10 Star Trek Behind The Scenes Horror Stories
3. Jolene Blalock vs Brannon Braga
Jolene Blalock was a huge fan of The Original Series when she was cast on Enterprise. She wanted to bring something of Spock to her role as T'Pol but, almost from the beginning, she found push back from the producers.
She recalled everything having to be perfect on her. If they were in a battle scene and her hair moved or was knocked out of style, filming would stop long enough for hair and make-up to come in and fix it. She described the final episode of the show, These Are The Voyages, as appalling.
However, the treatment of her character in the third season seemed to confirm that the producer wanted her to be the next Seven of Nine. When the ratings began to drop, her costume was altered to feature more cleavage and she allegedly told Brannon Braga that "you can’t substitute !*$% and ass for good storytelling".
Braga attempted to defend the costume change as a character-motivated decision. At the end of the show's second season, T'Pol leaves the Vulcan High Command to remain on-board Enterprise, thus ditching the more restrictive clothing style that went with it. Costume designed Robert Blackman called this out, though by saying the real aswer was, simply, that the ratings had dropped.
She was objectified to the point that, barring the Blu-Ray reunion, she has not appeared at conventions or signings since.