Jolene Blalock Knows Her Star Trek

In a recent interview, Jolene Blalock demonstrated just why she's a Trekkie - by highlighting what it was about the Original Series that made her so attached to the franchise.

"The relationship, just the sense of loyalty," she told Star Trek Monthly. "I watched these three characters - Captain Kirk, Spock, Bones - and their relationship with each other and how loyal they are, and that was intense. They would give their lives for each other."

Blalock was sure these strong relationships will be present in the newest member of the Trek family, but what direction it will take is still unknown. "We don't know yet. We can only assume," she mused. "What I'd really like to happen is that same loyalty and that trust. As of right now, it's completely different. But everything needs a place to go to, everything needs a place to come from and to build from."

The crew of the NX-01 might seem at first to have little room for a bond of trust to build between characters. "There is some conflict," the actress said. "I seem to suck the air out of Archer's hunger for adventure. And I don't mean to do that. You can be zealous and crave adventure and want to go boldly where no man has gone before, but there's also a protocol, there's a way to go about things. So really T'Pol is the voice of reason, she's the voice of experience, she's the voice of responsibility, and usually in the midst of this joy and the thrill of the adventure, the last voice you wasn't to hear.

"It's been challenging for me [to play a stoic Vulcan] because I'm very expressive," Blalock explained. But it's opening up avenues that I didn't know I was capable of doing well. It's taking things to such an acute level, where it's just all in the eyes. You can say everything that you need to say in the eyes, because language itself is so limiting. There's so much to say in words, but how much can words really express?"

"[As T'Pol], if you can just be present, say what you want with your presence, with your eyes with your intention, the message gets across more potently, because when your talking to someone, there's not really much you can say that they don't already know. I love the fact that T'Pol can just say every thing with her eyes and her presence."

More from Blalock, including her thoughts about Vulcans and becoming a pop culture icon, can be found in the October issue of Star Trek Monthly, available now in the United Kingdom. Alternatively, a transcript of the interview can be found at Enterprise: Back to the Future.

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