Star Trek: Enterprise season 4 reintroduced T’Pau (Kara Zediker), the younger version of the revered Vulcan icon played by Celia Lovsky in Star Trek: The Original Series. T’Pau was crucial to the Enterprise season 4 Vulcan-centric three-episode story arc, “The Forge,” “Awakening,” and “KirShara.” Those episodes also featured notable guest stars in Robert Foxworth, who previously played Admiral Leyton on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as Administrator V’Las, and Todd Stashwick, who now embodies Captain Liam Shaw in Star Trek: Picard season 3, as Talok.
T’Pau’s first appearance was in the Star Trek: The Original Series classic, “Amok Time.” Described as “all of Vulcan in one package” and the only person to ever turn down a seat on the Federation council, T’Pau officiated the kal-if-fee ritual combat between Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner). Spock’s fiancée, T’Pring (Arlene Martel), wanted to end their betrothal and Kirk was manipulated into fighting Spock in place of her lover, Stonn (Lawrence Montaigne). Notably, T’Pau saved Kirk’s career by telling Starfleet she ordered the USS Enterprise to come to Vulcan because Kirk violated orders to bring Spock, who was undergoing pon farr, to his homeworld.
Star Trek: Enterprise’s Young T’Pau Explained
Star Trek: Enterprise, which is set over 100 years before TOS, introduced a young T’Pau under very different circumstances. A member of the Syrrannite sect dedicated to restoring the teachings of the Vulcan leader Surak, T’Pau was accused of bombing the United Earth Embassy, which resulted in the death of Starfleet Admiral Forrest (Vaughn Armstrong). Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and Sub-Commander T’Pol (Jolene Blalock) of the NX-01 Enterprise pursued T’Pau on Vulcan, but they soon learned the Syrrannites were being framed, and there was a greater plot to subjugate Vulcan under the Romulan Star Empire overseen by the Vulcan High Council’s treasonous Administrator V’Las.
T’Pau’s appearance in Star Trek: Enterprise was a crucial step in addressing one of the criticisms of the prequel: why the Vulcans behaved so differently than they do in the Star Trek series set later in the timeline. T’Pau, Archer, and T’Pol’s recovery of the Kir’Shara statue containing Surak’s original teachings eventually overthrew the corrupt Vulcan High Command, bringing in the more familiar Vulcans Star Trek fans know best. T’Pau eventually became one of Vulcan’s greatest leaders and reset her people toward the logic of Surak. T’Pau also mind-melded with T’Pol and cured her Pa’nar syndrome.
T’Pol Was Originally Going To Be T’Pau On Enterprise
Originally, the character of T’Pol in Star Trek: Enterprise was intended to be the younger version of T’Pau. Enterprise‘s executive producers hoped the link to Star Trek: The Original Series would give the prequel a “boost” from longtime fans. T’Pol was even referred to as T’Pau in Enterprise‘s first series bible. However, Enterprise soon ran into the complicated legal rights needed to secure the name “T’Pau” for a series regular character. Further, it was decided that T’Pol was easier to pronounce than T’Pau, so the character was morphed into the Vulcan Jolene Blalock portrayed.
Along with her younger version in Star Trek: Enterprise season 4, T’Pau’s legend endured in Star Trek after TOS. The Star Trek: Voyager season 3 episode, “Darkling,” created a holographic version of T’Pau played by Betty Matsushita. The 24th-century Vulcan transport seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s “Unification” two-parter was named in her honor, as is the 32nd-century NSS T’Pau seen in Star Trek: Discovery. It’s also possible Star Trek: Strange New Worlds could recast the elder T’Pau or have an aged-up Kara Zediker play her once again to set up why the Vulcan leader knows Spock and T’Pring in “Amok Time.”
