T'Pol

Multiple realities
(covers information from several alternate timelines)

Species:	Vulcan
Affiliation:	United Earth Starfleet
Rank:	Commander
Occupation:	Executive officer Science officer, Enterprise NX-01
Serial number:	2861F0306JB1
Status:	Active (2161)
Born:	2088, Vulcan
Father:	T'Pol's father
Mother:	T'Les
Other Relative(s):	T'Mir, second foremother
Marital Status:	Annulled
Spouse(s):	Koss (ex-husband)
Children:	Elizabeth (binary clone with Charles Tucker III/"daughter") Lorian (son, alternate timeline)
Played by:	Jolene Blalock

For the mirror universe counterpart, please see T'Pol (mirror).

For other people with similar names, please see T'Paal (disambiguation) and T'Pel (disambiguation).

"She does kind of grow on you."

– Charles Tucker III, 2153 ("The Expanse")

T'Pol was a female Vulcan who served aboard Enterprise NX-01 during the mid-22nd century. She was the first Vulcan to serve aboard a Human ship for any substantial period.

Early history

Young civilian life

T'Pol was born to T'Les and her husband in 2088. (ENT: "Zero Hour") As a child, T'Pol was betrothed to a Vulcan named Koss; their marriage was due to be conducted in adulthood. (ENT: "Breaking the Ice", "Home") Raised in a house near the capital city on Vulcan, young T'Pol had and cared for a pet sehlat. (ENT: "Home", "The Forge") She was also told about family secrets not recorded in official reports by her second foremother, T'Mir – who had been an officer in the Vulcan High Command – regarding a duration in which T'Mir had stayed in Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania, after her ship crash landed nearby in 1957. T'Mir had kept her Human purse from Earth and it had become a family heirloom. (ENT: "Home", "Carbon Creek")

In an ultimately discarded line of dialogue from the writers' second draft script of "Breaking the Ice", T'Pol described her betrothal to Koss as having been initiated when they were aged fourteen.

The script of "The Forge" indicated that T'Pol was told stories in her youth, which included the death of Surak on Mount Seleya.

Early career

T'Pol on Risa in 2135

During her early career, T'Pol operated as an agent with the Ministry of Security. Through this work, she often contacted Klingons within the Klingon Empire who, years later, would help her locate a Klingon penal colony, Rura Penthe. (ENT: "Judgment") One of T'Pol's first assignments for the Ministry was to retrieve seven rogue agents who refused to return to Vulcan. Managing to capture five of the seven she was assigned to locate, T'Pol tracked agents Jossen and Menos to Risa in 2135. There, she killed Jossen but was unable to capture Menos. T'Pol thereafter underwent the Fullara ceremony at the sanctuary of P'Jem, which erased her memory of having killed Jossen, along with any associated emotions. (ENT: "The Seventh")

Regarding how T'Pol's pre-Enterprise career is depicted in "The Seventh", Brannon Braga recalled, "We wanted to create an eyebrow-raising past for T'Pol, because she's lived for quite a long time [when the rest of the episode is set]. What if she used to be a La'Femme Nikita-type character?" (Star Trek: Communicator issue 145, p. 25)

Later in her life, T'Pol served the Vulcan High Command's Science Council aboard the starship Seleya. She acted as the ship's deputy science officer, working under Captain Voris and alongside Chief Engineer Commander Solin. (ENT: "Impulse") T'Pol also worked with the Vulcan military during the Tomed mission, at which Talok was under her command, as well as for the Ministry of Information on Vulcan. (ENT: "Fallen Hero", "Kir'Shara", "The Expanse")

T'Pol at the Fusion night club

In 2149, T'Pol was assigned to Earth, both as an ambassador to the United Earth government and as an aide to Ambassador Soval. She resided in the Vulcan Compound in Sausalito, where she formed a strong working relationship with Soval. Like him, she believed that Humans were too "volatile" and "provincial" to leave their solar system. (ENT: "Fusion", "The Expanse")

By that time, she had already been on thirty-six different Minshara class planets. (ENT: "Strange New World")

One night in 2150, T'Pol left the Vulcan Compound and went south to stroll the streets of San Francisco. Overhearing "unusual, chaotic" jazz music piqued her curiosity, so she entered the Fusion restaurant, where the music was being performed, and listened to the saxophonist there. The experience elicited an emotional response that she subsequently never forgot. (ENT: "Fusion")

Sometime during her stay on Earth, T'Pol took a five-day leave to visit Carbon Creek and see it for herself. At some point she also visited Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico and Yellowstone National Park out of geologic interest. (ENT: "Carbon Creek")

In the revised final draft script of ENT pilot episode "Broken Bow", T'Pol's position, as of 2151, was stated to be "a science attache with the Vulcan contingent headquartered in San Francisco." A subsequent comment pointed out, "Although she's been living amongst Humans for several months, she is cautious and guarded around them." [1]

In the writers' second draft script of "Breaking the Ice", T'Pol admitted that, prior to her assignment to Enterprise, she had been planning to live on Vulcan (with Koss) and take a director's position at the Vulcan Science Academy.

Enterprise

Year one

Sub-Commander T'Pol at her station on Enterprise

After Earth accidentally made first contact with the Klingon courier Klaang in April 2151, T'Pol was reassigned to the Earth Starfleet vessel Enterprise, with the rank of sub-commander. She acted as "chaperone", in exchange for the Vulcan provision of star charts and the Klingon linguistic database, but was not immediately accepted by the crew. She was referred to as a "spy" by the ship's chief engineer, Commander Charles Tucker III. During an ensuing mission to return Klaang to Qo'noS, however, T'Pol accompanied Captain Jonathan Archer and an away team to a trade complex on Rigel X. There, she used her prior experience with alien cultures to lead the Humans through much of the investigation. She subsequently took command of Enterprise, when Archer was incapacitated, and anticipated the captain's wishes, pursuing the investigation despite her personal belief that it was a "foolish mission." Upon the captain's recuperation, T'Pol aided Archer both in uncovering a plot by the Cabal to destabilize the Klingon Empire and successfully returning Klaang to his people. T'Pol was persuaded by Archer to remain aboard, following the conclusion of the mission, at which time she took the position of science officer and the title of first officer of Enterprise. (ENT: "Broken Bow") Her quarters aboard Enterprise were located on B Deck. (ENT: "Shockwave, Part II")

T'Pol handles a crisis on an unexplored planet

In her first capacity as a member of the crew, T'Pol led a survey team in exploring an uninhabited M-class planet not far from Earth, a world which was later named Archer IV. (ENT: "Strange New World", "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II") She and her team were exposed to a powerful hallucinogenic toxin from the local plant life and consequently began to experience severe paranoia. Taking refuge from a powerful storm, she maintained much of her composure as her Human companions became lost in delusion. In communication with Archer aboard Enterprise, T'Pol used playacting to get numerous members of her team – namely, Commander Tucker, Ensign Travis Mayweather, and Crewman Cutler – through the night, though she was forced to use a Vulcan nerve pinch on Ensign Mayweather. (ENT: "Strange New World")

T'Pol was again forced to utilize playacting in a crisis when she pretended to be a slave of Captain Archer, in order to gain the sympathies of Ferengi pirates in late 2151. With Archer and Tucker, T'Pol was able to trick the Ferengi into leaving Enterprise, but not before they returned materials stolen from the ship. (ENT: "Acquisition")

T'Pol sharing dinner with Captain Vanik of the Ti'Mur

As Enterprise continued to explore space, the Vulcan High Command assigned at least one vessel to monitor the ship's activities. One of those vessels, the starship Ti'Mur under the command of Captain Vanik, began secretly transmitting personal messages to T'Pol, regarding her betrothal to Koss and obligation to return to Vulcan. During a "comet walk" on the surface of Archer's Comet, Lieutenant Malcolm Reed and Ensign Mayweather were trapped in an ice collapse. After persuading Archer, T'Pol contacted the Ti'Mur and enlisted the aid of Captain Vanik, to whom she declared her intention to stay aboard Enterprise. (ENT: "Breaking the Ice")

In the writers' second draft script of "Breaking the Ice", T'Pol mentioned that both Vanik's name and his reputation were unfamiliar to her prior to their encounter in 2151.

P'Jem

T'Pol during the incident at P'Jem

On June 19, 2151, T'Pol accompanied Archer and Tucker on a visit to the Vulcan monastery at P'Jem. Finding it overrun by Andorian commandos under Thy'lek Shran, T'Pol and the two other officers from Enterprise were taken hostage. Shran insisted that the Vulcan High Command was hiding a sensor array in the monastery to spy on Andoria and refused to release his prisoners. During a firefight in the reliquary, T'Pol uncovered a hatch leading to a secret facility, unknowingly exposing the Vulcans' duplicity. She was instructed by Captain Archer, who was incensed by the deception, to hand her scanning device – which contained detailed scans of the array – over to the Andorians, who proceeded to destroy the sanctuary. (ENT: "The Andorian Incident", "Shadows of P'Jem")

Following the destruction of the monastery, the Vulcan High Command chose to blame T'Pol and ordered that she be recalled to Vulcan, dispatching the starship Ni'Var under the command of Captain Sopek. During what would have been her final mission, T'Pol and Archer were captured by Coridanite rebels but escaped in time to prevent the death of Sopek. T'Pol was injured, during a fire fight, so she returned to Enterprise while Sopek departed to dissuade the High Command of their initial orders. (ENT: "Shadows of P'Jem")

Year two

Silik tortures T'Pol at the helix

Early in 2152, T'Pol and her crewmates re-encountered the Suliban and were framed for the destruction of a settlement on Paraagan II, an incident that had resulted in the deaths of 3,600 colonists. T'Pol was instrumental in proving the crew's innocence, detecting a cloaked Suliban device and helping in the retrieval of data disks from a Suliban vessel. Upon the disappearance of Captain Archer and capture of Enterprise, T'Pol led the crew in retaking the ship, successfully freeing it from a Suliban helix. During this incident, T'Pol was tortuously interrogated by Suliban commander Silik for information regarding the "Temporal Cold War". T'Pol cited the Vulcan Science Directorate's findings, steadfastly maintaining that time travel was impossible. Suffering no lasting effects from the experience, T'Pol was able to convince Ambassador Soval and Starfleet to continue Enterprise's mission, upon the safe return of Captain Archer. (ENT: "Shockwave", "Shockwave, Part II")

T'Pol in 2152

Later that year, T'Pol used her prior combat training to teach settlers, of a deuterium mining colony, evasive techniques to repel Klingon marauders. She instructed the colonists and members of the Enterprise crew in Vulcan martial arts, in a successful effort. (ENT: "Marauders")

In August 2152, T'Pol's Vulcan physiology left her the only crewmember conscious aboard Enterprise when it encountered a debilitating trinary star system. She was left alone to save the ship but was able to revive Captain Archer, long enough to help him pilot Enterprise through the system and away from a black hole. (ENT: "Singularity")

T'Pol stuns Menos on Pernaia Prime

Seventeen years after her initial stint with the Ministry of Security, T'Pol once again found herself in pursuit of the rogue agent Menos. She now managed to trace him to Pernaia Prime, but began to doubt her mission and the guilt of Menos. Overcoming those doubts, however, she was able to prove that he was indeed a weapons smuggler and succeeded in apprehending the fugitive. (ENT: "The Seventh")

Concerning how T'Pol was further developed in "The Seventh", Brannon Braga noted, "We wanted to get under her skin a little bit and deal with issues she doesn't normally have to deal with, like guilt." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 145, p. 25)

In the final draft script of ENT: "Precious Cargo", T'Pol – while playing the character of a stern judge – was described thus; "She emanates an air of detached authority."

After a group of Vulcan doctors at the Interspecies Medical Exchange learned that T'Pol had contracted a deadly neurological disease called Pa'nar Syndrome, her future aboard Enterprise was at stake. The team of doctors threatened to reveal her status to the High Command and have her recalled, as those who were infected were stigmatised in Vulcan society. To save her, Dr. Yuris – the youngest of the Vulcan doctors – declared himself to be among the minority and revealed to the others that T'Pol wasn't to blame for having contracted the disease. (ENT: "Stigma")

With tensions between Vulcan and Andoria continuing to mount – following the incident at P'Jem – T'Pol accompanied Captain Archer and Ambassador Soval to the planet Paan Mokar, to mediate a territorial dispute. The group came under fire and crashed on the surface of the planet, where T'Pol helped Archer to protect the ambassador from further attack. Ultimately helping bring about a cease fire on the planet, the efforts of T'Pol and Archer allowed negotiations to commence. (ENT: "Cease Fire")

Year three

The Expanse

T'Pol considers her future in the wake of the Xindi attack

Following a Xindi attack on Earth on April 24, 2153, Enterprise was recalled home and underwent a major refit in preparation for a mission into the Delphic Expanse. Because this mission was seen by the Vulcan High Command as being an Earth matter, Ambassador Soval ordered T'Pol to return to Vulcan, to be reassigned to the Ministry of Information. It was expected that, after a brief time at the Ministry, she would be allowed to return to Earth to continue her diplomatic duties. However, T'Pol resisted. As Enterprise set course for Vulcan to deliver T'Pol home and proceed to the Expanse, she abruptly resigned her commission and chose to remain aboard. (ENT: "The Expanse") During her tenure as technically a civilian amongst the crew, T'Pol wore a variety of bodysuits in a variety of different color schemes. These included blue/grey, white, and muted pastel. T'Pol later continued to wear a collection of bodysuits adorned with rank insignia, assignment patch and so on when she joined Starfleet.

As a civilian member of the crew, T'Pol retained her position as science officer and second in command, without the rank of sub-commander. She and Communications Officer Ensign Hoshi Sato worked to decipher the acquired Xindi database, shortly after the commencement of Enterprise's mission to find the Xindi and prevent a second attack on Earth. (ENT: "Anomaly (ENT)") When she, Captain Archer, Lieutenant Reed, and Ensign Sato were exposed to a mutagenic virus on the Loque'eque homeworld, T'Pol's Vulcan immune system slowed the disease's progression, allowing her to help her crewmates through the experience and aiding Denobulan Doctor Phlox in efforts to synthesize an antidote. (ENT: "Extinction")

Trellium-D exposure

T'Pol overcome with rage aboard the Seleya

Not long after their arrival in the Expanse, the crew of Enterprise located T'Pol's former ship, the Seleya, which was caught in a trellium-D asteroid field. She, Archer and Reed took a shuttlepod to rendezvous with the Seleya, where they found the ship's surviving crew suffering from severe dementia and homicidal rage. Discovering Commander Solin among the survivors, T'Pol was unable to reason with her former shipmates and simultaneously found herself succumbing to feelings of paranoia and anger. She started to lead Archer and Reed through the damaged Vulcan vessel to find an escape route, but began to suspect that Archer meant to murder the ship's Vulcan survivors and refused to cooperate. As the group neared escape, T'Pol became violent and was stunned by Archer until she could receive treatment aboard Enterprise. (ENT: "Impulse")

Dr. Phlox managed to treat T'Pol for exposure to trellium-D found aboard the Seleya, determining it to be a powerful neurotoxin that affected only the Vulcan nervous system. This finding, however, meant that the substance could not be used to shield Enterprise from spatial anomalies that were inherent to the Expanse. T'Pol understood the importance of Enterprise's safe completion of the mission and therefore urged Archer to leave her behind, but the captain refused. (ENT: "Impulse")

Despite making what appeared to be a full recovery, T'Pol continued to experience the aftereffects of her exposure; she was haunted by nightmares and residual instability, occasionally becoming emotional and even violent. (ENT: "Harbinger", "Azati Prime", "Damage") In the hopes of further releasing her emotions, T'Pol secretly developed a method of injecting small doses of trellium-D directly into her bloodstream. By February of 2154, T'Pol had become addicted to the substance, finally admitting her condition to Dr. Phlox, who aided her in withdrawal. However, prolonged exposure to the substance permanently damaged T'Pol's ability to fully control her emotions. (ENT: "Damage", "E²", "The Forgotten")

Brannon Braga found T'Pol's addiction to trellium-D turned out to be an intriguing story arc. "I find [it] fascinating […] And T'Pol's motivation for doing it was set up in the early days of this series, that she's experimented with emotions before. Her trying trellium-D was an extension of that," Braga observed. "She thought she'd found a way to perhaps access those long-repressed emotions and enter a different state of mind. And she got into trouble. To me, that's what makes interesting character drama, that characters make mistakes." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 151, p. 33)

Conclusion of the Xindi mission

T'Pol rides in a car in the year 2004

Still skeptical of time travel, T'Pol's position on the Temporal Cold War was finally upended when she and Captain Archer visited Detroit of the year 2004. They were aided by temporal agent and former Crewman Daniels upon their visit to the past, into which the pair of Enterprise officers had traced several Xindi-Reptilians. Together with Archer, T'Pol prevented the Xindi invaders from releasing a bio-weapon on Earth and exposed the involvement of the Xindi's gods, the Guardians. (ENT: "Carpenter Street")

In ultimately omitted dialogue from the final draft script of "Carpenter Street", T'Pol responded to Archer asking her, during their time-traveling mission, if she was now convinced they were no longer in the 22nd century. Answering indirectly, T'Pol replied, "There are elevated levels of carbon monoxide and ozone. They're interfering with my scans," a statement Archer took to mean "Yes."

T'Pol later used information, provided by Andorian Commander Shran, to study a prototype of the final Xindi weapon, tracing its construction to a planet called Azati Prime. (ENT: "Proving Ground") En route to Azati, Enterprise encountered a planet containing a crashed Xindi-Insectoid vessel. Captain Archer made an attempt to investigate the ship but became altered by a chemical toxin, making him unwilling to abandon an Insectoid hatchery and jeopardizing the mission. Acting in collusion with Tucker and Reed, T'Pol led a mutiny to take control of Enterprise and forced Archer to receive treatment. (ENT: "Hatchery")

Upon arrival in the Azati Prime star system, Archer set out alone to destroy the Xindi weapon, in what was presumed to be a suicide mission, but he was captured and tortured by Xindi-Reptilians. T'Pol meanwhile commanded Enterprise in a defensive battle against a fleet of Reptilian warships. (ENT: "Azati Prime") Enterprise took severe damage and was nearly destroyed in the encounter but managed to escape with severe casualties. Suffering withdrawal from trellium-D, T'Pol worked to restore the ship to operation, when Archer was returned by Xindi-Aquatics. He acted against her advice by resolving to attack an alien vessel for much-needed supplies. T'Pol resumed command of Enterprise to conduct this battle and managed to do so in a precise manner, the short conflict resulting in minimum damage on both sides. (ENT: "Damage")

Commanding the severely damaged Enterprise

As a two-pronged final attempt at preventing both the release of the Xindi weapon and the destruction of Earth, T'Pol and the Enterprise crew were ordered to destroy the Guardians' (or Sphere-Builders') devices, while Archer and allied Xindi intercepted the weapon at Sector 001. T'Pol and Commander Tucker took Enterprise to Sphere 41 – a central location where they succeeded in destroying the entire sphere network, thus dissipating the anomaly fields and thermobaric barrier that formed the Expanse. With Archer missing – though successful in his mission to destroy the Xindi weapon – T'Pol commanded Enterprise during the journey back to Earth. With the entire crew unsure of the future, she considered formalizing her own service with Starfleet. (ENT: "Zero Hour") Enterprise made another detour to Earth's past and Captain Archer finally returned to the ship, after which T'Pol and her crewmates arrived at Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco, where they were welcomed as heroes. By 2154, Admiral Forrest had approved T'Pol's entry into Starfleet and she was officially assigned the rank of commander. (ENT: "Storm Front, Part II", "Home", "Borderland")

Year four

T'Pol: Starfleet commander

Following a brief shore leave in which T'Pol returned to Vulcan, the crew of Enterprise was recalled to duty, tasked with the capture of renegade Human "Augments", in May 2154. Before the vessel departed, Captain Archer gave T'Pol the gift of an antique compass in honor of her first official day of Starfleet duty. T'Pol was visibly moved by the gesture. Enterprise traveled to the Borderland, where the ship was attacked by Orion slavers who used their transporters to kidnap several members of the crew. T'Pol was among the captured and was taken to a facility on Verex III, where she was put up for auction as a slave laborer. Fetching a high price, T'Pol was returned to a cell from which she later escaped when Captain Archer successfully freed his crew. (ENT: "Borderland")

Following the capture of the Augments, Enterprise was ordered to Vulcan to investigate the bombing of the United Earth Embassy, a recent devastation which had resulted in the deaths of forty-three people (among them, Admiral Forrest). Shortly after discovering that her mother (T'Les) was a member of the Syrrannites – an underground movement who were deemed responsible for the bombing – T'Pol left the ship to locate her mother and was transported with Archer to Vulcan's Forge. The Starfleet duo tracked the Syrrannites to the T'Karath Sanctuary, where T'Pol and Archer found the group to be peaceful, far from the fanatics described by the Vulcan High Command. (ENT: "The Forge")

With Archer at Vulcan's Forge

Not long after T'Pol and Archer arrived at T'Karath, the sanctuary was attacked and destroyed by the Vulcan government, killing many Syrrannites, including T'Les. (ENT: "Awakening") T'Pol, strongly affected by her mother's death, traveled with Archer and the Syrrannite leader T'Pau to the Vulcan capital to deliver the Kir'Shara – an ancient artifact containing the teachings of Surak – to the High Command, whose members included Administrator V'Las. T'Pol and her companions were successful in their goal; the revelation of Surak's true teachings, in whose delivery T'Pol had played an instrumental role, brought about the dissolution of the existing Vulcan government and initiated a new wave of enlightenment to the planet, absolving the Syrrannites of guilt and ultimately removing any restrictions that the former government had placed on Earth's advancement into space. (ENT: "Kir'Shara")

In November 2154, Enterprise's crew began an investigation into the mysterious destruction of Tellarite and Andorian starships, ultimately leading to the discovery of a Romulan drone ship. (ENT: "Babel One", "United") T'Pol worked with Dr. Phlox, Commander Shran, and Commander Tucker in constructing a telepresence unit in sickbay. This unit would potentially enable T'Pol to enhance her own telepathic abilities and interfere with the operation of the drone ship, but, ultimately, she was unable to successfully operate the device herself. Her place in the unit was taken by an Aenar named Jhamel, who managed to destroy the Romulan vessel and prevent further attacks. (ENT: "The Aenar") With peace once again returning to the sector, T'Pol sat by Captain Archer's side aboard Enterprise to initiate talks between the Andorians and Tellarites, forming the first union between Vulcan, Earth, Tellar, and Andoria. (ENT: "United")

Terra Prime incident

T'Pol at Orpheus in 2155

During the following January, the terrorist group Terra Prime revealed the existence of a female, infant Human-Vulcan hybrid that had been created with stolen DNA from T'Pol and Commander Tucker. The group's leader, John Frederick Paxton, used the child as a banner for furthering xenophobia on Earth, demanding the dissolution of the fledgling Coalition of Planets and the departure of all non-Humans from Earth. Accompanying Tucker, T'Pol journeyed to the Orpheus Mining Complex on Earth's moon, where the couple found their daughter but were captured by Terra Prime activists, who flew the mobile colony to Mars. (ENT: "Terra Prime")

T'Pol and Tucker were rescued from Mars by an away team led by Captain Archer, and, once Paxton was taken into custody, they returned to Enterprise with their daughter. Aboard the ship, Dr. Phlox discovered a flaw in the process used to create the child, and she died a short time later. Despite this loss, both T'Pol and Tucker were present in San Francisco for the formal founding of the Coalition. (ENT: "Demons")

Later career

T'Pol continued to serve aboard Enterprise as science officer through the 2150s and into the 2160s, retaining her position as first officer with the rank of commander. In 2161, the long-thought-dead General Shran returned, asking for assistance from Enterprise in the recovery of his kidnapped child, Talla. T'Pol contributed to this return effort by fabricating a replica of the Tenebian amethyst and serving as a member of an away team that was transported to Rigel X, where she exchanged the fake gemstone for Shran's child.

Soon after this incident, T'Pol joined Captain Archer on Earth for the founding ceremony of the United Federation of Planets.

These events were depicted in a holodeck simulation run by Commander William T. Riker aboard the USS Enterprise-D in 2370. (ENT: "These Are the Voyages...")

In a stage direction from the final draft script of "These Are the Voyages…", T'Pol was said to be "as close to tears as we've ever seen," following the death of her mother and Tucker. This ignores the fact T'Pol was previously seen crying on screen after Archer left for his presumed suicide mission on Azati Prime (ENT: "Azati Prime") as well as after the death of her mother T'Les. (ENT: "Awakening")

Medical record

T'Pol suffering from a microbe contamination in decon

In 2128, T'Pol had her teeth coated in a trifluorinate compound to prevent cavities. Despite having this procedure performed on her, T'Pol had a cavity in one of her anterior tricuspids that Dr. Phlox repaired in 2151. (ENT: "Dear Doctor") During her first mission aboard Enterprise, T'Pol and Commander Tucker were exposed to protocystian spores and were forced to spend time in the ship's decontamination chamber. (ENT: "Broken Bow") T'Pol also spent time in Enterprise's sickbay for injuries she received from a particle weapon hit on Coridanite, and for her exposure and subsequent addiction to trellium-D. (ENT: "Shadows of P'Jem", "Impulse", "Damage") She was also among multiple members of Enterprise's crew who was possessed by a wisp in 2152. (ENT: " The Crossing") Early in 2153, T'Pol became exposed to an alien virus that caused her to enter an accelerated phase of pon farr. Without a proper mate to fulfill her biological need, T'Pol's behavior was altered, causing her to be aggressively sexual and violent. Dr. Phlox sequestered her in decon until he could create a treatment. (ENT: "Bounty")

In an ultimately unused line of dialogue from the final draft script of "The Crossing", Phlox commented about T'Pol, while she was possessed by a wisp, "I don't even think she can see me."

Special immunity

As one of the first Vulcans to serve aboard an Earth starship, T'Pol's Vulcan physiology made her, in many cases, stronger and more physically resilient than her Human crewmates. When she was involved in an away team that explored the planet later called Archer IV and the group became affected by a powerful and paranoia-inducing toxin which was spread by pollen in the local area, T'Pol, though not completely immune from this toxin, maintained her composure whereas her Human companions did not; she reverted to her native language but remained lucid enough to administer an antidote. (ENT: "Strange New World")

T'Pol suffering from the Loque'eque virus

T'Pol's physiology also made her resistant to the influence of the non-corporeal wisps that boarded Enterprise in 2152. Capable of taking over the bodies of members of the ship's crew, the lifeforms were unable to affect T'Pol, who used a telepathic link to learn about the entities. (ENT: "The Crossing") Later in 2152, T'Pol proved to be immune to the affects of the trinary star system encountered by Enterprise, when Human and even Denobulan members of the crew began experiencing obsessive behavior and eventually unconsciousness. (ENT: "Singularity")

In 2153, when T'Pol was exposed to an alien mutagenic virus in the Delphic Expanse, it mutated her DNA to resemble that of an ancient species called the Loque'eque. The progression of this illness, however, was slowed by her immune system, preventing her from being as affected by exposure to the virus as Jonathan Archer, Malcolm Reed, and Hoshi Sato were. (ENT: "Extinction")

In late December 2154, T'Pol was unaffected by powerful pheromones emitted by a triumvirate of Orion slave girls, who boarded Enterprise in order to deliver it to the Orion Syndicate. As a threat to the Orion women, T'Pol was briefly imprisoned in the ship's brig, but she finally managed to save the ship with the assistance of Commander Tucker. (ENT: "Bound")

Pa'nar Syndrome

T'Pau cures T'Pol with a Vulcan mind meld

When Enterprise encountered a starship carrying Vulcan V'tosh ka'tur in late 2151, T'Pol was persuaded by one of the Vulcans, Tolaris, to refrain from meditation for one night. This practice allowed T'Pol to experience vivid dreams of a sexual nature but left her with headaches, elevated blood pressure, and unusual synaptic activity. Tolaris later forced her to participate in a mind meld that resulted in serious injury to T'Pol. (ENT: "Fusion")

Within the next year, it was discovered that the less-than-voluntary mind meld had created a degradation in the synaptic pathways of T'Pol's brain, a deadly neurological disease that was known as Pa'nar Syndrome. Dr. Phlox was unable to treat the affliction alone, so he sought the assistance of Vulcan members of the Interspecies Medical Exchange, but to little avail. (ENT: "Stigma") During her time with the Syrrannite T'Pau, T'Pol learned Pa'nar was treatable through the proper use of a mind meld. T'Pau administered the meld, and T'Pol was cured. (ENT: "Kir'Shara")

Under the guidance of Captain Archer, who had held the katra of Surak, an experienced melder, T'Pol safely initiated a mind meld with Ensign Hoshi Sato in 2154. (ENT: "Affliction")

Personal life

Like many traditional Vulcans, T'Pol was a vegetarian but was open to exploring a variety of other foods and beverages. (ENT: "Broken Bow") She enjoyed chamomile and mint teas, and experimented with Earth dishes, including pecan pie and Georgia peaches. (ENT: "Fusion", "Breaking the Ice", "Extinction", "E²") Although she initially held to the Vulcan practice of not eating with her hands, no matter how impractical (ENT: "Broken Bow"), she later occasionally broke this rule. (ENT: "Horizon", et al.) T'Pol also practiced regimented meditation, a routine from which she rarely deviated. (ENT: "Fusion")

Family

Lorian

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T'Les

T'Pol and T'Les at odds in 2154

Though T'Pol's father died sometime prior to 2151 and she had no siblings, she was close to her mother, T'Les. (ENT: "The Xindi")

While T'Pol was serving aboard Enterprise, she and her mother corresponded through subspace communications. However, at least one of T'Les' messages was lost, due to communications blackouts, while T'Pol was serving on the Xindi mission. (ENT: "Home")

Following the destruction of the secret base at P'Jem, the Vulcan High Command sought to place blame for the incident with T'Pol but were unable to reach her in the Expanse. The High Command therefore censured T'Les, forcing her resignation as an instructor at the Vulcan Science Academy. T'Pol was initially unaware of the true reasons for her mother's early retirement and was later outraged to learn the truth. (ENT: "Home")

Possessing a somewhat tumultuous relationship with T'Pol, T'Les was nonetheless a keen observer of her daughter. T'Les held more traditional values than T'Pol and believed that T'Pol's work should have been focused on the betterment of Vulcan society. Nevertheless, T'Les observed that there was more to life than one's profession – an ideal she believed T'Pol would benefit from learning. (ENT: "Home")

T'Pol holds T'Les as she dies

Given shore leave following the completion of the Xindi mission, T'Pol returned home to Vulcan, with Commander Tucker as her guest. During this visit, T'Les urged T'Pol to fulfill her obligation to her family and proceed with her arranged marriage to Koss. At first resistant to the prospect of marriage, T'Pol ultimately relented and agreed to the marriage on the grounds that it would benefit T'Les. (ENT: "Home")

Later in 2154, T'Pol was reunited with her mother soon after learning that T'Les had joined the Syrrannite underground movement. T'Pol came to consider her mother as being far less traditional than she herself had previously thought and helped further her mother's cause, working to dissolve the Vulcan High Command. Sadly, T'Les was killed when the High Command destroyed the Syrrannites' base of operations. T'Pol held her dying mother in her arms and wept for T'Les, who had previously observed that her daughter had always kept her emotions close to the surface. (ENT: "Home", "Awakening")

In her life, T'Les possessed a pendant featuring the Vulcan symbol for IDIC. ENT: "The Forge" Following the discovery of her own infant daughter, T'Pol placed the pendant in her child's crib. (ENT: "Terra Prime")

T'Mir

T'Pol with T'Mir's handbag

After escaping from a Suliban helix in 2152, T'Pol, Captain Archer, and Commander Tucker celebrated the one-year anniversary of the start of Enterprise's mission. To commemorate the occasion, T'Pol revealed the story of her second foremother, T'Mir. T'Pol framed the story as though it were fictitious, although she had previously visited the site of T'Mir's crash, in Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania. T'Pol also kept T'Mir's handbag in a locker in her quarters, as a memento of the event. (ENT: "Carbon Creek")

Elizabeth

T'Pol holding baby Elizabeth

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Personal relationships

Koss

T'Pol and Koss on Vulcan

At an early age, T'Pol was arranged to be married to Koss, who became an architect. In 2151, she was instructed (in a message relayed by the Ti'Mur) to return to Vulcan, in order to marry Koss. However, she received advice from Commander Tucker that she had the right to remain unmarried if she so decided. It was after this that she opted not to journey back to Vulcan to marry Koss, instead choosing to stay aboard Enterprise. (ENT: "Breaking the Ice")

After her return to Vulcan following the Xindi incident, T'Pol still refused to marry him. Koss visited her and admitted that he wanted to marry her. He attempted to persuade her by offering to let her resume her career if she spent one year with him on Vulcan. He also offered to help her mother regain her position at the academy from which she had been dismissed because of T'Pol's involvement with the incident at P'Jem. Koss and T'Pol were finally married in 2154. Later that year, Koss ended his marriage with T'Pol after the death of her mother, T'Les. Shortly thereafter, their marriage was officially dissolved. Despite their marriage having been arranged, Koss genuinely cared for T'Pol, giving Archer his transporter codes so he and T'Pau could reach the Vulcan High Command. He later told T'Pol that he had done this because Archer had told him T'Pol had been in trouble and that providing the codes was how he could help her. (ENT: "Home", "Kir'Shara", "Babel One")

V'Lar

T'Pol and Ambassador V'Lar reunite in 2152

While in her early schooling, T'Pol traveled a great distance to see distinguished Vulcan ambassador V'Lar at Vulcana Regar. During a recess of the second Ka'Tann Conference, T'Pol questioned the ambassador about her negotiating tactics. V'Lar later recalled those questions to have been "presumptuous" but also key in having made her reconsider some of her previous positions. Likewise, T'Pol credited V'Lar for having inspired her career path, leading to her work with the Science Council and eventually to her work with Starfleet.

On February 9, 2152, T'Pol reunited with the ambassador when Enterprise was ordered to escort V'Lar from the planet Mazar to Vulcan. Finding her to have changed since their initial meeting, T'Pol was surprised at V'Lar's levity and willingness to explore Earth culture. T'Pol was at first disappointed with her second interaction with the ambassador but came to once again respect V'Lar as a personal hero. (ENT: "Fallen Hero")

Jonathan Archer

T'Pol and Archer in a shuttlepod in 2152

Although there was some tension when the two first met in 2151, T'Pol and Captain Jonathan Archer eventually became lasting friends, with a bond of trust and friendship between them. Though she may not have always agreed with the captain, she became a trusted advisor and he became one to her as well.

Initially, Archer held a grudge against T'Pol, believing that she would be just like all other Vulcans he'd encountered – with a goal of holding humanity back. Also at first, she was not particularly fond of his "subservient quadruped", Porthos. (ENT: "Broken Bow")

In the final draft script of "Carpenter Street", T'Pol invited Porthos, along with Archer, into her quarters. T'Pol doesn't so in the final version of the installment, in which Porthos simply scurries into T'Pol's quarters nonetheless. After he exits, she reacts with an unscripted brief facial expression of distaste.

Archer sometimes acted as a mentor. He routinely tried to persuade T'Pol to interact with the crew. She accompanied the captain for a ship's movie night. And presumably attended those movie nights often. She was fond of the film Frankenstein, as the monster was misunderstood as she believed Vulcans were after first contact with Humans. (ENT: "Horizon")

Sometimes, she was a mentor to Archer, providing her experience with various alien races as well as acting as counterpoint to his decisions. Once, that counterpoint was even contentious. (ENT: "Damage")

There are many instances that prove their deep caring for each other.

On the mission to Qo'noS, T'Pol's actions of assuming command and leading Enterprise in anticipation of the wishes of Captain Archer, who had been wounded saving her, and rendered unconscious. Ultimately these actions earned T'Pol's trust and gave Archer a newfound respect for her. (ENT: "Broken Bow") T'Pol ultimately became the captain's trusted and able first officer, second in command, and one of his most trusted advisers during the problems they faced during their missions. The emotional strength of her bond of friendship with Archer was made clear in many instances.

Archer and T'Pol sharing a blanket while being held hostage at the monastery

Early in their professional relationship, T'Pol earned more of Archer's respect, when she didn't turn a blind eye to the revelation of the secret Vulcan surveillance listening post beneath the monastery at P'Jem and instead helped Archer expose the spy station to the Andorian Imperial Guard. (ENT: "The Andorian Incident")

One of the first situations that demonstrated the captain's trust, respect, and his willingness to show T'Pol the same respect as any officer under his command was in his response to Tolaris having forced a mind meld onto T'Pol, essentially assaulting her. Archer, in turn, was angry and protective of T'Pol, and made Tolaris betray his volatile emotional state. (ENT: "Fusion")

When Ambassador V'Lar visited Enterprise in 2152, she sensed a great bond between Archer and T'Pol, of "trust … and friendship." (ENT: "Fallen Hero")

T'Pol received Archer's support when she was sent on the emotionally troubling mission of apprehending Menos for the Vulcans. Archer accompanied her in an attempt to help her overcome her feelings of self-doubt and guilt. Archer's help solidified the trust between the two. (ENT: "The Seventh")

In the final draft script of "Singularity", T'Pol offered more help to Archer than she does in the final edit of that episode. She firstly offered to help him change his uniform and later asked if he required extra coffee. However, both offers were declined by Archer. [2]

T'Pol, in turn, was there for Archer when his good friend and former rival, A.G. Robinson, died. She listened to Archer tell a story about the two of them and figuratively offered him a shoulder to lean on. (ENT: "First Flight")

T'Pol cries for Archer

Often, Archer has worked to keep T'Pol onboard, including helping her receive an antidote for Pa'nar Syndrome (ENT: "Stigma") which the Vulcans were wanting to send her back to Vulcan for, refusing to line Enterprise with trellium-D (ENT: "Impulse"), trying to convince her to stay when recalled (ENT: "Shadows of P'Jem"), and working on her behalf so she could join Starfleet. (ENT: "Borderland")

When the Xindi targeted earth, killing millions of humans, Enterprise was assigned to stop the weapon from destroying Earth. But the Vulcan High Command recalled T'Pol. She weighed the decision about whether to stay or leave, Phlox providing guidance that for him it was a simple question of loyalty. Afterward, T'Pol told Archer she was resigning her commission, saying, "Captain, you need me." (ENT: "The Expanse")

Archer hugs T'Pol in the green room before he gives a speech commemorating the Federation Charter

During the Xindi conflict, Archer accepted a suicide mission to stop the Xindi weapon, placing T'Pol in command. After he left, T'Pol, unable to control her emotions, went alone to the captain's ready room, where she cried. (ENT: "Azati Prime") The emotional response is significant, as it's one of the only two times T'Pol cried – after Archer agreed to the suicide mission and after her mother (T'Les) died.

T'Pol's also expressed concern when Archer agreed to battle Shran in the Ushaan, asking him not to fight because she believed he would be killed. After Archer explained his "logic", that he needed to fight, she says, "If anything happens to you…" (ENT: "United")

Eleven years later, T'Pol accompanied Archer to his green room as he prepared to make a speech at the signing of the Federation Charter. T'Pol told him he looked heroic; overcome with emotion, Archer embraced T'Pol. (ENT: "These Are the Voyages...")

In the ENT series bible, T'Pol was described as having "a grudging respect for Captain Archer, who has proven to her that humanity has the potential to exceed its limitations."

Rick Berman and Brannon Braga originally conceived of T'Pol's relationship with Archer very differently and immutable to how it turned out; despite the numerous changes in how they connected with each other, Berman once stated, "There will always be a sparring dynamic between T'Pol and Archer." (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 7, p. 19)

Brannon Braga believed T'Pol's relationship with Archer was significant to Star Trek in general. "We see in the T'Pol/Archer relationship a microcosm of how Humans and Vulcans came to be so close," he observed. "They have their respective gripes with each other. And seeing T'Pol and Archer grapple through those preconceptions is what Star Trek is all about." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 139, p. 26)

Romance

T'Pol as she appeared in an alternate future

In 2152, Jonathan Archer began harboring an attraction to his science officer. Any romantic aspect of this relationship was never pursued; T'Pol let the captain know that they could not "hypothetically" allow any attraction between themselves to become realized, indicating a reminder to him that he was her superior officer. (ENT: "A Night in Sickbay")

In an alternate timeline, Archer was afflicted with anterograde amnesia, as a result of being struck by a temporal anomaly from which he was trying to save T'Pol. After she assumed command of Enterprise but failed to save Earth from being destroyed by the Xindi, T'Pol resigned her captaincy and spent twelve years caring for Archer on Ceti Alpha V. She learned more about him, over the years, while he continuously forgot everything past the day he had become ill. It became apparent to T'Pol, however, that she had started to harbor romantic feelings for Archer, although nothing could come of it due to his illness. By 2165, a way had been found to eradicate the interspatial parasites that were preventing Archer from forming new memories. Phlox suggested to T'Pol that, if the treatment worked, the relationship between her and Archer might be different.

Ultimately, it was found that destroying the parasites infesting Archer's brain in the present also destroyed them in the past, preventing them from ever infecting Archer and thereby effectively erasing the alternate timeline in which he and T'Pol now found themselves. Utilizing this method meant the destruction of Enterprise and the deaths of its crew, a virtual inevitability due to the Xindi's extremely intense attack on the ship, but it was nevertheless decided that this method would indeed be used. Before the ship exploded, however, Phlox, T'Pol, and Archer were struck down by Xind-Reptilian soldiers, with T'Pol dying in Archer's arms and he, having used his last breath to initiate the subspace implosion, dying on top of the lifeless T'Pol. (ENT: "Twilight")

In "Twilight", T'Pol's development of a romantic attraction to Archer and the escalation of their relationship is suggested in dialogue between the two characters themselves, such as T'Pol saying that their relationship has "evolved" over the years, as well as between other characters, including Phlox, who comments that it must have been hard for T'Pol to learn so much about Archer when he would remember nothing about her.

In a scene description from the final draft script of "Twilight", it was made clear this version of T'Pol hadn't considered returning to Vulcan in the event of Archer being cured, though he (in ultimately omitted dialogue from the same scripted scene) expected she would be looking forward to doing so.

Brannon Braga once commented, "There was something very poignant about T'Pol never leaving Archer's side, because they had this very special relationship as captain and first officer. I was always really struck by that. I remember watching it and thinking, 'That's what we should be doing every week." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 151, p. 30)

Charles "Trip" Tucker III

T'Pol argues with Tucker on the bridge of Enterprise

In the beginning, T'Pol's relationship with Tucker was cordial, even though neither seemed to have much sympathy for the other. Upon their first meeting, T'Pol refused to shake hands with him, and Tucker once mentioned to Crewman Cutler – who was trying to be nice to T'Pol – that she'd have "better luck making friends with a housefly." (ENT: "Broken Bow", "Strange New World")

However, they warmed up to each other during the Xindi crisis. After Tucker's sister died in the Xindi attack on Earth, Tucker suffered insomnia, so Phlox convinced T'Pol to assist the engineer, in order to help him rest.

T'Pol's application of Vulcan neuro-pressure not only helped, but Tucker also began to develop romantic feelings for T'Pol. They had intimate relations in January 2154, though T'Pol later denied her emotions, calling it an "exploration of Human sexuality." (ENT: "The Xindi", "Harbinger", "E²")

In the final draft script of "The Xindi", a note commented about the first time T'Pol arranges for Tucker to experience Vulcan neuro-pressure, "Although on the surface of this scene, T'Pol has simply succeeded at her mission, we should sense what might be the beginning of an underlying attraction between these two characters."

Brannon Braga felt that, in "Similitude", T'Pol learning of Trip's feelings towards her without him knowing she had learned of them "set up great dynamics for upcoming episodes." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 151, p. 30)

After the Battle of Azati Prime in February 2154, Tucker was haunted by visions of Crewman Jane Taylor, a member of his engineering team who had died in the attack. He was supposed to be writing a letter of consolation to her parents but was unable to do so, as she reminded him too much of his sister, Elizabeth. T'Pol consoled Tucker, discussing the emotions he felt concerning both his sister and Crewman Taylor. (ENT: "The Forgotten")

T'Pol kisses Tucker at her wedding to Koss

Once Enterprise returned to Earth, T'Pol went on to Vulcan, asking Tucker – who complained of having nowhere to go – to accompany her to Vulcan. While there, she discovered that her mother was forced into retirement and T'Pol's old bond-mate, Koss, entered the picture. T'Pol subsequently entering into marriage with Koss (as a way to save T'Les) broke Tucker's heart. Even though the marriage to Koss was annulled soon thereafter, T'Pol and Tucker's relationship from that point forward was confusing to both of them, as T'Pol sought – after her mother's death and interest in Surak's teachings – a more Vulcan way of life. (ENT: "Home", "Kir'Shara")

Tensions culminated in November 2154, when Tucker decided to transfer to the starship Columbia. He realized his feelings were jeopardizing his work, worrying that it would further interfere with his duties. When Trip came back aboard Enterprise, T'Pol persuaded him to stay, sealing her plea with a kiss (a possible indication that she wished to continue their relationship). Afterward, Trip explained to her that he'd already requested permission from Captain Hernandez, Columbia's commanding officer, to return to Enterprise. (ENT: "Affliction", "Bound")

In January 2155, T'Pol discovered that her DNA, as well as Tucker's, had been stolen by Terra Prime to create a baby (also named Elizabeth). (ENT: "Demons") After rescuing her with the help of Tucker and Archer, Phlox discovered that the child was dying, due to genetic engineering mistakes. (ENT: "Terra Prime")

T'Pol kissing Sim goodbye

Soon after their daughter's death, T'Pol and Tucker ended their relationship. (ENT: "These Are the Voyages...")

Six years later, Tucker sacrificed his own life to save Archer and possibly others aboard Enterprise. Prior to his death, he and T'Pol discussed their relationship for the first time since they had broken it off, with T'Pol saying she would miss him when she moved on to other assignments. Following Trip's sacrifice, T'Pol received comfort from Archer as the two of them mourned their mutual friend. (ENT: "These Are the Voyages...")

Written at a time when Tucker was intended to have the nickname "Spike", the ENT series bible said T'Pol "simply doesn't understand Spike […]; she finds that he embodies all the baser instincts humanity has to offer."

Sim

In 2153, a mimetic simbiot of Trip, named Sim, was grown as a tissue donor. During his short life, T'Pol learned from Sim that he had feelings about her, saying he wasn't sure if he had "inherited" them from Trip. Right before Sim sacrificed himself, T'Pol visited him and expressed how much she and the rest of the crew would miss him, and then abruptly kissed him goodbye. (ENT: "Similitude")

In the final draft script of "Similitude", a scene description immediately following the kiss commented, "We begin to wonder if the moment between them is only just beginning."

Tolaris

Tolaris tries to reach T'Pol

While Tolaris was visiting Enterprise in 2151, T'Pol met him and was inspired by him to further explore her emotions, a subject she was curious about. She also followed his suggestion not to meditate for one night. Later, Tolaris came to T'Pol's quarters and suggested using a mind meld to help her. She, however, was very uncomfortable and told Tolaris to stop. When he did not desist, she told him to leave, which he finally did. Her abusive experience with Tolaris resulted in him and his fellow V'tosh ka'tur being forced to immediately leave Enterprise. (ENT: "Fusion")

Phlox

This article or section is incompleteThis page is marked as lacking essential detail, and needs attention. Information regarding expansion requirements may be found on the article's talk page. Feel free to edit this page to assist with this expansion.

T'Pol occasionally joined Denobulan Doctor Phlox for dinner at the mess hall aboard Enterprise NX-01. In June of 2151, Phlox reminded her about their mission aboard Enterprise, "to make contact with those whom Humans consider new life and new civilizations." Phlox also told T'Pol that their mission is comparable to the introduction of T'Pol's new crew to her people, a cultural exchange. (ENT: "The Andorian Incident")

During this conversation, Phlox is showing T'Pol another different "view" when eating a celery stick by using his fingers instead of T'Pol's way, eating the celery with knife and fork.

In the ENT series bible, T'Pol was referred to as gravitating "toward Doctor Phlox" and the document went on to comment, "As a fellow 'outsider,' he's the only one she can confide in about her experiences among Humans. The two of them will often debate humanity and its foibles." The series bible also pointed out that T'Pol would, at one time, be given a "nasal numbing agent" from Phlox.

Alternate realities and timelines

Starfleet Captain T'Pol

In the alternate timeline wherein Captain Archer was infected with interspatial parasites that caused him to develop anterograde amnesia, T'Pol received a Starfleet field commission in 2153, promoting her to captain. However, she was unable to find the Xindi weapon early enough to stop it from destroying Earth. She continued to captain Enterprise until 2156, when it reached Ceti Alpha V with the last 6,000 survivors of the Human race. She retired then, caring for the amnesiac Archer until 2165, when Phlox found a cure. During a Xindi attack, T'Pol, Archer, and Phlox sacrificed themselves to create the subspace implosion that destroyed the parasites and altered the timeline. (ENT: "Twilight")

In the final draft script of "Twilight", the version of T'Pol from 2165 was described in a sentence which commented, "Aside from her long hair and a slightly more relaxed demeanor, T'Pol appears not to have aged."

T'Pol in 2154, after being thrown back in time 117 years

In a different timeline, in which Enterprise became trapped in 2037, T'Pol eventually married Commander Tucker in a traditional Vulcan ceremony; they honeymooned in Cargo Bay 3. With Doctor Phlox's help, they had a son, Lorian. By 2153, T'Pol, approximately 183 years old, was the only original crewmember of Enterprise left; she was also more in touch with her emotions, actually hugging the past Archer when the two met. When the ship rendezvoused with the original Enterprise in February 2154, T'Pol informed Captain Archer that a plan Lorian had devised, to increase the efficiency of the plasma injectors, could end up destroying the ship. (ENT: "E²")

In the final draft script of "E²", this version of T'Pol was described as "A wizened, white-haired old woman […] This ancient woman is actually a very old T'Pol… she appears to be nearly two hundred years old!" From then on, the character was referred to in the script, apart from in scripted dialogue, as "Old T'Pol". She was subsequently described as having "gnarled hands" and a later scene description remarked, "This T'Pol is obviously more warm and relaxed than her younger self."

Chronology

2088

Born on Vulcan

2135

Finishes training for Ministry of Security

2140s

Assigned to Seleya as deputy science officer

2149

Transfers to Vulcan Consulate on Earth

2151

Assigned to Enterprise as Vulcan observer; later accepts position as chief science officer

2154

Formalizes her service with Starfleet and is given the rank of commander

2161

Present at the chartering of the United Federation of Planets

First officers of the starships Enterprise Enterprise NX-01: Tucker • T'Pol • Sato • Archer USS Enterprise: Pike • Chin-Riley • Noonien-Singh • Spock • Decker • Saavik (as a trainee) • Thelin USS Enterprise-A: Spock USS Enterprise-D: Riker • Kurn • Shelby • Data • Worf USS Enterprise-E: Riker USS Enterprise-G: Musiker ISS Enterprise NX-01: Archer ISS Enterprise NCC-1701: Spock USS Enterprise: Spock • Kirk USS Enterprise-A: Spock

Science officers of the starships Enterprise Enterprise NX-01: T'Pol • Unnamed USS Enterprise: Chin-Riley • Lucero • Spock • Connolly • Kirk • Chekov • Sonak • Decker • Saavik • Thelin USS Enterprise-A: Spock USS Enterprise-B: Unnamed USS Enterprise-D: Swenson • Data • Taitt USS Enterprise-E: Data ISS Enterprise NX-01: T'Pol ISS Enterprise NCC-1701: Spock USS Enterprise: Spock • 0718 • Carol Marcus USS Enterprise-A: Spock

Commanding officers of the starships Enterprise Enterprise NX-01: Archer • T'Pol • Tucker • Lorian USS Enterprise: April • Pike • Kirk • Decker • Spock USS Enterprise-A: Kirk USS Enterprise-B: Harriman USS Enterprise-C: Garrett USS Enterprise-D: Picard • Riker • Jellico • Halloway USS Enterprise-E: Picard USS Enterprise-F: Shelby USS Enterprise-G: Seven of Nine ISS Enterprise NX-01: Forrest ISS Enterprise NCC-1701: Pike • Kirk USS Enterprise: Pike • Kirk USS Enterprise-A: Kirk UEF Enterprise: Kirk

Appendices

Appearances

• ENT:
  • "Broken Bow"
  • "Fight or Flight"
  • "Strange New World"
  • "Unexpected"
  • "Terra Nova"
  • "The Andorian Incident"
  • "Breaking the Ice"
  • "Civilization"
  • "Fortunate Son"
  • "Cold Front"
  • "Silent Enemy"
  • "Dear Doctor"
  • "Sleeping Dogs"
  • "Shadows of P'Jem"
  • "Shuttlepod One"
  • "Fusion"
  • "Rogue Planet"
  • "Acquisition"
  • "Oasis"
  • "Detained"
  • "Vox Sola"
  • "Fallen Hero"
  • "Desert Crossing"
  • "Two Days and Two Nights"
  • "Shockwave"
  • "Shockwave, Part II"
  • "Carbon Creek"
  • "Minefield"
  • "Dead Stop"
  • "A Night in Sickbay"
  • "Marauders"
  • "The Seventh"
  • "The Communicator"
  • "Singularity"
  • "Vanishing Point"
  • "Precious Cargo"
  • "The Catwalk"
  • "Dawn"
  • "Stigma"
  • "Cease Fire"
  • "Future Tense"
  • "Canamar"
  • "The Crossing"
  • "Judgment"
  • "Horizon"
  • "The Breach"
  • "Cogenitor"
  • "Regeneration"
  • "First Flight"
  • "Bounty"
  • "The Expanse"
  • "The Xindi"
  • "Anomaly (ENT)"
  • "Extinction"
  • "Rajiin"
  • "Impulse"
  • "Exile"
  • "The Shipment"
  • "Twilight"
  • "North Star"
  • "Similitude"
  • "Carpenter Street"
  • "Chosen Realm"
  • "Proving Ground"
  • "Stratagem"
  • "Harbinger"
  • "Doctor's Orders"
  • "Hatchery"
  • "Azati Prime"
  • "Damage"
  • "The Forgotten"
  • "E²"
  • "The Council"
  • "Countdown"
  • "Zero Hour"
  • "Storm Front"
  • "Storm Front, Part II"
  • "Home"
  • "Borderland"
  • "Cold Station 12"
  • "The Augments"
  • "The Forge"
  • "Awakening"
  • "Kir'Shara"
  • "Daedalus"
  • "Observer Effect"
  • "Babel One"
  • "United"
  • "The Aenar"
  • "Affliction"
  • "Divergence"
  • "Bound"
  • "Demons"
  • "Terra Prime"
  • "These Are the Voyages..." (hologram)
• VST: "Holograms All the Way Down" (background hologram)

Background information

Blalock as T'Pol, having her lipstick tweaked by make-up artist Suzanne Diaz-Westmore

T'Pol was played by actress Jolene Blalock in all ninety-eight episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise. Throughout the run of the series, several stuntwomen doubled Blalock, including Boni Yanagisawa and Lisa Hoyle.

The character of T'Pol was invented, as a crewmember aboard Enterprise, by ENT creators and Executive Producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. "We knew we wanted a Vulcan on the ship," noted Braga. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 9, p. 21)

The character of T'Pol was originally intended to be a younger version of the Vulcan matriarch T'Pau. (Star Trek: Communicator issue 135, p. 21) Meanwhile, a description of the character was written in the series bible for Star Trek: Enterprise. It described her thus; "Vulcan female. Austere but sensual. She's the Science Officer assigned to 'oversee' our progress. In exchange for starcharts and tactical information, the Vulcans insisted we include one of their officers on the Enterprise. Starfleet Command reluctantly agreed. Not everyone is happy with this addition to the crew. Why do we need a Vulcan watching over us like we're children? T'Pau isn't thrilled with this assignment, either. She was hoping for a Vulcan commission. The last thing she expected was to be living among a primitive, irrational species. But she's resigned to this 'hardship post' because she had no choice. She's not comfortable around the crew… or the emotions they display. Secretly, however, she will begin to envy Humans. Now that she lives among them, she can't help but develop a fascination with their cultures. In private, she likes to sample their food, and catalog their behavior. She even studies their mating customs […] She can't stand the smell of Humans when they're anxious. She's older than everyone on board. But she won't reveal how old. Hoshi is always asking her about her age. T'Pau: 'In human years or Vulcan years?'"

While this character was still planned to be a young version of T'Pau, a character breakdown sheet that Paramount sent to talent agents, upon seeking an actress to play the part, referred to the role thus; "Late 20s, early 30s. Vulcan female. Austere yet sensual. She's the Science Officer assigned to oversee humanity's progress on board Enterprise. Although she's cautious and guarded around Humans, whom she considers primitive and irrational, she's developed a grudging respect for Captain Archer. She'll become one of his most loyal and trusted crew members." [3] The character also had the name "T'Pau" in the second draft of the script for series pilot "Broken Bow", which additionally described her as "a striking young female."

The initial concept of this character being pre-established Vulcan matriarch T'Pau was changed in series pre-production due to legal concerns. (Star Trek: Communicator issue 134, p. 76) In 2010, Braga elaborated somewhat further on the name change by explaining that the idea had been nixed in order to avoid having to deal with the "legal component" of Star Trek: The Original Series writer Theodore Sturgeon, who had created the character of T'Pau, and also because the name "T'Pol" was easier to pronounce. [4] It was considered, at one time thereafter, to make T'Pol a relative of T'Pau's. (Star Trek: Communicator issue 135, p. 21) The possibility of them being sisters was eliminated by "The Xindi", in which T'Pol states that she has no siblings, and T'Pau eventually appeared as an unrelated character in the episodes "Awakening" and "Kir'Shara".

Even though this character's name was changed to T'Pol by the writing of the revised final draft script for "Broken Bow", that script draft took cues from the descriptions in the breakdown sheet and (more naturedly) the second draft of the script. The teleplay's revised final draft not only referred to T'Pol as "a striking young female" but subsequently commented, "Her look is severe yet sensual. Although she's been living amongst Humans for several months, she is cautious and guarded around them." [5]

The role of T'Pol was the most difficult regular part on Star Trek: Enterprise to cast. Brannon Braga reflected, "The last role we cast was T'Pol. It took a lot of searching to find that actress who was at once striking and yet had an intelligence about her, who also is a good actress. It is a hard combo, for whatever reason." (Broken Bow, paperback ed., p. 255) Rick Berman offered, "We read hundreds of actresses and Jolene [Blalock] was in the last group we read. And she just blew us away." (Star Trek Monthly issue 84, p. 19) Blalock attended the casting session with no makeup on. Evaluating how good she would be in the role was based on viewing some footage of other productions she had been in, which wowed Berman and his co-workers. ("Broken Bow" audio commentary, ENT Season 1 DVD/Blu-ray)

During a press conference to announce the start of Star Trek: Enterprise, Jolene Blalock expressed that T'Pol's femininity seemed advantageous to the show, that the character was "feline in her movements" (T'Pol was likewise referred to as landing "cat-like" on a landing platform in the final draft script of "The Seventh"), and that – because Spock had been her favorite regular character from Star Trek: The Original Series – she found portraying T'Pol "really strange." Blalock also commented on the character's makeup, hairstyle, and costume, saying that the appliances took "just shy of two hours" to have put on, and that she felt they were relatively effortless while being worn. (Star Trek Monthly issue 84, pp. 22 & 23)

Initially, Jolene Blalock felt the prospect of portraying T'Pol was a huge challenge and "an enormous responsibility." She believed it was important not to fail what Gene Roddenberry had dreamt up, and not to let down her cast, her crew, or herself, either. "But in the risk of failing there's growth," she mused, "and it may be uncomfortable and I may experience growing pains, but at the end of it all I'm stronger for it and I'm watching myself grow, and it's a beautiful thing. So I'll take that responsibility […] I am the beginning [of Vulcans]; this is laying the foundations, so everything that I do should be fresh and new. I need to create this out of originality, and I want to create it for myself." On the other hand, Blalock did take inspiration for the role from Leonard Nimoy's Spock, re-watching all of TOS in preparation for playing T'Pol. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 7, p. 17)

Shortly after the casting of Jolene Blalock as T'Pol, Brannon Braga implied he thought of T'Pol as somewhat similar to Dian Fossey, remarking, "It's 'Gorillas in the Mist' time." Braga drew that parallel because he was thinking of T'Pol as "the first alien – certainly the first Vulcan – to live among Humans." However, this concept was evidently later changed. An idea which arguably stayed the same, on the other hand, was that he and Rick Berman meanwhile regarded T'Pol as a character who would "have a long journey ahead of her," in Berman's words. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 7, pp. 17 & 19) Prior to the midpoint of ENT Season 1, he and Braga had some ideas for what they definitely wanted to have happen to T'Pol towards the end of that season. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 9, p. 22)

At one point during the series run, Soval actor Gary Graham suggested that T'Pol turn out to be Soval's long-lost daughter, because of her resemblance to the actor's own sister. Graham later recalled, "I thought it was a slam dunk when I suggested it, but it was never picked up." [6] In a potential season five episode, writer/producer Michael Sussman hoped to have T'Pol finally meet her father, planning to reveal to the audience that T'Pol's father was instead a Romulan agent who had posed as a Vulcan officer prior to faking his own death. The suggestion that T'Pol was half-Romulan would have shed light on her affinity for Humans as well as her interest in experimenting with emotions. (Information provided by Mike Sussman)

Hairstyle

Original hairstyle

Given that Jolene Blalock actually has curly blonde hair, Hair Designer Michael Moore decided, without question, that she would have a dark-haired wig for the role of T'Pol. However, choosing the type of wig proved difficult. (Star Trek: Communicator issue 152, p. 30) Indeed, the original hairstyle used for T'Pol was different; for several days of filming, Blalock wore a wig that was longer than the one eventually used. When it was decided that T'Pol's hairstyle should be changed from this original one, several scenes had to be reshot to eliminate the longer wig from appearing. The character's original look can be seen on the Season 1 DVD of Enterprise, in a deleted scene.

Typically, the wig for T'Pol covered Jolene Blalock's natural hair, which was wound in a flat wrap and covered in a cap before the wig was put on. Preparing the hairstyle in this way usually took thirty minutes, handled by Enterprise stylist Gloria Pasqua Casny. (Star Trek: Communicator issue 152, p. 31)

Even though T'Pol's short wig at the beginning of Enterprise seemed like a logical precursor to Spock's haircut in the original series (with somewhat irregular bangs that echoed Spock's rigidly straight bangs), further transformations in the hairstyle took place during the run of Enterprise. "[The producers] wanted a look that was a little bit softer compared to previous Vulcans," recalled Michael Moore. "The second year, we tried to make it even softer." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 152, pp. 30-31) In the final draft script of third season premiere "The Xindi", a scene description stated about T'Pol, "Her hair has a slightly more 'casual' look." From the start of the third season onwards, T'Pol's previously blockier and dark-brown hairstyle started to be toned with lighter-color highlights and became less puffy at the top. Shortly before production on the series' fourth season began, Moore declared, "I'm hoping that in the new year, we can soften her [hairstyle] even more. The Humans tend to have an effect on her. She's becoming a product of her environment, even though Vulcans aren't supposed to do that. So, I'm hoping we can reflect that in her hair a little bit. But we still can't go too far from being Vulcan." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 152, pp. 30 & 31)

Clothing

A controversial scene from "Harbinger"

T'Pol controversially appeared without clothing in several episodes, with the most explicit example of this in "Harbinger". The character also had more costume changes in the run of Star Trek: Enterprise than any of the other main characters. The following is an account of the clothes that she wore during the series. The first appearance of each outfit is listed but subsequent appearances of all outfits are not.

• Season 1
  • "Broken Bow"
    • Ambassadorial attire
    • Grey Vulcan sub-commander uniform
  • "Breaking the Ice"
    • Auburn off-duty clothing (perhaps Vulcan meditation attire)
  • "Civilization"
    • Red and blue undercover outfit
  • "Sleeping Dogs"
    • EV suit
    • Grey catsuit
    • Blue undershirt and trousers
  • "Shadows of P'Jem"
    • Grey tank top and grey hospital bed sheet
  • "Fusion"
    • Grey mini dress, tights and black hood
    • Purple catsuit
  • "Rogue Planet"
    • Grey catsuit with grey tunic jacket
  • "A Night in Sickbay"
    • Grey workout attire
• Season 2
  • "Shockwave, Part II"
    • Grey tank top with sub-commander trousers
  • "Marauders"
    • Light grey catsuit with white piping
    • Grey tank top and trousers, brown headband
    • Teal nightclothes
    • Black quilted jacket with black hood
    • Black shirt in flashback
    • White shirt in flashback
• Season 3
  • "The Xindi"
    • Orange catsuit
    • Blue catsuit
  • "Extinction"
    • White catsuit
  • "Rajiin"
    • Blue nightclothes
    • Teal catsuit with white striping
    • Red catsuit with light red striping
  • "Impulse"
    • Naked, wrapped in grey medical sheet
  • "Twilight"
    • Starfleet uniform
    • Civilian clothing
  • "North Star"
    • Period dress: white poet shirt, long maroon skirt, grey headband
  • "Similitude"
    • Pink nightclothes
    • Purple catsuit with brown and red striping
  • "Carpenter Street"
    • 2004 period dress: black tank top, white and grey striped button-up dress shirt, black trench coat and black trousers
  • "Stratagem"
    • Blue catsuit with grey striping
    • Purple catsuit with black striping
    • Orange catsuit with light orange striping
  • "Harbinger"
    • Purple shirt with grey trousers
    • Grey robe
    • Naked
  • "Hatchery"
    • blue Starfleet uniform with yellow piping
  • "E²"
    • Note: an older version of T'Pol also appears on several occasions in this episode, wearing a Vulcan robe
• Season 4
  • "In a Mirror, Darkly"
    • Alternate version of the Starfleet uniform, same as normal except with a crop top
  • "Home"
    • Purple and grey open-neck, sleeveless blouse with white trousers
    • Multi-colored faded sleeveless blouse with salmon colored knee-length shorts
    • Red patterned open-neck, sleeveless blouse with brown trousers
    • Purple Vulcan wedding gown
  • "Borderland"
    • Red patterned open-neck, sleeveless blouse with brown trousers
  • "Awakening"
    • White catsuit and cloak
  • "Demons"
    • Undercover miner's jumpsuit
  • "Terra Prime"
    • Starfleet jacket

After receiving the rank of commander and a Starfleet commission, T'Pol continued to wear her civilian "catsuit" with minor alterations: teal, sciences division piping on the shoulders, commander's rank, and an Enterprise assignment patch.

Reception

In 2003, Mark Jones and Lance Parkin, writers of the review reference book Beyond the Final Frontier (pp. 356 & 357), commented therein, "Jolene Blalock's T'Pol is criticised [by Star Trek fans] for being 'too sexy' – this despite the fact that she's a strong, rational, powerful female character, and that the actress is a keen ambassador for the show, and for Star Trek in general. T'Pol may epitomise the FHM generation of actresses, but surely that's better than any portrayal of women in either [the original series of] Star Trek or The Next Generation […] The star of the show [Enterprise], though, is Jolene Blalock. She has a gift of a role with T'Pol, but has made the most of it. At first glance, she's merely eye candy, and indeed during the first season, the writers found little for her to do but smoulder. But Blalock's approached the least subtle of roles with a clever understatement that makes you feel that both the character and the actress are holding back for fear of outclassing those around her. She's easily the funniest, sexiest, smartest regular actor to be cast in Star Trek in 15 years, and the second season saw her get some plum drama and comedy."

T'Pol's experimentation with and addiction to trellium-D proved controversial. At the time, Brannon Braga admitted, "I know some fans are up in arms about why a Vulcan would do something like this." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 151, p. 33)

Apocrypha

In the Star Trek: Enterprise - Rise of the Federation novels, T'Pol was promoted to Captain and given command of the USS Endeavour (β) by 2162. Many of the NX-01's crew sans Archer and Mayweather were assigned to the Endeavour. Malcolm Reed served as T'Pol's first officer. Phlox, Medical; Hoshi Sato, Communications; Elizabeth Cutler, Science officer.

According to the ENT novel To Brave the Storm, T'Pol left Starfleet by 2198 and became an ambassador for the Federation. She moved back to Vulcan where she, Trip and their children resided.

External links

• T'Pol at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• T'Pol at Wikipedia

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