Original episode plans

[Bad Thoughts]

I got it backwards. Enterprise tackled that issue while DS9 chose not to. My mistake.

Please don't give the writers too much credit. T'Pol's addiction was just an excuse to make her another f'ed u p woman, like Kara Thrace. It was a way to get around Vulcan sexuality, make her angry and available at the same time in a way that was inconsistent with the character.

 

[Tiberius]

I got it backwards. Enterprise tackled that issue while DS9 chose not to. My mistake.

I didn't say "violating canon", I said continuity as in ongoing stories within the show. Enterprise didn't try it until season 3, but by then it was too late to hold onto the fanbase. And it's not like Berman ever really embraced long storylines, otherwise Voyager might not have been nicknamed the USS Reset Button.

Gotta agree with you there. Voyager turned into a TNG clone in so many respects.

 

[Tiberius]

I got it backwards. Enterprise tackled that issue while DS9 chose not to. My mistake.

Please don't give the writers too much credit. T'Pol's addiction was just an excuse to make her another f'ed u p woman, like Kara Thrace. It was a way to get around Vulcan sexuality, make her angry and available at the same time in a way that was inconsistent with the character.

You got a source for that, or do you just want an excuse to bag on Enterprise?

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Let's hear from Frau Blalock:

Since my character is a drug addict, she's no longer in control of her emotions. So because of the Trillium-D, she might begin a relationship.

I have mixed feelings about [the Tellium B addiciton]. It was very difficult for me to justify. Why would T'Pol want to do this to herself? Why are emotions so important to her? I felt that she lost herself there. She lost her culture, she lost her person – she lost T'Pol. She even lost her reputation!

I had a hard time last year. I had a real hard time with the trellium-D addiction, I had a real hard time with the sex, I had a hard time with the emotions -- I couldn't justify it as an actor. Why do I find these emotions so thrilling? What's wrong with me? I just felt that she was lost. She was lost in the story arc, she was lost in resigning her commission, not having a post -- it was weird not being called 'subcommander.' I felt that she was ripped of her respect and her dignity. I just felt that she became an emotional floozy, you know? And I didn't like it.

None of these quotes directly reference a producers' decision. They do reflect the actress' understanding of the development and how outside the character's development it was. Moreover, it links, implicitly, the addiction and changes in the character's sexuality, which the actress felt lacked continuity with the character's development.

 

[Tiberius]

But do you have anything that says that it was done with the intention o turning her into "another f'ed u p woman... a way to get around Vulcan sexuality, make her angry and available at the same time" without regards to the character?

 

[Bad Thoughts]

But do you have anything that says that it was done with the intention o turning her into "another f'ed u p woman... a way to get around Vulcan sexuality, make her angry and available at the same time" without regards to the character?

You are asking me if I have a source for my critical assessment of what happened to T'Pol? That would be me. Do I think that Braga and Berman literally wanted to make T'Pol damaged goods in order to get a sexier T'Pol? No. However, I believe that was the end result. The actress' observations and feelings reflect her own understanding of the character and her relationship with production, but nonetheless act as a type of evidence. While Blalock doesn't name names, she points out serious discontinuities in her character, about which I feel free to analyze. Moreover, I think that this fits into a pattern, in which formerly strong women whose emerging sexuality parallels the rise of psychological conflict. Was the Trellium-B plotline necessary to make T'Pol more sexual or more romantic? All that was necessary was time, particularly more exposure to non-Vulcans. Did the Trellium-B plotline enhance our understanding of addiction through the lens of science fiction? YMMV.