Info Post for One Passing Night
AU History: I'm mainly using the 2009 reboot movie, but since she only appeared onscreen as a voice, I've had to pull from the original series canon. So it's both, but she's an AU, having a different history before joining Starfleet than the Christine of the original series does.
Christine was born in 2237 in New Orleans, LA on Earth to Lauren and Patterson Chapel. From a young age she had a great interest in ballet, and took lessons for twelve years. She had plans of making it as a professional ballerina, an incredibly hard profession to break into, and so from her early childhood to throughout her teens, Christine showed an intense drive to go after what she wanted. She had other interests, of course, but ballet was her one true love.
As her parents lost interest in her extracurricular activities and showed less support, that made Christine all the more determined to get them to pay attention. She strove for excellence in everything she did, from school, to ballet, to sports she joined, to having the perfect boyfriend to bring home to her parents. But high school boys are far from perfect, and when she realized she couldn't mold them to be what she wanted, she decided she was better off without them. As her teens progressed and she slowly became aware that her parents just didn't share or really support her interests, she came to the conclusion that she couldn't depend on them, or on anyone else, for anything. This shaped her to be a bit of a loner, but also gave her an intense drive to prove herself to be capable all on her own.
She had interests besides ballet, however, such as softball, volleyball, singing, cooking, and science. Though she aced every class she took, her favorites were those that dealt with science, specifically biology. She never pictured herself as anything other than a ballerina though, and so she didn't consider at that point that she could do anything in the field of science.
That changed at age sixteen. Ever since puberty hit, she and her fellow ballerinas were constantly pressured to lose weight. For years she went along with the desires of her coach, which she figured must be her desires too, as she wanted to be the best ballerina possible. Christine was constantly hungry and very unhealthy. From her extensive knowledge of human biology, she knew she wasn't healthy. The weight loss affected her mood, making her depressed, and even caused her to black out several times. This was a turning point in her life, as she tried to justify how something that hurt her so much could still make her happy.
She struggled on, trying to justify how it would be worth it in the end, when she had made it as a professional ballerina. Her plans after high school ended were to get into Juilliard, which would help launch her into her career, but one day that all changed. With her mood constantly fluctuating between depression and anger, a comment from her ballet coach hinting that she might make it into Juilliard if only she lost a bit more weight infuriated Christine so much that she quit her lessons right there and then and walked out of the studio. After that, her anger sustained her for awhile, but then she had her doubts, as people often do, and wondered if she should apologize and ask to return. But she weighed the pros and cons and decided her health wasn't worth it. It nearly broke her heart, but she gave up on being a professional ballerina.
After giving up the possibility of a future career in ballet, she turned to her next love, science, specifically biology. As is Christine's nature, she had to throw herself into something else, so that she could excel in it. She began narrowing down the field until she found something on which she wanted to focus on and study obsessively. She chose medicine, and began reading about breakthroughs being made by Starfleet scientists, specifically one named Dr. Roger Korby. Roger had been in high school when Starfleet suffered a tragedy in losing one of its ships, the USS Kelvin, in an attack by an enemy with advanced technology who was never found. This motivated Roger to join Starfleet, and this would later affect Christine's life.
[In the original series of Star Trek, Christine had a career in bio-research, working alongside the brilliant scientist, Dr. Roger Korby. Eventually the two became engaged, but he left for a deep space mission and Christine stayed on Earth. They stayed in contact until 2261, when Korby disappeared. As a result of this, Christine joined Starfleet in the hopes of being assigned to deep space where she could find him.
She worked in San Fransisco at Starfleet Medical for some time alongside Leonard McCoy, until she was assigned to the Enterprise as an Ensign in 2266 alongside McCoy. That same year, the Enterprise reached the planet Korby was last stationed on, and Christine reunited with him. However, when she discovered he had replaced his body with an android one, and wanted the same for her and everyone else, she rejected him and he killed himself.]
My Christine is from an alternative reality. In the reboot movie, in 2233, the USS Kelvin was attacked by a rogue Romulan ship with advanced technology. In addition to this changing the futures of James Kirk, Spock, and many at Starfleet, it also affected Christine's life. Instead of entering bio-research and working alongside Korby, in looking for an area of science to focus on, she found that he published papers in the medical field and came to greatly admire him.
Her senior year of high school, a Starfleet recruiter came to her school to urge students to consider joining. Christine was reminded of Dr. Korby and she fell in love with the idea of joining Starfleet Medical, her practical side noting that one couldn't beat free when it came to their education. As graduation approached, she decided on nursing for her concentration, with a five year mission afterward. Once that was accomplished, she would reevaluate herself and determine whether she wanted to continue with her education to become a doctor and stay in Starfleet. I take this ambition from Original Christine, who did obtain her Doctorate by 2271.
On graduating in 2255 she joined Starfleet's Medical Academy. Unfortunately for her, Dr. Korby had shipped out not long before on a five year mission in deep space, so she didn't have the chance to meet him or work beside him. Christine was ambitious and wanted to be assigned to the new flagship Starfleet was building in Iowa. Nothing but the best ship with the newest technology aboard would do for her. She even had plans of becoming Head Nurse, though she knew whoever was already assigned Head Nurse would have to transfer or retire first. She excelled in every class she took, volunteered at the Medical Center, and easily made friends with like-minded, hardworking cadets.
In 2258, she and her fellow cadets at the Academy were called to answer a distress call from Vulcan, as most of the Fleet was engaged too far away to answer the call. She was assigned to her first choice ship, the newly built USS Enterprise, which was going out on its maiden voyage. Upon arriving above Vulcan a bit later than her fellow starships after a delay, the Enterprise found itself to be the only surviving ship, and was promptly attacked by a rogue Romulan ship, which had just destroyed the others. Christine was knocked around in the attack, but not injured, and she quickly got her bearings, assisting in healing the wounded. Once the Romulans were defeated, the Enterprise returned to Earth and Christine finished her classes in time to depart on the repaired ship for her five year mission. As the previous Head Nurse had been killed in the attack above Vulcan, Christine was promoted to Head Nurse, based on her actions and how she kept a cool head and directed her fellow nurses during the attack.
Personality: Christine has a no nonsense attitude. Usually if she has a problem with something or someone, she is not afraid to state so, unless the situation involves her superior officers. In cases such as those, she will be less blunt unless she knows the officer well enough to know they would not reprimand her for being candid. She has an air of being carefree and will let few things bother her, unless it's an important issue to her, such as an injured or ill person refusing medical treatment. She also has a caring bedside manner, and Christine is sympathetic towards the ill or injured.
Christine tends to depend on herself for things, not wanting to rely on others. This stems from childhood, when her parents grew tired of attending all her ballet recitals and eventually stopped coming to them altogether. Not letting herself rely on others means there's no opportunity for them to let her down, as well as the fact that her accomplishments are hers alone. As the Head Nurse of the Enterprise, Christine still carries that drive to succeed and prove herself to be the best. Her career is the most important thing to her, and she throws herself into her work. She controls the inner workings of the medical bay, from stocking and reordering their inventory, to doing physicals and treating minor injuries, to assisting in surgeries, to assigning duties to her nursing staff, to making the rounds. Despite the loner nature she adopted in her teens, she has to begrudgingly issue duty rosters to her fellow nurses and therefore has adapted to interact with them. She's become more open with them, even a little bit trusting, but if Christine had the time and resources, she would gladly be in control of everything in the medical bay herself. She is already very serious and dedicated to her work for her age.
Christine throws herself into things full force. She loves mastering/conquering challenges. When she gave up ballet, she knew she had to replace it with something about which she could be just as passionate. If she didn't, she would see herself as a quitter, and that's something she would hate to be. She doesn't accept defeat easily. She was always smart (according to supplemental info, she graduated in the 98th percentile of her class at Starfleet Medical Academy), and science was something she loved. Discovering how the body functioned and how to fix it when it failed appealed to her and her desire to control things.
She became enamored with the research of Dr. Roger Korby, involving deep space missions to discover new plant and animal life that could be used for medicine. The idea of traveling out into the far reaches of space and learning about the biology of unknown creatures excited her, and she decided to join Starfleet, partially inspired by him, partially because it would be an adventure where she could explore science and medical in greater detail.
Making snap decisions in the med bay to save lives was right up Christine's alley. It was always her ambition to be made Head Nurse someday, but it was only by a fluke that she was given the position so soon. So many lives were lost when the Romulans attacked that many cadets were promoted to positions they normally would not have achieved for several years to fill in the gaps. But she certainly hasn't taken her position for granted. She works hard to prove that she is the right choice for Head Nurse.
Right now, Christine is exactly where she wants to be, doing what she loves to do. She gets to treat the injured and ill, go on away missions to collect data that could prove useful in medicine, and be in charge of all of the ship's nurses. She's incredibly work-oriented for her age, and while she likes to relax and have fun, having a fulfilling career that makes her feel needed and important is what really matters to her. Still ambitious, she'll consider working towards her doctorate and one day becoming the Chief Medical Officer of a Starfleet vessel.
Christine isn't afraid to disagree with Dr. McCoy if she doesn't believe he's making the right medical decision, but she will back down and follow his orders. She will also always defer to McCoy's medical judgment if someone were to go over McCoy's head in regards to a patient. She is completely loyal and dedicated to her boss, and she favors the working relationship they have as doctor and nurse to the relationship of superior officer and junior officer. Dealing with unwilling patients has turned her into a bit of a negotiator, as it were. She is sympathetic towards her patients and tries her best to put them at ease. She's also highly driven to succeed in whatever she does.
That doesn't mean she doesn't know how to relax and have fun though. In her personal life, Christine likes to party and enjoy herself, as long as the people she's partying with don't make asses out of themselves. She can be flirty, and is sexually active, though at this point in her life, she doesn't want to be involved in a romantic relationship. She says it's because she wants to focus on her career, and while that's true, it also goes back to her trust issues and not wanting to rely on those who she assumes will let her down.
At times, she second guesses her decision to push aside romance in favor of her career, worrying about her future and if she'll have romance then, or if not, if pushing it aside during her younger years was worth it. But then her insecurities rise, and she reminds herself that she can only depend on herself. It could be said that she's afraid of love, but she hides behind the mantra that she's focusing on her career. Yet she's still very young, despite her maturity when it comes to work, and things may change as she discovers more about herself personally, and realizes there could be more to life than just work and friends.
Christine greatly admires Spock for his logical mind, but wonders what he'd be like if he expressed his human side more often. She worries what the mainly human, emotional crew must do to him, as he suppresses all emotion himself, but sees it plainly expressed all around him. She admits to herself that she is fascinated with him, and even has a crush on him, though she doesn't expect, or even want anything to come of it.
Yet she can't seem to help herself and goes out of her way at times to get him to notice her, praise her work, or engage him in conversation. But these actions don't mean she wants him to know how she feels beyond simply caring about his well being. If he knew how often she thought about him, or the things she thought about him, she'd be completely embarrassed. She wants to get to know him better, to know what he thinks about and what makes him tick, but she doesn't want him to suspect her motives for doing so. As she is good friends with Uhura, Chris wants to hide her crush on Spock from her, worrying what that might do to their friendship.
This crush is frustrating for Christine to deal with, since she imagines herself to be above such things, is afraid of the idea of being in love, and thinks herself to be rather logical, like Spock. Yet she truly is an emotional thinker deep down inside, and it is her emotions that guide her thoughts and actions in regards to her Vulcan crewmate.
Her perfectionist nature is her main flaw. She doesn't like to trust others to do things because she thinks she can do the best job. Her arrogance is something she is well aware of, but doesn't easily strive to control. She doesn't see anything wrong with wanting to be the best at what she does. Speaking her mind is natural for her. If she feels compassion for someone, she'll show it. If she feels proud of herself for something she's done, she'll brag about it and not apologize for it.
When she can't control things, such as when a patient dies despite her best efforts, she locks it away in her head and throws herself into other things, sometimes even completely unnecessary tasks, just so she doesn't have a breakdown where she feels that she's failed someone as well as herself. It's unhealthy to not confront the things she can't control, but if she did, she would have to admit to herself that she can't control everything and that she does occasionally fail.
She's also shallow, and is superficial about her appearance. She keeps a compact mirror at her nurse's station so she can periodically check her appearance to make sure not a hair is out of place nor any spot on her face is shiny (in the original series, she is shown checking herself out in her compact before confronting Spock and admitting her feelings for him). She watches what she eats, obsessing about her weight and turning to salads when she thinks she's gaining too much weight (this is from the original series also, her dieting, though I can't recall in which episode she mentions it).
Basically, she feels that she has to be the star. It goes back to being center stage as a ballerina. She's at her best when she's done something she can be 100% proud of, and when others praise her for it. This also has to do with the lack of attention her parents gave her growing up. They had no interest in the things she was passionate about, and that made her crave their praise and attention all the more.
Abilities: Christine is a trained nurse, and as such, she has extensive medical knowledge of humans and a variety of alien races. She's often the attending nurse during surgeries, and, like all medical staff, has skills with a hypospray (a way to introduce intravenous drugs into the bloodstream without the use of a needle), as well as other medical equipment such as the bone-knitting laser, medical tricorder, and sub-dermal scalpel.
Christine was born in 2237 in New Orleans, LA on Earth to Lauren and Patterson Chapel. From a young age she had a great interest in ballet, and took lessons for twelve years. She had plans of making it as a professional ballerina, an incredibly hard profession to break into, and so from her early childhood to throughout her teens, Christine showed an intense drive to go after what she wanted. She had other interests, of course, but ballet was her one true love.
As her parents lost interest in her extracurricular activities and showed less support, that made Christine all the more determined to get them to pay attention. She strove for excellence in everything she did, from school, to ballet, to sports she joined, to having the perfect boyfriend to bring home to her parents. But high school boys are far from perfect, and when she realized she couldn't mold them to be what she wanted, she decided she was better off without them. As her teens progressed and she slowly became aware that her parents just didn't share or really support her interests, she came to the conclusion that she couldn't depend on them, or on anyone else, for anything. This shaped her to be a bit of a loner, but also gave her an intense drive to prove herself to be capable all on her own.
She had interests besides ballet, however, such as softball, volleyball, singing, cooking, and science. Though she aced every class she took, her favorites were those that dealt with science, specifically biology. She never pictured herself as anything other than a ballerina though, and so she didn't consider at that point that she could do anything in the field of science.
That changed at age sixteen. Ever since puberty hit, she and her fellow ballerinas were constantly pressured to lose weight. For years she went along with the desires of her coach, which she figured must be her desires too, as she wanted to be the best ballerina possible. Christine was constantly hungry and very unhealthy. From her extensive knowledge of human biology, she knew she wasn't healthy. The weight loss affected her mood, making her depressed, and even caused her to black out several times. This was a turning point in her life, as she tried to justify how something that hurt her so much could still make her happy.
She struggled on, trying to justify how it would be worth it in the end, when she had made it as a professional ballerina. Her plans after high school ended were to get into Juilliard, which would help launch her into her career, but one day that all changed. With her mood constantly fluctuating between depression and anger, a comment from her ballet coach hinting that she might make it into Juilliard if only she lost a bit more weight infuriated Christine so much that she quit her lessons right there and then and walked out of the studio. After that, her anger sustained her for awhile, but then she had her doubts, as people often do, and wondered if she should apologize and ask to return. But she weighed the pros and cons and decided her health wasn't worth it. It nearly broke her heart, but she gave up on being a professional ballerina.
After giving up the possibility of a future career in ballet, she turned to her next love, science, specifically biology. As is Christine's nature, she had to throw herself into something else, so that she could excel in it. She began narrowing down the field until she found something on which she wanted to focus on and study obsessively. She chose medicine, and began reading about breakthroughs being made by Starfleet scientists, specifically one named Dr. Roger Korby. Roger had been in high school when Starfleet suffered a tragedy in losing one of its ships, the USS Kelvin, in an attack by an enemy with advanced technology who was never found. This motivated Roger to join Starfleet, and this would later affect Christine's life.
[In the original series of Star Trek, Christine had a career in bio-research, working alongside the brilliant scientist, Dr. Roger Korby. Eventually the two became engaged, but he left for a deep space mission and Christine stayed on Earth. They stayed in contact until 2261, when Korby disappeared. As a result of this, Christine joined Starfleet in the hopes of being assigned to deep space where she could find him.
She worked in San Fransisco at Starfleet Medical for some time alongside Leonard McCoy, until she was assigned to the Enterprise as an Ensign in 2266 alongside McCoy. That same year, the Enterprise reached the planet Korby was last stationed on, and Christine reunited with him. However, when she discovered he had replaced his body with an android one, and wanted the same for her and everyone else, she rejected him and he killed himself.]
My Christine is from an alternative reality. In the reboot movie, in 2233, the USS Kelvin was attacked by a rogue Romulan ship with advanced technology. In addition to this changing the futures of James Kirk, Spock, and many at Starfleet, it also affected Christine's life. Instead of entering bio-research and working alongside Korby, in looking for an area of science to focus on, she found that he published papers in the medical field and came to greatly admire him.
Her senior year of high school, a Starfleet recruiter came to her school to urge students to consider joining. Christine was reminded of Dr. Korby and she fell in love with the idea of joining Starfleet Medical, her practical side noting that one couldn't beat free when it came to their education. As graduation approached, she decided on nursing for her concentration, with a five year mission afterward. Once that was accomplished, she would reevaluate herself and determine whether she wanted to continue with her education to become a doctor and stay in Starfleet. I take this ambition from Original Christine, who did obtain her Doctorate by 2271.
On graduating in 2255 she joined Starfleet's Medical Academy. Unfortunately for her, Dr. Korby had shipped out not long before on a five year mission in deep space, so she didn't have the chance to meet him or work beside him. Christine was ambitious and wanted to be assigned to the new flagship Starfleet was building in Iowa. Nothing but the best ship with the newest technology aboard would do for her. She even had plans of becoming Head Nurse, though she knew whoever was already assigned Head Nurse would have to transfer or retire first. She excelled in every class she took, volunteered at the Medical Center, and easily made friends with like-minded, hardworking cadets.
In 2258, she and her fellow cadets at the Academy were called to answer a distress call from Vulcan, as most of the Fleet was engaged too far away to answer the call. She was assigned to her first choice ship, the newly built USS Enterprise, which was going out on its maiden voyage. Upon arriving above Vulcan a bit later than her fellow starships after a delay, the Enterprise found itself to be the only surviving ship, and was promptly attacked by a rogue Romulan ship, which had just destroyed the others. Christine was knocked around in the attack, but not injured, and she quickly got her bearings, assisting in healing the wounded. Once the Romulans were defeated, the Enterprise returned to Earth and Christine finished her classes in time to depart on the repaired ship for her five year mission. As the previous Head Nurse had been killed in the attack above Vulcan, Christine was promoted to Head Nurse, based on her actions and how she kept a cool head and directed her fellow nurses during the attack.
Personality: Christine has a no nonsense attitude. Usually if she has a problem with something or someone, she is not afraid to state so, unless the situation involves her superior officers. In cases such as those, she will be less blunt unless she knows the officer well enough to know they would not reprimand her for being candid. She has an air of being carefree and will let few things bother her, unless it's an important issue to her, such as an injured or ill person refusing medical treatment. She also has a caring bedside manner, and Christine is sympathetic towards the ill or injured.
Christine tends to depend on herself for things, not wanting to rely on others. This stems from childhood, when her parents grew tired of attending all her ballet recitals and eventually stopped coming to them altogether. Not letting herself rely on others means there's no opportunity for them to let her down, as well as the fact that her accomplishments are hers alone. As the Head Nurse of the Enterprise, Christine still carries that drive to succeed and prove herself to be the best. Her career is the most important thing to her, and she throws herself into her work. She controls the inner workings of the medical bay, from stocking and reordering their inventory, to doing physicals and treating minor injuries, to assisting in surgeries, to assigning duties to her nursing staff, to making the rounds. Despite the loner nature she adopted in her teens, she has to begrudgingly issue duty rosters to her fellow nurses and therefore has adapted to interact with them. She's become more open with them, even a little bit trusting, but if Christine had the time and resources, she would gladly be in control of everything in the medical bay herself. She is already very serious and dedicated to her work for her age.
Christine throws herself into things full force. She loves mastering/conquering challenges. When she gave up ballet, she knew she had to replace it with something about which she could be just as passionate. If she didn't, she would see herself as a quitter, and that's something she would hate to be. She doesn't accept defeat easily. She was always smart (according to supplemental info, she graduated in the 98th percentile of her class at Starfleet Medical Academy), and science was something she loved. Discovering how the body functioned and how to fix it when it failed appealed to her and her desire to control things.
She became enamored with the research of Dr. Roger Korby, involving deep space missions to discover new plant and animal life that could be used for medicine. The idea of traveling out into the far reaches of space and learning about the biology of unknown creatures excited her, and she decided to join Starfleet, partially inspired by him, partially because it would be an adventure where she could explore science and medical in greater detail.
Making snap decisions in the med bay to save lives was right up Christine's alley. It was always her ambition to be made Head Nurse someday, but it was only by a fluke that she was given the position so soon. So many lives were lost when the Romulans attacked that many cadets were promoted to positions they normally would not have achieved for several years to fill in the gaps. But she certainly hasn't taken her position for granted. She works hard to prove that she is the right choice for Head Nurse.
Right now, Christine is exactly where she wants to be, doing what she loves to do. She gets to treat the injured and ill, go on away missions to collect data that could prove useful in medicine, and be in charge of all of the ship's nurses. She's incredibly work-oriented for her age, and while she likes to relax and have fun, having a fulfilling career that makes her feel needed and important is what really matters to her. Still ambitious, she'll consider working towards her doctorate and one day becoming the Chief Medical Officer of a Starfleet vessel.
Christine isn't afraid to disagree with Dr. McCoy if she doesn't believe he's making the right medical decision, but she will back down and follow his orders. She will also always defer to McCoy's medical judgment if someone were to go over McCoy's head in regards to a patient. She is completely loyal and dedicated to her boss, and she favors the working relationship they have as doctor and nurse to the relationship of superior officer and junior officer. Dealing with unwilling patients has turned her into a bit of a negotiator, as it were. She is sympathetic towards her patients and tries her best to put them at ease. She's also highly driven to succeed in whatever she does.
That doesn't mean she doesn't know how to relax and have fun though. In her personal life, Christine likes to party and enjoy herself, as long as the people she's partying with don't make asses out of themselves. She can be flirty, and is sexually active, though at this point in her life, she doesn't want to be involved in a romantic relationship. She says it's because she wants to focus on her career, and while that's true, it also goes back to her trust issues and not wanting to rely on those who she assumes will let her down.
At times, she second guesses her decision to push aside romance in favor of her career, worrying about her future and if she'll have romance then, or if not, if pushing it aside during her younger years was worth it. But then her insecurities rise, and she reminds herself that she can only depend on herself. It could be said that she's afraid of love, but she hides behind the mantra that she's focusing on her career. Yet she's still very young, despite her maturity when it comes to work, and things may change as she discovers more about herself personally, and realizes there could be more to life than just work and friends.
Christine greatly admires Spock for his logical mind, but wonders what he'd be like if he expressed his human side more often. She worries what the mainly human, emotional crew must do to him, as he suppresses all emotion himself, but sees it plainly expressed all around him. She admits to herself that she is fascinated with him, and even has a crush on him, though she doesn't expect, or even want anything to come of it.
Yet she can't seem to help herself and goes out of her way at times to get him to notice her, praise her work, or engage him in conversation. But these actions don't mean she wants him to know how she feels beyond simply caring about his well being. If he knew how often she thought about him, or the things she thought about him, she'd be completely embarrassed. She wants to get to know him better, to know what he thinks about and what makes him tick, but she doesn't want him to suspect her motives for doing so. As she is good friends with Uhura, Chris wants to hide her crush on Spock from her, worrying what that might do to their friendship.
This crush is frustrating for Christine to deal with, since she imagines herself to be above such things, is afraid of the idea of being in love, and thinks herself to be rather logical, like Spock. Yet she truly is an emotional thinker deep down inside, and it is her emotions that guide her thoughts and actions in regards to her Vulcan crewmate.
Her perfectionist nature is her main flaw. She doesn't like to trust others to do things because she thinks she can do the best job. Her arrogance is something she is well aware of, but doesn't easily strive to control. She doesn't see anything wrong with wanting to be the best at what she does. Speaking her mind is natural for her. If she feels compassion for someone, she'll show it. If she feels proud of herself for something she's done, she'll brag about it and not apologize for it.
When she can't control things, such as when a patient dies despite her best efforts, she locks it away in her head and throws herself into other things, sometimes even completely unnecessary tasks, just so she doesn't have a breakdown where she feels that she's failed someone as well as herself. It's unhealthy to not confront the things she can't control, but if she did, she would have to admit to herself that she can't control everything and that she does occasionally fail.
She's also shallow, and is superficial about her appearance. She keeps a compact mirror at her nurse's station so she can periodically check her appearance to make sure not a hair is out of place nor any spot on her face is shiny (in the original series, she is shown checking herself out in her compact before confronting Spock and admitting her feelings for him). She watches what she eats, obsessing about her weight and turning to salads when she thinks she's gaining too much weight (this is from the original series also, her dieting, though I can't recall in which episode she mentions it).
Basically, she feels that she has to be the star. It goes back to being center stage as a ballerina. She's at her best when she's done something she can be 100% proud of, and when others praise her for it. This also has to do with the lack of attention her parents gave her growing up. They had no interest in the things she was passionate about, and that made her crave their praise and attention all the more.
Abilities: Christine is a trained nurse, and as such, she has extensive medical knowledge of humans and a variety of alien races. She's often the attending nurse during surgeries, and, like all medical staff, has skills with a hypospray (a way to introduce intravenous drugs into the bloodstream without the use of a needle), as well as other medical equipment such as the bone-knitting laser, medical tricorder, and sub-dermal scalpel.