Jolene Blalock and Brannon Braga clashed over T’Pol

When Jolene Blalock’s character, T’Pol, was introduced on Star Trek: Enterprise, fans had hope that she would be another Spock.

With the Vulcan knowledge of exploring the galaxy, T’Pol could easily have provided Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) with well-needed advice and guidance. Unfortunately, the show didn’t go in that direction, and instead, Blalock felt T’Pol wasn’t okay with being a Vulcan.

While everyone else aboard the new Enterprise were uncertain about space travel, T’Pol should not have been, considering her species has been the first to tour the galaxy, and she herself was experienced. Instead of her being given the confidence of a Vulcan, T’Pol’s culture was largely ignored. In the oral history book “The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J.J. Abrams,” edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, Blalock said she “personally believed that T’Pol should have more of her Vulcan culture. I don’t believe she should be so desperate like everyone else.” And that was one of the many reasons she and Brannon Braga clashed.

Jolene Blalock wanted a more confident version of T’Pol

Braga admits (in the same book) that Blalock wasn’t happy playing T’Pol even though he said she did a really good job at it.

"“IShe and I just never saw eye to eye with the character, and she just didn’t like the way the character was going, particularly in the third season when T’Pol became addicted to drugs. She didn’t like the romance with Trip.”"

Blalock wasn’t the only one who had an issue with T’Pol’s drug addiction as writer David Goodman admitted there were things the producers wanted done with the character that he didn’t approve of himself, like the drug addiction and the acupressure. Still Goodman said her time as T’Pol was “the second best portrayal of a Vulcan.”

But, in reality, we all know Star Trek: Enterprise didn’t treat Blalock’s character as a Vulcan. They didn’t give her the same level of self-assurance that Leonard Nimoy’s Spock had. Spock believed in himself and never doubted his own abilities whereas T’Pol seemed to be constantly in a state of uncertainty. And having the first female Vulcan aboard a starship, Enterprise could have done really great things with Blalock’s character. Instead, they chose to go in the direction of a sexy, almost helpless at times, version of a Vulcan. It’s certainly no wonder Blalock clashed with Braga.