Series producer Rick Berman said they originally intended that a younger version of T'Pau would be the Vulcan officer serving on the titular starship in Star Trek: Enterprise.

Originally viewed by her crew mates with resentment and suspicion, T'Pol was forced to earn the trust of fellow officers, with Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III being a particular focus of friction with her, due to his perception of her being a spy for the Vulcans and their very different personalities.

As a child, T'Pol's path in life was inspired by Ambassador V'Lar whom she watched negotiating with the Andorians during the Treaty of 2097 over possession of the planetoid Paan Mokar ("Fallen Hero").

She resigned from the service as a result, and the guilt over killing someone face-to-face caused her to suffer a nervous breakdown or emotional collapse which led to her undergoing a procedure, the Fullara, that erased all memory of the incident.

This "memory cap" disappeared when she was briefly reactivated as an agent during 2152 in order to capture the criminal Vulcan who eluded her that day, and she experienced another emotional collapse which was alleviated by the support of Captain Archer.

After her resignation from the Ministry of Security, T'Pol served for over a year as the deputy science officer aboard the Vulcan cruiser Seleya, under the command of Captain Voris ("Impulse").

In 2149, T'Pol began her tenure at the High Command's Consulate on Earth, assisting Ambassador Soval in his observation of humanity's progress toward space exploration ("Fusion").

In 2151, then holding the rank of sub-commander, she was selected by Soval to accompany Captain Jonathan Archer during his initial first mission aboard the Enterprise NX-01 as observer and Vulcan representative.

T'Pol, who is described by her superiors as a maverick and a rebel, became fascinated with Tolaris, a member of a group of emotionally free Vulcans encountered during the first year of the Enterprise's mission.

In fact, not only is T'Pol telepathic, but the episode "Affliction" revealed that she is able to communicate with Charles "Trip" Tucker III over great distances using her new-found mental abilities.

When pressed for a reason by Vulcan Ambassador Soval, T'Pol replied that she found working aboard the Enterprise "gratifying", for which she was chided for engaging in an emotional indulgence.

After the attack, T'Pol's supply of Trellium-D became difficult to reach (being located in a heavily damaged part of the ship) and she nearly died during a clandestine attempt to retrieve it.

Originally, she required a form of medication in order to tolerate the odors given off by humans and Captain Archer's pet dog Porthos (because of Vulcans having a sensitive sense of smell).

And, in a case of "when in Rome, do as the Romans do," she has also begun eating some types of foods (fruit, popcorn) with her hands, breaking a long-standing Vulcan taboo in the process.

This, combined with the fact that T'Pol no longer has the added stress of living with an incurable, potentially fatal condition, may have calmed her mind sufficiently to maintain control.

In an alternate reality seen in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, T'Pol has mastered human emotions due to her being married to Trip Tucker for 63 years.

She paused on her way to marry Koss long enough to give Trip a kiss on the cheek, a scandalous public display of affection for a Vulcan, especially in those circumstances.

The baby was a binary clone created using stolen DNA samples of the two by a terrorist group headed by a radical separatist, Paxton, who believed Earth should distance itself and defend itself from alien worlds and influences.

He further indicated that according to Phlox, a different cloning process performed by gene surgeons who were more highly skilled than those employed by Terra Prime would probably result in a viable child.

In an alternate reality seen in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, T'Pol is mentioned to have been married to Trip for 63 years, causing her to master human emotions.

As Enterprise's mission progressed, T'Pol grew very close to Captain Jonathan Archer whose abilities she had come to respect and to whom she had developed a sense of loyalty after he assisted her in bringing to justice a renegade Vulcan Security agent.

In the Star Trek novels released following the formation of the United Federation of Planets, T'Pol was promoted to captain and given command of the newly commissioned NX-class starship USS Endeavour, NX-06.

The fourth-season episode "Home" saw T'Pol having to deal with the consequences of her decision, when she chooses to marry Koss in order to save her mother's professional reputation.

[13][14] In the episode "Carbon Creek", T'Pol tells Captain Archer and Commander Tucker the details of the Vulcans' real first contact with humanity on Earth in the 1950s.

During her stay, T'Mir provided a patent office with a revolutionary material (Velcro), in order to raise college tuition money for a human teenager whom she had befriended in town.

She also appears to be more emotional than her counterpart, showing open sarcasm and contempt for Archer, and is seen to either grin or snarl (depending on one's point of view) during a brief bout of hand-to-hand combat with Hoshi Sato.

Eventually, Mirror-T'Pol is forcibly transferred from the Defiant to the ISS Avenger when Jonathan Archer attempts to rid his ship of all alien crew members.

"[24] The book Beyond the Final Frontier: An Unauthorised Review of the Trek Universe on Television and Film stated: "At first glance, she's merely eye candy, and indeed during the first season, the writers found little for her to do but smoulder."

They praised Blalock's performance saying she "approached the least subtle of roles with a clever understatement" and "She's easily the funniest, sexiest, smartest regular actor to be cast in Star Trek in 15 years.

Alexandra August wrote that T'Pol continues the tradition of "catsuited ice queens started by Seven of Nine" and, similar to her predecessor, "despite the fact that her appearance was gratuitously sexual, the conflicted Vulcan is brought to life beautifully by Blalock.