T’Pol’s Surprise Return To The Mega Star Trek Crossover

By Owen Quinn author

Of all the regular Star Trek main cast, over the years only one of them seems to have shunned the spotlight and disappeared off the grid completely. Jolene Blalock has not done any conventions or interviews and left the Trek universe behind to raise a family. Her former colleagues Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating did a public appeal for her to come on to their then podcast Shuttlepod One. Trinneer had been T’pol’s love interest in the show but their request was not answered. But now she is back, perhaps they can reach out for their new podcast D- Con Chamber podcast.

T’Pol was a great character showing Vulcans on the cusp of becoming totally logical beings that we know so well. Just as Archer was the first captain, she was the first Vulcan, the one that could change Vulcan opinion on humans even though it was never her intention. She held the same view of humans as other Vulcans but that changed over time. She has many excellent storylines including becoming an addict to Trellium-D throwing her Vulcan control totally off. But thanks to Doctor Phlox, she was able to wean herself free of it after their battle with the Xindi in the Expanse. As much as she was learning about humans so we were learning about Vulcan society through her eyes.

But in a move no one expected, Jolene came back to the role in the new Lower Decks episode thanks to the multiverse. Animated show Lower Decks has been following a multiverse storyline and T’Pol is part of the crew of Captain William Boimler’s ship, the USS Anaximander. They are on a mission to hunt down and stop whomever is creating the holes in space leading to other realities.

But this is not the T’Pol we know. She is in fact a version that married Trip Tucker and spent 63 years with him before he died. In that time she got an up close and personal understanding of human emotions.

She is very controlled but compassionate towards her other crew mates. They include Curzon Dax who knows how to swing a Klingon weapon. Also aboard are Doctor Elim Garak and his holographic husband Emergency Medical Hologram Julian Bashir.

T’Pol finds a friend in Curzon especially when he is dying and she must take Dax’s katra into her via a mind meld. She is integral in solving the mystery giving her captain’s erratic and depressive behaviour. He is worn away by all the trouble the multiverse has brought. This trouble comes in the form of multiple Harry Kim’s who form most of his crew especially two pip Kim who is one angry puppy.

How ironic then that they discover the rips in reality are not an act of evil but an accident. They discover it is in fact First Contact’s Lily Sloane that is behind everything. Instead of a creating a warp drive ship with Zephram Cochrane, they created a quantum reality one in order to explore other realities. Their mission is to better understand humanity and had no idea their ship was causing these rips between realities.

All the old characters are voiced by their on screen counterparts and a multiverse is designed to give the fans what they want and never got. T’Pol and Trip lived happily ever after while the relationship between Garak and Bashir has been the subject of fan conjecture and fully relaised with their marriage.

T’Pol is centre stage here and fulfils the same function she did with Archer (Scott Bakula) but with a patience and understanding she never had on those four years. She fits right in with the other characters from the various franchises and just to hear her again brings a smile to my face. When Mariner arrives she is in awe of seeing T’Pol in the flesh.

This new T’Pol sees right through the complexities of emotion which is demonstrated perfectly in her relationship with Curzon. She understands sarcasm when he is rude to her and when she lectures him on the amount of sodium he is consuming he gets a lesson in Trill responsibilities in regards to future hosts. His anger masks the fear that she is correct which she also recognises.

Photos copyright Paramount

there are shades of the initial distrust and ignorance she experienced when she joined the Enterprise which is a nice touch but now she handles it with ease.

The biggest and most solid part of the episode is her sparring friendship with Curzon. His death is handled very well as T’Pol becomes the carrier of Curzon Dax’s minds and vows to deliver them to Curzon’s reality.

It’s a pity that this is the end of Lower Decks as this story totally deserves further exploration.

I don’t know how the show’s makers finally persuaded Jolene to return to the role but here’s hoping that T’Pol, the first Vulcan, will not only reappear on one of the spin offs (Strange New Worlds). Who knows? She may well finally agree to appear on the D- Con Chamber podcast along with her onscreen love interest and Dominic. Welcome back Jolene. It’s been too long.