TV Romance
‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’: Ethan Peck Explains ‘Reorientation’ of Spock’s Relationship to Chapel
Spock’s (Ethan Peck) relationships have certainly been complicated in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3, and we’re just four episodes in!
When Chapel (Jess Bush) left for her fellowship in the premiere, she used that as an opportunity for space and told Spock not to wait for her. Then, she returned from said fellowship with a new boyfriend, Dr. Roger Korby (Cillian O’Sullivan), in Episode 2. That episode, thanks to Trelane (Rhys Darby), featured a wish of Spock’s putting everyone briefly in the middle of his and Chapel’s wedding. But after that situation was sorted (as well as before), Spock has been growing close with La’an (Christina Chong), as she taught him how to dance, while preparing for Chapel to return.
And in the most recent episode, “A Space Adventure Hour,” during one of those dance sessions, Spock and La’an shared a kiss. So where does Spock stand when it comes to the women in his life?
“I think it’s just sort of an internal reorganization, right? Nothing in the mind really disappears. If you build a new building over an old building, oftentimes that old building is no longer there, but in the mind, things can sort of exist simultaneously in the same sort of place, if you will,” Peck explains to Swooon. “And so I think that it’s just sort of a reorientation to his relationship to Nurse Chapel and his feelings about her. They’ve been very valuable for him. I think she was a really incredible teacher for him on his journey to becoming or understanding his humanness.”
According to executive producer Henry Alonso Myers, “I think that they are both taken in by the potential that they have and what they go on this season, it’s a casual relationship but a mature one, and I will say this: You will be surprised by how much the dancing has value in helping them to get through some genuinely difficult stuff.”
Executive producer Akiva Goldsman also revealed to TV Insider that the kiss originally happened one episode earlier in the season. “In fact, there was a telegraphed almost kiss in the dance lesson [in Episode 2] that we cut,” he shared. “It was actually really hard to cut around because, as it started to evolve, we realized that it was more pleasurable to slow-play it, but the way it was shot, it was undeniable in the dance lesson. And then we were like, ‘Oh, do we have coverage to cut it out? The slow burn’s better.’”
Where do you stand when it comes to Spock’s relationships with Chapel and La’an? Let us know in the comments section below.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Thursdays, Paramount+
