Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About T'Pol

tapaw was to enterprise what seven of nine was to voyager she was brought in to appeal to audiences who were fans of tight cat suits and slender women however the production team did make an extremely savvy decision that frankly saved the character they cast jolene blaylock in the role much can and will be said about the various decisions that were made surrounding depaul's arc on the show and the repeated attempts to get more and more skin shown but blaylock managed to deliver a performance that allowed the female vulcan to stand the test of time now 20 years after the show premiered there are calls for depaul to make appearances on strange new worlds it was far from easy sailing for her te paul dealt with stigma and addiction storylines along with a very up and down relationship with tripp she was given the unenviable task of trying to boost the ratings as they slipped which fell on the shoulders of blaylock in the costume department so why is it that she's so loved what did she do that made her stand out so much well i'm bree from trek culture and hopefully we can answer that question as we look at 10 things that you didn't know about to paul number 10 to paul versus tapao tapao first appeared in the original series episode amok time she was revered enough to make a personal request of starfleet allowing the enterprise to stay in orbit of vulcan while spock underwent pond far and to have it granted 100 years prior to this she was slated to be the longest serving vulcan on a starfleet vessel and she was to be played by jolene blaylock tapal was actually originally supposed to be the officer serving aboard the enterprise this would lead to her understanding of humans which would in turn lead to her becoming such an important voice on the federation political circuit however this never happened as there were concerns over the licensing rights of the character who had been created by theodore sturgeon when he was writing among time in a situation similar to the tom paris niclocarno switch that occurred in the next generation in voyager the character was remodeled so that the enterprise wouldn't have to pay royalties for the use of tapau in every episode that she appeared in the character would however go on to actually appear in the show's fourth season played by karazediker number nine it's gorillas in the mist time during the initial sketches brandon braga suggested that one of the inspirations for depaul was the american primatologist and conservationist diane fosse fosse was the subject of the 1988 film gorillas in the mist starring sigourney weaver fawci and to paul were similar in that they were pioneers in their own way in zoological studies while de paul was studying humans in their shipboard habitats fosse was of course famous for studying and living with gorillas in the rwandan forests they also shared another similarity both could be steadfast stubborn and potentially deeply frustrating to those around them tapaw would go through a large amount of trauma throughout enterprise's four-year run and of course fosse faced daily opposition for her work to protect the gorillas from poaching and tourist routes fosse's story ends in tragedy in 1985 her body was found in her cabin in rwanda haven't been bludgeoned to death and her assistant was convicted of her murder in absentia the character bible for topal took inspiration from fosse's fearless and dogged determination though other elements would be softened to make the character more attractive to new viewers number eight she became the face of aids-related stigma in star trek stigma is the second season episode that saw to paul dealing with the prejudice and vulcan society towards those affected with pannar syndrome pannar was analogous to hiv and aids this was deliberate as the episode was produced as part of paramount's hiv awareness program in 2003. tepal contracts the condition via a forced mine meld at this point in star trek's history mind melts were deemed an inappropriate and taboo practice amongst vulcans this leads directly to tapal's ostracization by her vulcan colleagues the episode was a subtle reuse of themes explored in the unproduced blood and fire a script written by david gerald which was rejected early in the next generation's run critics of the episode said that it didn't go far enough in exploring the prejudice to paul faces as she contracts pannar through no fault of her own the episode ran the risk of judging those who acquired hiv through consensual sexual acts despite this blaileck gives one of her strongest performances to that point in the show as she deals with the fallout of her diagnosis and discovery regardless of whether the episode did or didn't go far enough in its message it was an example of the franchise moving forward in how it shined a light on modern issues blood and fire had been rejected for much the same reason that de paul was facing public exile the simple fact of producing this episode showed star trek was in fact growing up number seven it's a wig all right you might have known this one but jolene blaylock actually had blonde curly hair while filming enterprise hair designer michael moore was adamant that depaul however would have dark hair so he decided that she would be given a wig stylist gloria casney was tasked with getting blaylock into the hair piece every day this process would take about 30 minutes while blaylock's hair was wound and tucked into the cap the first wig they tried actually had a longer look reminiscent of a mullet thankfully though the mullet was cropped shorter the look going into season 1 was close to what had previously been seen on vulcans though topol's fringe was a little more uneven than spock or cerrix had been the third and fourth seasons had her hair begin to be a little more human as moore believed that living around these people would soften to paul and allow her rigid discipline to slide a little the fourth season saw her receive gentle highlights in her wig while the strict almost poker straight hair from the first couple of years was retired when it came to inner mirror darkly they decided to give her a long wig to create an even bigger difference between her mirror and prime counterparts number six the ratings dropped and so did her neckline as the show entered its third season depaul's character underwent a number of changes firstly she left the vulcan high command this led to her receiving a field commission of commander in starfleet by the fourth season one would assume then that she would be issued a starfleet uniform like the rest of her crew again one would assume but costume designer robert blackman was quite honest when describing the reason for depaul's costumes he said it was simply to boost ratings as the show's second season wore on the views began to dip so the show began to plot out the zendiarch which say what you will i like the zindy arc along the way to paul's darker cat suit was abandoned for a bright colored variant with a plunging neckline though obvious the costume designers continued to provide her with outfits like this for the rest of the show's run even when she entered starfleet rather than a starfleet uniform she was given another low-cut jumpsuit with rank insignia while the ploy may have contributed to the show receiving a fourth season it wasn't enough to save it from cancellation at the end of the year number 5 she was the hardest character to cast on enterprise the character that would become to paul was the last one to be cast according to brennan braga hundreds of actresses were tested for the part with none of them winning over the other the character bible described her as alluring yet confident and capable for a time when she was meant to be to pow elements of celia levski's performance were sought as the character changed between bible and audition though the producers weren't entirely sure what exactly they were looking for jolene blaylock was in the very last group to come in and read for the part it was apparently a slam dunk she had in fact turned down the audition three times already blaylock had been a fan of the original series and spock in particular as a child though she had no interest in any of the spin-offs it was only after her agent convinced her to read the script for broken bow that she agreed to read for the part once she came in things moved very quickly and before long she was undergoing the two-hour makeup session to transform her into a vulcan number four it's a trillium down for this storyline the third season of enterprise saw depaul exposed to a compound that was known as trillium d this compound was highly addictive and damaging its first appearance came an impulse which is effectively the zombie vulcan episode a genuinely unnerving story about the vulcan science ship's salea to paul's addiction to this substance using it to expand her understanding of emotions was a controversial one brandon braga later said he understood the storyline would be controversial as it would show to paul knowingly continuing to abuse the substance to further her own understanding of emotions as this storyline had notably never been attempted with any of the male vulcans in the franchise it left the door open to criticism as to why exactly the writers were going down this route with her though they would later defend the storyline with it remaining highly controversial to this day number three she's half romulan had enterprise been approved for a fifth season there was a major shock coming for the audiences in terms of depaul's parentage specifically her father though he had been mentioned in the show there was little revealed about him on screen the fifth season would have revealed him to be a romulan spy operating on vulcan this was actually a reuse of the original plan for lieutenant savic who first appeared in star trek ii the wrath of khan she was immediately a more emotional vulcan than the franchise had previously offered this was due though not stated on screen to the fact that she was half romulan when the search for spock was released with a now recast savic returning played this time by robin curtis the plot element had been completely swept away with curtis's performance matching the stereotypical vulcan portrayals the return of the idea for use with depaul would have posed an interesting challenge for the writers at this point in star trek's history no human had seen a romulan and lived to tell the tale in balance of terror spock was unaware that romulans were related to vulcans so how are they going to explain to paul's parentage while keeping cannon intact alas with season 5 a pipe dream it seems like this question will just never be answered number 2 le femme nikita inspired an episode that reveals her backstory the episode vii sees depaul assigned the task of hunting manos a former vulcan reconnaissance agent who went rogue this is actually a mission she had begun in the years prior to serving aboard the enterprise when she was still part of the vulcan ministry of security it is revealed she would be assigned missions to bring fugitives to justice a story inspired by luke bassan's film la femme nikita sees a young homeless junkie named nikita caught up in a murder she's imprisoned and then blackmailed into working with a shadowy agency as a contract killer though she's skilled at her work it quickly interferes with her hopes for a personal life leading to some very difficult decisions while the two stories are not identical the themes of the job one can't turn down being the thing to threaten their established lives and identity is there is a further detail in that while nikita deals with the trauma of her former life tapal actively sought to run from it she underwent fellara a ritual designed to purge the memory of killing which leads to a shocking revelation as the episode goes on nikita's story ends with her escaping from her work with the agency while depaul's ends with a resolution to her former life number one jolene blaylock was critical about how the character was written as stated before jolene blaylock was a big fan of the original series and spock in particular when she agreed to take on the role of depaul she saw from early on that writers for enterprise wanted to take her character in a different direction than vulcans who had come before and she wasn't thrilled about that decision she famously said you can't substitute tits and ass for a good story when it came to describing her various costumes however she also struggled with the general levels of emotion that she was expected to deliver she saw this as veering away from how vulcans were supposed to act she also acknowledged that she thought a relationship between depaul and trip wouldn't work both for her own vulcan self and for tripp's frequent emotional outbursts finally she believed depauw was better than some of the directions that she had been taken she had been given a fatal disease which went largely unaddressed she became an addict and had been in blaylock's words shown as a weak woman to paul blaylock believed was more than any of these even if the writing wasn't up to the standards for that character while it's up to audiences to decide if they agree with blaylock's assessment or not which i personally do i love the character to paul remains a superb name on the actor's resume one we all very much hope to see reprised in the future and those were 10 things that you hopefully didn't already know about depaul if you like what we do here at trek culture you can hit that subscribe button we're almost at a quarter of a million you could also follow us on twitter at trekculture or you could find me on twitter at trekkiebree i hope you all have a great rest of your week and i'll see you next time live long and prosper [Music]

Channel: TrekCulture

Views: 925,130

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Id: CDRoZ18WiS0

Length: 12min 41sec (761 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 11 2022