The first two episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 premiered on July 17, 2025, and featured the addition of a new character, Dr. Roger Korby. The show is set a decade before Star Trek: The Original Series and follows the lives of Captain Christopher Pike and his crew aboard the starship Enterprise. Created by Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers, season 3 explores the events that take place after the Gorn encounter.During Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 episode 2 titled Wedding Blue Bells, Spock prepares a romantic arrival for Chapel. However, he is surprised by the arrival of Chapel's return from her three-month archeology medicine fellowship with legendary scientist Dr. Roger Kirby as her date. This new character's entry to the show puts Spock's hopes for a relationship with Chapel at risk.Dr. Roger Korby's role in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 exploredChristine Chapel and Dr. Roger Korby in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 (Image via Paramount+)In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, the arrival of Dr. Roger Korby complicates the emotional trajectory of Spock and Nurse Christine Chapel. Season 2 of the series ended with Chapel receiving an offer to take up an elite fellowship with Korby. In the second episode, she comes back unexpectedly, with Korby as her escort, upsetting Spock at the very moment that he is about to make a sweeping romantic overture.The narrative unfolds within an artificially constructed reality created by Trelane, who is a super-powerful, reality-altering being. Within this construct, Spock and Chapel are set to marry, but he becomes suspicious when Korby drops the bombshell that he and Chapel are dating.As Spock tries to penetrate through the delusion, he is faced with his own emotions, which peak in a selfless action during the wedding ceremony: reciting the words of Pablo Neruda to remind Chapel of her history with Korby, waking her up from the delusion.Dr. Roger Korby's presence solidifies canon as it reconfigures the emotional arc of Spock, who is reduced to observing Chapel and Korby dance, representing the end of the short-lived romance. His heartbreak propels his development toward the emotionally closed-off character of The Original Series, indicating permanent implications for his love life.Jess Bush and Akiva Goldsman on the addition of Dr. Roger Korby in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 View this post on Instagram Instagram PostIn an exclusive interview with TV Insider published on July 17, 2025, the showrunners opened up about the addition of Dr. Roger Korby into the storyline of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, causing complications in Spock's love life."We're always in the business of keeping things alive in situ and also trying to figure out where we're going," stated Goldsman.He went on to explain how, in Chapel's mind, there was some frustration and confusion concerning her dynamic with Spock in The Original Series."I'm sure when people found that we were having those two characters get together in our show, they felt it would lead directly to that, so of course we wanted to subvert that expectation and make it not lead directly to that, and so off we went," he added.Australian actress and model Jess Bush, who portrays Nurse Christine Chapel in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, joked that her character's return with Dr. Roger Korby was "ruthless." She said she also believed that Chapel's time away had made her move on from Spock unintentionally."I think that Chapel's freedom of movement is very important to her, and when she leaves to the fellowship, she's prioritizing. She doesn't want to compromise her dreams and her ambitions for a relationship at that point in time, but that doesn't mean that she doesn't love Spock. I think that it just feels very important to her to not compromise in that moment," she explains.Also read: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 release date, where to watch, and other latest updates so far.Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 is available to stream on Paramount+ and Amazon Prime Video.