T'Lana *SPOILERS*

[Joel_Kirk]

This was an interesting character.

I was actually introduced to her in 'Before Dishonor' and went back to read about her first encounter with the current ENT crew in 'Resistance.'

I know she has a demise. (I jumped to it, while skipping around the Destiny books).

Apparently, she supposed to be bigoted towards Klingons, but I understand it's an underlying desire to--for lack of a more blunt term--'bang' Worf...

Worf, it seems, has an attraction to her as well, but T'Lana is just too stiff and too uncompromising for not only Worf, but the main ENT crew.

The way T'Lana is described, it sounds like she has very youthful and attractive looks similarly to Ezri Dax in season 7 of DS9...but has years of experience. Years of experience in knowledge, but still learning how to relate to others...

Note: T'Lana kind of combined the talents of Troi and Data, but had her own way of acting towards Picard, who is undergoing some tough times. No doubt her demeanor stressed out the Captain rather than help...

 

[Christopher]

"Bigoted towards Klingons" is an overstatement. Rather, she didn't think highly of their lack of emotional discipline.

 

[Lindley]

My impression was that she was an attempted character whom none of the authors could figure out quite what to do with, so they eventually just killed her off.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

"Bigoted towards Klingons" is an overstatement. Rather, she didn't think highly of their lack of emotional discipline.

Yeah, that's true....

My impression was that she was an attempted character whom none of the authors could figure out quite what to do with, so they eventually just killed her off.

I have that same impression, Lindley....

 

[LutherSloan]

Yeah, she was portrayed differently in the first few TNG-Relaunch books, and it really killed her development as a character. To the point where she ends up dead.

 

[captcalhoun]

i thought her behaviour between the books was actually fairly consistent: cold, aloof, smugly superior and a contrarian bitch.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

I liked the character as she first appeared in "Resistance", and was expanded upon in "Q and A", and I was disappointed that she was portrayed so differently in "Before Dishonour". Like pretty much every character in that novel, she was reduced to a single character trait that was then exaggerated beyond all sense, even given the extraordinary situation. In her case, that was her opposition to Picard on the basis that she thought his decisions were often suspect. The idea of a councillor who is more challenging of Picard than supportive was a good one, but the flat-out, "I am always right, because I'm superior to everyone else" took it beyond the interesting and into the ridiculous. Her comment along the lines of "humans (and implicitly most non-Vulcans) will never develop as a species to the heights we Vulcans have if they remain emotional" was, in my opinion, totally contradictory to her description in "Resistance" as a cultural specialist with great respect for alien cultures. I certainly see why she left after the events of "Before Dishonour", but I was disappointed to have a character established in one book only to be swiftly reduced to a caricature and abandoned. That said, the short scene in "Greater Than the Sum" did much to redeem the character for me, and I was hoping she might reappear and the "problem" could be resolved. Interestingly, as someone here pointed out at one point, her death scene in "Lost Souls" continues her redemption, in-story if not as an inconsistant character, when she calmly accepts what happens rather than attempting to change that she logically cannot. I was also interested to see she felt the desire to make amends to Worf, Picard and Spock, so evidently she shared my desire for a return visit ; the Borg had other ideas...

 

[LightningStorm]

Far be it for me to defend the terrible Before Dishonor, but I think T'Lana was the only character in that book that was consistent with what came before and what occurred in that book was just further expanding and developing her.

I agree T'Lana was a self-righteous, arrogant, know-it-all, holier-than-thou bitch, but (to me) that was the point of her character. To be able to overcome that silliness and grow to respect and appreciate that Picard and Company know what they're doing even if it isn't the most logical, obvious, or prudent thing to do. This, to me, was the purpose for every Vulcan character that ever existed from Spock to Tuvok to T'Pol. They're there to say "that's not logical" "that's irrational" "that's reckless" while Kirk, Janeway, and Archer are able to use what humans do best and show them that logic, while important and valuable, isn't always the best way to approach everything in the cosmos.

Where Before Dishonor fell down in characterization was with everyone else including the main cast.

 

[DS9forever]

One of the few things that interested me in her was if she was the same T'Lana who was mentioned as being a character in Vulcan Love Slave...

 

[Fer]

I thought she had great potential as a character. It was good to have someone who was a contrary point of view, and I had hoped we'd watch her grow and become a part of the family who still held an outside point of view.

 

[shanejayell]

I thought she had potential, one sadly snuffed in Before Dishonor.

 

[DarKush]

I liked the character. Of the first crop of TNG relaunch characters, T'Lana stuck out to me the most and had the most potential to add something different to the crew. I got the impression that her and Worf might get together, but oh well. She'll be missed.

 

[nx1701g]

I'm sorry to say that I liked her death. I never liked her.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Far be it for me to defend the terrible Before Dishonor, but I think T'Lana was the only character in that book that was consistent with what came before and what occurred in that book was just further expanding and developing her.

I agree T'Lana was a self-righteous, arrogant, know-it-all, holier-than-thou bitch, but (to me) that was the point of her character. To be able to overcome that silliness and grow to respect and appreciate that Picard and Company know what they're doing even if it isn't the most logical, obvious, or prudent thing to do. This, to me, was the purpose for every Vulcan character that ever existed from Spock to Tuvok to T'Pol. They're there to say "that's not logical" "that's irrational" "that's reckless" while Kirk, Janeway, and Archer are able to use what humans do best and show them that logic, while important and valuable, isn't always the best way to approach everything in the cosmos.

Where Before Dishonor fell down in characterization was with everyone else including the main cast.

After reading Resistance, then going back to Before Dishonor, I felt the change in characterization myself....

Moreover, I actually prefer T'Lana over T'ressa Chen...

 

[Reanok]

I liked T'Lana in resistance.But I didn't like how T'Lana was portrayed in the last few TNG books. I was glad she returned to Vulcan.She caused too much contention among the crew.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

I meant to actually post this initially, but T'Lana somewhat reminded me of the buxom/very attractive girl {at least that was the way she was written} from the novel Vulcan!

Interestingly, the girl there harbored a prejudice towards Vulcans because her Vulcan lover 'left' her...i.e. died on a mission, IIRC...

T'Lana seems a bit like Valeris: Using 'logic' to cloud her judgment...or at least benefit her own personal viewpoint(s); not only in regards to Klingons, but everything.

 

[Technobuilder]

Honestly of all the new characters that "went off the rails" in Before Dishonor, I'd have to say Leybenzon was the one that hurt most. I still don't get how Worf had requested him and they have respect for each other but are then hating each other 2 weeks later...

But T'Lana while I didn't care for her character's turn, I thought fairly consistent with what HAD been established about her character up to that point. I was looking forward to a "non-family" dynamic in the crew just to see how the relationships played out, but alas, it was not to be. I did kind of wonder in Destiny why she was being killed off though, I figured of all the characters her's had the best chance of being redeemed.

Miranda Kadohata however... I still don't understand her or the character's actions or intentions. I really have trouble seeing her as Data's hand picked successor also. Mostly because we've never been SHOWN what she can do, or why she's there, we've just been TOLD that she's highly capable.

 

[David cgc]

I did kind of wonder in Destiny why she was being killed off though, I figured of all the characters her's had the best chance of being redeemed.

That's probably exactly why. Here we have this woman who's finally realized that she has a personality problem, and is getting better... but the Borg come in and take away her second chance, just when she might've been able to become a really good person.

 

[Stephen!]

I did kind of wonder in Destiny why she was being killed off though

IIRC Christopher said that for Greater than the Sum, that one of the requirements for the book was that either T'Lana or Leybenzon be killed off. So it seems it was destined to happen one way or another.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I still don't get how Worf had requested him and they have respect for each other but are then hating each other 2 weeks later...

I've seen much worse in the real world!