In the episode 'Breaking the Ice', Enterprise explores a comet. Two crewmen get trapped on the comet and have to be rescued by a Vulcan ship. That's all that happens. And yet this is such a well-filmed episode, the hour -er 38 minutes passes by very quickly. The story is told with symbolism, especially at the very beginning, and then again at the end. The camera itself tells the story.
While Enterprise is exploring the comet, a Vulcan ship approaches. Captain Archer puts the Vulcans on-screen and asks what they're doing. Captain Jonathan Archer resents Vulcans, these advanced first aliens we meet, thinking humanity is being held back by them. Their visit can't be a coincidence. . . The Vulcan captain replies saying they're not much interested in the comet. "We're more interested in watching you", he says. He boldly admits they are spying on Enterprise. He repeats this again. Archer is calmer about it than you'd expect he'd.
The two crewmen on the comet, Ensign Mayweather and Lt. Reed, run into a dangerous situation on the comet and need to be rescued. Commander Tucker and Sub-Commander T'Pol, suggest they ask the Vulcan ship for help. Archer insists Enterprise doesn't need help. But T'Pol speaks up, "Vulcan's see humans as arrogant and prideful, asking for help would be a sign of maturity". Here, I thought to myself, 'OK, Archer is going to correct himself and see the error of his ways'. Instead, T'Pol continues. She does what probably so many of us have wanted to do at one time or another, with a boss or co-worker, or, if we could somehow be on the bridge, she more or less takes control of Enterprise. She continues to explain why it would be best to ask the Vulcan ship for help as the crew obey her commands. Captain Archer remains silent and the crewmen are rescued. It turns out they probably would have died if Enterprise had tried the rescue without help.
When the Vulcan captain says good-bye to Enterprise, you can see the same Vulcan captain, with the same expressions, in a whole new light.
In 'Breaking the Ice', besides crew members coming to danger, the Vulcan science officer aboard Enterprise, T'Pol, has a personal problem. T'Pol's 'boyfriend' makes it known, thru contact with the other ship, that he'd like her to return to Vulcan. She's not sure what to do. 'Trip' (Commander Tucker) tells her not to follow logic. Do what you want to do.
In the ships galley, Trip encourages T'Pol to have a taste of pie from earth. She declines, as far as we can see. She does decide to stay on Enterprise. In the last scene, you can see a crewman in the dark standing before a desk in their quarters. It could be T'Pol, but it's hard to make out for sure. On the desk in front of them, you can clearly see a saucer of pie. Then the screen fades.
T'Pol of course ends up having an affair with Trip, and not, thank goodness, with the highest ranking guy around, Captain Archer. Archer and T'Pol had been put together quite often beforehand and it looked like it would be Archer if some kind of an affair was going to take place.
By the end of the series T'Pol isn't really acting much like a Vulcan. Instead of being emotionless, she usually has a basket full of emotions hidden barely beneath the surface. In one of the unintentionally funny lines of the series, when T'Pol is back on Vulcan visiting her mother her mom says, "Your emotions always were close to the surface". No kidding! Speaking of good lines in a bad place. . . In 'The Augments', three episodes after the Xindi-threat ended, after 30 episodes, and Earth coming one hair-width from being completely destroyed (in a couple of time-lines it was destroyed), after all that, Daniels, the crewman who visits Archer from the future, tells him, "If the Klingons retaliate against Earth, that'll make the Xindi incident look like a lover's quarrel". Even my roomie, whose not a Star Trek fan, rolled their eyes at that one.
I could be wrong but these 'emotions' T'Pol shows may have begun in season three with the episode 'Impulse'. The one where Enterprise finds a Vulcan ship whose crew have been overcome by Trellium D poisoning. T'Pol is also affected. She acts confused. It's hard to say exactly what emotions she's going thru in the episode but they are there close to the surface. They may have liked this effect and decided to continue using it some later in the series. It's hard to say exactly what she's feeling. They may have even put her in some kind of cold storage unit on the set or something, before some of the scenes. Some technique, to get this effect. You never see her shiver though. She trembles. Probably the actress who plays T'Pol is extremely accomplished.
Something about her did fit perfectly into the Star Trek franchise. She certainly made a fine first officer for the first mission of Enterprise.
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