trip and t'pol ship name

Dr. Plastic Picker

The star trek enterprise romance of t’pol and trip: i’m going to give them the ending they deserve.

May 23, 2020 | Dr Plastic Picker | Posted in COVID-19 , Mr. Plastic Picker (My Real Life Romance) , Star Trek/ Philosophical Tangents

May 23, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I’m not sure how you have been dealing with the COVID-19 quarantine, but I have been watching Star Trek. I mean A LOT of Star Trek. I grew up watching reruns of the original Star Trek. Spock, the Vulcan Science Officer, spoke to me. Even then, the action scenes were corny and the alien world settings unrealistic – but the storylines and the pseudophilosophical delvings into space and time and logic, touched something in my teenage heart. Then Star Trek the Next Generation ran 1987-1994, right during my middle school and high school years, I watched that too. I became a big fan of Captain Jean Luc Picard and his Shakepearan take on a Starship Captain. But there was not a great Vulcan on the show, so I have always been more of an Original Star Trek fan and of course Spock.

Right after Star Trek the Next Generation ended, I graduated from High School. I was Valedictorian of my high school class and my Star Trek adoration (which was common among the Academic League and Science Fair kids) was well known. I had many classmates and teachers request that I not talk about Star Trek during my Valedicctory address. The past several Valedictorians had referred to Star Trek extensively during their speaches. The Valedictorian right before me somewhat alienated the audience with the extensive Star Trek references, but he returned to our community and founded a very successful biotech company so I think he did okay. I gave my commencement speach without any Star Trek references and it went over well. I had been a state level speech competitor and always did well in the Impromptu category. But I slipped into the end of the speech “As promised, I did not make any Star Trek references” which got some laughs.

For the next 25 years, I was busy with college and life and was anchored firmly in the real world. In fact, I now realize that I got my happy ending and married the man who combines the very best of Spock and Captain Jean Luc Picard. Mr. Plastic Picker is not a trekkie at all. But he actually looks more like a Vulcan than not and studied Shakepeare in college – so gives him the essence of Captain Jean Luc Picard.

When the COVID-19 quarantine descended upon us about three months ago, Mr. Plastic Picker signed me up for CBS All Access commerical free (totally worth the extra $2 since I’ve been watching so much). I finished Star Trek Picard (2 seasons), Star Trek Discovery (2 seasons), and then I settled into Star Trek Enterprise (4 seasons). Star Trek Enterprise ran from 2001-2005, right during the time I was in medical school and residency. I honestly was so busy with actual life, that I don’t think I watched actual TV for that entire time. So the actors and I are the same age as Mr. Plastic Picker and I.

I finished the last episode last night, and I was disappointed. I had been drawn into the the relationship of T’Pol, the Vulcan science officer, and Trip Tucker, the chief engineer. I fell in love again while they were falling in love. Dr. Plastic Picker is a sucker for romances. But the ending was awful. I even started watching some fanfiction montage videos and was searching for fan fiction on them last night, to salvage the storyline. I can honestly say of all the Star Treks, I have come to love Star Trek Enterprise right after S tar Trek the Original albeit the last episode. The actors that played both T’Pol and Trip really did not end up doing much more work outside of this series, and both went on to have happy marriages thus far with other people and have healthy children. For that I am so grateful.

I honestly needed the distraction these last three months, and had the right mindset to accept new characters into my heart. And so I will always love T’Pol and Trip and Star Trek Enterprise and that they helped me get through the last three months. I remember reading all of Victor Hugo the summer after college while my sister and I were traveling through Europe on one of those pre-packaged budget bus tours. It was the right time and right author. The summer after senior year of high school, I read all of Charles Dickens. I remember being enraged while reading Tale of Two Cities. And now my daughter is twelve, and we’ve begun reading my old time favorites outloud together from Madeleine L’Engle. We are midway through Arm of a Starfish. And the first three months of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, I watched all of Star Trek Enterprise.

But I wanted to write this post to give Trip and T’Pol the ending they deserved. I wanted to write this post to wipe away the travesty of the last episode.

This is my ending for them. T’Pol and Trip finished serving on the Starship Enterprise together for the full 10 years. On the show they had two children on the show, Baby Elizabeth who was a baby cloned by the human terrorist faction Terra Prime. Baby Elizabeth was cloned from stolen DNA from the human Trip and Vulcan T’Pol. She died because the terrorist scientist had made a error in the process to clone her, and therefore died of genetic instability. But Doctor Phlox had told Trip that there was no reason to believe a half Vulcan and half Human baby could not exist. Spock who was born Stardate 2230 about 100 years later is proof of that. Trip and T’Pol also had also a son Lorian in an alternate universe that was formed when Star Trek Enterprise entered into the Expanse and was loss in a vortex.

In my ending, those above scenarios happened. But T’pol and Trip finished servings for the full 10 years but remained together after Baby Elizabeth (the cloned one) died. T’Pol continued to have more emotions than other Vulcans due to the neurological damange she sustained from the Trellium, but her relationship with Trip helped her manage her emotions. They married and were given larger quarters from Captain Archer. I think he probably gave them adjoining quarters and they were the first married couple on a Starship. Captain Archer allowed Trip to just put a door between two single rooms so they could have larger quarters. I think they married on the Enterprise maybe 2-3 years after the Cloned Baby Elizabeth episode. Captain Archer presided over the weeding, and Lietenant Reed was the best man and Ensign Soto was the bride attendant. But then Vulcan Ambassador to Earth Soval found out, and they had a special second ceremony on Vulcan.

T’Pol would have been careful, and she asked Doctor Phlox to research more to make sure the Vulcan DNA and Human DNA would combine. T’Pol would have been smart, and would not have wanted to have children on a Starship. Trip lived and survived and was not killed off in the last episode, and he and T’pol would have been married about 5-6 years after Star Trek Enterprise ended it’s last mission.

T’Pol and Trip would have had contact with Trip’s parents who were still alive in Mississippi. Remember Florida was destroyed during the Xindi attack on earth, when 7 million people died including Trip’s sister Elizabeth. T’Pol and Trip maintained two homes, one in Mississippi near Trip’s parents and one on Vulcan that T’pol rented out as an Air B’nb. Perhaps her former husband Koss helped maintained it for them. Remember T’Pol and Koss were bonded as children, married but never really had relations. He loved her too, because how can anyone not love T’Pol.

T’Pol and Trip had two children. The oldest was a girl, who looked very much like Elizabeth. I believe they named her T’Les Elizabeth Tucker. T’Les after T’Pol’s mother, and Elizabeth also after Trip’s sister. And they had a little boy they named Johnathan after Captain Johnathan Archer. Both children were healthy and Vulcan DNA and Human DNA combined just fine and T’Pol had natural childbirth and fully vaccinated her children and raised them vegetarian. T’Pol and Trip became academics and diplomats and concentrated on raising their two children between Mississippi and Vulcan. The children were beautiful with Vulcan ears, and Trip’s hair and eyes. They smiled like Trip but had their mother’s beautiful posture. They both were very intelligent and accepted to Starfleet Academy.

Trip and T’pol, this is the ending you deserved. You had two beautiful children, half Vulcan and half Human. And with that my heart is full.

And below is my happy ending. I’ve been living in this Star Trek Enterprise world and curled most of the time in bed, watching it on my iPhone. I’ve been making random nonsensical comments to Mr. Plastic Picker who has been sitting at his work station mostly reading xrays from home, and does not understand any of the Star Trek references. I look over to him and he’s my real life Vulcan come to life.

I had a decently busy day at work yesterday and was pretty tired. I just wanted to feed the kids a quick pizza and watch some more Star Trek. But I walked in and Mr. Plastic Picker had purchased this outfit and the kids were in on it too, without my knowing. And I laughed and I laughed, and it was one of the best days of my life.

I got my happy ending, and I live the “happily every after” every day at home. I am happy I was able to give T’Pol and Trip their happily every after. I think they probably had a dog too, that would hang out with Captain Archer’s Porthos.

Live Long and Prosper my blogfriends. Live your authenic self.

LOL. I just submitted this blogpost to several of the Star Trek top fan sites. We’ll see if they pick it up.

For those that also have come to love T’pol and Trip, this is the best FanFiction continuation I have read. Its a really fun read and several chapters. Excellent writing. http://guardian-of-forever.scifi-online.org/fics/ENT/alelou_commander_tucker_proposes_ch1.php

Tags: Dr. Plastic Picker drplasticpicker Star Trek Enterprise

44 thoughts on “The Star Trek Enterprise Romance of T’Pol and Trip: I’m going to give them the ending they deserve”

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Fascinating history you’ve added to this epic. Trip reminds me of George W Bush who took on challenges and gave hope when all seemed lost.. Plenty people remember 9/11 and Enterprise was a ship of inspiration which many of us do remember. T’pol strips and Trip is hypothesised by her beauty which I expounded about in 2007 – Star Trek Fun Facts Part2 not that I was digressing butt the point being stories and characters are well scripted in Star Trek and conversely unscripted.

Thank you spacerguy for stopping by the blog! This was one a blogpost near and dear to my heart, and to have a bonafide trekker/trekkie blogger stop by and comment – is a dream come true! I have bragging rights now to a certain fellow pediatrician who works one hallway over! Thank you thank you. I’m rewatching Enterprise yet again, and enjoying the evolution and Trip and T’pol’s relationship in a more subtle way. So many layers to their relationship. I’m thinking of making a trashart piece ode to vulcans soon with ocean platsic pollution. Love your blog and thank you for compiling all this trekker/trekkie. I’m a trekkie for sure, old school.

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I so agree! I was so very upset with the ending. I do not know why they wanted that ending. I kept thinking I know they get married because of the episode of the future when we saw T Ppl old and her and Trip’s son a grown man! That was NOT the episode of the alternate timeline. Thanks for your ending.

I am truly honored that you read my alternate ending! It’s not the typical fanfiction but it helped me put that storyline to rest. I am also hoping that at some point they revisit it!!!

I am new to the Enterprise. What a miss I had over the years!

I watched all of the episodes in about 3weeks. I feel very upset now… T’pol and Trip didn’t deserve such an end… I searched everywhere to see if they would come together and have a Vulcan-Human family with cute kids. I can’t find much info other than some hinting… I guess your version is the one I could accept…till we get something better, if ever…Sad…

I felt the same way! As a fellow Trip and T’Pol fan, I am honored that you read my alternate ending.

I am so glad you wrote an alternate ending for Trip and T’Pol! I loved it!! And I loved your background history on yourself – thank you for providing that. I’m a MAJOR fellow Trek fan, myself being 69 and in high school when the original Star Trek series came out. Always being a sci-fi lover, I was immediately hooked and have seen every incarnation of the Star Trek franchise (plus movies). I always loved Roddenberry’s vision for humanity – he promoted women before anyone else, valued animals; in general he always saw the best that the human species could be. I hope someday we actually live up to what he thought we were worth. My favorite of all the series was probably TNG, but I came to really love Enterprise for being what seems like a very accurate envisioning of the first foray into space. Of course, I’m in love with Discovery too, for boldly going where no franchise has gone before! At any rate, kudos for providing the ending Trip and T’Pol SHOULD have had. Reminds me of the ending that the creator wrote after the series ended, for Susan Ivanova and Marcus Cole in Babylon 5 (another huge favorite of mine that I highly recommend if you never watched!)

The enterprise should totally continue. I too watched it during quarantine for the first time, cried over baby Elisabeth as intended, but that last episode just did not make any sense on any level. The way they killed off Trip was game of thrones level senseless… Thanks for this ending, I especially liked the airbnb house on Vulcan and the vaccinated half-half kids 🙂

It made absolutely no sense. This was partly due to the internal strife going on at Paramount and CBS in 2004/2005. UPN network was going bankrupt and they axed Enterprise announcing it’s cancellation after the mirror mirror episodes if i remember correctly.

Halfway through season 3 Manny Coto took over writing and production from Berman and Braga both of whom were producer and writer for TNG (really their best work), DS9 (2nd best), Voyager (very distant 3rd) and initially Enterprise.

Unfortunately, Berman and Braga took almost no risks in seasons 1 and 2 of Enterprise despite having all kinds of directions they could have gone with the episodes and stories given where this series took place in the Star Trek universe, long before the Original Star Trek Series.

But no they didn’t take ANY risks and wasted almost 2 full seasons recreating Voyager like episodes that went nowhere and were sooo slow. Don’t get me wrong, some of the material was good but it was very Voyager like and it drove fans away in droves due to shear boredom. The temporal cold war episodes were agonizing.

As a result of their lack of preparedness and refusing to bring in fresh writers the ratings flatlined at the end of season 1 heading into 2 and that’s when Paramount and CBS really started to take notice that things were not going well. They began pushing for changes and everyone started pointing fingers at one another. At one point they wanted to get rid of Bakula (Archer) blaming him for the lackluster ratings when it fact it was poor writing, uninspiring stories, etc. of Berman and Braga who had clearly run out of ideas from writing and producing soooo many Star Trek series. This really was evident in the last 4 years of Voyager but Paramount kept going with it despite the mehhh ratings.

All that said, Paramount eventually forced them to hand over writing and production to Manny Coto midway through the Xindi story arc and he made some major adjustments that really started to turn the series around. Unfortunately, it was too late and Enterprise was going up against reality TV which which became all the rage in the early 2000’s and the show got cancelled despite the pleas of Manny. He even brought in concept scripts for season 5 episodes that outlined episodes about the Earth Romulan War, etc., but Paramount wasn’t interested and had made up their mind. I think a lot of it had to do with UPN going bankrupt. You can see midway through season 4 that despite having great material from Manny that the episodes are rushed and the budget got cut almost in half. Watch the camera action in the Romulan drone episodes where the camera is jumping around like crazy.

Once it became evident that the show was cancelled Terra Prime was partially rewritten to have Trip and T’Pols baby die (that was not the plan had a season 5 happened). The final scene of them holding hands in her quarters in a moment of grief was meant to be the final scene of the series, implying that despite the tragedy there was hope for the two of them and the future of humanity and vulcans together after Phlox’s findings that human and vulcan DNA was in fact compatible.

Unfortunately Berman and Braga were not happy with this being the final episode and intervened despite the vehement protests of Coto. They insisted on an episode reliving Berman’s TNG glory days and wrote that final horrible episode “these are the Voyages Episode” that blew up the whole Trip T’Pol relationship and killed off a major character (something Berman had become obsessed with doing during season 3 of Enterprise but Paramount refused to let him do for whatever reason). Years later both Berman and Braga admitted that they had made a huge mistake in that final episode and openly apologized to Trek fans about it in conventions, etc. They realized just how badly they screwed up that episode and the series early one.

What a shame. Enterprise had a great cast, good chemistry (actually the best out of all five series to that point if you read some of the accounts of DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise actors and actresses) and they messed it all up. Makes me more angry thinking about it. Enterprise was such a squandered opportunity. Sigh

I’ve been a Trekkie my whole life but never really knew the details like that. OMG that helps explain so much. That there was possibly going to be an Earth Romulan War arc and that Trip and T’Pok’s baby wasn’t always intended to die, that is just tragic. Are the scripts for Manny Coto’s other 5 episodes available to read at all? Wow. Thank you thank you. Answers so many questions and leaves so many unanswered.

Glad to offer the perspective. I pieced together this information from many sources that would be too difficult to outline here, but essentially that is what happened in a nutshell.

Manny Coto spilled much of the beans about what happened in that final season because he was at odds with Braga and Berman later on in season 4 as they continued to interfere with his vision for the series despite Paramount forcing Berman to turn over the reigns to him and them essentially checking out of everyday writing and producing duties by season 4. I always avoid watching “These are the Voyages” because it has Braga and Berman’s finger prints all over it (surprisingly they did take responsibility for that horrible episode which really soured fans view of the whole series in ST conventions) and acknowledged it was a colossal mistake on their part based on the fan’s reaction. They just ruined the T’Pol Trip relationship. Blalock and Trinneer both commented that they never could decide what exactly to do with Trip and T’Pol after season 3, “are they a romantic couple or not.”

Really “These are the Voyages” was Berman’s last hurrah (he retired in 2005). Braga should never have been involved in writing Enterprise. He later let slip that he actually totally opposed to the Enterprise series saying Paramount should have waited 5 or 6 years before another writing and filming another series after the conclusion of Voyager, but instead the dove right into another Trek series immediately. If it had been up to him Enterprise would never have been filmed so i guess we are lucky we got 4 seasons of Enterprise in hindsight.

I really really wish they would bring this series back for a reboot to conclude the story. ST Discover and ST Picard are doing TERRIBLE and have horrible fan ratings low 40’s uper 30’s which is much much lower than Voyager and even Enterprise back in the day both of which were in the low 70’s for fan approval. Bakula is not involved in any projects now too as NCIS has concluded and he is looking for work. He’s a great actor that just loves acting. They could easily retconn Trip back in (who also loved the series) based on Kate’s post and it would totally make sense given the upcoming Earth Romulan conflict that was hinted at several times in season 4 and the fact that “These are the voyages” was technically just a made up holodeck scenario in the TNG universe based on second hand accounts of what happened 100 years later and Riking’s own limited understanding of what happened.

Earlier this year I DID HEAR that Paramount was talking to Bakula (which is great news) about returning to the Trek franchise in some capacity but i have no idea how far that conversation has gone or what capacity they had in mind. Paramount has done this before to gauge interest in characters and strategize upcoming series and no doubt they’ve noticed that Enterprise has been at the top of Netflix scifi series for months and months during the pandemic and that no doubt has piqued their interest. When can only hope it leads to something else hint hint Paramount. I encourage everyone to write to CBS and Paramount. Yes it takes some time and effort, but fan campaigns have succeeded in the past.

In fact from what i’ve read and heard in videos the ENTIRE cast is willing to come back albeit they would be much older (still doable but they are quickly running out of time), but sadly it appears that Blalock is totally disinterested in a reboot (she is very reclusive from what i’ve read) and has more or less retired from acting and has also said she is only interested in doing movies. Understandable i guess considering she is married, has kids, and is deeply invested in her charity. She also had a very contentious relationship with Berman and Braga throughout the Enterprise series and was constantly at odds with them about how to portray T’Pol which might have soured her viewpoint on doing future Star Trek roles. It’s really a shame because i thought she did a wonderful job in the role.

I miss Enterprise.

I forgot to answer your question regarding the concept scripts. I’m not sure if they were ever made available to the public but i’ve heard they did exist for a time, but it’s also been 16 years since the show was cancelled so your guess is as good as mind as to whether or not they are still around. I also don’t know if they were full episode scripts (probably unlikely) or just outlines. TV Show writers will often do episode outlines with some character lines in them to sell the concept to the producer and the executives so it’s hard to say how far Manny got with them.

I just hope that if by some slim chance this series is EVER revised that they bring back Coto to write and produce it and keep it away from Alex Kurtzman who has totally butchered ST Discovery (just my opinion) and that he is not involved at all in writing and production.

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I also fell in love again when I started watching T’pol and Trip romance on Enterprise, grew up watching The original Star Trek and think that CBS should bring Enterprise back to conclude the story. According to the ENT books Trip did not die. Thanks for your post.

“Bring Back Enterprise” thank you for reading my post and creating your youtube channel. Just watched a few and I am absolutely a fan. I’m there to bring back enterprise and give it the ending it deserves. Thank you for existing out on the virtual universe.

hi, i also saw Enterprise in quarantine, and i loved the trip and t’pol couple !! For me the last chapter does not exist, it was horrible that they canceled the series just when it got so interesting … I loved your ending, I hope that with the new series strange new Worlds they could mention something and save that ending. As a separate note, there are some books that talk about the Romulan wars and why Trip Fake hola dearh and they suggest that in the end the two of them stay together. I have not read all the books yet but I recommend the good that man do.

Agee the ending was entirely unsatisfying and yours is immensely better but in my version there are modifications 😉

1. They start having children fairly quickly because after seeing baby Elizabeth they understand the joy of children and that tommow is not a promise. Though they can’t replace her, their loss begins healing once they recognize the void she leaves and they decide to build a family. They end up with four beautiful children.

2. Though all the children long for plomeek broth when ill, they enjoy a good steak with their salad on occasion.

For those who just cannot get enough of Trip, T’Pol, and other ENT characters, there are ENT relaunch novels. The storyline is that Trip’s death was faked so that he could become a spy. The denouement of their relationship is the realization that years later he is gardening at T’pol’s home on Vulcan (she is now an ambassador,) and he, T’Pol, and their two nearly grown children sit down to share a meal.

Omg really??!!! Do you have the titles? I will need to buy Stat! The best news is that one of my patients has a role in Star Trek Picard! I’m trying to finagle myself on set! I’ve been their pediatrician since she was in kinder!

The book titles are: 1. The Good That Men Do. 2. Kobayashi Maru. Then there is the 2 part “Romulan War” series of books: 3. Beneath the Raptor’s Wing 4. To Brave a Storm.

These 4 books are all connected and are best read in order. Imo, they are fantastic! You can find them all on the Amazon Kindle app.

There are also 5 additional “Rise of the Federation” novels by a different author, also on Kindle, which are worth reading for Enterprise fans, but imo not as good as the first 4 named above.

Please let us know where to find the relaunch novels Phoenixvoice! 🙂

If you find out about where to get those novels, please let US know!!

THANK YOU so much for this awesome ending! I’ve now watched every Star Trek series (except for the 60’s original) am absolutely appalled they ended this series-long love affair the way they did. Makes zero sense for them to build it up the entire time for nothing, very frustrating so it’s really great to read the rightful ending they should’ve been given…well done! 🙂

Katie K! I’m so glad you could share in my alternate ending! I’m rewatching Enterprise right now too. I’m going to look for those novels as well. Hopefully they have it online!

I just absolutely ADORE your version of their ending. You are SO right – T’Pol and Tucker deserved so much more than they got on Enterprise. I also agree with you – Right behind Star Trek: TOS stands Enterprise!! LLAP

Trish, thank you so much for reading this piece. It’s actually one of my biggest joys in life to know that this gave some of us out on the Star Trek fan world some closure!

People need to write CBS and Paramount to do this. It’s really the only way to get their attention. They might be receptive to it assuming the cast is interested in coming back, but the fans have to push for it. It will take a lot of coaxing to bring back Blalock from what i understand though.

I actually read your blog before watching the end of Star Trek Enterprise I was worried something like that would happen thank you so much for your ending I think I will stick with that one

I also only “met” Trip and T’Pol last year, during lockdown. I wasn’t taken by “Enterprise” at first, but I really got into it as it progressed, and bought in to the characters it portrayed. Like you, I was devastated that the story ended where it did – I just watched “Terra Prime” again tonight, and even though I knew the last scene by heart, it still moved me to tears. I have never watched the final episode. But I really appreciate your take on “what really happened” as it were…and it’s much more satisfying! Thank goodness for imagination!

Ruth, thank you for reading! I’m so glad to be able to share it with others.

Well it was interesting and quite funny with the whole vaccinated part though I’m not sure how that set in with star trek in anyway lol which is what made it interesting and funny

i liked the way it rewritten trip lives and married t’pol had kids better then the sucky end they did killing trip was because director didn’t like trip that why he was killed off, The ending sucked all why till the end

Sitting here this evening, I have Star Trek on while I’m working. It’s the episode that includes T’Pol and Trip’s cloned baby girl. This reminded me of how things ended for them when the series ended. That prompted me to do a quick search for alternate endings and I found your blog post here. First of all, I absolutely love your alternate ending for T’Pol and Trip! Secondly, I laughed out loud when I read, “…. and one on Vulcan that T’pol rented out as an Air B’nb. Perhaps her former husband Koss helped maintained it for them.”

Thank you Tiffany for reading! I’m so happy this blogpost has brought smiles to many people’s faces.

Even though I’m an old guy (81) I am a sucker for a good love story. I just finished Lucifer and then fell in love with the Trip/T’Pol love story on Enterprise. As an old Trekkie from the 60s I think Enterprise was the best of all the Star Trek shows except for the lousy ending. For all you folks who have written such excellent stories to follow up the ending of Enterprise Thank you. Thank you..

Anyone who wants a better story for Trip, T’Pol, Lorian, and Karyn, should read all the Enterprise stories by HopefulR on FanFiction .net; they essentially add up to a 2 part novel. Soval & Archer get their own storylines too. HopefulR went on to write a few official Enterprise novels but I don’t know what they are called; the first one is mentioned on her old website in the notes to a few of her stories.

Episode list

Star trek: enterprise.

S2.E13 ∙ Dawn

Connor Trinneer and Melinda Page Hamilton in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)

S2.E14 ∙ Stigma

Jeffrey Combs and Suzie Plakson in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)

S2.E15 ∙ Cease Fire

Mark Major in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)

S2.E16 ∙ Future Tense

Michael McGrady in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)

S2.E17 ∙ Canamar

Scott Bakula, Dominic Keating, and Connor Trinneer in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)

S2.E18 ∙ The Crossing

John Vickery in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)

S2.E19 ∙ Judgment

Anthony Montgomery and Corey Mendell Parker in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)

S2.E20 ∙ Horizon

John Billingsley in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)

S2.E21 ∙ The Breach

Laura Interval in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)

S2.E22 ∙ Cogenitor

S2.E23 ∙ Regeneration

Jolene Blalock in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)

S2.E24 ∙ First Flight

S2.E25 ∙ Bounty

Daniel Riordan in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)

S2.E26 ∙ The Expanse

Stephen McHattie in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)

S3.E1 ∙ The Xindi

S3.E2 ∙ Anomaly

S3.E3 ∙ Extinction

Steve Larson in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)

S3.E4 ∙ Rajiin

S3.E5 ∙ Impulse

Maury Sterling in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)

S3.E6 ∙ Exile

Jolene Blalock and Anthony Montgomery in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)

S3.E7 ∙ The Shipment

S3.E8 ∙ Twilight

Jolene Blalock and Connor Trinneer in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)

S3.E9 ∙ North Star

Scott Bakula, Connor Trinneer, and Adam Taylor Gordon in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)

S3.E10 ∙ Similitude

Jeffrey Dean Morgan in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)

S3.E11 ∙ Carpenter Street

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Star Trek: Enterprise's Most Contentious Scene Involved T'Pol, Trip, And A Lot Of Goo

Oh no, not the decontamination chamber.

When "Star Trek: Enterprise" debuted in 2001, there was a conscious effort by the showrunners to work in as much brazen sex appeal as they could. Noticeably, the casting directors hired Jolene Blalock, who had worked as a professional model, to play the Vulcan First Officer T'Pol, and the costume designers were careful to outfit her in skin-tight body suits. She was clearly meant to replicate Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) from "Star Trek: Voyager."

"Enterprise" was set about a century prior to the original "Star Trek," and some of the more popular "Trek" tech hadn't been invented yet. As such, when a team of officers returned from an away mission, they had to spend a long span in a decontamination chamber. In later other "Trek" shows, the transporters took care of contaminants and idle spores an away mission might have accumulated. On "Enterprise," officers had to enter a blue-lit chamber, strip down to their skivvies(!), and spend a long time massaging some kind of antibacterial gel on each other. Several scenes throughout "Enterprise" luxuriated in the cast members' bodies as they got nearly naked and rubbed each other down. It was thuddingly prurient.

Later in the series, the decontamination scenes would evolve into something even more lascivious. T'Pol and chief engineer "Trip" Tucker (Connor Trinneer) would be ordered to meet in her quarters for Starfleet-mandated naked massages. Both the massages and the decontaminations sound like they were conceived for porno movies.

In the oral history book "The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams," edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, the "Enterprise" showrunners talked about the embarrassing sweatiness of the above scenes, and how they weren't very proud of them.

Chris Black admits things got 'a little lurid'

Writer and producer Chris Black noted the above-mentioned parallel to Seven of Nine from "Voyager." Seven of Nine, Trekkies can tell you, was brought into "Voyager" at the end of its third season when ratings were flagging. Jeri Ryan wore a skintight costume, which included built-in high heels and a corset . It was a transparent need to add sex appeal to "Voyager." Black seems to recall that a similar effort was made right from the jump for "Enterprise," notably through the casting of Jolene Blalock and those gooey decontamination scenes. Black said:

"There was an effort to make the show sexier. Obviously, every show has that character. 'Voyager' had Seven of Nine and Jolene was Jolene. This striking actress in a tight outfit. There was a component of that show that was supposed to be sexy. And that goes back to the original series. Look at the costumes originally designed for those women. It's like the joke, something you threw on and almost missed. The decontamination stuff got a little out of hand. I admired what they were trying to do with the T'Pol/Trip relationship. I thought that was interesting."

T'Pol and Trip began to form something of a romance during their intimate massage sessions, and that element of the series, at the very least, interested writers more than stripping the actors down and slathering them up. Black said that the T'Pol/Trip romance would reflect the romance witnessed between Spock's father Sarek (Mark Lenard) and his human mother Amanda (Jane Wyatt). "A marriage with one person who can't be demonstratively passionate or emotional," Black pondered. "What is that like?"

But Black admitted, "[I]t became what it was. A little lurid," adding that "the actors weren't hugely enthusiastic."

The inherent illogic of future salve

Executive producer Manny Coto, who also served as the series showrunner in its third and fourth seasons, recalled the decontamination scenes as not just being lurid, but also technolgically unlikely. Even if "Enterprise" was set at a time before humans were regularly using transporters, surely there was a more efficient way to decontaminate someone than by literally rubbing goo on each other. Of the decontamination scenes, Coto said:

"I thought they were silly; it was less about the obvious attempt to get hot bodies on there, but are you really going to be decontaminated by spreading this gel all over your body? It doesn't seem like a very efficient way to decontaminate. I would rather have them strip and get hit by a beam. Not, 'We're going to spread gel all over each other.' What if you missed a spot?"

So far, no one has accepted blame for the obvious need to cram erotic gel massages into "Star Trek."

Of course, the regular injection of sex-fantasy material into "Star Trek" might be considered an artifact of the 1960s when Gene Roddenberry was in charge. Roddenberry was an infamously horny dude. Starfleet officers wore miniskirts. One needn't look too far into "Star Trek" to find a woman dressed in an impossibly revealing outfit (compliments of costume designer William Ware Theiss). One can see, hiding inside "Star Trek," a definite streak of free love advocacy that Roddenberry was clearly very excited about. As such, there was a thought that "Star Trek" characters might be comfortable with their bodies in the future, and that being naked in front of peers, rubbing goo on their bodies, was not necessarily going to be sexual. Think of the group shower scenes in Paul Verhoeven's "Starship Troopers."

This was the view affected by writer/producer David A. Goodman.

In Star Trek, all clothes should be off

David Goodman's issue with the decontamination scenes was that they should have read as nude, but nonsexual. The problem is any kind of nudity on TV is usually presented as sexual, especially when it's being filmed the way it was on "Enterprise." Also, Connor Trinneer and Jolene Blalock were model-attractive people, adding that prurient element to their gel scenes. To Goodman, it was the clothing that made the scenes lurid and not the nudity. He said:

"I didn't like the decontamination chamber scenes mostly because what those scenes show you is what you can't do. If everybody is good with the stuff and Trip isn't going to get an erection being with T'Pol, then they take their clothes off and they rub it all over themselves, but instead, because it's network TV, they have to stay half-dressed. What about the parts of their bodies that are covered by their clothes?"

He continued, linking to Gene Roddenberry, saying:

"All of the things you can't do because it's TV and we're suggesting something really sexy, but if we want to show the future, we're going to take their clothes off. If Roddenberry's idea of the future is accurate or possible, that's what would happen."

However one might want to justify it, the fact remains that "Enterprise" regularly featured scenes of attractive actors rubbing each other with a petroleum jelly-like substance while wearing Starfleet-issue underwear. Because it was so obviously lascivious, the scenes rarely came across as sexy. There's an irony to that.

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Recap / Star Trek: Enterprise S01 E01 E02 "Broken Bow"

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Jonathan Archer, who's now a captain, and Charles "Trip" Tucker inspect the Enterprise in dry dock. Then, Archer is called to Starfleet Medical, where he attends a meeting with several higher-ups discussing Klaang. Among the people at the meeting are Admiral Forrest, Soval, Tos, and T'Pol. He also meets an alien doctor who is caring for Klaang. The humans want to return Klaang to his planet, but the Vulcans worry that'll start drama. However, Archer convinces Forrest to let him return Klaang.

On the ship, Malcolm Reed and Travis Mayweather discuss the new transporter and Travis waxes nostalgic about his childhood on cargo ships. They then go to engineering and meet Trip. Meanwhile, Archer goes to Brazil to recruit a linguist named Hoshi Sato. T'Pol also joins Archer's crew as a science officer, and he introduces her to Trip and gives her an assignment, and the alien doctor joins the crew too. Admiral Forrest gives a speech and the Enterprise is launched. Meanwhile, on an alien complex, a Suliban promises to provide evidence (that was apparently in the hands of Klaang) to a mysterious figure.

Back on Enterprise , Archer observes a jar of worms in sickbay. The doctor, whose name is Phlox, tells him not to shake them. Archer helps Phlox unpack his medical equipment, plus his pet whose droppings are used in medicine. Meanwhile, Travis shows Trip the "sweet spot" on the Enterprise , where the artificial gravity is reversed. That evening, Trip has dinner with Archer and T'Pol.

During a test of the warp reactor, T'Pol and Hoshi start arguing. Later, while Archer, Hoshi, and Phlox are trying to interrogate Klaang, the power cuts out. Alien soldiers board Enterprise and start attacking officers, and Klaang identifies them as Suliban before being abducted.

On the bridge, Archer asks in annoyance why the sensors didn't detect the Suliban. Malcolm said that they did detect a disturbance if not the actual Suliban, so Archer orders an investigation. T'Pol wants him to contact Starfleet, believing he'd be hopeless on his own, but Archer vetoes the idea and forbids her from contacting them. Phlox shows Archer a dead Suliban who was left on the ship, revealing that he's genetically engineered.

In engineering, T'Pol helps Trip review the sensor data. Archer and Hoshi enter and, through Hoshi's translations, Archer learns that Klaang visited Rigel X before his ship crashed. Archer tells Travis to set a course for the Rigel system. Meanwhile, on the alien complex, a Suliban interrogates Klaang, asking him where he left an item. Klaang claims ignorance and claims he was sent to meet a Suliban woman named Sarin, who didn't give him anything. When Enterprise reaches the planet, Archer tells an away team that Klaang is a courier and to find the person who gave him what he was carrying.

The team travels to Rigel X and search a trade complex. A man claims he saw Klaang and convinces Malcolm and Travis to watch a show involving two aliens and some butterflies. However, they begin to doubt his honesty and leave. As Trip and T'Pol investigate, they find an alien woman who appears to be suffocating her son, but it turns out she's just "weaning" him onto oxygen. Meanwhile, Archer and Hoshi meet some Klingons. The whole away team is then attacked and taken away by Suliban.

Trip, T'Pol, and Hoshi are imprisoned, while Archer is taken to a woman who initially looks human, but then after she kisses him, she turns out to be the Suliban woman named Sarin. She tells him that she used to be in the Suliban military - the Cabal - and that the Cabal are following orders from a faction in the "Temporal Cold War". She reveals that the Suliban were trying to sow discord among the Klingons and Klaang was transporting evidence of this to his home world, Qo'onos, to prevent a civil war. Sarin offers to help Archer find Klaang, but Cabal agents enter and attack. Sarin frees Archer's crew, who manage to escape, but Sarin herself is killed. With T'Pol temporarily in command, Archer passes out and dreams about being a kid.

Back on Enterprise , Trip and T'Pol go through decon to clean a spore off their bodies. Trip wants to be in command instead of T'Pol, noting that she's just an observer and worrying that she'll cancel the mission. Six hours later, Archer comes around. T'Pol and Trip enter and T'Pol informs Archer that they've tracked a Suliban ship. This surprises Archer, who had expected her to abort the mission.

As the Enterprise continues its mission, Archer makes a log entry in his quarters. He then notices that the ship has dropped out of warp and contacts T'Pol, who asks him to come to the bridge. There, a gas giant is nearby, which T'Pol reveals scattered the Suliban ship's warp trail. She has Malcolm analyse some fragments, which turn out to be from fourteen different ships. Archer, realising that the Suliban frequent this area, orders the weapons and hull plating put online before entering the atmosphere.

On the alien complex, the Suliban officer is once again talking to the mysterious figure. The officer doesn't know if Sarin gave the Enterprise crew anything, but does know that it followed a Suliban ship and is nearby. He promises to destroy the ship before it locates the complex, which is called the "helix". The figure, noting that he didn't plan for humans or Vulcans to be involved, demands the officer to prevent Sarin's message from reaching Qo'nos.

In the atmosphere of the gas giant, the Enterprise starts shaking. T'Pol determines that it's because of liquid phosphorus. The shaking stops, and the officers detect the helix, along with two Suliban cell ships. Hoshi detects over a thousand bio-signs but can't find Klaang. The Suliban ships attack, causing Archer to fly back to the phosphorus layer, where they can't be detected. T'Pol notes that the helix seems to be made of many vessels joined together with magnetism, and Hoshi detects Klaang. Malcolm wants to beam him aboard, but Hoshi is unsure. Archer decides to bring a cell ship on board with a grappler.

In the situation room, Travis asks Archer and Trip about the workings of the captured Suliban ship. Trip is unsure, so Travis wants to pilot it, but Archer thinks Travis is needed on the bridge. Then, in Archer's ready room, T'Pol tries to dissuade him from leaving. Archer thinks she's concerned, but she actually just doesn't want the Vulcan High Command to get her in trouble for anything bad happening to Archer or Trip. Malcolm brings Archer two cases, one containing a magnetic device and the other containing phase pistols.

Archer and Trip leave in the captured cell ship and go to the helix, where they find Klaang. He initially tries to attack, but relents when Archer draws his phase pistol. After a while, Archer tells Trip to bring Klaang back to the cell ship, while he stays behind and tries to separate the helix with the magnetic device. When Trip complies, Archer tells him to bring Klaang back to Enterprise , which Trip does. Trip ignites the cell ship's thruster exhaust, alerting Hoshi, who tells T'Pol, who finds him.

On the helix, Archer fights an alien into a room with a pulsing light, then is beamed onto the Enterprise , and the Enterprise leaves. Soon, Archer, Klaang, T'Pol, and Hoshi enter the Klingon High Council Chamber on Qo'nos, where, according to Hoshi, Klaang mentions disgracing the Klingon Empire and being ready to die. The Klingon Chancellor cuts Klaang on the hand and analyses his blood, revealing it to contain Suliban information.

Back on Enterprise , Archer tells his crew to continue forward. Trip sets to work repairing the ship and Travis, despite an ion storm, sets a course for a nearby planet. Archer then has one last childhood flashback.

Tropes in this episode include:

Abuse Mistake : When Trip sees an alien boy wearing a gas mask, which his mother keeps putting on and taking off, he thinks she's suffocating him. However, it turns out that their species' children breathe different gas until they're four, so she was just "weaning" him onto oxygen.
Action Prologue : Klaang being chased by two Suliban before blowing them to high heaven.
Alien Abduction : Suliban end up capturing the away team on Rigel X.
And Here He Comes Now : When Malcolm and Travis are in the shuttlepod and Travis reports that he can't locate human bio-signs in the trading complex, Malcolm tells him to scan for Vulcan bio-signs. A second later, T'Pol knocks on the pod's side hatch. Travis: I found her!
Artistic License – Biology : For a race that has been studying Humans for centuries, they should know that we're omnivores. She erroneously refers to humans as carnivores, which implies that humans only eat meat. Good job ignoring that non-meat, human-baked breadstick!
As Long as It Sounds Foreign : Hoshi says she doesn't think that Klingonese has an expression for "thank you", but The Klingon Dictionary includes the verb tlho' for "to thank" (in context it would be conjugated as matlho' , "I thank all of you"). This may be Hoshi's mistake, but more likely it's a misplaced attempt to invoke Language Equals Thought .
Archer thinks T'Pol is concerned for his well-being when she tells him not to leave, but she's actually telling him to avoid getting in trouble with the Vulcan High Command.
When the Klingon Chancellor says something to Archer, Archer thought it meant "thank you". According to Hoshi, however, it actually meant something negative.
Big "SHUT UP!" : When Archer tells Hoshi to stop Klaang's Klingon ranting, Hoshi yells, "SHUT UP!" in English.
Between Moore and Klaang, even though neither man can understand the other. Moore: (pointing a rifle at Klaang) Drop your weapon! I mean it! Klaang: (shouting in Klingonese) Moore: I don't understand a word you're saying, but I guarantee you I know how to use this! Klaang: (more shouting in Klingonese)
Between Hoshi and T'Pol, including an instance of Pardon My Klingon .
Played for Laughs between Trip and Klaang, when Trip responds to Klaang's ranting with comebacks like "You tell 'em, big guy," and "I don't particularly like the way you smell either!"
Bizarre Alien Biology : How the hell does a species evolve to breathe a different gaseous mix before and after the age of four?
Boldly Coming : Alluded to while the crew prepares to visit Rigel X; T'Pol tells them that the doctor cautioned against "intimate contact" on the planet. Travis and Malcolm smirk at this.
Brief Accent Imitation : Malcolm imitates Trip's southern accent when anticipating his reply to supply problems: "Keep yer shirt on, Lyoo-tenant."
The Cameo : The appearence of James Cromwell allows the continuation of the Star Trek pilot tradition of a cameo from an earlier work.
Captain Crash , or rather Commander Crash: Barely five minutes in, Trip bumps the inspection pod against Enterprise ' s hull. Archer: Great. You scratched the paint.
Captain Obvious , or rather Ensign Obvious: When Enterprise is flying towards the helix to rescue Archer while cell-ships are firing on her: T'Pol: Can we dock, Ensign? ( Screen Shake ) Travis: These aren't ideal conditions.
Ceiling Cling : One of the Suliban's preferred tricks. Among other things, Klaang is abducted by a Suliban dropping on him from above.
Continuity Nod : Archer has a statuette of Zefram Cochrane with arm outstretched, just as Geordi described it in Star Trek: First Contact .
Deal with the Devil : Archer tells Silik that his people "struck a deal with the devil".
Distracted by the Sexy : Malcolm is very interested in the dancing girls on Rigel X. Travis does a better job staying focused on the mission.
Dodge the Bullet : Archer dodges a phaser beam in the Bullet Time room.
The jackets lose their padded look come the next episode and remain that way for the rest of the series.
The pilot seems to be setting up Reed and Mayweather as Those Two Guys . In the rest of the series, Reed would be much more commonly shown interacting with Tucker than with Mayweather.
The end credits are accompanied by an instrumental version of "Where My Heart Will Take Me", instead of "Archer's Theme", which is used for nearly all of the remaining episodes.
The small bolts of energy fired (some say 'plasma cannon') from Enterprise at the Suliban cell ships and missing, is never used as a weapon in any subsequent episode.
Epic Launch Sequence : Of Earth's first warp 5 starship, which also represents the launch of humanity's efforts to truly explore the galaxy. Archer: Take her out, Mr. Mayweather. Straight and steady.
Establishing Series Moment : A Klingon crashes into a cornfield and the farmer comes out to investigate wielding what looks like a cross between a ray gun and lever action shotgun. Rather firmly establishes a more rugged depiction of the future than prior Star Trek shows.
Everyone Meets Everyone : The command crew being assembled prior to launch.
False Flag Operation : Archer and Trip use a stolen cell ship to infiltrate the helix and rescue Klaang.
Fanservice : The Decontamination Chamber scene— Trip and T'Pol in their undies, rubbing gel on each other .
First-Name Basis : Silik calls Archer "John" just to taunt him. Silik: You're very curious, John. May I call you "John"? Archer: Am I supposed to be impressed that you know my name?
Food Porn : We get a nice shot of the Trip's steak dinner, the first of many, many scenes of the crew eating on this show. T'Pol's salad looks quite elegant, as well.
Guns Akimbo : During the firefight on Rigel X, Archer briefly wields two pistols.
Handshake Refusal : T'Pol snubs Trip's offer of a handshake, as well as his request to call him by his nickname.
He Knows Too Much : Silik originally plans to let Archer leave the helix unharmed, until Archer reveals that he knows about the Temporal Cold War.
Help Mistaken for Attack : When Trip observes an alien woman repeatedly taking her son's gas mask off, he assumes she's suffocating him, but actually she's "weaning" him onto oxygen.
Hypocrite : The human tendency to unjustly judge other cultures by their own cultural standards is just one of the many reasons the Vulcans look down on them for not measuring up to their cultural standards.
I Don't Think That's Such a Good Idea : Archer thinks Malcolm's plan of beaming Klaang up is too dangerous. Malcolm: We could always try the transporting device. Archer: We've risked too much to bring him back inside-out.
Improbably Predictable : Malcolm's Brief Accent Imitation mentioned above gets its payoff a minute later when Trip responds exactly as expected. Malcolm: Pardon me, but if I don't realign the deflector, the first grain of space dust we come across will blow a hole through this ship the size of your fist. Trip: Keep your shirt on, Lieutenant. Your equipment'll be here in the morning.
Insufficiently Advanced Alien : Both T'Pol and Phlox mention that the Suliban shouldn't be at the technological or evolutionary level that they are.
Internal Homage : Archer and Tucker inspecting the NX-01 in drydock is similar to Kirk and Scotty's inspection of the refit Enterprise in Star Trek: The Motion Picture .
Intimate Lotion Application : Trip and T'pol have to rub each other with decon gel to decontaminate, with the scene obviously fueling their Unresolved Sexual Tension .
Invisibility : One of the Suliban's abilities. Phlox notes that it's not supposed to be part of their genome.
Jerkass Has a Point : Despite establishing himself as an "Ass" in Ambassador , Soval is right about how Earth shouldn't piss off the Klingons.
Jurisdiction Friction : When Archer gets injured, T'Pol and Trip argue over who takes command. T'Pol wins.
Let Me Get This Straight... : Archer summing up how the Vulcans want to pull the plug on Klaang even though he could still live. Archer: Let me get this straight. You're going to disconnect this man from life support even though he could live. Now where's the logic in that? Soval: Klaang's culture finds honor in death. If they saw him like this, he'd be disgraced. Tos: They're a warrior race. They dream of dying in battle. If you understood the complexities of interstellar diplomacy— Archer: So that's your diplomatic solution, to do what they tell you? Pull the plug? Tos: Your metaphor is crude, but accurate.
Mid-Season Upgrade : Oddly enough in the first episode! The away team on Rigel comes armed with EM-33 Plasma Pistols and fights off the Suliban with them, but then later on before boarding The Helix, Archer gets introduced to their new Phase Pistols... which were apparently in a box in storage on the ship the whole time! Makes you wonder why didn't the away team just go to Rigel with the Phase Pistols instead of their old guns.
A Minor Kidroduction : We first meet Jonathan Archer as a boy with his dad.
Multiboobage : According to Travis, Draylaxian women have three.
The three admirals whom Archer meets with are called Williams, Leonard, and Forrest, named after Star Trek: The Original Series stars William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , and DeForest Kelley .
One of the Vulcan ambassadors is named Tos, a nod to "TOS", the abbreviation for Star Trek: The Original Series .
The Nose Knows : T'Pol is very sensitive to smells coming from humans, let alone Archer's dog Porthos.
Out Sick : T'Pol takes command when the Suliban gravely injure Archer.
Hoshi cusses T'Pol out in Vulcan at one point. Hoshi: Ponfo mirann. T'Pol: I was instructed to speak English on this trip, and I'd appreciate it if you'd respect that.
Inverted later, when T'Pol thanks Hoshi for being helpful. T'Pol: Shaya tonat. Hoshi: You're welcome.
Road Apples : Phlox uses the droppings of one of his animals in medicine.
Running Gag : Both times when Trip pilots a small craft, he manages to bump into something—first Enterprise , then the Suliban helix.
This episode also gives us a look at a brand new re-scaled set of SI units. Unless, of course, they actually intended for a starship to move slower than a car over distances comparable to that between two nearby towns.
Series Continuity Error : While dining together, Archer and Trip are puzzled to see T'Pol eat a breadstick with a fork, leading her to explain that Vulcans don't touch their food with their hands, something that never was an issue with other Vulcan characters throughout Star Trek .
Solid Gold Poop : One of Phlox's pets' droppings is used in medicine.
Son of an Ape : Silik: Are you aware, Captain, that your DNA is almost identical to that of an ape? The Suliban don't share humanity's patience with natural selection. Archer: So to speed things up a little, you struck a Deal with the Devil .
Spinoff Sendoff : Since this spinoff takes place two hundred years before Voyager, there's no way any Voyager character could do the sendoff, so James Cromwell, who played Zephram Cochrane from Star Trek: First Contact does it.
Straw Vegetarian : T'Pol wastes no time deriding Archer and Trip for eating meat, when humans are supposed to be "enlightened."
Suddenly Shouting : Soval, when he fails to convince Admiral Forrest to accept his advice. Soval: Listen to me. You're making a mistake ! Archer: When your logic doesn't work, you raise your voice? You've been on Earth too long.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork : While Vulcans have a generally positive relation with Earth, humans have a chip on their shoulder feeling that Vulcans have been obstructive regarding their efforts to develop their technology and expand out into the galaxy. With a viable mission to return a Klingon back to their people Starfleet sees this as a good opportunity for the maiden voyage of their first warp five ship, while the Vulcan embassy is dismissive of their gung-ho attitude. This is why T'Pol is brought on board, hoping someone with a bit more experience could temper the humans desire for trial by error.
Tempting Fate : After the battle with the Suliban, Archer says, "Let's hope that's the last time somebody takes a shot at us." Seriously, John?
Time for Plan B : T'Pol tells Trip this when docking with the helix to rescue Archer isn't a viable option, so they use the transporter instead.
Timey-Wimey Ball : The chamber where Silik speaks to his mysterious future contact, with pre-echoes of what everyone says and does. Not to mention the whole idea of a Temporal Cold War, which confuses the hell out of Archer. Good thing Janeway's not here...
Translation Convention : Zig-Zagged during Klaang's interrogation—Silik speaks to him in Klingon, but sounds like he's speaking English to his Number Two .
Truth Serum : Silik drugs Klaang while interrogating him. It doesn't help.
With Due Respect : Forrest arguing with the Vulcans. Forrest: Ambassador, with all due respect, we have a right to know what's going on here. Soval: You will be apprised of all pertinent information. Williams: And just who gets to decide what's pertinent information?
You Do Not Want To Know : When Archer asks Hoshi what the Klingon chancellor said to him at the end, Hoshi says this in response.
Recap/Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise S01 E03 "Fight or Flight"

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Screen Rant

Star trek: 15 things you didn't know about t'pol.

Starfleet's first Vulcan officer wasn't as quite lovable as Spock. Here's the lowdown on science officer T'Pol and the woman who played her.

The Enterprise’s first Vulcan crew member set foot on board years before Mr. Spock .

Introduced in the 2001-05 retcon series Star Trek: Enterprise , T’Pol came from an era when Vulcans looked down their oh-so-logical nose at humans, whom they didn’t consider worthy to explore space. When the Enterprise launched, the Vulcans sent T’Pol along as an observer to ensure we didn’t mess things up too badly.

Played by former model Jolene Blalock, T’Pol started out stiff-necked and disdainful of her human colleagues. Slowly, though, she began to bond with them. The proof of the bond came at the end of season 2: the Vulcan high command ordered T’Pol home, but she refused to leave.

Like Dax on Deep Space Nine , the long Vulcan lifespan (see #9) means T’Pol has more time to fit in untold adventures than most of her crew mates. The show filled in some of her backstory, though spinoff novels and other media have filled in more of the gaps, developing her life before and after her time on the ship. Drawing on Enterprise and its spinoffs, here are 15 things you didn’t know about Starfleet’s first Vulcan officer and the woman who played her.

Jolene Blalock’s first screen credit matched her with another female Vulcan

When Blalock got into acting in the late 1990s, her first appearance was on the TV series Veronica’s Closet . Thus, the future Vulcan Starfleet officer appeared in a sitcom built around a former Vulcan Starfleet officer — Kirstie Alley, who played Spock’s protege Saavik in Star Trek: Wrath of Khan .

Running from 1997 to 2000, Veronica’s Closet was a sitcom starring Alley as the owner of a Victoria’s Secret-style lingerie company. In the 1998 episode “Veronica’s Breast Efforts,” Veronica copes with a woman who claims the company’s sports bra made her boobs numb. Blalock is credited as “woman number three.”

Blalock went on to make other TV guest appearances in shows like Good vs. Evil, CSI, JAG and Stargate: SG-1 . Viewing clips of her work convinced the producers to hire her for Enterprise.

T’Pol was originally going to be a younger version of TOS’ T’Pau

Written by sci-fi grandmaster Theodore Sturgeon, the TOS episode “ Amok Time ” took Spock back to Vulcan and introduced viewers to T'Pau. A Vulcan leader and philosopher, she was famous off-world as the only person to turn down a seat on the Federation High Council. In adding a Vulcan to the cast of Enterprise , it seemed logical to make her a younger T’Pau. The name was actually used in some of the casting calls, but it’s obviously not what we saw on screen.

Producer Brannon Braga later said that using T’Pau raised legal issues relating to Sturgeon’s rights in the character — and T’Pol simply looked easier to pronounce. For a while, the show’s creative team considered making T’Pau T’Pol’s sister, but rejected that option too. T’Pau did, however, turn up in a later episode as a extremist demanding the government return to the true teachings of the Vulcan philosopher Surak.

A producer equated her to a Vulcan La Femme Nikita

Producer Brannon Braga said in interview that they wanted to create an “ eyebrow raising past ” for T’Pol, in contrast to the down-to-earth humans around her. Part of which was to make her a kickass secret agent a la La Femme Nikita . In the episode “The Seventh,” T'Pol is assigned to hunt down a renegade Vulcan agent, the only one of six renegades to escape her on a previous mission. As it turns out, there had been seven agents. T'Pol killed one of them believing he was about to shoot her, but in hindsight, she wasn't sure. That disturbed her deeply (see #5).

The Trek novel Kobashi Maru details one of T'Pol's other missions, a battle against cannibalistic aliens in which half her team died. There are undoubtedly more exploits in her past if anyone wants to write them.

Along with espionage, T’Pol has been a scientist, a Starfleet captain and a diplomat

After her La Vulcan Nikita spy career wrapped up, T’Pol turned to science. Well before her time as the Enterprise’s science officer, she served as science officer on the Vulcan ship Seleya. At the time of the pilot episode, “Broken Bow,” she was working as science attache at Vulcan’s embassy on Earth. Prior to her assignment on the Enterprise, she’d been planning to head home to Vulcan for a post at the Science Academy.

T’Pol’s decision to remain on the Enterprise against Vulcan’s orders cost her her officer’s rank. Initially, she served as a civilian. Eventually, after the creation of the Federation in the last episode of the series (see #2), T’Pol became a Starfleet captain. Her ship, the Endeavor, served as Admiral Archer’s personal flagship. After a typical Starfleet captain’s CV — multiple adventures, plenty of heroism, several planets saved from doom — T’Pol settled down to a quiet life as a Federation diplomat.

Blalock almost turned down the role

Of all the Enterprise cast, the producers say T’Pol was hardest to cast. They looked at hundreds of actors to play the “ austere, yet sensual ” role but couldn’t find one who had both the looks and the screen presence they wanted. After narrowing options down to a group of three, they picked Blalock.

Who turned it down. She was a big fan of TOS (see #6), but the three spinoff series hadn’t grabbed her at all. After her agent badgered her into reading “Broken Bow,” however, she was hooked.

Blalock said later that the role was a challenge, as she’s expressive by nature. Playing someone who bottles it all up and conveys emotion mostly by glaring ran against her natural tendencies. Fans seem to unanimously agree that she pulled the role off.

T'Pol is disgusted by Vulcan mind melds

The telepathic mind meld was one of the Vulcan trademarks during TOS . T’Pol, however, distrusted it. To her generation of Vulcans, mind melds were disgustingly intimate and emotional, something that appealed solely to Vulcan kinksters. Only a minority of Vulcans could pull off a meld, and botched melds led to supposedly incurable neurological disorders (meant as an AIDS analogy ).

The distaste for mindmelds reflects that the Vulcans of the Enterprise era are very different from their descendants in TOS . Spock’s generation of Vulcans are detached, rational, and deal with other worlds in a disinterested fashion. Enterprise Vulcans are logical, but they’re calculating, self-interested, and play power politics in a coldblooded fashion.

T’Pau’s revolutionary back-to-Surak movement apparently had enough impact to transform Vulcan society between the two series.

T’Pol is the oldest crew member

T’Pol was born in 2088, which puts her in her early sixties at the time she joined the Enterprise crew. For a Vulcan, that’s still a spring chicken, but it makes her older than any of her comrades in arms.

The ship’s physician, the Denobulan Doctor Phlox, might be an exception. His birth is only given as sometime late in the 21st century, so he could be older — but early notes and descriptions of T’Pol refer to her as the oldest crew member. Undoubtedly, that contributed to her skeptical attitude toward humans — illogical, emotional, and such babies!

Unlike T’Pol, Phlox was happily married with three wives, an unremarkable family by Denobulan standards. T’Pol had been contracted in childhood to the Vulcan Koss, but she was still single in “Broken Bow.” She and Koss later married, but it didn’t last.

Vulcans think she's acquired a human accent

Serving on the Enterprise for a couple of years changed T’Pol in more ways than her perception of homo sapiens. When the Enterprise mediates a Vulcan/Andorian conflict, the Vulcan ambassador informs T’Pol she now speaks with a human accent. It captures the shift in T’Pol’s allegiances — while she was never anti-Vulcan, by that point, she was seeing and supporting the human side on many issues.

Even though T’Pol knew one of her ancestors had lived on twentieth-century Earth for several years, she started the series convinced of humanity's inferiority. Gradually, she came to see things differently. Producer Brannon Braga described her relationship with Archer as representative of the slow thaw between Vulcan and Earth. Where Vulcans initially saw themselves as a kind of strict nanny, by TOS , they’ve come to accept and respect humans, for all our irrational ways.

T’Pol digs jazz, man

The characters on the various Trek sequel series have a remarkable fondness for twentieth century Earth culture: old movies, old fiction, old music, all seem to interest them more than anything in their own era. T'Pol is one of several characters who have a fascination with jazz.

While stationed at the Vulcan consulate prior to "Broken Bow," T’Pol began exploring the streets of nearby San Francisco. One night she wandered into the Fusion jazz club, listened to the music and found that it moved her emotionally. The musicians' unstructured, improvisational, "chaotic" stylings cut through her logical shell in a way nothing else had. It was an experience she never forgot.

T'Pol isn't the Trekverse' only jazz lover. Riker plays jazz trombone in Next Generation , and eventually taught Whorf’s son to play. On Voyager , Harry Kim plays jazz.

Blalock’s favorite Trek character was Spock

Despite initially saying no to T’Pol, Blalock has nothing against Vulcans. In fact, she’s a big fan of both TOS and TV’s first Vulcan, Commander Spock.

“ Spock was the sex symbol ,” on TOS , Blalock has said. “ A lot of people think it was Kirk but no, it was really Spock .”

In accepting the role, Blalock was very conscious of having a famous predecessor. She said that while she appreciated the producers giving the cast space to establish their characters, “ my situation is a little bit different because Vulcans have already been established, and that’s been done brilliantly through Spock. So I can only hope to carry on that torch or put my little feet into those big shoes .”

She did a good enough job as the show’s Vulcan to win a 2002 Saturn Award (for TV and movie sci-fi, fantasy and horror) as Best Supporting TV Actress.

T’Pol finds her belief in nonviolence conflicting with her duties

Vulcans aren’t fans of brute force, and T’Pol has a particular distaste for it. When she was five years old, an animal on Vulcan destroyed one of her father’s plants. T’Pol trapped the animal to release it the next day, but she didn’t leave enough food in the trap. The animal died that night, instilling T’Pol with a deep conviction that she should never harm another again.

A few years later, she wound up debating with her teacher whether violence, even in self-defense, can be justified.

In "The Seventh," the possibility that she'd killed an unarmed adversary who wasn't a threat left T'Pol deeply troubled. Eventually, she underwent a ritual to repress the memory of the incident and all related emotion and guilt. When the memory resurfaced, the episode's bad guy used T'Pol's guilt to play her like a fiddle.

She has two kids with Trip Tucker … or is it three?

T’Pol and Enterprise engineer Charles “Trip” Tucker weren’t terribly chummy until after the Xindi attack on Earth at the end of season 2. Tucker lost his sister in the attack, so T’Pol used Vulcan techniques to help him deal with his overwhelming grief. Eventually, they launched a relationship, though it was the unstable, on-and-off kind.

It was “off” as the series neared the finish, which made the revelation that they'd a baby quite a shock. The child, it turned out, was created by xenophobic Earth militants to dramatize the supposed threat of human/ET miscegenation. The baby died before the episode ended.

And then in the series finale (see #2), Trip died too. That pained T'Pol more than she admitted.

Understandably, some fans thought the couple deserved better. They got it in the Trek novel To Brave the Storm : Trip only faked his death, and he and T’Pol end up living quietly with two kids.

Blalock later appeared in the Star Trek parody Star Trok

10 Items Or Less was a TBS comedy set in the Greens and Grains store which protagonist Leslie inherited from his father. In the episode “Star Trok”, Leslie tries to bring in customers by holding a Con at the store. Paramount refuses to let him use the series name in promotion, so Leslie cheats: it’s a Con about Star Trok , a series where one of the alien races is the Blingons. When Jolene Blalock shows up to attend what she thinks is a normal Trek Con, she’s a little confused.

Writer/star John Lehr said the show’s reliance on improv knocks a lot of guest stars for a loop, but Blalock handled it well . He added that several of the cast and crew have been involved with the real Trek universe, so there was no malice to the parody.

T’Pol Had Some Odd Adventures In the Mirror Universe

Introduced in TOS ’ “Mirror, Mirror,” episode, the alt. universe in which the Federation is a tyrannical Empire has taken on a life of its own. DS9 did several mirror-universe episodes, and Enterprise did a two-part mirror-universe story. What made the Enterprise story distinctive is that no characters from the “real” timeline showed up.

In "In a Mirror, Darkly," Archer is a bullying, racist officer who seizes control of the Enterprise. T'Pol launches a counter-mutiny, but Archer spares her life because he needs her scientific skills. When they discover a 23rd-century ship from the main timeline, Archer believes its technology can make him supreme. Instead, his mistress Hoshi murders him and becomes the first Empress.

In a sequel mirror-universe novel, T’Pol becomes regent of Vulcan under Empress Hoshi.

Like pretty much everyone, Blalock hated the final episode

The final episode was rough for T’Pol. Blalock disliked it for entirely different reasons — instead of an Enterprise episode, the finale was an episode of Next Generation.

Set several years after the rest of the series, the final episode has T'Pol, Archer, and Trip help a friend recover a kidnapped child. At the same time, Archer's preparing for an interplanetary conference that will lead to the creation of the Federation. But in reality, the whole thing took place on the Next Generation holodeck during the Next Generation episode "The Pegasus." Riker, who inserts himself into life on the holo-Enterprise, hopes watching Archer handle his problems will give Riker some guidance.

Blalock said she was disappointed by the finale, even though she understood the logic of using guests from a more successful Trek series. She's not alone: Enterprise fans hated it, and Brannon Braga admits that it was a bad idea .

Any details about T'Pol you wish we'd mentioned? Bring 'em up in the comments.

View history

Elizabeth was a binary clone created from the DNA of T'Pol , a Vulcan female , and Commander Charles Tucker III , a Human male , both of whom served aboard the starship Enterprise NX-01 . She was created by the xenophobic extremist group Terra Prime , with the intent of using her as a rallying point for their anti- alien views. She was named after Elizabeth Tucker , Commander Tucker's sister who died in the Xindi attack in 2153 .

Elizabeth's existence was first discovered in January of 2155 , when former Terra Prime member Susan Khouri gave her life to deliver a vial of Elizabeth's hair to T'Pol. Running a genetic analysis, Doctor Phlox discovered that the hair belonged to an infant female who was the offspring of Tucker and T'Pol. John Frederick Paxton , Terra Prime's leader, used Elizabeth as an example of the genetic pollution that could occur if Humans and aliens continued to coexist. He then threatened to destroy Starfleet Command with the verteron array on Mars unless every alien left the solar system . Ultimately, Paxton's plot was foiled by the crew of Enterprise , and Elizabeth was rescued. Sadly, Elizabeth died soon afterward, due to a fever and an elevated white blood cell count . Elizabeth's importance as the first known alien-Human hybrid was so great that, following her death, the delegates from the conference for the Coalition of Planets asked to attend the child's funeral services.

Although it was initially believed that the infant died due to the fundamental incompatibility of Human and Vulcan genes, Phlox later discovered that Elizabeth had died due to a flaw in the cloning procedure used to create her, and that there was no reason why a Human and a Vulcan could not have a child. ( ENT : " Demons ", " Terra Prime ")

1.1 Background information
1.2 Apocrypha
1.3 External link

Appendices [ ]

Background information [ ].

Baby Elizabeth was "played" by two infants (twins) named Grace and Riley Norris .

This character was invented to live or die based on whether a fifth season of Star Trek: Enterprise was given the go-ahead or not. While the episode "Terra Prime" was in development, Manny Coto had the idea that, if another season was indeed approved, the baby would live, but if the series was canceled, the child would die. The writers hoped the baby would live, as they expected it would make for "a great storyline." However, the death of Baby Elizabeth echoes the fact that Enterprise was canceled at the end of its fourth season . ("Before Her Time: Decommissioning Enterprise , Part Three: Final Approach", ENT Season 4 Blu-ray special features)

Apocrypha [ ]

In the novel The Good That Men Do , Elizabeth's full name is given as "Elizabeth T'Les Tucker". The book also depicts Tucker and T'Pol burying her on Vulcan near her Vulcan grandmother's grave.

External link [ ]

Elizabeth T'Les Tucker at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
1 Abdullah bin al-Hussein

The Logical Loyalty of T’Pol

Bryana fern • april 25, 2017.

If there is one series in the entire Star Trek franchise that gets whispered in hushed tones, it’s Enterprise. And if there’s one character that gets pinned with the show’s “failings” more than any other, it’s T’Pol. Yes, we can criticize her costume all day if we want, but what if we remember that she first donned the traditional Vulcan attire and was stripped of that only when she was assigned to the Enterprise? It is my belief that many Trekkies have difficulty seeing beyond the uniform, seeing the virtues in T’Pol because she is so complex by nature. Her identity is multi-faceted, and centers around an extreme sense of loyalty.

T’Pol is marked as an Other from the moment she boards Enterprise – the only Vulcan on board. Consider the extreme distrustful and unaffectionate manner which nearly all humans display towards Vulcans. The only one who outranks her, who has the authority to protect her, is the one who quite possibly hates her the most: Captain Archer. He blames the Vulcans, especially Ambassador Soval and the Vulcan High Command, for holding humanity back from its potential. And he takes his hatred of Vulcans personally. Consider the pilot episode when he confronts T’Pol: “I’ve been listening to you Vulcans tell us what not to do all my entire life. I watched my father work his ass off while your scientists held back just enough information to keep him from succeeding. He deserved to see that launch. You may have life spans of two hundred years, we don’t” (“ Broken Bow ”).

But of course, by the end of the series premiere, they find a way to work together and come to a mutual understanding, and the rest is history. Or is it? Is this one episode all it takes to bring these two races together on Enterprise? After all the discomfort T’Pol has been subjected to, why is she so fast and so eager to make the official request to remain aboard after the mission?

The answer to that is the thread that connects all the complexities of her identity, and is the one trait that makes her more Vulcan than all her logic combined: loyalty. Vulcans are loyal to a fault, as we know from our very own Mr. Spock and his regard for Kirk and McCoy. This innate ability to sense those deserving of loyalty, and then pledge it unswervingly, is what makes Vulcans such astute character profilers. They sense dishonesty, and they recognize virtue. And to support virtue is, after all, a logical course of action. Ambassador Soval himself would not be in such close relation with Admiral Forest if he did not believe that the humans were worthy allies. Yes, they may be immature at times, reckless, and oh, so emotional, but they are unequivocally good. T’Pol sees this very goodness in Archer.

Where this becomes the most crucial element of her relationship with Enterprise, however, is when she defends Archer before the High Command concerning the destruction of the Vulcan sanctuary, P’Jem. In the season two premiere, she confronts them at Starfleet Headquarters (“ Shockwave, Part II ”):

Vulcans discovered how to suppress their volatile emotions only after centuries of savage conflict. You spoke of the destruction of the monastery. What about the Vulcan listening post that Captain Archer found there? I would hope that our people have learned from those events that using a sacred sanctuary to spy on others was a dishonorable practice, to say the least. I don’t wish to contradict Captain Archer, but learning from one’s mistakes is hardly exclusive to humans. Their mission should be allowed to continue.

T’Pol steps up to defend Enterprise against the Vulcan High Command, but at what cost?

She risks her position with the High Command, knowing that she will one day return to Vulcan and hope to regain her former career. By confronting them, the elders whom she respects and has listened to all her life, she jeopardizes her character with the ones who first helped her define it. Everything that she is comes from her years in the Vulcan Ministry of Security and the Vulcan High Command. To reject the elders is illogical. And dangerous. If this is not enough, T’Pol risks even more in the second season finale, where she makes the decision to go with Enterprise into the Delphic Expanse. This mission is reckless, and it is in revenge for a world that isn’t even her own. It is a mission from which she knows she may never return. Soval reminds her of this, and of her orders to return to the High Command. She can’t help Enterprise in the Expanse, whether she wants to or not.

Soval warns T’Pol: “This is not the matter of choice. Defying the High Command would mean immediate dismissal. You know that” (“The Expanse”).

T’Pol chooses to remain with Enterprise, sacrificing her career, her reputation, and her very life. It is in the Expanse where she comes into contact with Trelium-D, a substance deadly to Vulcans, a substance that cripples their ability to shield from emotions, to use their logic as the protection it is. It is in the Expanse where T’Pol becomes addicted to Trelium, using it to expose herself to emotions that she wishes to understand—emotions that Dr. Phlox tells her she will now never be immune, even after going through sobriety from the element. We need to stop seeing T’Pol as a weak figure who dragged down the series. She is far more than that. She is incredibly dynamic, and her interactions with the characters bolstered her sense of belonging on the ship. She is loyal to the crew because she has become part of their family. You stay loyal to your family. This means that we stay loyal to her, too.

21 comments for “ the logical loyalty of t’pol ”.

T’pol was the main reason I watched all the episodes several times. Joline is a terrific actor I wish she would return and even continue T’pol for a few more episodes. It might be interesting to see the mirror universe T’pol survived to battle the empires Sato.

I love T’Pol, and her complexity is absolutely my favorite thing about her character. Star Trek has always been character-driven, and while the Xindi plotline was not really my bag, by the time the series embarked on it, I was invested in the characters, so I hung in there for it. Trip and T’Pol’s relationship was totally engaging for me – the two part storyline Terra Prime was SO GOOD, and then when I watched the series finale, I was devastated and so disappointed. Worst-written episode ever. EVER. The NX-01 crew deserved better.

“It came as a surprise to me that people think T’Pol “brought down” the series. SHe’s the best part! Ok yes, the catsuits were a bit much and the cheesecake but otherwise her character is amazing. My pie in the sky wish is that they somehow make amends with Jolene Blalock and convince her to have a few guest appearances on Strange New Worlds in a grey wig (with none of the E2 pancake ageing makeup monstrosity lol)”

This the remark that was posted into my E-Mail.

I do not know what has happened but I can no longer see the 18 remarks made I have tried in Chrome and Safari. Could someone who administers this site explain why they are suppressed and if they can be unsuppressed, how. The articles and comments are an integral part of the conversation.

If anyone wants to see how difficult it is to portray a Vulcan try writing one. Nimoy and Leonard nailed it.

The first thing about Jolene is by Season 3 she looked like a Vulcan she communicated that otherworldliness perfectly. Alexander from Discovery would make a good Vulcan.

The second thing is to communicate when your emotions are suppressed without sounding like a series of tropes. “Indeed’ “It is agreeable to see you.”

Although her arc with Connor because a soap opera she showed real skill in coming out of her shell. Once they were bonded there was a huge story to tell.

What brought Enterprise down were the first two seasons scripts. After that, they were fighting for their survival and yet 3 and 4 is as compelling as any Trek.

It came as a surprise to me that people think T’Pol “brought down” the series. SHe’s the best part! Ok yes the catsuits were a bit much and the cheesecake but otherwise her character is amazing. My pie in the sky wish is that they somehow make amends with Jolene Blalock and convince her to have a few guest appearances on Strange New Worlds in a gray wig (with none of the E2 pancake aging makeup monstrosity lol).

I am perfectly comfortable with T’Pols overall journey in Enterprise including her exposure to T-D. Vulcan’s are very emotional indeed more primally emotional than mankind they have just mastered the art of control. That of course is where all the drama comes in. Its that juxtaposition of instinctive mankind and highly controlled Vulcans.

I think Jolene’s performance is highly nuanced and stands up well to repeated examination. However there is another narrative at work. In order for her performance to work she needed emotionally tactile performers who could communicate that on screen, John and Connor were able to do that. When JB played opposite SB in twofer stories JB seemed lost to me and had to try to hard she was operating in a vacuum. With JB and CT she had something to play off.

I also think Discovery has shown us a fresh way of doing Trek. The main character does not have to be the Captain. Archer was the man of destiny who had a nice challenging arc in Season 3. But the soul of this era belonged to Trip. They should have focused on his wide eyed wonder but narrow view of other species and grown him through the seven seasons. Connor was quite capable of carrying that leaving Scott to be the regular Captain. Part of that would be the inevitable coming together of this highly emotional but incredibly decent and loyal Trip with the extremely complex but highly loyal T’Pol. Its easy to get carried away with the issue of being hot but even their voices had a symbiosis. I know people write fan fiction but imagine T’Pol (and Trip) really exploring the Bond, Mind Melding and a mixed race marriage and mixed race offspring and a work place marriage out in space. All sorts of challenges lay in front of them including the potential for the sacrifice used in the latter book.

Dismissing JB as eye candy when you consider episode after episode of highly nuanced offerings is unfair.

If SB was a vacuum that JB was playing off of, I’m not sure if it’s the way Archer was written or the chemistry (or lack thereof). That said, I do love certain moments of Archer/T’Pol friendship, like the hug in TATV (one of the few good things of that episode).

ENT from the perspective of Trip would have been a great idea. He fits Soval’s definition of humans to a T. People always say Trip and T’Pol are a great match because of the opposites attract cliche and the chemistry between JB and CT. But what’s said less often is that Trip is also a complex character in his own right. So pairing him with another complex character makes for rich storytelling possibilities.

Your remarks about the interaction between SB and JB gets to the heart of these matters of”Chemistry”. Is it the actors or the scripting of the characters. I am certain with Enterprise, which I have grown close to, that several of the actors are criticised for exection when in fact its the way they are written. Dominic for instance plays a perfectly judged stiff upper lip military man. He provides a tonal difference which gives the crew a greater sense of bandwidth and yet I have seen people suggest he cannot act. Interestingly when he is on screen with Connor he is at his best. Connor brought out the best in his co actors. Interestingly I think Connor is at his least interesting when he is playing off of … Scott. There is something very procedural about the latter’s work. Whether thats scripting or not because Jolene worked well with John I am of the opinion awe are talking actors not scripts. I took pleasure from your recognising my point that Enterprise could have been driven from Trip.

It’s both scripts and actor. The writers didn’t have a clear vision of who Archer should be. No actor is going to be comfortable with that inconsistency. On the other hand, Scott was hammy whenever Archer was angry.

I saw a few different theories for why the drug addiction happened in fanfiction. One was that she was trying to build immunity so she was taking Trellium like a vaccine. The other was to deal with the stress of war, which is a story I hear about some veterans.

The bad execution of the Trellium story leaves a black mark on T’Pol(this bumps her down to my second favorite character from the show). However, it doesn’t change that her costume makes some people not take her or Jolene Blalock seriously (this happened to Jeri Ryan and Marina Sirtis too). As half-assed as her drug addiction was, it pales in comparison to the inconsistency of Archer. Some fans would make a case for pinning the show’s weaknesses on him.

The other major criticism of T’Pol is that she’s too emotional and should be more like Spock. I say if Amanda he died when he was a child, he would have turned out a lot like T’Pol. The death of the parent you’re closest to would make anyone less able to control their emotions. This brings me to another point. As much as I love T’Pol’s loyalty, I doubt it sprang up that quickly in Broken Bow. She probably spent a lot of time hiding her emotional nature before Enterprise. She must have decided putting up with human prejudice was less exhausting.

I can’t say enough good things about T’Pol’s decision to follow her friends into the Expanse. Aside from risking her life, she wasn’t thinking about whether Starfleet would give her a job. If I were the Sorting Hat, I would place her in Gryffindor just for that. Unfortunately there is a minority who brand her as selfish because of her initial arrogance and mistakes she made in her relationship with Trip.

Yes, I’ve read some articles that pin Archer with a lot as well. I think that, like T’Pol, we can run the risk of being too harsh on the NX-01 crew. While Archer was definitely no Kirk or Picard, I like to think he was doing the best he could. Theirs was the first deep space mission. There was no example to go off of. He had no idea what to expect. So yes, he got emotional a lot and made some bad calls, but I think his frustration with the mission at various points is an important part of his character. He’s very human and very fallible, and this was a journey none of them had ever experienced.

T’Pol is interestingly emotional, yes. The Trellium-D was a fascinating, if not crippling addition to the narrative. I don’t think she was any more emotional than Soval, for instance, though. Now after serving with the crew, yes, she picked up some of their expressions. But I distinctly remember Blalock talking in an interview about how it was hard for her to be so stoic because she is a naturally expressive person, but yet she found it so empowering to be able to convey emotions and thoughts just with T’Pol’s eyes or slight facial adjustments. But yes, I can definitely see how she is more reactionary than Spock, who is half-human. She’s very complicated, to be sure.

I always think of her being sorted into Ravenclaw, but now that you mention it, yes. She exudes bravery and courage in ways that go beyond a logical reaction. She takes on a very human-like bravery that defies logic. So, yes. GRYFFINDOR!!!!!!

Archer should be fallible but again, it’s a matter of execution. Yes, they should make mistakes as the first crew in space so no else has to. But that has nothing to do with consistency. His changing attitudes toward the Prime Directive annoy me to no end (cough, Cogenitor, cough). And what I didn’t like about the Trellium story is that they brought it out of the blue. They meant no time for development.

Soval seems more well-adjusted than T’Pol even if he is just as emotional (it probably comes with age). I did like Jolene’s acting for what you had mentioned. In a Warp 5 episode, Phyllis Strong said that’s why she finds Vulcans so hard to write for. You can’t make them robots but you need subtle ways to express their emotions.

T’Pol reminds me of Hermione when you mention Ravenclaw. Both have the smarts for Ravenclaw (and the Hat did consider Hermione for it) but are very loyal to their friends.

Of all of the Star Trek characters, I like the Vulcans the most. Nimoy, Russ and Blalock each did a fantastic job of making the characters endearing. I found Blalock particularly effective with her eyes and facial expressions. All showed expected vulnerabilities to expression of emotions from prolonged relationships with humans. Enterprise gave Blalock much latitude in developing T’Pol and I think she did an excellent job.

I was surprised to read in the article that fans pointed blame at T’Pol. For me, T’Pol was easily the best character on Enterprise. I’m one one of the few who actually likes enterprise and rates it above Voyager. The first two seasons were slow with a few standouts, but I thought it really got going season 3.

I agree the drug addiction storyline was poorly executed. It felt like it could have been an interesting idea, but it was basically just a reason to have T’Pol be struggling with her emotional control. The idea of a vulcan who has to relearn their emotional control is interesting, but the explanation could have just as easily come from her initial exposure to the trellium. If they were going to go with an addiction story line, I think it needed more depth and we needed to understand what T’Pol’s motivations are.

You could write it like this: Vulcan emotions are more intense then human’s which is why they initially wanted to control them. The “High” was thus more intense, and since the exposure already damaged t’pol suppression mechanisms, the urge to feel it again, which was the only intense emotion she had felt since she was a child, combined with her anxiety over loosing control made it irrestible. Like, it’e the equivalent of heroin for someone who has never felt any other emotions that immediately makes you loose control of your suppression mechanisms. A storyline going more into that could have been interesting, instead of “hey” remember how T’Pol’s been acting funny? Here’s the explanation, now let’s resolve it, so now we can write t’pol with emotions occasionally.

David, I agree that T’Pol was easily the best character on Enterprise, which I think was indeed a good series that deserved at least another season. I also agree that trillium exposure was sufficient to explain her struggle to express her emotions. To me, her eyes and facial expressions showed emotions from the first episode. All in all, I think Blalock made T’Pol likable.

Everyone will now disagree with me now, because I prefer T’Pol be with Archer, than Trip. It was not possible because of the rank issue, but I felt it was a better, more honest fit. Not just sticking her with “the hot guy.” In episode “Twilight,” its explored briefly. Ok, yell at me now…

No, there’s no yelling here! I actually see your point, Mark! The decision to hook T’Pol up with Trip is following the classic example of the girl getting with the “hot guy,” you’re right. There is actually a lot about Archer that would make her a good match for T’Pol, and there is a bit of time where they even consider it (unofficially) in the first season, I believe. Archer is attracted to her, for sure. I think Berman and Braga wanted to stray from the captain/first officer hook-up possibility that we see in every series except TNG. Putting Trip with her mixed things up. Plus, he’s more emotional (though Archer has his fair share of temper tantrums!), so it makes her identity more complex. The challenge to remain logical and focused is more difficult for her when she’s around Trip. And we love to see our characters face difficulty and challenges. But your observation about that is definitely valid!

Thanks Bryana! Perhaps if Tucker hasn’t been paired off so many times before, I would have felt more positively. But you are quite correct in your Trip assessment. I met and spoke with Jolene and she really put a lot of thought into her portrayal. She didn’t always agree with some of her character arc, but she never short shrifted the character. Some of the subtle things she did were quite creative.

I disagree that they got Trip and T’Pol together just because he’s hot. They fit in with the trope of opposites attract. I can see Archer/T’Pol shippers’ point that he’s more emotionally stable and therefore a better match. But he’s a lot less observant of people than Trip. For example, he tells the Ferengi she has no sense of humor. But in Unexpected, he’s in the same room when T’Pol messes with Trip for getting pregnant. And in Bound, he’s surprised she’s capable of jokes. Also he tells Erika certain things I doubt he would tell anyone else. Then again, they wrote him so inconsistently I suppose anything is possible.

Archer never struck me as particularly emotional stable.

Mark (small letters, so not yelling ), I liked her better with Trip—not because of his looks—because they were so opposite, in temperament. His attraction to her was obvious from their first meeting and his feeble attempts to hide it led to humorous scenes. I think that by not developing these kinds of inter-relationships further doomed Enterprise.

Traditions vs. politics: The long and undisciplined history of Navy ship-naming

Sailors line the rails as the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson returns home in February. The ship is named for the longtime congressman known for his steadfast support of the Navy and his opposition to racial desegregation. (U.S. Navy)

Congress is taking aim at the Navy tradition of selecting untraditional names for its new ships and submarines.

A report by the Congressional Research Service, a public policy research institute for Congress, found inconsistencies and exceptions to traditional ship-naming protocols stoke public perception that the process is rife with politics.

“Observers have perceived a breakdown in, or corruption of, the rules,” according to the report released in February.

The shifting politics of presidential administrations, congressional majorities and public lobbying have warped the system in deciding who is honored with their name on a ship.

The report comes as the Navy prepares to name the fifth Ford-class aircraft carrier, the next block of Virginia-class attack submarines, missile frigates and troop ships.

It focuses on the attack submarines. Of the first 30 commissioned since 2003, all but two were named for states.

“But the most recent seven have been named for four earlier U.S. Navy attack submarines, a former secretary of the Navy, an island, and a city, suggesting that there is no longer a clear naming rule for the class.”

The issue is timely, the report said, because the Navy is on ship-buying overdrive, with nearly 90 vessels on order and maximizing the capacity of American shipyards.

The names chosen will likely remain in the fleet for a half-century or more. The largest and most prestigious vessels — aircraft carriers and submarines — have service lives of up to 50 years.

The names are crucial to politicians, the public and each ship’s crew.

“It’s important if you are serving on a ship,” said Thomas Cutler, a naval historian at the U.S. Naval Institute. “You want to be on a ship with a name with a lot of history, like Lexington or Saratoga, or a state or a city. You don’t want to be on a ship where you have to explain the funny name that’s someone nobody has heard of.”

Then-Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite, aboard the 18th century museum ship USS Constellation in Baltimore harbor, announced in 2020 that a new class of guided-missile frigates would be named after the ship, one of the first six Navy frigates ordered under President George Washington. (U.S. Navy)

Changing times, changing names

Since the Navy was founded in 1775, attempts have been made to formalize rules for naming the more than 7,000 ships that have served in the fleet.

The first rule held up until the sixth ship.

The 1794 Naval Act called for building six frigates with names reflecting the new nation’s principles: United States, Constitution, President, Congress and Constellation.

However, then-Navy Secretary Thomas Pickering opted for geography over ideology for the sixth ship, naming it the USS Chesapeake, after the shipyard location where it was built.

“The very first naming decision by the very first secretary of the Navy resulted in a ‘corruption’ of the established naming convention,” according to a 2012 report to Congress by four historians tasked with documenting Navy ship names.

With a relatively small Navy, U.S. ships in the first half of the 19th century mostly stuck to a traditional set of names — battles (Yorktown), states (Delaware), Founding Fathers (Franklin), Native American tribes (Chippewa), aggressive animals (Rattlesnake) and patriotic names (Independence).

More unusual names would show up when the Navy purchased an existing ship and kept the name such as the USS Ganges. Captured enemy ships either kept their original names such as the HMS Little Belt, a British ship that became the USS Little Belt, or the American captain was permitted to name the prize to be added to the Navy. For example, the Canadian schooner Lord Nelson seized during the War of 1812 became the USS Scourge.

The onset of the Civil War in 1861 saw shipyards in the northern states go into overdrive, turning out wooden and ironclad ships of every shape and purpose as well as buying merchant vessels. Ships were given names and sent into service rapidly. A New York City ferry drafted into Union service was named the USS Hunchback. The Union fleet included the USS Snowdrop, USS Hibiscus, USS Switzerland and other unique warship names.

After World War I, attempts to categorize warships by how they were named became more consistent. The massive buildup of the Navy for World War II made keeping within the naming protocols a way to avoid confusion.

However, World War II also created structural changes that challenged naming traditions.

Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and now a senior adviser with the think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the war rapidly converted a Navy of battleships and cruisers to a service of aircraft carriers and submarines.

“I’d say I am a traditionalist,” he said. “Battleships should be named after states, cruisers after cities and submarines after fish. But we haven’t built a battleship since World War II.”

Congress suggests, Navy chooses

Fewer, more expensive vessels that take longer to build have led to a political competition for naming rights.

One issue that the congressional report underlines is timing. It’s not unusual for the Navy to name the first of a new class of vessels when production begins. In 2016, the Navy said its new ballistic missile submarines would be the Columbia class, named for the nation’s capital.

Work on the first submarine began in June 2022. It was redesignated as the USS District of Columbia since the Navy already had a USS Columbia named after the city in South Carolina. The class retained the shorter “Columbia-class” name.

Despite the already mounting delays, the Navy announced in 2020 that the second submarine would be named the USS Wisconsin.

The executive branch decides the names of new ships, but Congress always has plenty of suggestions.

The report lists more than 50 resolutions and bills since 1987 calling on the Navy to name a ship after a state, city, battle, famous former vessel, or, most often — a specific person, ranging from House committee chairpersons to a Navy cryptographer killed in a terrorist attack.

In 1969, the Navy officially decreed ships should not be named for living people or members of Congress.

The rules were soon scuttled by former President Richard Nixon, who was a Navy officer during World War II.

Navy Lt. Jimmy Carter aboard the submarine USS Barracuda in the early 1950s. A Seawolf-class attack submarine was later named for the former president. (U.S. Navy)

Four attack submarines were named after deceased lawmakers, and in a 160-year first, a living congressman was honored with his name on the third Nimitz-class supercarrier: the USS Carl Vinson.

The report notes the Navy named ships after 18 more people who were alive when ships were christened with their names. The list includes former Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford.

Ship names can steer right or left

Political liberals have criticized the naming of ships as late as the 1980s for Confederates who rebelled against the United States, including Civil War Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.

Carriers named after Vinson and former Sen. John Stennis honor lawmakers who were fierce supporters of the Navy but just as fierce opponents of racial desegregation.

The cruiser then known as the USS Chancellorsville at sea in 2010. Named after a Confederate battle victory during the Civil War, it was renamed the USS Robert Smalls for an escaped slave who stole a Confederate ship and took it to a Union port. Smalls later served in Congress. (U.S. Navy)

The same law that directed the Army to rename bases that “honor or commemorate the Confederacy” required renaming the cruiser USS Chancellorsville, the bloody 1863 Civil War battle in Virginia often touted as Lee’s greatest victory. It’s now the USS Robert Smalls, named for a runaway slave who stole a Confederate ship to make his getaway to a Union port. Smalls later served in Congress.

The Navy also changed the USNS Maury, an oceanographic survey ship named after Matthew Fontaine Maury, who was a famed oceanographer who joined the Confederacy. The ship was renamed for Marie Tharp, who is best known for helping produce the first scientific map of the Atlantic Ocean floor.

Conservatives point to a whole class of Navy oilers that are named after civil rights leaders with few, if any, ties to the Navy. USNS are technically “noncommissioned” Navy support ships.

The John Lewis-class fleet replenishment oiler USNS Harvey Milk transits the San Francisco Bay on March 28, 2024. (Joseph R. Vincent/U.S. Navy)

The cargo ship USNS Cesar Chavez, named for the farm workers rights advocate and World War II Navy veteran, transfers supplies to the destroyer USS Milius in March 2023. (U.S. Navy)

The John Lewis-class oilers are designated by the Navy to be named for civil rights leaders and activists. The lead ship was named for the black civil rights activist and longtime congressman. The USNS Harvey Milk is named for the gay rights activist forced to resign from the Navy in 1955. He was assassinated in 1978 while serving as a San Francisco commissioner.

The USNS Earl Warren, which is named for the liberal chief justice of the United States, and USNS Robert F. Kennedy were christened this year. Two ships named for women’s rights advocates, the USNS Lucy Stone and USNS Sojourner Truth, are under construction. The USNS Harriet Tubman will honor the abolitionist, while two ships for two other liberal former U.S. Supreme Court justices — the USNS Thurgood Marshall and USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg — are on order.

The Lewis and Clark-class cargo ships were designated in the early 2000s under former President George W. Bush to be named for American explorers and pioneers. Early ships were named for arctic explorer Richard Byrd, aviator Amelia Earhart and Navy astronaut Alan Shepard.

Under former President Barack Obama, the definition was expanded to include “pioneers” in human rights. The USNS Medgar Evers was named for the assassinated civil rights leader, who was a World War II Army veteran. USNS Cesar Chavez was named for the farm worker rights activist who served in the Navy in World War II.

The loudest conservative complaints came with the naming of a littoral combat ship the USS Gabrielle Giffords, honoring the Democratic congresswoman from Arizona who was severely wounded in a 2011 assassination attempt that killed six others.

Giffords had not served in the military, and this set off demands for an investigation of naming “exceptions” by the Obama administration. A review found then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus had followed traditional protocols in naming ships, with the exception of the USS Gabrielle Giffords.

Former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., in June 2015 with the littoral combat ship named after her. (U.S. Navy)

Reflection, not reform

Some members of Congress contend the report reminds lawmakers to consider ship names beyond scoring political points with voters or key groups. However, a naming process without exceptions is not realistic.

A July 2012 congressional report on Navy shipbuilding allowed exceptions would continue to be the rule.

“A secretary’s discretion to make exceptions to ship-naming conventions is one of the Navy’s oldest ship-naming traditions,” the report said.

At one time, Navy tradition was to name submarines for sea creatures. Dozens named for fish and other denizens of the deep have served. The USS Pike was among the first Navy submarines, the USS Flasher sank more than 100,000 tons of enemy shipping in World War II and the USS Nautilus was the first atomic submarine.

While the USS Seawolf and the four planned Virginia-class submarines named for sea creatures were approved under former President Donald Trump, most submarines since the mid-1960s have names more often drawn from cities and states than the sea.

The future USS Hyman G. Rickover transits the Thames River on its way to Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Conn., on Oct. 3, 2023. (Joshua Karsten/U.S. Navy)

Adm. Hyman Rickover, the politically savvy “father” of the nuclear-powered Navy and its ever-expanding fleet of attack and ballistic missile submarines, was sanguine about the changes to tradition.

The names of battleships for states and cruisers for cities meant members of Congress with key votes on Navy budget bills could take a trophy back home to show constituents: the name of their city or state on a major warship that traveled the world and fought wars.

With no battleships and few cruisers being built after World War II, there were few trophies to be had. Rickover wanted more submarines for the Navy.

If the name changes meant the Navy received the funding it requested, he was willing to live with what won over congressional budgeters — and their voters.

Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., represents a district that is home to the General Dynamics Electric Boat factory, where half of the new attack submarines are built, and the Naval Submarine Base New London.

He can recite the famous Rickover response to a subordinate Navy officer who lamented the loss of the traditional sea creature names to what he felt were more prosaic city and states.

“I’m a fan of Rickover,” Courtney said. “He said, ‘Fish don’t vote. People do.’ ”

previous coverage

USS Eisenhower, second-oldest aircraft carrier in Navy fleet, to stay in service into 2030s
Navy commissions its newest ship, the USS John L. Canley
Future USS Idaho, the newest Virginia-class nuclear submarine, christened in Connecticut
USS Kingsville, one of the last new Indy-class littoral combat ships, passes sea trials, will homeport in San Diego
Virginia-class submarine New Jersey completes first set of sea trials
Navy’s new $3.4 billion dry dock in Hawaii is most expensive project in service’s history
Navy building subs and carrier with ties to Pearl Harbor attack
Navy to rename USS Chancellorsville after former slave who stole Confederate steamer

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IMAGES

T'Pol, Archer and Trip
Star Trek Enterprise
T'Pol and Trip Tucker
T'Pol/Trip
Star Trek Enterprise : Trip / T'Pol Story (my way)
Star Trek Enterpise

VIDEO

TRIP and T'POL , STAR TREK Enterprise, Star Trek III, Pon Far, Mind Meld, Vulcan, Jolene Blalock
Enterprise- Trip and T'pol
TRIP AND T'POL ARE YOU THE ONE
Broken Open
T'pol and T'les talk about joining the Syrrannites
T'pol, Trip and Archer prepares to visit P'jem

COMMENTS

T'Pol
Trip Tucker. Posting. Science officer, Enterprise (NX-01) Rank. Sub-Commander, later Commander. T'Pol ( / tɪˈpɒl /) is a fictional character in the Star Trek franchise. Portrayed by Jolene Blalock in the series Star Trek: Enterprise, she is a Vulcan who serves as the science officer aboard the starship Enterprise (NX-01).
Why Enterprise's Trip & T'Pol Romance Was So Controversial (But Still Good)
The romance between human Charles "Trip" Tucker III & Vulcan T'pol on Star Trek: Enterprise was very controversial for a few reasons, but still fun to watch. Star Trek: Enterprise, which ran from 2001-2005, has long been regarded as one of the least successful iterations of the franchise, but it introduced many unique story elements not seen in other Star Trek series.
The Star Trek Enterprise Romance of T'Pol and Trip: I'm going to give
Trip and T'Pol also had also a son Lorian in an alternate universe that was formed when Star Trek Enterprise entered into the Expanse and was loss in a vortex. In my ending, those above scenarios happened. But T'pol and Trip finished servings for the full 10 years but remained together after Baby Elizabeth (the cloned one) died.
Enterprise
It turns out her mother lost her job as punishment for T'Pol's actions while on Enterprise, and Koss's family can get her job back. T'Pol chooses duty to her family over her affection for Trip, who is heartbroken over the news. T'Les, T'Pol's mother, confronts him about his feelings for her daughter.
"Star Trek: Enterprise" Harbinger (TV Episode 2004)
Harbinger: Directed by David Livingston. With Scott Bakula, John Billingsley, Jolene Blalock, Dominic Keating. With Reed and Hayes fighting over a training program and Trip seemingly making T'Pol jealous, Enterprise discovers a dying alien in a pod with technology similar to the Spheres.
Star Trek's Connor Trinneer "Bummed Out" Trip & T'Pol Never Got To
Star Trek: Enterprise's cancelation after 4 seasons curtailed fully exploring Commander Trip Tucker's romance with Subcommander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock), to the dismay of Connor Trinneer. Trip and T'Pol began a relationship in Star Trek: Enterprise season 3, originally as a means for the Vulcan to help Enterprise's Chief Engineer process his grief after the death of his sister at the hands of ...
Enterprise's Connor Trinneer Looks Back On Star Trek "Odd Couple" Trip
Despite odd turns and a tragic ending, T'Pol and Trip's relationship was the central romance of the series. Star Trek: Enterprise season 3 created an "odd couple " when Subcommander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) and Commander Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer) sparked an unlikely romance. The T'Pol got together with Trip by offering to help him heal from ...
Trip Tucker
Tucker was born in 2121. His nickname "Trip" is short for "Triple", as he is the third generation of his family to be named Charles Tucker. He joined the United Earth Starfleet in 2139 and first met Jonathan Archer around 2143, a decade prior to the launch of Enterprise, when the two worked together on an early warp 2 prototype vessel using the ...
Unexpected (Star Trek: Enterprise)
Star Trek: Enterprise. ) " Unexpected " is the fifth episode (production #105) of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise, and was written by Brannon Braga and Rick Berman. Mike Vejar was the director. A ship feeding off Enterprise ' s warp field is exposed after the crew ignites the plasma exhaust. Commander Tucker visits the ship to help ...
Lorian
Lorian was the commander of a version of Enterprise NX-01 from an alternate timeline, in which Enterprise was thrown back in time from the year 2154 to 2037. He was the son of Vulcan science officer T'Pol and Human chief engineer Charles Tucker III, a conception made possible after Doctor Phlox found a way of combining the Vulcan and Human genomes. Lorian was influenced by both of his parents ...
Star Trek: Enterprise (TV Series 2001-2005)
Strange anomalies affect the ship, sending cargo flying violently through the bays, pockets of atmosphere losing gravity and other incidents defying the known laws of physics. ... T'Pol helps Trip's insomnia with an intimate Vulcan therapy. Archer and Trip find another race of Xindi imprisoned in a mine. 7.7 /10 (1.7K) Rate. S3.E2 ∙ Anomaly ...
Star Trek: Enterprise's Most Contentious Scene Involved T'Pol, Trip
T'Pol and chief engineer "Trip" Tucker (Connor Trinneer) would be ordered to meet in her quarters for Starfleet-mandated naked massages. Both the massages and the decontaminations sound like they ...
Trip/T'Polers: A Trip and T'Pol Shipper's Site
An abundance of photographic evidence with enough persuasive commentary to warm the heart of any Trip and T'Pol 'shipper and provoke the envy of any who seek other romantic alliances for either character. Enjoy all four seasons! Fiction: Trip and T'Pol fan fiction. 2007 Trip and T'Pol Calendar!
T'Pol
As the ship arrives it is sent into the past [28] by Daniels in order to combat the Na'kuhl's disruption of Earth's timeline. Daniels is killed in the process by unknown causes. Unknownst to the crew, Silik stows away on the ship when it travels to 1944. ... [33] Trip and T'Pol end their romantic involvement. [33] People : Charles Tucker III: 2161
Charles Tucker III
Hell of a ride. - Trip Tucker, 2152 (" Dawn ") Commander Charles Tucker III, known affectionately as "Trip" Tucker, was a 22nd century Human male Starfleet officer. He served for ten years as the chief engineer and Second officer of Earth 's first warp 5 -capable starship, Enterprise NX-01, under the command of his best friend, Captain ...
Recap / Star Trek: Enterprise S01 E01 E02 "Broken Bow"
Trip wants to be in command instead of T'Pol, noting that she's just an observer and worrying that she'll cancel the mission. Six hours later, Archer comes around. T'Pol and Trip enter and T'Pol informs Archer that they've tracked a Suliban ship. This surprises Archer, who had expected her to abort the mission.
Star Trek: T'Pol Facts & Trivia
The Enterprise's first Vulcan crew member set foot on board years before Mr. Spock.. Introduced in the 2001-05 retcon series Star Trek: Enterprise, T'Pol came from an era when Vulcans looked down their oh-so-logical nose at humans, whom they didn't consider worthy to explore space.When the Enterprise launched, the Vulcans sent T'Pol along as an observer to ensure we didn't mess ...
T'pol and T'pol drink tea and talk about Trip
vulcan historical record departmentPlease visit mirror links for channel for more content:Dtube: https://d.tube/#!/c/startrektpolnx01/activitiesOdysee: https...
Sub-Commander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock in Star Trek: Enterprise)
Real Name: T'Pol. Marital Status: Single. Known Relatives: T'Les (mother), unnamed father (deceased), T'Mir (great grandmother), Lorian (potential future son w/Trip Tucker), Elizabeth (clone daughter, deceased). Group Affiliation: Starfleet, Vulcan High Command, earlier the Vulcan Ministry of Security. Base Of Operations: Mobile. Height: 5'6" Weight: 135 lbs. Age: 66 years in Season 3.
Why was T'Pol exempted from Starfleet uniform protocol?
Beginning in Season 4 of "Star Trek: Enterprise", science officer T'Pol received a Starfleet commission granting her the rank of Commander.However, afterwards she continued to wear civilian Vulcan clothing. This attire choice made sense when she was a member of the Vulcan High Command (during the first two seasons) and, later, a civilian (third season).
Elizabeth
Elizabeth was a binary clone created from the DNA of T'Pol, a Vulcan female, and Commander Charles Tucker III, a Human male, both of whom served aboard the starship Enterprise NX-01. She was created by the xenophobic extremist group Terra Prime, with the intent of using her as a rallying point for their anti-alien views. She was named after Elizabeth Tucker, Commander Tucker's sister who died ...
The Logical Loyalty of T'Pol
Everything that she is comes from her years in the Vulcan Ministry of Security and the Vulcan High Command. To reject the elders is illogical. And dangerous. If this is not enough, T'Pol risks even more in the second season finale, where she makes the decision to go with Enterprise into the Delphic Expanse. This mission is reckless, and it is ...
T'pol in Starfleet uniform takes back the ship
vulcan historical record departmentPlease visit mirror links for channel for more content:Dtube: https://d.tube/#!/c/startrektpolnx01/activitiesOdysee: https...
Traditions vs. politics: The long and undisciplined history of Navy
The first rule held up until the sixth ship. The 1794 Naval Act called for building six frigates with names reflecting the new nation's principles: United States, Constitution, President ...