T'Pol's Teeth & Telepathy

[Aikiweezie]

HD Net is running Enterprise from the beginning again! This is my THIRD time watching the series all the way through again so I am noticing things that I didn't before. For instance:

1) Jolene/T'Pol has a very obvious overbite that she does not have in season 2! I swear! Anyone else ever notice this? I think she had her teeth fixed. It's really obvious when she talks. What do you think?

2) Since T'Pol is a touch telepath wouldn't she be sensing Trip's emotions right from the start? Right from the first decon scene where they are having one of their first disagreements that Trip later stated that he enjoyed. In more ways than one, I think. Wouldn't she be able to tell that he was attracted to her? Or al least admired her physically?

[WarpGirl]

I didn't notice an overbite. But I did think she sensed Trip in decon, especially when he touched her ears. In fact I noticed that she seemed to sense a lot of things judging by some of her facial expressions. But that's just me.

[Alelou]

Hey, why do you think she let him win that argument? His logic was not unassailable. He rattled her!

[WarpGirl]

Well I for one just don't think she could have fought off Tolaris mentally if she wasn't using her telepathic and empathic abilities. Vulcans are much more mentally powerful then even they like to talk about. But for the sake of arguement, even if her telepathic abilities were rusty, her empathic abilities were always very strong. I mean they would have to be, how else could she process all those humans. No other Vulcan could last more then 10 days. I think that's because the corrupt VHC had been systematically teaching its citizens to deaden their telepathic and empathic abilities. I believe The reason T'Pol was considered so "emotional" was because her natural abilities were so strong she couldn't follow the rules. She was too powerful for them. I mean Look at T'Pau and she was more powerful than T'Pol.

[Distracted]

Being "emotional" and "empathic" are two different things. An empath receives emotions telepathically. The results of empathy are entirely subjective and not outwardly observable, so you can assume all you want about how "empathic" T'Pol is. Emotional expressivity wouldn't necessarily be more pronounced in an empath, but I suppose a person who receives emotion strongly might have a harder time suppressing emotion in the presence of someone else's strong emotions. I assume it would be possible to suffer a state of emotional overload. This could explain a lot of things. Like Harbinger. If she could sense Trip's emotions, felt desire and maybe jealousy on her own, and she had control problems related to Trellium-D...

And I don't think that strong empathic abilities would make it easier for T'Pol to deal with being around humans. If anything, they would make it harder. JMO.

[WarpGirl]

Well that's where individuality comes in I suppose. According to every shrink I've ever had, if it was possible to be sci-fi empathic, I'd make a good canidate. Now am I good with people? Um not particularly... When it comes to giving of myself I'm lousy. However I am good at dealing with other people's messes. I can deal with their emotions. Not my own.

I kind of think that T'Pol was a lot like that. She's good at her job, she can organize and be 2IC. But relationships... Um no...

But where an ordinary Vulcan wouldn't be able to even comprehend what these humans were up too. T'Pol can because she's conscious of her emotions. The problem is she doesn't know what to do with them. Because a Vulcan isn't even supposed to be conscious of their emotions. At least according to Vulcan doctrine during ENT.

[Aikiweezie]

I think my point was being missed.

What I'm thinking is that when T'Pol TOUCHES someone she receives sort of a "rush" or "gush" of their emotions. The real things. She can tell if someon has been less than honest with her or what their real intentions are. I would imagine that because of that she would avoid touching humans as much as possible. I also think that touching Trip, even early on, would unnerve and intrigue her. AND scare her.

[Asso]

Mh... frankly I think this is a way to give T'Pol a dimension she doesn't have. But, obviously, this a simple speculation, I suppose.

[Aikiweezie]

Mh... frankly I think this is a way to give T'Pol a dimension she doesn't have. But, obviously, this a simple speculation, I suppose.

Several times it is mentioned that Vulcans are "touch telepaths" but I don't recall any explanation of what that means exactly.

[Asso]

I don't mean that it isn't possible, but, judging from what I was able to see in the various series, this statement seems to me as a sort of necessary assertion, deriving from Vulcan ability to make "Mind Meld", and I feel the period during which T'Pol lives as a period of transition.
But I don't deny that I can be influenced by my constitutional distrust toward this sort of things.

[Aikiweezie]

I just watched "Dear Doctor" on the big HD TV and you can clearly see Jolene/T'Pol's overbite in the scene where she's getting her cavity filled.

I have waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time on my hands if I'm paying attention to this don't I?

[Aquarius]

Aikiweezie--I'm picking up what you're laying down about the touch-telepathy. And yeah, I think as soon as she touched Trip in Decon she'd be able to sense all kinds of things, but I think it would also depend on how much she's shielding herself, and which emotions are dominating which coming from Trip. Like in the moment, he could be so focused on the fact that she's ticking him off, he may not have realized just how much he liked tangling with her until later.

On the other hand, though, he's sneaking his fingers under her waistband and putting gel on her ears as a pretense for his curiosity about them, so yeah, I'm pretty sure she would've picked up on his attraction to her.

[WarpGirl]

But that ability isn't limited to Trip. I mean some of the faces she's made when Archer touches her makes it obvious to me that she also senses, his "hidden" stuff too. Hoshi as well, but I'm not sure before Hoshi's meld it was full on touch telepathy, because she didn't learn how to access that part of her mind until after the Kir'Shara, as far as I know.

I love the fact we are talking about her mental abilities though. That dimension is important to who she is as a character. As Spock's abilities were important to his character, and Sarek's were important to his character, and Tuvok's were important to his character.

[Aquarius]

But that ability isn't limited to Trip. I mean some of the faces she's made when Archer touches her makes it obvious to me that she also senses, his "hidden" stuff too. Hoshi as well, but I'm not sure before Hoshi's meld it was full on touch telepathy, because she didn't learn how to access that part of her mind until after the Kir'Shara, as far as I know.

Right, but that wasn't the question. The question was, would T'Pol be aware of how attracted Trip was to her, presumably with the idea that if she was aware of it that far back, it may have been a factor in them getting together later on, regardless of how seriously either of them took it. That the question was restricted to Trip seems to suggest the area of interest would be the answer's impact on the future relationship.

And one could argue that mind melds are an extension of touch telepathy, since the ideal way to perform one is to touch the meldee at critical contact points on the face. Yeah, Spock performed one through a wall, but only after his society had about a hundred years to practice and reintegrate it into their daily lives, and it wasn't exactly easy, and it required a "highly suggestible" meldee.

[Asso]

And one could argue that mind melds are an extension of touch telepathy, since the ideal way to perform one is to touch the meldee at critical contact points on the face. Yeah, Spock performed one through a wall, but only after his society had about a hundred years to practice and reintegrate it into their daily lives, and it wasn't exactly easy, and it required a "highly suggestible" meldee.

Aquarius, you expressed my thoughts.