T'Pol

**T'Pol** was a Vulcan who became renowned for her career as the first officer of the *Enterprise* NX-01. She was the first Vulcan to serve on a human spaceship in any role, and she had a profound influence over the relationship between the two species -- and on Vulcan society as a whole.

## History

### Early Life

T'Pol was born on Vulcan in 3088 CE to T'Les and her husband. She was raised in a house near the planet's capital city and had a pet *sehlat*. During her childhood, a betrothal was arranged between T'Pol and Koss, with plans for the wedding to take place in their adulthood.

Before reaching adulthood, T'Pol was told the family secret of her ancestor T'Mir's unrecorded visit to Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania after crashing on Earth. T'Mir had acquired and kept a purse, which had been passed through the family as an heirloom and eventually ended up in T'Pol's possession.

### Early Career

T'Pol first took a role working as an agent for the Ministry of Security. This work frequently brought her into contact with the Klingon Empire, where she developed several contacts. In one of her earlier assignments, she was assigned to retrieve seven rogue agents -- she captured five of them, but was unable to apprehend two. She managed to track the remaining duo to Risa in 3135 CE. The first, Jossen, she killed there. The second, Menos, escaped altogether. After this mission, she traveled to P'Jem where she underwent a *Fullara* ceremony to remove the memories of Jossen's death and remove any associated emotions. She also worked for the

T'Pol's later career took her through service to the Ministry of Information and the Science Council. Under their directive, she served on the *Seleya* with Captain Voris and Chief Engineer Commander Solin. She also worked with the Vulcan military during the Tomed mission. Over the course of these various careers, she visited thirty-six different Minshara class planets.

In 3149 CE, T'Pol was assigned to Earth in dual roles -- an aide to Ambassador Soval, and as a diplomat in her own right. Although she shared Soval's opinion that humans were not ready for interstellar travel, T'Pol found some things to respect on Earth. She once visited Carbon Creek, and on another occasion -- in 3150 CE -- went for a walk in San Francisco and discovered a restaurant and club called Fusion where she listened to a saxophonist play. She discovered the experience created an emotional response that stayed with her for many cycles afterwards.

### Enterprise Career

After humans made accidental first contact with Klingons following Klaang's crash landing on Earth, T'Pol was given the rank of sub-commander and assigned to "chaperone" the mission of the *Enterprise* NX-01 to bring Klaang back to Qo'nos. Over the course of the mission, T'Pol's knowledge of alien cultures and of interstellar travel was invaluable and helped to uncover a plot by the Suliban Cabal to destabilize the Klingom Empire.

At the end of the mission, Jonathan Archer convinced T'Pol to remain aboard the *Enterprise* as his first officer and chief science officer. Vulcan High Command assigned vessels to monitor the ships activities, and one of these -- the *Ti'Mur* -- was under the command of Captain Vanik who also made it a point to send communications to T'Pol regarding her betrothal to Koss. T'Pol convinced the *Ti'Mur* to come to the aid of Lieutenant Malcom Reed and Ensign Travis Mayweather when they were caught in an ice collapse on a comet.

T'Pol returned to P'Jem with Archer later in that year. Upon arrival, they discovered it was being assaulted by Andorian commandos led by Thy'lek Shran. The Andorians believed the monastery was home to a secret listening post, spying on Andoria. T'Pol was taken hostage and -- in the ensuing confrontation -- she accidentally exposed the very listening post the Andorians suspected. Angered by the subterfuge, Archer instructed T'Pol to give all of the information on the listening post to the Andorians.

The Vulcan High Command laid the blame for this squarely on T'Pol and insisted she return to Vulcan. The *Ni'Var* under the command of Captain Sopek was sent to collect her. Before she could be retrieved, she and Archer were taken captive by a group of rebel Coridanites -- but managed to escape in time to save Sopek's life. Sopek returned to Vulcan to persuade the High Command to reconsider.

Shortly thereafter, the *Enterprise* encountered a Vulcan vessel called the *Vahklas*, independent of the Vulcan High Command and on a mission of exploration under the command of Tavin. T'Pol quickly recognizes the crew as *V'tosh ka'tur* -- Vulcan without logic -- but Tavin claims they have found a balance between logic and emotion. T'Pol was wary of them, particularly as Tolaris noted that T'Pol's emotions were much closer to the surface than many other Vulcans. Tolaris later suggested T'Pol engage in a mind meld with him to come closer to her emotions -- although she refused, he forced the experience on her.

In 3152 CE, the crew of the *Enterprise* was framed for the destruction of a colony on Paraagan II. T'Pol managed to prove their innocence -- finding a cloaked Suliban vessel, and taking data disks from the ship. She helped the crew retake the ship and free it from the Suliban Helix. However, during this infiltration, Silik captured T'Pol and tortured her in an effort to learn what Archer knew about the Temporal Cold War. T'Pol steadfastly repeated the Vulcan Science Directorate's official position: that time travel was impossible. After this experience, T'Pol impressed upon Soval the importance of continuing the *Enterprise*'s mission.

In August of that year, the *Enterprise* passed through a unique trinary star system. The stars debilitated the entire crew except T'Pol, due to her Vulcan physiology. She was left alone to save the ship, though she was able to briefly awaken Archer so he could help pilot the ship away from a black hole.

Shortly afterwards, T'Pol discovered the whereabouts of Menos on Pernaia Prime and found herself in pursuit of him. She proved that he was guilty of weapons smuggling and finally captured him. Not long after, Vulcan doctors at the Interspecies Medical Exchange diagnosed T'Pol with Pa'nar Syndrome -- passed to her during her forced mind meld at the hands of Tolaris. The doctors blamed T'Pol and threatened to reveal her diagnosis to High Command until Dr. Yuris revealed that he, too, was capable of mind melds.

T'Pol and Archer soon accompanied Ambassador Soval to Paan Mokar in order to negotiate the end of a territorial dispute between the Andorians and the Vulcans.

### Xindi Mission

In 3153 CE, the Vulcan High Command recalled T'Pol to Vulcan in order to prevent her from entering the Delphic Expanse with the *Enterprise*, in response to the Xindi attack on Earth. Instead, T'Pol resigned her commission with the High Command in order to remain aboard. Despite her civilian status, Archer allowed her to remain his first officer and chief science officer.

Within the Delphic Expanse, the *Enterprise* soon discovered the *Selaya* in a trellium-D asteroid field. Aboard the ship, they discovered the Vulcans were suffering from dementia and homicidal rage -- and T'Pol herself began to feel anger and paranoia. Ultimately, Archer was forced to stun her in order to get her aboard the *Enterprise* for treatment. Dr. Phlox discovered trellium-D was a neurotoxin to the Vulcan nervous system. Since trellium-D was necessary for protecting the *Enterprise* from the spatial anomalies within the Expanse, T'Pol asked to be left behind, but Archer refused.

Despite making a full recovery on the surface, T'Pol continued to suffer from after-effects of her exposure to trellium-D. She experienced nightmares and occasionally became emotional or sometimes violent. T'Pol hoped to release her emotions further, and so she developed a method of injecting trellium-D directly into her bloodstream. She became addicted to the substance. When she finally admitted this to Dr. Phlox, he aided in her withdrawal -- however, T'Pol's ability to completely control her emotions was permanently damaged by the prolonged exposure to the toxin.

In the midst of the Xindo mission, T'Pol's skepticism of the Temporal Cold War came to an abrupt end when she and Archer, with the aid of Temporal Agent Daniels, were forced to time travel to Detroit in the year 2004 CE to prevent Xindi-Reptillians from unleashing a bio-weapon on ancient Earth. This proved the "Guardians" worshipped by the Xindi were in fact a faction within the Temporal Cold War.

Helped by Commander Shran, T'Pol was able to trace the construction of the Xindi weapon to Azati Prime. Enroute, the *Enterprise* encountered a crashed Xindi-Insectoid ship that contained a chemical which made Archer unwilling to leave an Insectoid Hatchery. T'Pol led a mutiny to take over the *Enterprise* and force Archer to receive treatment. When they reached Azati Prime, Archer set out alone to destroy the Xindi weapon while T'Pol commanded the *Enterprise* in a defensive battle against Xindi-Reptillians.

T'Pol later led the *Enterprise* to Sphere 41, destroying it it and, as a result, disabling the reality altering network created by the Sphere Builders. With Archer already returned to Sector 001, T'Pol commanded the *Enterprise* out of the Expanse. She applied to join Starfleet officially, and was approved by Admiral Maxwell Forrest and given the rank of Commander.

### After the Xindi Mission

T'Pol took a short shore leave, returning to Vulcan, only to be recalled to active duty with the rest of the crew of the *Enterprise* in order to capture a group of human Augments. Before departing on the mission, Archer gave T'Pol a gift of an antique compass to honor her first official day as a Starfleet officer. T'Pol was briefly captured by Orion slavers, but managed to escape.

The *Enterprise* was soon ordered to Vulcan to investigate the bombing of the United Earth Embassy there -- an attack that killed 43 people, including Admiral Forrest. Their investigation uncovered the Syrrannites were responsible -- and that T'Pol's mother T'Les was a member of the group. She and Archer tracked the group to the T'Karath Sanctuary -- only to discover a very peaceful group nothing like what Vulcan High Command had described. The Syrrannites were even able to cure T'Pol of her Pa'nar Syndrome. Before long, the High Command launched an attack on the Syrrannites -- killing many of them, including T'Les. T'Pol became determined, and with Archer and T'Pau successfully brought the *Kir'Shara* to the capital of Vulcan.

The revelation of Surak's true teachings had a swift and profound effect on Vulcan society. The Syrrannites were absolved of any guilt, the Vulcan High Command was dissolved, restrictions placed on Earth were lifted, and the Vulcans discovered that their psionic gifts were not those of a minority but of most of their species.

T'Pol attempted to use her psionic abilities to help fight against a Romulan drone ship, but she was not strong enough. However, the incident did leave to the first alliance between the Andorians, Vulcans, Tellarites, and humans against the Romulans. This enraged a terrorist organization called Terra Prime, who demanded the dissolution of the Coaltion of Planets and that all extraterrestrials leave the Sol system. In the midst of this, Terra Prime revealed the existence of a binary clone made of DNA from T'Pol and Charles "Trip" Tucker III. T'Pol and Tucker traveled to the Orpheus Mining colony on Luna in order to find their daughter -- but they were captured and held as hostages as Terra Prime moved the mobile colony to Mars. When they were finally rescued, they brought their daughter to the *Enterprise*. However, Phlox discovered a flaw in how she had been created and she died shortly afterwards.

T'Pol was present for the formal founding of the Coalition of Planets, and continued to serve aboard the *Enterprise* for an additional ten cycles. She was also present for the founding ceremony of the United Federation of Planets.

## Alternate Versions

* Captain T'Pol - in an alternate timeline where Archer was infected with interspatial parasites, T'Pol received a field commission and a promotion to captain.
* Old T'Pol - in an alternate timeline, the *Enterprise* became trapped in the year 3037 CE.
* Mirror T'Pol - in the Mirror Universe, T'Pol is a slave aboard the *Enterprise* and joins a rebellion against the Terran Empire.

## Appearances

### Star Trek: Enterprise

* Every episode

For canon information, please visit Memory Alpha.