Jess Bush Calls Playing Majel Barrett's Role an Honor
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is well into its first season now and as a prequel, the show has brought back several legacy characters from The Original Series. One such character is Nurse Christine Chapel. Originally played by Majel Barrett Roddenberry, Chapel served aboard the Enterprise under Captain Kirk (William Shatner) during their five-year deep space mission to explore the galaxy. Barrett's Chapel appeared in all three seasons of The Original Series, as well as Star Trek: The Animated Series, and would go on to become Chief Medical Officer and a Commander in the films Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Barrett was dubbed the First Lady of Star Trek both for her contribution to the franchise and as the wife and frequent creative partner of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. In Strange New Worlds, actress Jess Bush has been tasked with bringing to life a younger filling out the backstory of this iconic character as she arrives on Captain Pike's (Anson Mount) Enterprise to serve under Dr. M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun).
In a recent interview, Bush told THR, “it’s a massive honor to be only the second actor to play Nurse Chapel after Majel Barrett. I think that I was lucky in a sense that I wasn’t that aware of Star Trek to begin with, so it wasn’t particularly overwhelming.” Barrett portrayed Christine as calm, caring, practical yet witty, and sassy – truly a character that was way ahead of her time. Nonetheless, Bush found freedom to explore more sides of Christine, she continued:
"Regarding how much of Nurse Chapel comes through in this current iteration, it was a conversation with Akiva [Goldsman] and Henry [Alonso Meyers]. It was a balance between honoring Majel’s Chapel and making her new. Majel’s Chapel definitely had a distinct essence about her, but there was still so much room to explore her backstory, what she was like when she was younger, what she might be like in our time as a young woman, and they gave me a lot of license to explore. It was a fun, collaborative conversation."
Noting how Barrett played the character Bush said, “I watched all her performances. I also read nursing memoirs and continue to read different materials that feed into what it’s like to be a medical practitioner in different situations, like a medevac situation.” Further adding that her main takeaway was sarcasm and how she was able to build a backstory around it. Bush explained:
"Majel’s Chapel, she’s really dry and sarcastic, which I love. That was the main takeaway for me, and that leads to my favorite aspect of Strange New Worlds Chapel: Humor. That humor as it exists in a younger woman. She uses that humor to ruffle people’s feathers to discover more about them. She’s got this sense of humor, and it’s driven by curiosity."
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 is currently airing on Paramount+ with new episodes every Thursday.
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