Jolene Blalock, whose comments to SFX Magazine criticising the producers and scripts of Star Trek: Enterprise caused controversy last week (see previous article), said in the full interview that she wanted the show to appeal to viewers' intellect and that she wanted her character to seem real and consistent.

In a transcript at The Great Link, the T'Pol actress said that she can't play a Vulcan who doesn't behave like one. "You can't take T'Pol and say 'Okay, you're a Vulcan' and take away the Vulcan characteristics," she protested. "You might as well clip the ears! For example: eating food with their hands - they don't do that! And yet they'll throw in episodes where she's eating popcorn, and I'll say, 'Can I use a napkin?'...'No! Use your hands!'"

"I look for in my character what I look for in real life," she added. "What can I count on? In life we put our trust and faith in those people in our lives who are consistent. If you can’t find consistency in your character, then it’s a transparent character, and that's very tough, because it turns out you are a different person from episode to episode."

Thus far Blalock has been pleased with new showrunner Manny Coto's contributions, she said, noting, "I had a line [in "Storm Front, Part 1"]: 'I also wanted to go home'. That is the first time in three years T'Pol has even mentioned home!" She believes that Coto has a vision for the show that previous producers lacked. Last season, she felt that despite the supposedly grittier Xindi arc, the show remained sanitized: "T'Pol's hair doesn't move - even in battle! And if it does, we re-shoot it. We don't bleed here, and nobody dies. Give me a break! And we're all-knowing. Where's the risk? Where the danger? Where's the drama? Where's the challenge?"

The interview was clearly conducted early in the fourth season, before the election, as evidenced by Blalock's call for a new President of the United States. "I give kudos to those who are not afraid to usher in the next generation," she said, "because the next generation has a vision, they have passion, and they have the ability to inspire and motivate those below them, instead of dampening their spirits and telling them that they don't know anything." She said she suspected that the fourth season would be the series' last, and was saddened at the thought of television without Star Trek for the first time in nearly two decades.

The complete SFX interview with Blalock is at The Great Link.

Discuss this news item at Trek BBS!
 Add TrekToday RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fan? Then visit CSIFiles.com!