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sshbpodcast · 6 months

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Character Spotlight: Christine Chapel

By Ames

We’ve hit upon all the main stars of The Original Series, but no list would be complete without giving a fair mention to the woman who stood beside the show, Majel Barrett. While we still wish in our hearts of hearts that the Number One we met in “The Cage” and “The Menagerie” got a fair shake, we are still glad that Gene’s main squeeze was reborn as the quippy and competent Nurse Chapel.

So join us this week on A Star to Steer Her By as we finish off our TOS character spotlights with a bunch of highlights and only a few lowlights on what’s probably going to be our shortest installment of this series. There just wasn’t enough stretching of the character moments to do as we did for, say, our Scotty or Sulu posts. Pick up your medical tricorders to scan on below and follow along in this week’s podcast discussion (jump to 58:16). Needless to say, Majel probably did more on the show than just Gene. Take that as you will. ;)

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best Moments

I know he’s alive down there, Captain Very early in the series in “What Are Little Girls Made of?”, Chapel’s backstory of joining the Enterprise as a way to find her lost fiancé, Roger Korby, is established. And it’s a testament to her character that not only is she right that he was still alive (in some form), but she also gets to convince Ruk the android not to kill Kirk AND make the choice to stay on the Enterprise after everything goes typically sideways.

Plomeek soup for the soul While you’ll see in just a moment that “Amok Time” also features some of the more tired and less positive aspects of Chapel’s character, we’ve got to admit that her dutifulness in trying to get Spock to eat during his pon farr was benevolent of her. She goes so far as to whip up some Vulcan plomeek soup to keep her patient well, little good that it ended up doing.

Sound it out I’m still minorly horrified by Nomad taking Uhura’s memories in “The Changeling,” and we’re left not knowing if or how she gets back to her normal self. But one thing’s for sure: she’s got a caring and patient nurse helping along the way, as we see Chapel reteaching the blank-slated Uhura how to read in English. It’s quite sweet, if you don’t think about how horrifying it is.

It has one word on it: Eat I could take a second to gripe that, between Chapel and Rand, the women of the show are very often seen just bringing the men their dinner like they’re waitresses instead of equal crewmembers. Or I could highlight how Chapel cleverly tricks a moping Garrovick into eating in “Obsession” by telling him McCoy’s prescription was a tape that just said “Eat,” so I’ll do that.

The pain will help me to consciousness We joke on the podcast that it was clear that someone(s) on the show was clearly into some kinky stuff, and it shines through in episodes like “A Private Little War” when Nurse Chapel is compelled to bitchslap a half-conscious Spock around until he wakes up, as is the Vulcan way. Or at least, as is someone on the writing staff’s dirty little fetish.

We shared consciousness together I’m sure now that Strange New Worlds is filling in a lot of the Chapel-Spock relationship, there are a ton more shippers out there for them, but back in the day, the best we got was this moment in “Return to Tomorrow” when Sargon put Spock’s consciousness into Chapel’s body to get Henoch out of the Vulcan. And Chapel was all too glad to be Spock’s vessel in a not entirely creepy way. Only a little bit creepy!

I am a nurse first and a member of the crew of the Enterprise second When Nurse Chapel learns that McCoy is dying of xenopolycythemia in “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky,” her resolve is to help him to live, while he seems to take it in stride that he is destined to die. She encourages him to “Please, give yourself every minute” of his year left in this world, and I’d like to think that that helped him get through it. Natira helped too, wink wink.

The spider catches a fly While we included moments from “The Tholian Web” in almost everyone else’s Worst Moments lists, Chapel actually got a good moment from this otherwise negative episode! When another of McCoy’s assistants has succumbed to the weird space occurrence and attacks him, Nurse Chapel calmly grabs a hypo and tranqs that guy, like a badass!

Now all I want is to crawl away and die While I found Uhura’s reaction to the forced kiss with Kirk in “Plato’s Stepchildren” to be uncomfortable in an entirely different way, the Chapel-Spock kiss is exactly as uncomfortable as it’s supposed to be. Chapel’s pining after Spock is used as a weapon against her in this moment of torture. A worse show would imply that she’s finally getting what she wants, but she makes it clear that without consent, there is no enjoyment and it’s commendable to state that so directly.

I heard Spock’s voice Unlike my reaction to the different women’s scenes in “Plato’s Stepchildren,” I must say that all the women in “The Lorelei Signal” are absolutely on point. While Uhura takes command of the ship, Chapel serves as de facto CMO in the absence of all the men. And what’s more: she uses that weird bond she has with Spock (perhaps lingering from “Return to Tomorrow”?) to save him from the temptresses!

And they've probably redesigned the whole sickbay By The Motion Picture, we see that Chapel found time to learn a new trade, as she’s an MD by the time McCoy arrives. Was it that the writers seem to incorrectly think that nurses are on the same job track as medical doctors, just a lower rung on the career ladder? Probably. But we can read it as her changing jobs because she wanted to do something new, and that’s a more exciting interpretation for this change.

Look for the helpers. You will always find people that are helping. Blink and you can miss it, but Christine Chapel in The Voyage Home is busy coordinating relief efforts at Starfleet Command during the whale probe attack. She gets like one line and you only catch quick glimpses of her, but it’s an excellent touch to show that her character is there and focused on doing the thing that she’s been known for all series long: helping people.

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Worst Moments

You hide it, but you do have feeling Onto some of the lousier things Chapel does in the show, and you’ll find that most are related to her one-sided relationship with Spock. We first see it in “The Naked Time” (before we know that BOTH of them are engaged) when she dumps all her love on him while space-drunk. And it’s a little sad and pathetic knowing she’ll never receive it back [in this series], but also just annoying that it’s the main characteristic the writers ever give her. Sigh.

A mechanical geisha would be no more difficult While we did include some moments from “What Are Little Girls Made of?” above in our Best Moments list, there’s some bad to go around as well! Did you notice just how jealous Chapel immediately got of Andrea the moment she laid eyes on her? Before she knows Andrea is a robot, she’s immediately grouchy when Andrea calls Roger by his first name. And afterwards, Chapel is flat out hostile to the poor, jumpsuited thing!

You never give up hoping, do you? Now for all the times in “Amok Time” Chapel utterly degrades herself because she has a crush on Mr. Spock. Bones jokes about it when she brings him the soup, for one thing. For another, there’s an entirely weird scene in which she goes to tell him they’ve changed course to Vulcan, but he’s still pon farring around and she starts crying. And to top it off, she just had to be present on the bridge (for no reason!) to witness T’Pring on the viewscreen and learn that he’s engaged, just to rub salt in the wound. And then she has no lines the rest of the episode! Poor Christine.

Spock will be yours forever One last time to roll our eyes at how contrived it’s been all series long, and now into The Animated Series, to watch Chapel swooning over Spock so much. So much so that she’s easily swayed by Harry’s Mudd’s offer of some of his love potion in “Mudd’s Passion.” She falls for it, and when it turns out to be the real thing, she barely even gets to enjoy having Spock all to herself!

Since when did we even have ID badges? She makes such an ass of herself that I’ve broken “Mudd’s Passion” into two entries! She is so distracted (and a little drugged) by Mudd that he steals her ID badge. She almost makes up for it by capturing him in the shuttlebay, but instead ends up drugging the whole ship by accident AND gets herself kidnapped and forced into a pretty pathetic damsel in distress role for Spock to heroically save. Oh Chapel, this is all beneath you.

Plenty of fish in the sea One final ditzy moment from Nurse Chapel, and it’s in the clownishly inconsistent “The Terratin Incident.” Sure, everyone in that episode is made to look silly because they’re shrinking down to the size of cockroaches (or smaller depending on the scene), but Chapel nearly drowns in a fish tank after tripping over a sewing needle. Why a sewing needle was next to a fish tank might be the stupidest question yet.

— And that’s it! We couldn’t see stretching the list further than that since you didn’t get to see Chapel do much else in TOS, TAS, or the films. Keep your eyes fixed here because next we’re going to be repeating the same experiment with all the TNG main characters, as well as keeping up with our watchthrough of all of Enterprise over on SoundCloud or wherever you podcast. We also keep all our logs up on Facebook and Twitter. Now eat your plomeek soup! Doctor’s orders!

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je-brille-dans-la-nuit · 3 months

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Who thinks I'm obsessed already

My Star Trek TOS watching continues!

The Enemy Within

Gotta love a "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" episode! His acting is so good!

The dog. I love it (why was he holding it like that??)

I am: impressed

Mudd's Women

Meh. I realise The Cage didn't air, but I saw it a few episodes ago. So the whole "this beautiful woman who's there to be your lover/wife is actually an old ugly lady" feels old already.

I liked how, when Eve was telling him it must be lonely being the captain, Jim went "It probably appears more difficult than it is". Yeah Jimbo cuz you're in love with your ship you told us so

That made me laugh:

I am: rolling my eyes

What are little girls made of?

(Kinda hilarious that we get the "double Jim who's the real one" twice in three episodes.)

Many things I liked!

Spock knowing immediately something was wrong with Jim when hearing the android pretending to be him!

Jim testing androidJim's memory with "Tell me about Sam" got to me because, you know, he could have picked anything but guess what. I, too, if I had to test a copy of myself, would bring up my siblings.

Jim having none of Korby's eugenics bullshit: "In android form, a human being can have practical immortality. Can you understand what I'm offering mankind?" "Programming. Different word, but the same old promises made by Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, Hitler, Ferris, Maltuvis." "Can you understand that a human converted to an android can be programmed for the better? Do you imagine how life could be improved if we could do away with jealousy, greed, hate?" "It can also be improved by eliminating love, tenderness, sentiment, the other side of the coin, doctor."

And, of course, Jim thinking about something awful to say to Spock so his android double will say it and Spock will know right away it's not him! Because Jim would never! They're married friends!

This is some good shit right there!

Also... Do we talk about this?

I am: obsessed

Miri

Less excited with this one. The concept is good, you feel the urgency, but the whole thing with Miri liking Jim put me off. Plus the jealousy towards Janice made it worse. God forbid we had two female characters interacting in a positive way :/

I am: sighing

Dagger of the Mind

Experimentations on convicts under cover of progressive psychological treatment!

First mind meld! Exciting!

Jim defeating the machine because he... is so very strong-minded? Has a high sense of duty? Idk he's just the best

Spock's face when he sees Jim kissing Helen lmao

"It's hard to think a man could die of loneliness" (is it though, Bones? Is it?) "Not when you sat in that room" Oh Jim bb

I am: very enthusiastic / gonna lose my patience over female characters having no other purpose than romance

#Star Trek TOS #Star Trek #watching TOS #what are little girls made of #i'm loving the watch #but it's getting on my nerves: how do you write something that smart and good #And not write women as anything other than objects for romance or sex ughhhhh #Uhura is the only one who's not written that way but her role is very secondary #can't i enjoy my escapism in peace

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startrekucast · 6 months

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TOS 1x10 - "What Are Little Girls Made Of" Review

We strip down and take a whirl on a lazy susan to generate our very own life-sized replicas! It's a dire situation, maman. And we have questions. Like who was on the other side of that machine when Korby made Andrea? Is it possible for an android to love? Why did Kirk grab the most phallic of rocks to wallop Ruk in the face with? It's all a mystery, maman.

Episode Reviewed: Star Trek: The Original Series 1x10, "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"

Hosts This Episode: David C. Roberson Effie Ophelders

Join Us: Site: http://startrekucast.com Apple: http://bit.ly/StuCast Spotify: http://bit.ly/StarTrekUCast Spreaker: http://bit.ly/StuCastSpreaker

#star trek #review #podcast #star trek podcast #podcasts #star trek podcasts #star trek review #what are little girls made of #sherry jackson #star trek the original series #star trek tos #Spotify

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gameraboy2 · 1 year

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Sherry Jackson in Star Trek (1966), "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"

#my gif #sherry jackson #What Are Little Girls Made Of #star trek #star trek tos #gif #gifs #1966 #1960s #vintage #television

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sarahwatchesthings · 3 months

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Hmm, yes, yes... I'm in favor of this.

#star trek tos #christine chapel #what are little girls made of

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holehearted · 9 months

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WHY THE FUCK IS THE KIRK CLONE RACIST OH MY GOD

#poor spock im crying #what are little girls made of #star trek tos

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calliethetrekkie · 7 months

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Star Trek TOS S01E09: What Are Little Girls Made Of?

Original Thoughts

"The concept of androids/robots and emotion is used all the time in sci-fi, but it felt pretty well-done here, such as Andrea clearly having emotions despite being told that she doesn’t. Guess this is where ‘Kirk is a woman chaser’ comes from, though tbf he made out to get her to realize that she had feelings that aren’t just programmed. He more or less used the same manipulation on Ruk. It shows how pragmatic he can be. It was an interesting deconstruction, though I think the robotization process less robbed Korby of emotion and more robbed him of his morality. Still standard as far as sci-fi goes, but still interesting to see here."

(Original Post)

Rewatch Thoughts

Well, it's an episode without McCoy in it, so that already sucks.

Okay, in all seriousness, this was still a good watch. It was nice to see Christine get a bit of spotlight, since she's otherwise just kind of there. Does she ever go on another Away Mission after this one? I do feel like she was just... passive, though. Yeah, she tries to keep Korby from killing Kirk, and I get that it's hard for her because she still cares for her old fiancé. But it's also mostly just... her standing around as things happen. IDK, I just wish that she'd had more to do. But I guess her getting to do anything at all is something I should be grateful for.

This is one of those episodes I remember being really invested in the first time around... then two years later I could only remember the bare minimum about it. I guess a lot of the later ones overshadowed this one in my head. But there's still some good stuff in here.

There's the whole thing with the androids. I remember that being the selling point for me when I first watched the episode. There's a LOOOOT that I had on my mind. Korby robotizing himself and becoming utterly obsessed with his vision of creating a utopia, to the point where he was willing to keep Kirk captive and have an android impersonate him to get control of the ship. I find it interesting that the episode try to portray this as Korby losing his humanity... but IDT that's accurate. We see in this very episode with Andrea and Ruk that they are NOT fully controlled by their programming. Sure, it becomes confusing in Andrea's case, but it's still a fact.

No, what Korby lost wasn't his humanity, but his morality. Let's face it, humans can be driven off the deep end and to such twisted obsessions. Kirk even lists off several dictators that did just that, the only difference being that IDT Korby was pure evil. He lost sight of everything, maybe in part due to robotizing himself in desperation. Either way, it lead to him believing a mere delusion that as we learned from Ruk already failed once with his original creators. Hell, his insistence on Andrea not having emotions feel like him projecting his denial onto her. His plan was doomed from the start, and it ended in him dying for real.

I actually feel kind of bad for the androids. Ruk was left after his makers tried to kill him, his need to survive overpowering his programming. Andrea was programmed to please and obey Korby and at the end it's clear that she's in love with him, Kirk's tactics causing her to be utterly confused. It's clear that, regardless of Korby's insistence, the androids do feel things. The only one we don't really see that from is the android Kirk, but he didn't exactly live long enough to see if anything popped up.

Speaking of Kirk...

This shows Kirk at some of his most pragmatic. He takes Andrea captive briefly. He strangles Korby to make an escape attempt. He more or less forces himself on Andrea to make her confused. He decides to use racism against Spock so that he'll figure out that at the very least something's not right. It is really some of Kirk at his most callous, but that's not a bad thing in my opinion. At least part of it can be explained as Kirk trying to survive and realizing that he's stuck with a man who's clearly lost his mind. The bit with Spock is a little harder to explain... maybe being strapped butt naked on that spinning table can be blamed on that XD How they convinced Shatner to do that shoot I'll never know...

But anyway, as much as I hate the depiction of Kirk as an arrogant, womanizing hot-shot, he shouldn't have those darker parts ignored. Like we saw in The Enemy Within, that darkness is there and he needs it. He NEVER would have acted as he did if he didn't have the ability to threaten or manipulate others. If he has to do those things, he'll do it. That doesn't make him bad, it makes him a more interesting character, imo. He's still ultimately heroic, but he'll certainly play dirty when he has to.

I'm trying to think of what else to say, but there isn't much. I liked seeing Ted Cassidy again, and this time not as just a dummy. Not much goes on with the Enterprise, so I guess McCoy being absent isn't really that big of a deal since he wouldn't have anything to do anyway... but I hate not having him! Even Spock isn't really given much to do except get clued in on the fake. Though the scene at the start where Chapel asks if he's ever been engaged and the face he makes is hilarious. Oh Christine, if you only knew.

So yeah, not much left to say. It's a good episode, I just don't have a lot to say about it. But it's one I'd be willing to watch again, so hey there's that.

Original Rating: 4/5 Rewatch Rating: 7/10

[My TOS Reviews]

[TOS S1 Reviews]

[Previous Review] / [Next Review]

#star trek #star trek tos #tos s1 #st reviews #tos s1 reviews #what are little girls made of #tos reviews

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ichayalovesyou · 2 years

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Hey, do you have any wishes/headcanons for how the Chapel/Korby situation should play out in SNW?

I just rewatched "What are Little Girls Made Of" and apparently Korby has been missing for 5 years in 2261, Chapel was his student (?) at some point and she seems to genuinely love him. How do you think they will fit their engagement into the plot?

Oooh! I AM SO GLAD YOU ASKED! 🤩

I think, given Roger’s been missing for 5 years, TOS starts in 2265-66ish, which means Korby goes missing a couple years after the premiering season of SNW (2259)

My guess is that Spock and Chapel are gonna either have an outright falling out, or Christine will learn to accept that Spock can not love her back in season two (or maybe three, I’m getting the vibe the seasons aren’t a year of in-world time) of Strange New Worlds.

And that Roger will absolutely be her “bounce back” boyfriend, then fiancé. We already know he is a man of science with a vested interest in robotics. Not only that but they’re already familiar with each other so maybe she had a very “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” style crush to begin with!

Chapel probably: What’s that?? An emotionally distant science nerd that I needed to hide my feelings from for professional reasons you say? 👀 Eh! That sounds enough like Spock!

I love Chapel really I do but she is MESSY, and I love her because she’s messy!

It wouldn’t surprise me if she changed her tune from “no attachments because it hurts” to “oh my god you remind me of this one guy who doesn’t love me back. That I am totally over and definitely not coping with not being with by being with you instead by clinging to my college crush on you… Do you want to get married???” and Korby, as we know, says “uh? YES!” 😂

Cue a solid season/half-season of hilariously insufferable and/or possibly very cute Christine/Roger content. We’ll get to a point where she’s pretty much over Spock and genuinely in love with Roger. Before we get a violent tonal change of Roger going MIA and presumed dead. Chapel is completely devastated about it because she JUST got over Spock and was learning to get attached to the idea of being attached. 😢

It is then, and ONLY then, poor Christine will hopefully finally have a character arc at least somewhat independent from her trainwreck of a romantic life! Hooray! 🥳

#I have not stopped thinking about this since I remembered Korby existed a few months ago lol #I’m sure they’ll make him endearing enough that it’ll actually hurt when he goes MIA #just like they’re doing with Sam 😭#star trek #star trek strange new worlds #strange new worlds #snw #christine chapel #nurse chapel #nurse christine chapel #Jess bush #Spock #Roger Korby #star trek headcanon #snw speculation #star trek tos #what are little girls made of #lar trek #answering asks

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