Portrait of a Character – T’Pol
T’Pol is hard for me to write.
Origins
The character, of course, is Star Trek: Enterprise canon.
Portrayal
As in the show, the character is played by actress Jolene Blalock.
Personality
T’Pol
As a main character, a great deal of T’Pol’s journey was already on the small screen. Because there is limited time for television programs, T’Pol, Archer and Tucker all received significantly greater shares of airtime. This was virtually always at the expense of Reed, Sato, Mayweather and Phlox. Frankly, by the time I started writing fanfiction, I’d gotten sick of her.
Complicating matters was the fact that I have always found it extremely difficult to write wholly unemotional Vulcans. This is a large part of why Eriecho wears her heart on her sleeve so much.
Relationships
Charles Tucker III
The relationship, naturally, is canon. And in canon, it just plain doesn’t work out, despite what fan fiction writers often want. Them’s the breaks! However, it is also canon that they marry in the E2 scenario. Therefore, I follow canon and have them do just that. Because my E2 scenario contains two kicks back in time, Tripp and T’Pol get two separate chances for love and marriage.
In the first scenario, their wedding is far more traditional, and they later have twins. Pregnancy causes T’Pol to lose her emotional control – a fact that, conveniently for me, makes it easier to write her.
In the second scenario, T’Pol puts the brakes on their relationship. When Tucker presses her, she reveals that she was a widow for a very long time. He correctly deduces that she was horribly hurt by this. She eventually comes around and they wed. But the ceremony is less conventional. In keeping with canon, their only child is their canon son, Lorian. As in the other scenario, she loses her emotional control, but it happens later.
Travis Mayweather
You can scarcely call it a relationship as it is more of a needs fulfillment gone horribly wrong. In the alternative timeline “what if” scenario story, The Black Widow, T’Pol attempts to satisfy pon farr with Doctor Phlox (that’s canon). When he proves inadequate in her eyes, she goes after Travis, and the encounter kills him. Still unsated, she attempts to seduce Malcolm as well (that’s also canon).
Mirror Universe
Mirror Universe T’Pol (Jolene Blalock)
This version of the character is also canon. In Reversal, T’Pol is already dead – an easy way for me to avoid writing a character who I’ve always found difficult. But for the transitional story, Throwing Rocks at Looking Glass Houses, T’Pol is very much alive, although in the Brig and clearly not for long. In that story, the new Empress Hoshi Sato the First personally dispatches T’Pol as a means of continuing to cement her grip on the crew of the Defiant and, eventually, the Terran Empire.
Quote
“I surmised as much. Petty tyrants are predictable. True leaders are the only ones of interest. If you had remembered Captain Forrest or Soval as well as you seem to remember how to manipulate the weak-minded, I’d say you’d have a chance at a truly great rule. But as it is, you’ll only be remembered as a tin pot dictator.”
Upshot
It continues to be a challenge for me to write T’Pol. and her lines are often a stumbling block in my E2 stories especially. However, I’m finding her easier and easier to write as time elapses and, I suppose, we get further and further away from the actual original broadcast of the series. I know I don’t do her enough justice.
[…] grandson Richard marries Jolene Tucker, T’Pol and Tripp‘s (and Susie Money and Mario Lattimer’s) granddaughter. Jolene and […]
[…] and it is of course canon and is terribly important. In addition to canon scientists such as T’Pol, Keiko Ishikawa O’Brien and Spock, my fanon also celebrates […]
[…] to give a bit of life to the explanation in the canon episode, These Are the Voyages, that he and T’Pol had broken up years earlier and had never […]
[…] to keep canon characters in canon-extension stories (e. g. the E2 stories). And so characters like T’Pol will be included. Another story included Soval. The number of canon species hitting the ENT era is […]
[…] when asked if she can read Hebrew jokes, “I’ll muddle through”, Malcolm, Phlox, T’Pol and a Security Crewman, Azar Hamidi. Azar notes that Hebrew can’t be too far off from Arabic. […]
[…] he’s brought to Sick Bay. And almost as quickly, he is temporarily relieved of command, by T’Pol and Phlox, with Hoshi as a […]
[…] Todd and T’Pol help to prevent a riot from starting on the NX-01, as all of the straight men (and, presumably, […]
[…] a result, I worked in my own feelings by trying to tease out Hoshi and T’Pol‘s feelings about Tripp‘s […]
[…] to Frank Ramirez, things are at a bit of a lull. But when ten people are kidnapped off the ship, T’Pol needs to work with her allies in order to find them again. There isn’t a lot of time to spend […]
[…] course of the show’s four seasons. He got pregnant, he had a relationship with First Officer T’Pol (a Vulcan), he was cloned, he rescued a princess, he lost his sister in the Xindi attack and he met […]
[…] Broken Seal, Chip Masterson hypes this highbrow film, but not too many people show up. T’Pol does, though, as it’s intended to be a film that would probably be more likely to appeal to […]
[…] for them as well, but neither version is shown. He also conducts a Vulcan ceremony for Tripp and T’Pol, but that is only shown for the first kick back in time and not the […]
[…] around women. He’s also very competent at his job, possibly the most competent person behind T’Pol. Self-sacrificing to a fault, Reed is uncomfortable fraternizing with his captain, and feels that […]
[…] Tripp Tucker is trying to reconcile with T’Pol. He’s using the occasion of the film as a means to get back into her good graces. He figures […]
[…] In the Temper game, the Empress brings in professional announcers Ted Trinneer and Jeff Blalock. Their style of announcing and color commentary is meant to evoke Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo, who announce for the Boston Red Sox. Again, the names are shoutouts, this time to Connor Trinneer and Jolene Blalock, who of course played Tripp Tucker and T’Pol. […]
[…] Mirror Defiant needed a Science Officer after T’Pol‘s death, and the Prime Universe NX-01 needed someone who could fill in at Science during the […]
[…] But the opposite occurs, and Elizabeth’s death is haunting to not only her parents, Tripp and T’Pol, but also to others who will eventually form the […]
[…] and then moving onto the Emperor Philip IV (counterpart to Colonel Philip Green) and, eventually, T’Pol. As a true Machiavellian, she eliminates the Emperor’s entire family, in order to prevent the […]
[…] the Mirror, Tristan is a guard. Paired with Hodgkins, the two of them guard T’Pol when she’s in the Brig, and then witness T’Pol’s death, in Throwing Rocks at […]
[…] canon character is one of two alien members of the NX-01‘s crew (the other is the Vulcan, T’Pol). The Denobulan species was written for […]
[…] Amanda Cole and they have nine children. Jonathan weds an Ikaaran woman named Esilia. Tripp and T’Pol wed and have a son, Lorian. Travis marries MACO J. McKenzie (I name her Julie). And Malcolm dies […]
[…] 2181, and they are the last three left of the original seven senior officers on the NX-01. T’Pol has returned to Vulcan and Phlox is back on Denobula. Tucker is dead, and Archer is pursuing a […]
[…] efforts to stay on the ship and remain able to work with everyone, including him and, presumably, T’Pol, his ex. She is thoroughly unaware that he is still interested, even as they are heading into the […]
[…] originally didn’t want to write Vulcans. I had had a lot of trouble making T’Pol more than a cardboard character who commented about logic or fascination. Vulcans were, to me, a […]
[…] whatsoever to The Delphic Expanse in a long time, so I decided to float a drabble about Tripp and T’Pol and her pregnancy with Lorian, so I answered a year-old prompt for the word “free”, and […]
[…] by Odon is a femmeslash story about Hoshi and T’Pol that brings […]
[…] Tripp and Hoshi – this combination plays off their friendship and also is an answer to endless Star Trek: Enterprise fan fiction about Tucker and T’Pol. […]
[…] Chip Masterson and Aidan MacKenzie in a competition). Ian (Malcolm‘s counterpart) and T’Pol had to still be alive. Phlox would still be the doctor; this would be before Cyril […]
[…] Reflections Down a Corridor, they are the first new couple to get together (technically, Tripp and T’Pol predate […]
[…] a prompt with the same name as the title, I wanted to do a little drabble about T’Pol and her sometimes uneven relationship with a certain crew […]
[…] got a Tactical background, and somewhat of a counterpart to Malcolm after Tripp‘s death and T’Pol‘s return to Vulcan, and Aidan while Malcolm commands the USS Bluebird. As First Officer, he […]
[…] Movie Night, he can’t ask either T’Pol or Hoshi to join him, as they are both exes of his. These are references to the Star Trek: […]
[…] episodes comes Throwing Rocks at Looking Glass Houses, where Hoshi kills off all rivals (including T’Pol, Ian, and Phlox) and the Emperor, and consolidates her power […]
[…] prefer looking at the timeline historically, then the position dates back at least to Archer and T’Pol. And it continues to Picard and Riker, and Janeway and […]
[…] Widow, Travis‘s death occurs off-screen and even before the action starts (spoiler alert: T’Pol has killed him). However, in Temper, MU Travis is fragged by his own […]
[…] Hoshi’s moves are calculated, everything from killing off Ian and Phlox, to overpowering T’Pol while at her weakest, to turning the loyalties of Emperor Phillip‘s men, including Andrew, […]
[…] in canon, Hoshi (with the help of T’Pol) is often tasked with not only handling the ship’s database, but also in interpreting […]
[…] wed Esilia, Travis Mayweather wed Julie McKenzie, Phlox married Amanda Cole, Tripp Tucker married T’Pol, and Malcolm Reed never wed. Major Jay Hayes‘s love life is never mentioned in the […]
[…] the canon episode, Bounty, T’Pol prematurely goes into Pon Farr because of a medical issue (she and Phlox are affected by a […]
[…] Cutler, AG Robinson, Soval, and Admiral Forrest all show up. There are even very brief cameos by T’Pol and Jay […]
[…] for Andy. In Take Back the Night, he is dating Lucy Stone, the new Science Officer after T’Pol‘s departure. And in Fortune, he is still with her – and she is more of a true match for […]
[…] was no one else aboard the NX-01 who would have fit the bill. The character had to be human (so T’Pol was out), had to be older (so Hoshi was out) and had to be someone who would normally be […]