Strange New Worlds "Wedding Bell Blues" Offers Fun, Hi-Jinks, and Little Else

I know that’s a very savage title, but here’s the thing.

"Wedding Bell Blues" was a fun episode. It was. It’s just that that’s…all it was. It didn’t do anything particularly new with the concept of Spock and Chapel. It didn’t do anything really new with the concept of Trelane/Q/whoever he really was. It did…quite little with the concept of Roger Korby, except making him talk and look like a heartthrob in a hallmark rom-com written by someone whose knowledge of Ireland is drawn from episodes of the Simpsons. In many senses, it serves up a fantastic premise - celebrating the centennial of the United Federation of Planets - and then decides not to do anything with that at all. But it is…fun. Does that make up for not doing anything else?

Not really sure it does!

It’s been three months since the Gorn Crisis. Enterprise has finished her repairs, and with the Federation centennial just around the corner Spock is eagerly awaiting the return of Nurse Chapel from her sabbatical with Roger Korby. He’s not being sentimental: he’s just learning to dance with La’an and preparing her a present which, sure. Taking a break. Sure. What this does give us is another opportunity to demonstrate that Christina Chong is the most talented person on this show (she can sing and dance!), but also to demonstrate that La’an can grow and change as a character. She’s no longer the straight-laced doom-telling security chief in the Series Premier three years ago. La’an’s character evolution is interesting - and, like many other plot ideas in this episode, will take a backseat to the main plot alongside the centennial celebrations, Nurse Gamble and whatever is going on with Beto Ortegas and Nyota Uhura. So. Yeah.

So, Spock eventually goes to meet Chapel, who has arrived at the centennial celebrations with…her new boyfriend/maybe fiancé. Her new, rugged, conventional and (frankly) boorish boyfriend, Dr Roger Korby. Will Korby break the curse of dodgy Irish representation in Star Trek? Don’t think so! He’s just kind of…alright. Fine. Obsessed with Chapel, who (beyond a few prompts) has little to add to the story scenes as Spock watches them dote over each other in the port galley. Again, this character work - interesting as it is to see Batel and Pike dote over each other before she returns to duty, or the exploration of who Chapel and Korby are as a couple - is not really a viable substitute for an interesting plot. It’s a lot of…fluff, just to watch Spock sulk. But it’s just that. Spock mopes off to sulk into an alcohol free drink, only to be comforted by a “Vulcan” bartender…who suddenly grants him his perfect wish. Which is, apparently, to wake up next to Chapel in bed on the day of their wedding rehearsal.

It’s time for marital bliss! A big party! An incredibly camp Wedding Planner with magic powers who is one yass queen away from being an offensive stereotype! Everyone is absolutely thrilled about this whole thing to a point of absurdity: except for Korby, who is just kind of…here as Chapel’s Best Man, and is the only person who seems to notice that something is off here: especially when the Wedding planner can fix any issue or snafu with a wave of his hands. 

Cillian O'Sullivan as Dr. Roger Korby and Ethan Peck as Spock in season 3, Episode 2 of Strange New Worlds streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Marni Grossman Paramount+

Now one of the things about Roger Korby is he is, unfortunately, just some guy here. Sure, maybe he’ll be more later. But compared to the first Roger Korby - a weird shut-in obsessed with ancient civilisations and, y’know, androids - this iteration is just…a guy? He’s just kind of here. Which makes the switch to him being the driving force behind the plot here quite stilted because there…isn’t much here. He’s meant to be the perfect fiance: loving, intelligent, observant, ruggedly handsome in a sort of off-brand Colin Farrell kind of way, but we don’t know - or care - enough about him to being invested in the plot, especially when everyone else involved has been reduced to one note characters in The Irish Wish In Space. 

Korby is well aware of the charade, and does his best to alert everyone: only succeeding in getting Spock to realise by provoking him to a very un-Vulcanlike sucker punch through some malicious phrasing and a half-assed attempt to delete his wedding vows. Lot of that going on with Peck’s Spock, isn’t there? When was the last time we saw him do a nerve pinch? Oh well, not like that’s an important character trait or anything. With Spock now aware of the supernatural scheming, the two of them attempt to break the spell on everyone else: attempt being the operative word. It is, perhaps, amusing to see Sam Kirk be all buddy with Spock, and watch Scotty splutter over a strong drink at a Bachelor party, but it is quite noticeable that 1) none of the main characters have any agency this episode and 2) Chapel has even less agency in a plot that is ostensibly about her being married off to…one of two men. It’s that much of a step above her presentation in The Original Series, in some senses, especially when you’ve got characters like Michael Burnham, Beckett Mariner and others in the rear window reminding us that romantic plots in Star Trek don’t require reducing women to cardboard cut-outs. 

The confrontation with The Wedding Planner (Trelane. It’s Trelane. Let’s just get on with it.) is the moment where the plot begins to get even vaguely interesting - as in "The Squire of Gothos", the moments when the god-character loses his cool are the most interesting, especially because Darby plays vindictive and violent…very well. And yet, this fun romp through to the half-farce wedding is only really worth it for the amazing costuming (love a bit of 23rd century fashion, for once. Actually, that’s one thing I absolutely enjoyed in this episode. The fashion.) Even the moment of truth - where Chapel realises this is all completely wrong, comes without any agency from the woman herself. She’s just kind of…there. In an episode that is meant to round out the two-season long will-they-won’t-they-they-can’t of Spock and Chapel, she has no plot agency whatsoever. 

The thing about squaring the circle and just making it clear that Trelane is just Q Junior, and Q to boot, is it’s just…fan pleasing nonsense. Like, sure, it tracks - might even make sense - but it’s also incredibly safe as a bet. The universe is suddenly smaller at that moment. And it doesn’t…do anything? What does Trelane being Q do? Not a lot. Even if the repetition of the parental scolding from "The Squire of Gothos" is fun, it’s just…the same. Almost the exact same. If anything, making the child reveal even more obvious makes it even more blunt.

And the final party-event thing…listen, Pike’s awkward speech - I know what the writers were trying to do, but I will be frank: you are handed an opportunity to say anything about what the United Federation of Planets is, and what it represents, and why it’s important, and you fluff it for a joke about the bar? Come on, guys. World’s a little bit on fire, you can do better than Four Weddings and a Funeral. At least the bar sequences and Uhura-Ortegas Junior flirting is vaguely interesting. Those pints of Guinness were diabolical, though. Wonder how much they paid for that product placement. It’s a fun ending that also feels a little…undeserved. If anything, the only part of this episode that is earned is Ortegas' awkwardness and stilted behaviour in groups: snippets of which are revealed to be symptoms of PTSD from the Gorn kidnapping. Foreshadowing? I hope so, but it better be more than just making her suffer.

Dan Jeannotte as Sam Kirk, Melissa Navia as Erica Ortegas, Rebecca Romijn as Una, Christina Chong as La'an, Jess Bush as Chapel, Cillian O'Sullivan as Dr. Roger Korby and Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M'Benga in season 3, Episode 2 of Strange New Worlds streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Marni Grossman Paramount+ 

The thing about "Wedding Bell Blues" is it just isn’t really saying anything. It’s fun, yes. Rhys Darby is an excellent Trelane: Spock and Korby having to team up to try and get through the insanity is…fun. The absurdity of everything being undercut by how vicious Trelane is matches his original appearance completely. And yet…what’s being said here? I am a big believer that stories - any story - have to try and say something. Especially Star Trek - especially The Original Series. They are all about something, either something grand ("Errand of Mercy," anyone) or something a bit more personal ("Squire of Gothos" as a dwelling on how Kid’s play at war: Broomstick Cowboy, anyone?) But "Wedding Bell Blues?" Hell, even Pike can’t actually tell us what this is all about when he fluff’s his speech. Compared to other farce episodes Trek has managed well - "Trouble With Tribbles," "Magic to Make the Sanest Go Mad," even "Those Old Scientists" - but here it’s just kind of all glamour and no substance. Despite being a fun romp and a nice call back to the alien tricksters, it’s got very little to give us except a lot of “oh, remember that! Or this! Isn’t teetotal scotty funny? Isn’t that a cool reference to the Twilight Zone?” To which, sure, yeah. It’d be better if you wrote a decent episode first, guys. 

At another level, it’s not great that this entire plot is carried on Darby’s back. Not that Darby’s bad: but there’s nothing about this plot or performance that suggests that it couldn’t be transplanted onto any Trek cast - or, hell, any other sci-fi show. I’m not even really sure I like The Wedding Planner being a Q - or Trelane - or whatever. He’d be more interesting as a disconnected character: Captain Pike’s own personal trickster, with much more malice than ever Q or Trelane ever did. At the very least, he deserves a better plot than this.

I’m also miffed at this ending to the Spock-Chapel romance arc being so...Chapel-lite. She’s just there! I’m fairly sure that Korby has more lines than Chapel here! And I think that’s a significant regression from how she was written in Season One. But, hopefully, with this plot over (or at least evolving properly), we can see Chapel start to develop outside of being a romantic foil for Spock. Maybe.

Next week, we dive into a high-stakes mission in "Shuttle to Kenfori."