I'm a huge Star Trek fan, "Jolene Blalock raves. "Huge. I grew up with it. I was raised on the original Star Trek. It was Captain Kirk, Bones, Spock. It was legendary. It was timeless. Here are these three guys out there in the middle of space, with Kirk taking his pants off for every girl in town and Bones busy telling Spock how green his blood is. I loved that show. But I got lost along the way with The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. I just got lost. After reading the first Enterprise script, though I realized what they were doing. They're reversing Star Trek. Not only is a prequel, but they're taking it back to Gene Roddenberry's original concept for teh show. And I believe in that."
If that's the case, then Blalock is Spock in spandex...with cleavage. And as Sub-Commander T'Pol, she's a contentious Vulcan science officer who regularly butts heads with Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) and the rest of the Enerprise NX-OI crew. She may be second-in-command, but T'Pol is certainly the lease popular person on the ship. Of course, Capain Kirk once remarked that of all the souls he encountered in the universe, Spock was the most...human.
Cool Reason
T'Pol right now, is the voice of reason," says Blalock of her character, who is the oldest person on board at 65, and who, at one point, was going to be a younger version of T'Pau, the Vulcan High Priestess played by Celia Lovsky in "Amok Time," Blalock's favorite episode of the original Trek. "She's the voice of responsibility, but I can't say that she's not questioning herself about 'What am I doing on this ship?" She does her job well. She's competent. She's extremely well-educated. She's from a superior race. She is the person for this job, and yet not one 'Thank you,' not one 'Good job' or 'There you go' or 'Hey there.' So I can't help but feel that T'Pol is thinking, 'What am I doing here?' Except there is a bigger purpose to all of it. She does believe in this mission, and she does belive in human capabilities. They are resourceful. They get by, in their own way. There's much to learn from humans, and she is learning from being around them. "I would say that, at this point, each relationship is being developed in its own way as we go along. In each episode so far at least one relationship has been built upon a little bit more. T'Pol's male relationship is with the Captian. In the (character) breakdown that first came out (to agents), the relationship between T'Pol and Archer was described as one grudging respect. The crew, the Captain included, is just trying to figure out what my intentions are. And my intentions are of great integrity: the greatest good for the greatest number of people- the people on this ship, our mission and everyone who we affect."
Blalock, like many actors before her, speaks of the myriad challenges that come with playing a Star Trek alien. There's the technobabble, the skin-tight costume, the makeup and the special FX with which to contend. "It's lots of technobabble," Blalock laughs. "Sometimes it can be a huge pain because we don't just get the technobabble, but we also get pronunciation cheat sheet. You get the words and instructions on how to say them. One vowel can really mess you uup. It's really weird. We had one episode at the beginning, 'Fight or Flight,' where we were standing there looking at this ship taht was basically dead in the water. Archer looks at it and he says, 'These look like scorch marks.' But in my mind, I kept on hearing 'skid marks.' Then my dialogue was, 'Tis' dehydrated residue. And it looks like it's been created by some strong particle impact.' All I could picture was somebody crapping their pants, like skid marks. Strong particle impacts. Residue. It was very funny."
Unlike her dialogue, Blalock's outfit is just plain different. "The costume is insane. I look in the mirror and it's hard to find myself because it's so completely different from whom I am. But it's great for character work. You just disappear into the role. The makeup isn't too bad. It's not like I'm in a mask, it's just the eyebrows and the ears. The hair took a while to figure out, but it has been fine since we found the right wig. I'm glad they thought it was important enough to get it right."
Hot Emotion
So how long did it take for everything to fall into place, for Blalock to get comfortable in the Enterprise milieu? "You know what? It's a really strange thing," she confesses. "I work my ass off to get a job.. You go all on faith, hope and a prayer- cross your fingers, hope to die. Then you get the job, and when to come where they say. 'You know what? We found the right girl and we don't need you.' It wasn't until I walked on the set the first day, in constume and looked at that set and myself that I said, 'Damn straight. I'm going to take this and I'm going to own it. Only at that moment did I take the character. As far as developing T'Pol, she is in development every day, and I plan on her continuing to develop every day, becoming fuller, richer and more interesting. Rick Berman and Brannon Braga have given us plenty of range to play. I've gotten mininal notes back from Rick and Brannon. And you know what that tells me? It tells me I'm right on. It helps that we get along really well. Dominic Keating is so charming. Connor (Trinnear) has an incredible sense of humor. Linda (Park) is so sweet, extremely smart and spiritually aware. Anthony (Montgomery) loves life and has so much energy it can't be contained. Scott is inclusive, giving and competent, and always there for us in any aspect we need him to be. He's always watching our backs, which really is important and makes us all feel very comfortable. And then there's me- I'm just a dork. But I want to see where T'Pol goes. How big can she become? How much is she going to grow? There are so many different ways they can take her. When I open up each script, it's like, 'Oh, wow, where am I going to go now?' It's exciting. Each week she grows in strides, so I'm excited to see what she grows into.
"We're just getting started," adds Blalock, who turned down three invitations to audition for Enterprise before finally consenting. "I can tell you a little about what's coming up, but I don't want to get into detail because I'll be revealing Oz behind the curtain. I will say that T'Pol is learning about human behavior. She's learning how humans all work at a very basic level, about our humanity, aobut how we're affected by what's around us. It's quite a beautiful thing to see. She's Vulcan, but she understands emotion. Vulcans were once extremely emotional. When they felt anger they felt anger. They felt every range of emotion- happiness, love, kindnes, rage- but they felt it such an extreme, it was to the detriment of their race. Only through mediation did they actually learn to control these emotions, which they did to preseve their race. So what's going on inside them is like a volcano. It's like a ball of frustration, of emotion, and they've learned to supress it and feel it's the most logical way to go through life. So T'Pol is affected by everything she sees the humans around her going through, but at the same time she wants to bring a sense of responsibility and logic to matters. She'll say, 'Let's think about our actions before we act, not after.'"
Temperate Logic
Blalock grew up in San Diego and reports that acting was always in the cards. "Can I do anything else?" she asks. "No. Everybody has to figure out what they're going to do with their career, because it's such a major part of your life.My belief is that time is a privilege. It's a luxury. you can have 24 hours in a day and 60 minutes in an hour. Their's only so much time in a day, in your life. If so much of your life is going to be work, why not do something that will make you grow as a person? It can work symiotically. So I couldn't do anything else but act."
At 26, Blalock's career thus far consists of guest spots on Veronica's Closet, The Love Boat, The Next Wave, C.S.I. and JAG, as well as such genre credits as the "Cougar Pines" episode of G vs. E, the SF anthology On the Edge, a co-starring role as Medea in the Jason and the Argonauts telemovie and the upcoming miniseries Diamond Hunters, which was filmed in South Africa and features Roy Schieder, Alyssa Milano, Michael (Total Recal 2070) Easton and Sean Patrick (Young Indiana Jones Chronicles) Flanery.
"I never saw my G vs. E. she notes. "I remember when I did it, though. I had just gotten some wisdom teeth out the day before, so half of my face was swollen. So I really don't want to see it. John (Billingsley) did it, too, and he did not watch it. If he didn't watch it, I don't need to watch it. Jason and the Argonauts was an incredible project. I worked with Dennis Hopper, Frank Langella and Angel MacFadyen. That was amazing. Sean and I both surf, so he let me use his boards. His chaperone and mine surf too, so as soon as we would wrap, we would hit the beach. Table Mountain is one of the most spiritual places on the planet. It was a peaceful and beautiful and amazing experience to be near the water. But I don't know what's happening with Diamond Hunters. I think they're still trying to sell it."
Enterpirse is sold, however, and audiences seem sold on it. A few months into its run, Trekkers are tuning in and the ratings are solid. And, as might be expected, Blalock is emerging as a breakout cast member. "I've been hearing that," she says. "But you know what works for me? Denial. I have no idea what I've gotten myself into, and I'm definitely minimizing it. I don't know what to expect. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it."
And, despite that already infamous decontamination shower sequence in "Broken Bow," don't get Blalock started on the T'Pol-Seven of Nine comparisons. Jeri Ryan never challenged the sentiment that she was added to the Voyager mix in oreder to entice male viewers and inject the series with sex appeal, but Blalock won't go there. "It's something that does not occupy my mind," she insists. "I'm not worried about the character's appearance getting in the way of how she is perceived. T'Pol and the way they're developing her works completely, in terms of the way she's being written and the way she's meant to be portrayed.
Blalock could end up portraying T'Pol for a long time to come if Enterprise upholds the track record of recent Trek series and runs for seven seasons. That's fine by the actress, though she refuses to consider Enterpirse a sure thing. "There are no guarantees." she says. "We can only hope that Enterprise lasts as long as the other Star Trek shows. I need to pay my rent just like anybody else. That's number one. Number two, Enterprise is a project I really believe I can sink my teeth into, and it's something I can be proud of. As far as knowing we could be on for a while, yeah. I jumped on the train feet first. I hope it does run that long. I really do. I can only hope."
And if it does, that will mean Trek merchandise and memoribilia. Specifically, a T'Pol doll. "I have a seven-year-old nephew and a one-year-old goddaughter, and I'm never going to get my goddaughtera Barbie Doll, " Jolene Blalock smiles. "I'm just going to get her T'Pol dolls and dress them up in different clothes. And maybe my little nephew will run around the street with my doll going, 'This is my aunt!' And all the kids will say, "Uh-huh, right.'"

The article is accompanied by a half-page color photo of Jolene in her skin-tight costume as T'Pol; a quarter page color photo of Jolene holding a laser gun as T'Pol- With Enterprise, Jolene Blalock shot to Star Trek stardom, but the actress prefers to ignore her growing popularity; a half page color photo of the bridge of the Enterprise with the Captain , T'Pol and another crewman- She may be the crew's least favorite person, but Enterprise fans can't get enough of the beautiful Blalock; a third page color photo of T'Pol and another crewman outside a station in a snow storm, holding laser weapons- Serving as the cold voice of reason isn't easy for the Vulcan. She's learning about humans as she goes along; an eighth page color photo of Jolene as Medea- Blalock participated in another pioneering adventure when she co-starred as Medea in TV's Jason and the Argonauts; An eighth page color photo of T'Pol facing Captain Archer- Although T'Pol and Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) often butt heads, the two have a grudging respect for each other; A third-page color photo of Jolene and Linda Park in disguise costumes from an Enterprise episode- Her Star Trek costumes aren't a problem, but Blalock does struggle with the series SF technobabble.