Christine Meredith Chapel is, to put it mildly, unlucky in love. She was engaged to Dr. Roger Korby, who disappeared, and she joined Starfleet as a nurse in order to look for him. He turned out to have replaced himself with an android. Then she falls in love with Spock, an affection which was of the unrequited kind - only to have to watch him fall in love with and marry Ruth Valley. Which, despite her placid, submissive demeanor, must take a pretty damned strong woman.

As Head Nurse aboard the Enterprise, she is quite friendly with Dr. McCoy, and has also developed friendships with Uhura and, before he transferred, Dr. M'Benga. She never really warmed up to Jade Han, but there's probably a reason for that, something to do with the doctor's easy friendship with a certain Vulcan - although, if one thinks about it, the two women do have that unrequited-love-for-a-Vulcan thing in common.

Chapel is what can charitably be called statuesque; tall, blonde, with a long face and pale blue eyes. She's not a raving beauty, but she is attractive in her own way.