Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Cast Address Chapel's Canon-Compliant Romance & Scotty's Pre-TOS Origins

Beam us up, Scotty! Martin Quinn joins the main cast of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3. Scotty debuted at the end of Strange New Worlds season 2, which also showed Nurse Christine Chapel (played by Jess Bush) facing the nigh-impossible challenge of saving Captain Marie Batel's (Melanie Scrofano) life from a Gorn infection.

As a series regular, Lieutenant Montgomery Scott becomes part of the USS Enterprise's engineering team, working under his former instructor, Commander Pelia (Carol Kane), in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3. Meanwhile, Nurse Chapel finds new love with Dr. Roger Korby (Cillian O'Sullivan) after she ended her relationship with Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck).

ScreenRant had the pleasure of catching up with Jess Bush and Martin Quinn at Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3's press junket about Martin Quinn's challenges with Star Trek technobabble, the advice Anson Mount gave him, and why Nurse Chapel broke it off with Spock so that Strange New Worlds could create new canon with Roger Korby.

Anson Mount Gave Martin Quinn Advice On How To Play Scotty

"As Long As It Makes Sense To Me, It Will Look Confident"

Coming aboard the Starship Enterprise as, arguably, Star Trek's most iconic engineer meant Martin Quinn must handle a great deal of technobabble explaining the franchise's pseudo-science. Quinn explained that it was Anson Mount who gave him the key to handling Scotty's infamous technobabble: "Anson actually gave me a really good piece of advice that as long as it makes sense to you," Scotty will sound like a real engineer.

Martin elaborated: "It just means that, as the actor, I kind of activate my own imagination and what it means to me, and how I think that science works," Quinn added, "And then I'm able to play that a lot easier than trying to get my head around the quantum physics and the pseudo science. I used to think that I had to know everything, whereas as long as it makes sense to me, it will look confident."

Martin Quinn Explains Why It's Harder To Play Spock Than Scotty

"It's Not As Bad As It Is For Ethan"

Martin Quinn thinks playing Scotty is an easier gig than Ethan Peck's role as Lieutenant Spock. Quinn says the role of Scotty is "not as bad as for Ethan, because I feel like, Spock can't even put any hesitation in, whereas I can kind of like scratch myself and ums and as, you know, lots of hesitation, but not as tricky." Quinn feels Peck not only has to convey the same kind of technobabble, but, as a Vulcan, Ethan has no room for error.

Quinn also explains how his father helps him run lines and understand his function as Scotty. "I have to run lines a lot out loud with my dad, and to try and, like, I don't know, get out of my mouth and just be at ease with it," Martin explains. "You know, make it not sound like the effort that it really is.

Jess Bush Reflects On Why Nurse Chapel Broke Up With Spock

"It's Just Not Really Fitting"

In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, Spock must come to terms with why Nurse Chapel broke up with him. Jess Bush details Christine's mindset of moving on from her romance with the Vulcan: "I think going into season 3, Chapel knows that something is not quite right with Spock, but she can't really articulate what that is. It's just like she needs to follow her own path, and it's just not really fitting."

Jess Bush points out that the attraction between Chapel and Spock remains, but Christine feels she has to find her own way without him. "Just the way that we both need to move individually is not working," Bush says. "Not to say that she doesn't love him, and she's not very attracted to him, [but] there's just a tension there that's not really working out. She needs to follow her own path."

Jess Bush Is Excited For Strange New Worlds To Expand Chapel & Korby's Relationship Canon

"We Have A Very Similar Way Of Moving Through The World"

Nurse Chapel leaves the USS Enterprise for a three-month medical archeology program with Dr. Roger Korby, with whom she falls in love. Jess Bush explains how "surprised" Chapel was when she fell for Korby, and how much they have in common: "It's just easy, and we have a very similar way of moving through the world, and very similar ideas about freedom and adventure and discovery and moving in, like more of a less structured way. I think that he naturally is like that, and so it feels easy."

Jess Bush also enjoyed working with Cillian O'Sullivan as her new romantic scene partner. "Cillian is awesome. He's so great to work with. He's so talented. He's such a talented actor, and also just a really, really nice guy. So it was a pleasure and a dream." Bush also knows that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is filling in the canon about Chapel and Korby's broken relationship in Star Trek: The Original Series. "I'm excited for fans to see that canon relationship," Jess says. There are "little sparkles of it showing in season 3."