‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’: Paul Wesley & Jess Bush on Playing ‘TOS’ Kirk and Chapel

We’ve always known what the future held for the characters of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, covering the years in which Pike (Anson Mount) is captain of the Enterprise before Kirk (Paul Wesley). But we got a glimpse of that future with a jump to The Original Series era, thanks to a temporal anomaly in the Season 4 finale. Kirk was captain, and characters like Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) and Chapel (Jess Bush) looked suddenly familiar. That wasn’t the only difference.

“It was really cool to see how the writers slightly tweaked the dialogue to reflect a slightly older version of Chapel,” Bush tells TV Insider. “The costumes and hair were really fun. It was thrilling to evolve into a version of Chapel that was closer to The Original Series Chapel — and surreal.”

This came soon after Wesley played a more vulnerable Kirk. But the version we got in the finale meant he had to put that all — including “his not being sure who he wants to be as captain” — aside. “I think here he knows exactly who he wants to be, and he knows exactly what kind of captain he should be,” Wesley says. “He shows less, I guess, reluctance in decision-making, and that was what I wanted to exude.”

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The episode revolves around Uhura interacting with herself and eventually the two versions switching places, and as a result, both Bush and Wesley shared key scenes with Gooding. Bush loved that, since the two are good friends in real life. “It’s fun to see how our characters kind of grow together as well,” she adds.

And Wesley knows how “integral” Kirk and Uhura’s relationship is in canon. “We got to play with that a little bit in Season 2,” he recalls. “We got to show the two of them really uniting and having this unique bond, and I think that this is just a furthering of that. Him and Uhura are one of the most important relationships in the series, obviously, aside from, I would say, Kirk and Spock [Ethan Peck].”

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Looking ahead to the fifth and final season and the Chapel we’ll see, Bush warns, “Bring your box of tissues.”

As for Kirk, Wesley is careful with his words: “In the finale, I think people are going to really — Look, our goal is to leave people wanting more, and I think we may have accomplished that, but time will tell.”

When it came to what he wanted to explore with Kirk after wrapping Season 4, “It’s just a further examination of why he became the man that he was. And a lot of that, for me, was part of my journey as an actor: How can I show a metamorphosis and a kind of character evolution?” Wesley tells TV Insider. “I’m not in the writers’ room, I have no idea what these guys are doing, but I trust them, and that’s exactly what they delivered for me anyway as an actor, was just a real examination of why Kirk became the man that he is in TOS.”

Bush admits she was “really nervous” about the last days on set and the moment that “cut” would be called on her final scene. “I was nervous about the grief that was going to come with that, but it was actually so beautiful and continues to be. My feeling when they called cut on my last scene was just one of, I just can’t believe I got to experience this in my life,” she reveals. “This is so, so special. To be able to make this kind of art with these kind of artists and be a part of this legacy and bring this wonderful character to life again has been such a gift. And I don’t feel like I’m clinging onto her or the feeling is not painful. It’s just one of immense gratitude and excitement for what comes after this.”

What are you hoping to see in Strange New Worlds‘ final season? Let us know in the comments section below.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Fifth and Final Season, TBA, Paramount+