[Jolene Blalock]

Following in Spock's Footsteps
Source: Entertainment News Daily (Author: Ian Spelling)

Jolene Blalock passed on "Enterprise'' three times, without reading the script or knowing much of anything about the show.

"All I knew was that it was a new 'Star Trek' series and I didn't want to be a 'Star Trek' chick,'' the actress says. "I didn't want to be tapping my chest, going 'Beam me up.' It was an older show to me, and I wanted to do something contemporary.

"I'm not here for the money,'' the 26-year-old Blalock says firmly. "I'm here to do something I believe in. So I passed on the audition. After the third time I passed, my agents and I sat down and had a powwow together. The head agent said, 'I think you should do this.'''

Heeding that advice, Blalock - a San Diego native whose credits include episodes of "G vs. E,'' "C.S.I'' and "JAG,'' as well as last year's "Jason and the Argonauts'' telemovie and the upcoming miniseries "Diamond Hunters,'' in which she co-stars with Alyssa Milano, Roy Scheider and Sean Patrick Flanery - agreed to look at the script. She particularly scrutinized the austere yet sexy Vulcan science officer T'Pol, the role that "Enterprise'' producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga had in mind for her.

"I took the script home, read it and loved it,'' Blalock says by telephone from her "Enterprise'' trailer on the Paramount lot. "I came in, auditioned, had one meeting with Mr. Berman and Mr. Braga, and that was it - there was no network, there was no studio, there was nothing. It was just, 'Hi, how are you?'

"And they'd been looking for this girl for over a year,'' she adds, "and the character had been in development for two years. So it was pretty amazing.''

In retrospect, Blalock is understandably glad that she gave the script a chance.

"Had I made the decision not to do the show in ignorance,'' she says, "that's exactly what it would have been: ignorance, ignorance to the Nth degree.''

The role is an intriguing one. T'Pol rankles her fellow officers aboard the Enterprise, especially Captain Archer (Scott Bakula), who even before meeting her held Vulcans in contempt for delaying mankind's flight into deepest space. However, Blalock says, T'Pol will eventually grow from the crew's voice of reason into something resembling a team player.

"We're responsible for everything we put our hands to and the effects of it,'' Blalock says. "T'Pol just wants to make sure it goes down right, so Captain Archer and T'Pol are learning how to groove together. I guess that's the most important relationship that's being developed.

"And the others will get developed, too, over time.''

Blalock describes T'Pol's slinky costume as "insane'' and "Trek's'' legendary "technobabble'' as "sometimes a huge pain,'' but there's a far weightier issue to address: Upon joining "Star Trek: Voyager'' during its fourth season, Jeri Ryan acknowledged that her Seven of Nine character was designed to inject a bit of va-va-voom into the proceedings, thereby drawing the attention of hormonal male teens. Ryan considered it her personal mission to provide the needed boost while simultaneously transcending Seven's figure-hugging catsuit to create a character of depth.

"I'm here for the character rather than the va-va or the voom,'' Blalock says. "That's something I can't control, because it's completely physical. It's something that doesn't occupy my mind.

"I'm not worried about the character's appearance getting in the way of how she is perceived,'' she adds. "The character works completely, in terms of the way she's being written and the way she's meant to be portrayed.''

That's not to say that Blalock wouldn't pick Ryan's brain if "Enterprise'' producer Braga, who is Ryan's significant other, ever offered to put the two women in touch.

"He hasn't yet,'' Blalock says. "That's been suggested, but there's just been no time. I would love to do that - I have a million questions I'd like for her to fill me in on.''

A "Star Trek'' gig is about as close to a sure thing as there is in Hollywood, but Blalock refuses to take anything for granted.

"There are no guarantees,'' she says. "We can only hope that 'Enterprise' lasts as long as the other 'Star Trek' shows - I need to pay my rent, just as anyone else does, that's No. 1. No. 2, 'Enterprise' is a project I really believe in, that I can really sink my teeth into and that's something I can be proud of.

"As far as knowing we could be on for a while,'' Blalock says, "yeah, I jumped on the train feet first. I hope it does run that long. I really do.

"I can only hope.''