Strange New Worlds: Chong, Bush & Quinn Talk Holodeck Adventure

Posted in: Paramount+, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: star trek, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Strange New Worlds: Chong, Bush & Quinn Talk Holodeck Adventure

Christina Chong, Jess Bush, and Martin Quinn offered some insights into Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E04: "A Space Adventure Hour."

Published Fri, 01 Aug 2025 08:37:03 -0500
by Tom Chang
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Strange New Worlds is not only a platform to expand new storytelling opportunities within the Star Trek universe, but also to revisit past concepts. There is certainly no shortage of Easter Eggs to the series' past. While the idea of the Holodeck was initially introduced in the franchise's first live-action TV spinoff, The Next Generation, which canonically takes place 75 years after The Original Series, the Paramount+ series offers a suitable explanation on why it won't work in the 23rd-century TOS era in the latest episode, "A Space Adventure Hour." It follows the Enterprise's chief of security, La'an Noonien Singh (Christina Chong), who is working with Scotty (Martin Quinn) and Spock (Ethan Peck) on a prototype that allows users to imagine themselves in any scenario to act out in. In La'an's case, a 20th-century Amelia Moon murder-mystery, but things go on the fritz in the Holodeck, she's stuck with familiar faces playing different characters, and it's up to Scotty to save the day while the Enterprise is dealing with a threat of their own. And then there's Paul Wesley's not-so-exaggerated William Shatner from TOS impersonation. Chong, Quinn, and Jess Bush (Christine Chapel) spoke to Bleeding Cool about playing into their roles and working with Star Trek veteran and TNG/Picard star Jonathan Frakes, who directed the episode.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Stars Christina Chong, Jess Bush & Martin Quinn on Playing the Holodeck

Christina, in that murder mystery episode "A Space Adventure Hour," what was it like to play detective as a whole and explore that holodeck lore?

Chong: It was an absolute blast getting to play Amelia Moon and acting with these guys as entirely different characters. I get to dance, she gets to have a romance, and there was so much in it for me. I get to do my American noir accent, and working with [Director] Jonathan Frakes was huge. I was so emotional at the end of it. I said to him, "I can't say goodbye properly, so I'm just going to disappear." [laughs] Because I was sad that it was all over.

Jess, how did you like playing a different character entirely? Martin, were you disappointed you weren't involved more in that program, but at least you had Scotty shine, trying to fix it?

Bush: The Holodeck episode was one of my favorites to shoot. It was so much fun, especially with Jonathan Frakes at the helm. He was such a hoot to work with and the perfect director for that episode. It was fun to jump into another character who is pretty different from Chapel. Also, to use my natural accent was a strange sensation. I had a blast. I would love to do more of that.

Quinn: Yeah, I mean, I got a little bit of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), because they were all having such a hoot in the Holodeck, but working with Frakes was so cool, and then it was particularly an episode where all hands were on deck. There was the set and deck on call. There was all this SFX. It was great and such a fun episode for me, because working with Jonathan Frakes is amazing, isn't it? He's the best, he's so cool, and his wealth of knowledge on all things Trek is so valuable.

New episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds stream on Thursdays on Paramount+.

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