-a-minute chaos. The good kind. Bush singled out director Jordan Canning, calling her both a brilliant comedy mind and one of the most fun collaborators she’s ever worked with — a professional relationship that turned into a real friendship somewhere between takes.
It’s funny, though. “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans” also happens to be one of the show’s most divisive episodes. Some fans bounced hard off its Vulcan comedy, unsure what to make of it. Others embraced the weirdness. Bush? She’s firmly in the latter camp, still laughing just thinking about it.
Behind the scenes, the stakes were higher than anyone realized at the time. Executive producers Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers have since said they approached season 4 as if it might be the end. No safety net. No holding back. They poured everything into it — especially Chapel. Bush was handed some of the strongest material of her run precisely because the showrunners thought this might be their final chance to say something meaningful.
Then came the surprise renewal. Six more episodes. One last stretch. And with it, another deeply powerful Chapel story waiting in season 5.
So yes, the musical might be the show’s signature achievement. Yes, “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans” will probably always spark arguments. But if Bush is right — and her voice suggests she is — the episodes that define Nurse Christine Chapel haven’t even reached us yet.
And that raises the quiet, thrilling question fans can’t stop asking now: if this is what’s still coming… are we ready for it?
trekmovie.com
