An Adorable Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Scene Echoes One Of TNG's Most Amusing Subplots

At the beginning of the "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" episode "Wedding Bell Blues," the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise is gearing up for a grand gala to celebrate the centennial of the formation of the Federation. The Enterprise has been under repair for the previous few months after a conflagration with the Gorn, so everyone has had time to relax. Spock (Ethan Peck), however, finds himself apprehensive; although he is a Vulcan devoted to emotionlessness, he finds that he is still harboring feelings for Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush), currently away from the Enterprise on vacation. Chapel is due to return any day now, though, and Spock, perhaps illogically, is nervous. 

To distract himself, he decides to prepare for the gala by learning to dance. Luckily, his co-worker, chief of security Lieutenant La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), has extensive dance training, and is more than willing to give him lessons. Spock is an open-minded student but, perhaps predictably, is too stiff to dance. La'an has to teach him to unclench his whole body. Vulcans don't typically dance, you see. But then, neither does La'an. This is a side of her that fans haven't yet seen. It seems that La'an keeps her dancing skills well-hidden most of the time. 

For Trekkies, Spock's dance lesson will immediately evoke the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Data's Day" (January 7, 1991). In that episode, Data (Brent Spiner) has been invited to the wedding of Chief O'Brien (Colm Meany) and his fiancée Keiko (Rosalind Chao). Data knows little about weddings, but has learned that dancing is required. The android seeks dance lessons from his co-worker Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden). Like La'an, Dr. Crusher hasn't let many people know that she has had extensive dance training. She didn't want to be known as "the dancing doctor." 

It's clear that the makers of "Wedding Bell Blues" had seen "Data's Day," and were happy to pay homage. It probably helped that both "Strange New Worlds" and "Next Generation" happened to have two professional dancers on their respective casts. 

To remind readers, Gates McFadden, early in her career, was a dancer, movement coach, and choreographer. She studied movement with Jacques Lecoq, and was part of an all-female clown troupe in New York called Commedia Del Pinky. McFadden also worked with the Muppets, serving as a choreographer on both "The Muppets Take Manhattan" and "Labyrinth." If one looks closely at the "Labyrinth" behind-the-scenes footage included on the film's home-video releases, one can see McFadden giving instruction. (Back then, she was credited as Cheryl McFadden, going by her real first name.)

McFadden wasn't asked to do a lot of dancing as Dr. Crusher, so "Data's Day" seemed like a favor to the actress. The writers of "Next Generation" found an organic way to let McFadden dance on camera. It was only for the one episode — Dr. Crusher never got to dance again — but Trekkies everywhere now knew that McFadden was a talented dancer in addition to being an actress. 

Christina Chong, likewise, has a background in dance, but one that she doesn't often get to utilize while working on "Star Trek." Chong attended dance school as a teenager, and performing arts college thereafter. She aimed to be a dancer full-time, and only turned to taking acting lessons after an injury temporarily halted her dancing ambitions. By 2008, she was accepting professional acting gigs (she was in a horror film called "Freakdog," a supernatural spin on "I Know What You Did Last Summer"). She was soon accepting higher-profile jobs in movies like "W.E.," "Johnny English Reborn," and even "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," although her scenes from the latter were cut. She was also in TV shows like "Doctor Who," "Black Mirror," and "24." "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" was another feather in her cap. 

But, of course, she didn't get to dance much ... until now. La'an teaching Spock to dance not only evoked "Data's Day," but served the same function behind the scenes. Both dance sequences allowed experienced dancers to show off a little.