T'Pol was a great character. My favorite Vulcan, tied in first place with Sarek. Yes better than Spock and Tuvok.
She showed off perfectly the flaws of the Vulcan's of that era.
When i first watched Enterprise I hated how the Vulcan's were being portrayed. They all seemed so pissed off and easily annoyed. It also annoyed me that they ALL had to be wearing thoes STUPID wigs that TNG introduced. It took me a very long time to just ignore it all.
But when I watched the Vulcan Arc, (apart from the fact Archer had to be involved and wigs) it just seemed to all make sense. In this era there were Vulcan's without logic, Vulcan's becoming criminals and smugglers, Vulcan's deciding that it was better to live on a backward world that seemed likely to enter a nuclear war rather than go home and their government was run by Romulans. It seemed to me that Vulcan's had no idea how to properly control themselves until they found the Kirshara. They were all totally messed up, not just T'Pol.
T'Pol demonstrated this Struggle brilliantly, she wasn't some weak arse Vulcan, she was just an ordinary Vulcan and like the rest of the Vulcan race at the time, they didn't know how to deal with themselves properly. T'Pol had no real defense against emotion and she was bombarded by human emotion every day. She got a bit lost, tried out a few things she shouldn't have, decided that if you can't beat 'em she might try and join 'em and she made a few mistakes, but worked through them. I don't think in this era any Vulcan would have faired any better than she did.
Why are we comparing her with 7 of boring? She has got to be the most uninteresting character I've ever laid my eyes on. She had large breasts and a cat suit. As far as i'm concerned thoes are the only two similarities and they are, although a touch annoying, still totally superficial.
Why do we have to be in a culture that disregards a persons worth just because they happen to be gorgeous looking or dress in a certain way?
"Gosh she's lovelly, oh no, the way she dresses is far too attractive, nope i can't possibly take her seriously!" No offense but it's an awful attitude!
Maybe Vulcan's wear catsuits all the time under their Robes and T'Pol decided to not bother about the robes.
Why should T'Pol even consider what anyone thinks of how she looks anyway, whether it be attractive or otherwise? If they were that distracted by her, it's just another reason why humans are too immature to be travelling the stars.
Yes I know it was really about attracting young men to trek, we all knew that, but why did it actually matter? couldn't we have just forgotten about it, for some, enjoyed it, and just watched the show?
The reason I found T'Pol to be more likable than Spock. In the TOS series I got this feeling that Spock was just a wee bit of a whining, cry baby (just my opinion, I still loved him though), he's totally unsure of himself to the point he even hates a part of himself, the dude has truelly deep seeded emotional issues about his mum, dad, heritage and women that takes decades to resolve. It's also very interesting but still he's no stoic god.
I don't get that feeling as much in the movies, but i really wouldn't think of Spock as the mould for all Vulcans, well he isn't Vulcan, because he's just as much Human.
I would base Vulcans on Sarek or Tuvok, I know we don't get to see alot of Sarek but what we do see is a guy that's confidant in his emotional control, a touch arrogant but not utterly ashamed of feeling, same goes for Tuvok. You can't compare them to T'Pol they were brought up with a different set of beliefs.
If we had been able to have 5 + Seasons I like to think that we would have seen a more stable T'Pol, learning about the Kirshara, incorporating it in to her life (As well as Trip) and becoming more like the Vulcans we've seen in the past, errr future.