honeybee wrote:This was, in fact, one of the few early times when I thought Archer was in the right. He did a huge diplomatic favor for a race that Earth had just met and had no qualms with.
We'll definitely have to disagree there. It was a
listening post, not a forward assault base or resupply cache or anything like that, and given the Andorian clear belligerence in pretty much everything, it frankly seems both logical and intelligent to want to keep an eye on them and what they were doing. Could they have picked a better spot? Probably, but a listening post is not a precursor for invasion, but can be legitimately argued as a defensive installation. Earth & Vulcan were allies at the time, the humans had just met the Andorians and knew exactly squat about them, so Archer's decision to turn over intel like that to a completely unknown element (the Andorians) not only should have resulted in major Human/Vulcan fallout back on Earth, it should have also resulted in him being court-martialed. It doesn't matter that the Vulcans were violating a treaty there - and does
anyone seriously believe that the Andorians weren't doing the same? - he screwed over an Earth ally (once again, his anti-Vulcan bigotry seemed to overrule his common sense) and should have been punished for it no matter that it ultimately paid positive dividends down the road. But, since crap never stuck to him on the show thanks to substandard writing, T'Pol was the one who suffered the fallout (several times, if I recall correctly.)
Brandyjane wrote:I agree with you. Although I kind of like having T'Pol be the oldest one on the ship, there are times when I think they messed up when they decided she should be in her 60s. The whole marriage/pon farr thing in particular has always seemed off to me.
It also annoyed me that she was the oldest one (unless Phlox was older, which is never really established - I know in my Endeavour stuff, I stated that he was but that's just 'cause I liked the idea) yet was consistently written as less mature than a teenager at times.
Again, I totally agree with you. In fact, if T'Pol had been previously married and had a bad experience, it could explain why she is so reluctant to go back home to marry Koss.
It could also go a long way toward explaining why she's so weird around Trip in regards to a relationship. In my ideal world, she married her first mate when he went into pon farr for the first time (before they were twenty), and they were together for at least one or two more mating cycles. Being a more emotional than normal Vulcan, she loved him more than was entirely appropriate in her culture, and when he died, it hit her
hard. As ENT begins, she's only just getting over it, and knowing how badly this hurt, it explains why she's so reticent about getting involved with a short-lived human.
And just to be ironic, I'd have her first mate have died exactly nine months to the day before Trip was born.
I still say that at the point "Breaking the Ice" takes place she would need more reason than just liking her job to go against her culture and stay aboard Enterprise.
Indisputably. The rest of the crew are still being jackasses to her (albeit less so than before), so I maintain she simply didn't want to marry Koss. And given how he later blackmailed her into the marriage, I can see why.
In that episode she says, "Marriages on Vulcan are arranged during childhood." Isn't it possible that she was speaking in very general terms about what usually takes place? She is reluctant to share her problem with anyone, even Trip, and she might not want to volunteer her whole life story. Even though they're both adults, I can see how in a very conservative culture, Koss and T'Pol's parents might still be in charge of arranging new marriages for them if their spouses died.
I seem to recall them later having a line or two somewhere ("Home"?) that confirms she's been engaged to Koss since 7, but I could be mistaken. It's been a while since I even bothered watching an episode (
any episode.)
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