Was This ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Moment Meant To Be a Giant Fake-Out?
Before Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 premiered, fans noticed an odd detail in the promo poster. The poster shows the cast posing against a variety of alien backgrounds, with a multicolored Starfleet insignia behind them. One of the backgrounds is black and white, and Christine Chapel is greyed out along with it.
You could argue that she just matches the background of her placement in the poster, but none of the other characters match their backgrounds. What does the color choice mean!? Does something happen to Christine? Is it an alternate universe Christine, or a Christine from a different timeline? Is she changed or altered somehow? What’s going on?
At the end of the season premiere, there’s a moment that seems, for all the world, to set up the poster detail.
After answering La’an’s distress call, Christine and Joseph find themselves trapped on a Federation ship that the Klingons have stolen for a false flag operation. They send a signal to Spock to destroy the ship, then try to get off of it themselves. They get to an airlock, but can’t find any pressure suits, so they try a desperate gambit: they activate a transmitter that will send the Enterprise their location, then open the airlock and are sucked into space. Meanwhile, Spock destroys the ship, wracked with the belief that he’s just killed two of his friends (one of which he happens to have feelings for).
But Christine and Joseph’s plan works, and they’re beamed aboard the Enterprise before they die in the vacuum of space. Joseph seems okay, but Christine is unconscious, and her heart isn’t beating. Spock frantically administers CPR, tearfully begging her not to die.
Here’s where I thought the poster coloration would be explained. This Christine Chapel was going to die, and another version of her would appear down the line. Or maybe Christine would be altered somehow, and the greyed-out poster would represent her new personality.
But nope—Christine wakes up, Spock is relieved, and at the end of the episode, she’s recovering in Sick Bay while Spock wrestles with his feelings for her. If she’s greyed out for a reason, this scene isn’t it.
So, was the fake-out intentional, or was it simply a plot beat in the Spock/Chapel romance? Is she greyed out for any reason at all? Did I drastically overthink things again?
We’ll have to keep watching to see! In the meantime, I’m loving Spock and Christine’s romance—even if it means trouble down the line with Spock’s fiancée T’Pring.
(featured image: Paramount+)
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