Despite critical praise for the Xindi arc on Star Trek: Enterprise last season, the actors said at UPN's press party in Santa Monica last week that they were content to be leaving it behind.

In a report at StarTrek.com, the cast spoke frankly about their hopes for season four and some disappointments during season three, particularly for Jolene Blalock, who felt that her character "became an emotional floozy."

Admitting that she had a hard time justifying as an actor T'Pol's flirtations with drug addiction and sex, Blalock said, "She was lost in the story arc, she was lost in resigning her commission, not having a post - it was weird not being called 'subcommander.'" In the end she felt that the exploration of T'Pol's feelings was damaging: "I felt that she was ripped of her respect and her dignity."

The fourth season, she added, is "going to be our best." Revealing plans for a wedding for T'Pol during the season's third episode, Blalock said that she could not discuss the story but noted that unlike Spock, "I don't have to fight anybody."

Scott Bakula also said that he was looking forward to next season but was somewhat intimidated by rumours thyat William Shatner might appear on Enterprise. "You know, I've been such a huge fan of his for so many years, and to have him be on a bridge again, on our bridge in particular, would be mind-boggling," he stated. Bakula believes that next season will be different in tone from previous years because the crew "can't go back to exploring the way we did the first two years because we're different people, we're a different ship. We've all had life-altering experiences", like veterans returning from battle. On the plus side, "We did save the world, so we should get some attention for that!"

Connor Trinneer got married and Dominic Keating got engaged over hiatus, but said they were happy to be back for another season, with Trinneer speaking in particular about the Tucker-T'Pol romance, which he hoped to see continue despite the suggestion that T'Pol may have another man in her life before long. "I'd like to see it be a proactive [relationship], whatever that may be. I think that it was exposed and then sort of just left there, and I'd like to see it, whatever it is, be explored," he said.

Keating enthused about having Manny Coto on the production team, calling him "bright, young, hungry and ambitious" and praising the energy he brought to the job. Though he kept busy over hiatus with travel and auditions, the Malcolm Reed actor said, "I'm very, very happy to be back going to Paramount every day, I love it. I want to do the seven years!"

For more on the personal lives of the stars, including Trinneer discussing married life, Keating making wedding plans and the personal and professional pairing of Linda Park (Sato) and Tom Hardy (Shinzon), who became aware of one another because of Star Trek but fell in love with a common desire to produce theatre, see the original article at StarTrek.com.

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!