Trip & T'Pol: The Good That They Do

just how much time did trip and tpol spend together.
at least three sessions of np a week possibly lasting more then a hour from sometime in september to late december.
and this was in a very intimate cozy setting with candle light where they were becoming increasingly comfortable touching each other.
add in the time they may have eaten together, the amount of time they spent working on various projects together,
and even odd stuff back to season two were tpol makes the comment about trip practicing his harmonica.
did he actually play for her. we dont know for sure but one wonders.

 

Yeah, that's a good way to describe it. I didn't put this one in before, but this is the look she gets right after Trip interrrupts her speech about how his presence would be beneficial to ENT operations.

Possibly. I thought that some of it also might have to do with her sense of "urgency" about the situation as well. The kisses which seemed most aggressive (e.g., in Harbinger and Bound) came in situations where it seemed T'Pol felt that Trip might be moving away from her, so maybe that factored into the aggressiveness.

I did wonder about this particular dynamic, though. Despite all the dissembling and denials, it was typically T'Pol who initiated the physical contact between them even though by nature Trip was supposed to be the more expressive and emotional. Of course the kisses usually came in emotionally charged situations, so maybe that explains part of it. But I also wondered if the writers were trying to emphasize certain aspects of Trip's character -- like his gentlemanly side or perhaps even some insecurities on his part. Despite the charm, expressiveness, etc., usually associated with Trip, he actually seemed rather surprised (and even stunned) when women pursued him.

Well, I think she could’ve been a bit more tactful about her comments, especially in deference to CT, who had been trying to move Trip away from that stereotype -- but that seems to be the approach she took in certain interviews, very outspoken and blunt. On the positive side, she did go on to say that maybe there was something to the “opposites attract” aspect, but I think that sometimes gets overlooked.

Basically, JB didn’t seem to want T’Pol to be romantically paired with the male leads. She also seemed to want T’Pol to be a more traditional Vulcan, almost an “observer” type, whereas certain writers envisioned (and wrote her) as one who had a predilection for emotion and various internal conflicts. It’s interesting watching JB and Braga talk about their respective views of T’Pol on the DVDs.

Anyway, IIRC, I think Jolene made the “honky tonk” comments at the end of S3, after what must’ve been a tough season from her perspective. A number of the things done in S3 seemed to go against what she wanted for T’Pol (pairing her up, moving her further away from a traditional Vulcan, scantily clad scenes, etc.), so I think she was probably pretty frustrated at the end.

The tone of her comments changed significantly, though, when Manny Coto took over in S4. She talked about how the gap between the actors and writers closed, praised the writing, and started to make more favorable comments about the T/T relationship. In the Coast to Coast interview she did around the time Demons/Terra Prime was filming, she seemed fairly positive (considering the cancellation) and seemed to think something would still come of the T/T relationship. After TATV was unveiled, though, her tone seemed to change again, and she made some rather scathing comments about the episode in various interviews. Re: T/T, basically what she said at the end was that there were a lot of feelings which didn’t go anywhere, so it got monotonous...and also that the writers needed to make it a relationship or not, but they couldn’t walk that line forever.

Not exactly. During the “Broken Bow” commentary, Braga comments on the onscreen chemistry between CT and JB and how sometimes you don’t know about these things until you see the actors onscreen. And during one of their scenes, he says something about it being a forerunner to their future relationship, but that could've been stated more from hindsight.

The writers did seem to throw them together quite a bit and gave them some focus early on in episodes like Broken Bow, Strange New World, and Breaking the Ice, and I remember thinking at the time that they might be laying the foundation for some type of romance. But it’s never been clear to me whether they planned a romance from the start, and I tend to think not since they seemed to be testing other possibilities, especially in S2. One of the first "official" mentions of a possible T/T pairing may've been some of the comments made at the TCA summer press tour prior to S3 article summary . B&B were on the ENT panel along with Scott B., Jolene B. and Connor T.

I remember maybe a couple of somewhat critical comments CT made about the storyline in S3, but for the most part I think he was diplomatic and seemed open to the pairing. Re: “Harbinger,” he talked about how he and Jolene discussed their scenes before filming and how they tried to find the truth for their characters and justify their actions (especially JB as a Vulcan). At the end of the season, he basically said that if the T/T relationship continued in S4, he hoped the writers would make it evolve. In the end, I think he had some frustrations with how elements of the storyline were handled in S4 as well, but some of that seems to have come out more in subsequent convention appearances than it did during the series run.

Yeah, I think the first session in "The Xindi" would've taken place sometime in August (basis timeline estimates), and he missed a few sessions after that ("Extinction"), so as you said it was likely September when they started a regular schedule lasting into late December. That's around 32-48 sessions over four months, assuming 2-3 every week -- of course they probably missed a few here and there, but that's still a lot of n-p.

 

I think a lot of those comments were made in early during the production of season three, back when Trip still was a honky-tonk guy. His character really didn't start to change until season three, so when they were filming the episodes, Jolene would still have seen the character that way. I also recall, however, an interview with her on Coast to Coast AM right before the finale, where she was asked by a listener about the relationship and she talked about the last few episodes of the show. Her attitude toward the relationship had changed significantly by that point.

 

something just hit me tonight. with the knowledge of the bond it can be easily be used as some of tpols motivation in season three and especially in harbinger.
say the bond had already started to form back before harbinger. it would be in a mild form possibly due to several factors including the panar ect.
but on a subconscious level it was there.
and then trip almost dies in similitude.
she has the revelation that trip may have feelings about her at the same time she may lose him.

she goes into a period to about proving ground of not spending as much time with him possible due what she felt from similitude.
and then amanda comes into the picture and the bond is in there whispering that tpol has to stake her claim to trip.
so tpol stakes her claim to trip , the nacent bond is pleased both by amanda out of the picture and that the relationship has been consumated.

so it sorta lies there quietly. but we may even see in forgotten how tpol tracks trip down in the mess hall and the later the emotional sharing they both have.

it could also play into why she was so upset and snarky about koss.
the bond still couldnt totally manifest itself but it could have been like an itch saying this isnt right.

that is my crazy theory of the day.

 

ToTheBridge: another great job at answering all of moi's questions. Thank you very, very much. Can't wait to get the dvd's now. I've also ordered the novelization of The Expanse storyline. I saw it mentioned here how they liked the way it allows readers to see the internal emotions and motivations behind certain scenes. Are there any other T/T-centric novels published? I've got TGTMD. I'd even be up for some good fanfics if you could recommend one. I've read a few (very few) and really loved the G-deck one by Quills.

Pookha: it maybe be crazy, but I like it!

 

I've been reading the ongoing discussion very interesting question about T'Pol's motivations of kissing Trip like that. I think she wanted to show him how she feels about and that she likes kissing him. That she felt like she was losing him and she'd pushed him too far and she has a difficult time expressing those feelings being a Vulcan it's hard for her to do so.A interesting thing D.c.Fontana said in an interview was Vulcan's touching their mate that deepens the connection between their mate physically and mentally without using a mindmeld. So neroupressure and the touch is important to estabilish a bond feelings play a big part in forming such a Bond. And Fontana said it's a just a rumor about Vulcans being intimate every seven years that they could be anytime they wanted that Pon farr forced them to be when the time came whenit was necessary to do so.It's obvious she loves Trip. And Connor & Jolene did an excellent job portraying them. And Jolene did seem to change what she felt about their relationship.

 

If I had to guess, the bond had its genesis in the first episode - the very tiniest seeds of it - and it was season three that let this grow.

 

In answer to your queation Hopeful Romantic it was an interview D.C. Fontana did last year talking about her book Vulcan's Glory where she mentions Sarek and Spock and T'Pol all had a wild side when it comes to emotions.That they have emotions and can show love in their own Vulcan way. And then she mentions about the Vulcan touching each other in other ways to strengthen the bond Physically and mentally brings them closer as a couple.That when they really loved each other they'd have a deeper bond and can have sex whenever they wanted to.She was tired of the rumour they'd come together once every seven years. They had to come together ever seven years because of Ponn Far they have emotions they just control them. They show love in their own way that Sarek & Amanda had a very deep loving relationship in Journey to babel was what she mentioned among other things and that's all i can remember for the moment.

 

i have to admit on some level i always wonder that.
and that something happened to them in stange new world.
i mean it is odd how tpol just ignores liz and travis to tend to trip.

and then the level of snarkiness in unexpected and oasis.

want to retcon it into a whole then the panars maybe delayed its formation until the np sessions started to increase it.
and that the scene in forgotten were they both lower their barriers could be seen as important as the np.

and remember touch is involved here too
as tpol reaches out to trip.

so there are two theories...

 

To me, it was the way the two of them challenged each other right from the very first episode, both physically and emotionally/intellectually. That was a powerful character dynamic that sort of disappeared for a while after the first season, but it came back in a big way in season three. That chemistry and challenge... ultimately coming full circle to a bond and relationship.

 

you got it a little in season two.
horizon and cease fire come to mind.

 

I just got my Enterprise scripts and was reading Similitude and E2 and noticed some extra scenes that were not in the televised version. Were these never filmed or can those of you who have the dvds say if they are included as deleted scenes? In Similitude it's the scene where T'Pol comes across Sim researching the larvae, and the scene in E2 (that I would love, love, love if it were actually filmed) has him asking Lorian how he and T'Pol hooked up.

 

Those deleted scenes are in the DVDs, so yeah they were filmed and they were good... though I can see why they were cut. I'm happy they included them on the DVDs.

 

Before the fans were given that horrible Valentine by B&B, what do you think the last scene in Terra Prime alluded to? Do you think Coto had a happy ending in mind when he penned it? I read on a review somewhere that noted how ironic it was that T'Pol had refused to shake Trip's hand in the first episode and was seen here grabbing it in comfort. So had they come full circle?

 

On the dvds are these scenes included in a deleted scenes section or just a part of the episode? Are they likely to be included in any future cheaper editions of the dvd's? Were there deleted scenes in the DS9 and/or TNG original DVD issues that were not included in the cheaper cardboard slipcase issues?

What a lot of dull dvd questions..

 

In the deleted section, the episodes were the same as those originally aired. I don't know if they will be different in the cheaper ones. There were no deleted scenes in any of the other series dvd releases.

 

Hi. I am a fairly new poster. I just thought I'd drop a couple of thoughts I've had about the relationship between T'Pol and Trip.

First, I've just finished watching the series via NetFlix. I have been surprised by just how much I enjoyed it.

I agree with Jolene Blalock that the relationship between these two characters seemed to lack a clear decision, on the part of the writers, about whether or not to continue it. I recognize the impulse of television writers to dangle story possibilities out there, but when it comes to sexual/romantic relationships between characters, postponing and postponing seems like a real "Saved By The Bell" move.

What I always liked about the way they came together was that (aside from the ridiculous premise of Neuro-pressure) this relationship was forged in the midst of both a personal trauma for Trip, a universal trauma for humanity, and an extremely stressful and intense race against time to prevent a catastrophe. Amidst the constant fear of death, the repeated trauma of deforming anomalies, and the helplessness of not being in control of one's own destiny, these two individuals found something within the other to hold onto; they were able to heal each other and find some sort of comfort, or at least love, during their darkest hour. That always draws me in.

I don't know, maybe it's just me. Conflict...I love it.