All about T'Pol

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Enterprise' started by 2 of 10, Mar 26, 2012.

  1. 2 of 10

    2 of 10 Captain Captain

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    In my opinion she is the first Vulcan in Star Fleet, she was serving on a Star Fleet Ship 80+years before Spock, she is a 22nd century Vulcan, and she nails it. With Spock he is male and I'm sure there are some gender specific issues they have to deal with. That not withstanding T'Pol in my opinion totally nails what a female 22nd Female Vulcan would be like, her emotions are not all well hidden, although she is Vulcan, she is also like not quite the Vulcans we saw in subsequent Shows and Films.

    I did like Kristi Alley as Saavik, same with Robin Curtiss. The one female Vulcan I could not stand was Valeris, she was terrible, thank God she was only in one Movie and that was one too many.
     
  2. Toolfriend

    Toolfriend Ensign Red Shirt

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    T'Pol was acted so well by Jolene. Very nice to look at too. I do not understand why she did not have a bigger acting career. Must have been that rich husband she has. Our lose.
     
  3. horatio83

    horatio83 Commodore Commodore

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    The key difference between T'Pol and Spock is that Spock chooses to embrace his human side whereas T'Pol is forced to deal with less effective suppression skills after her trellium experimentation in the third season.
    Both characters are the only well-written Vulcans in Trek. No offense to Tuvok but he was fairly boring.
     
  4. You_Will_Fail

    You_Will_Fail Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Yeah, straight-laced Vulcans simply aren't interesting which is why I never understood why they had Tuvok on VOY. For me, T'Pol was the best because we had a really flawed Vulcan, and Spock came off a bit too cheesy for me in the original series.
     
  5. Miss Lemon

    Miss Lemon Commodore Commodore

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    I must be the only one in this forum, but T'Pol is one of my least favourite Enterprise characters.

    In the first two seasons she lacked personality, her outfit was vile and the way she was always pouting really annoyed me.

    When they gave her a softer look in season 3 and she became more "emotional", I liked her better.
     
  6. lurok

    lurok Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Couldn't agree more. S1 outfit was dreck. But I think she was finding her feet, and I really started warming to her around Carbon Creek. I think it's interesting how quite a few, mostly young-ish, actors really improve over seasons - Blalock, Visitor, Eisenberg, Siddig, Keating, Trineer - while other more seasoned ones are there right out of gate: Shimerman, Robinson, etc. And then there's a few like Meaney, Doohan, Burton who never seem to change (hmmm, is there a pattern there with engineers?). And others like Montgomery and Wang who never improve :p
     
  7. I am Surak

    I am Surak Captain Captain

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    I - Surak - find T'Pol in all seasons agreeable.
     
  8. Miss Lemon

    Miss Lemon Commodore Commodore

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    Somehow, I'm not surprised. ;)

    If you ask me, T'Pol is the sole reason Mr. Lemon watches Enterprise. :p
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2012
  9. I am Surak

    I am Surak Captain Captain

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    T'Pol is agreeable for both her looks and her intellect. My favorite is Carbon Creek where she drinks wine and tells a story.
     
  10. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Hey at least he watches it! Count yourself lucky. Other than occasionally laughing at something the EMH says while he passes through the room mr. teacake never boldly goes.

    As to T'Pol I was quite smitten with the character the first two watch throughs of ENT. I still really appreciate her story of a flawed Vulcan who struggles her whole life to suppress her emotions and eventually gives in to temptation to see what it is all about. I like how we get backstory from her mother that affirms this and how it's woven seamlessly into her character. I think she is at home on the human ship because there no matter how flawed a Vulcan she might be she is actually Super Logical Emotion-free Person to them. It's like me showing old people how to google, my tech powers just wow 'em and they are none the wiser. It makes sense for her to find relief outside her own culture.

    However the third and fourth rewatch she started bothering me. The extreme thinness in season 3 (which was explained to me on this BBS as being a result of the actor being quite ill). The constant eye twitching back and forth, the head twitching as she seemed to be unsure which way to look before each sentence. The story line of T'Pol was still excellent but I was finding her irritating on screen. This was kind of weird as normally with each rewatch I end up loving stuff I was meh about or disliked previously in any Trek series to the point of just flat out loving everything.

    Old T'Pol was pretty impressive.
     
  11. I am Surak

    I am Surak Captain Captain

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    Well in Hollywood you can never really be too thin..........
     
  12. commodore64

    commodore64 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I really enjoyed T'Pol. I liked seeing a Vulcan female acted and wished they'd let her continue on a natural path rather than make her a Trellium addict. (I was very disappointed with that story line. To have T'Pol sacrifice herself and become addicted to save Enterprise would've been better than what the writers did.) To me, it made her exploring her emotional side sad, as if she could only do so now that her mind and body had been wrecked by the drug.
     
  13. heavylids

    heavylids Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    T'Pol was just another Seven. Sex sells.
     
  14. I am Surak

    I am Surak Captain Captain

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    Strange how Kes always gets a free pass for wearing a cat suit too....
     
  15. Miss Lemon

    Miss Lemon Commodore Commodore

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    I think that there are some people on this board who would argue that her outfit wasn't a cat suit.
    I remember reading a whole thread on the subject not long ago. :lol:
     
  16. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I don't know why people can't look past a cat suit and nice figure to the character. T'Pol and 7 were very well developed characters with great personality growth arcs that carried on over 4 seasons each. They were not static like a lot of characters in Trek tend to be. Yes they have large breasts.. because some women DO have large breasts and nice figures. Does this make them about nothing more than sex?
     
  17. I am Surak

    I am Surak Captain Captain

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    I am with you Teacake. I think that so many lonely forum members live in a pathetic world inside their heads where they think that putting down beautiful women makes them better men. Sad really.
     
  18. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    Agreed. Both Seven and T'Pol developed well beyond their supposed only reasons for existing (i.e. 'just stand there and look good'). I don't understand why so many fans get so uppity about Seven, T'Pol, and Deanna Troi wearing nonstandard uniforms that emphasize their figures. Using sex to attract viewers has been a part of Star Trek since TOS. It's just part of the reality of television. Just deal with it and move on.
     
  19. 2 of 10

    2 of 10 Captain Captain

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    I am of the opinion that T'Pol is probably the best Vulcan on Trek. Spock set the standard, and
    T'Pol has reached that level. In Ent seasons 2-4 as I have mentioned in other posts, she screamed Vulcan, she was Vulcan, she is what and who I would expect a Vulcan to be. Espically being an 22nd Century Vulcan, she did show some emotion that later Vulcans did not show. In Trek 3 after that Klingon kills David Marcus, Saavik has to report to Kirk...she simply say's "David is Dead" with not one shred of emotion, T'Pol does show emotion, not a whole lot but some and I love that. Don't get me wrong I love most of the actor/actress who have played Vulcans, however, something about T'Pol stands out from the crowd, besides Spock of course. Liked Kristie Alley, and Robin Curtiss, did not care for Valeris at all, for some reason she really bugged me. Any thoughts...
     
  20. Sci

    Sci Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    What bothers me is when the characters dress in a sexually provocative manner when it is inconsistent with the rest of their personality -- or, in the case of T'Pol's early catsuits, with the practices of her culture.

    The idea that Seven would want to dress in a skintight catsuit that is literally designed to lift and separate each individual breast is just absurd. Seven is a character who hides feelings of sexuality because she considers them a form of emotional vulnerability; she wouldn't wear a slinky, cleavage-y dress to a fancy event, for instance, and she wouldn't plausibly wear a skintight catsuit.

    Same thing with T'Pol, who would naturally consider all expressions of overt physical sexuality to be a form of emotional expression to be repressed. The Vulcan space service would not plausibly issue sexually provocative, skintight catsuits as its uniform design given their culture's hostility towards overt expressions of sexuality, and T'Pol herself would not want plausibly want to display her body like that in a professional setting after leaving the High Command.

    That's what makes those costuming choices objectifying -- not that a character is wearing them, but that a character that would not plausibly dress in such a manner is wearing them. It alienates the character from her own body and sets up her body as being present for male sexual gratification, and so objectifies her. Notice that no one says boo about Troi or Kes wearing catsuits -- because those characters were sexually expressive and assertive, to differing degrees, and thus it wasn't inconsistent with their personalities.