10 Star Trek Characters We Had To Wait Years To See Again
7. China In Your Hands
Images of Carol Decker on Top of the Pops aside, one could say that T'Pau is the Heart and Soul of Vulcan.
First seen in The Original Series' first trip to Spock's homeworld in Amok Time, the matriarch of Vulcan society oversaw the combative kal-if-fee ritual between Kirk and Spock. Cue appropriate battle music NOW!
Played by actress Celia Lovsky, T'pau unusually performed the Vulcan salute left-handed, as she found it easier to manipulate the fingers of that hand. Back in 1967, no one had any idea of how significant how the episode, the culture, and this most stoic of stoic Vulcans would become such an integral part of the franchise.
Flash forward some 36 years and several series before we would get a real-world (not holographic, thanks Voyager) return of T'Pau in the Enterprise trilogy of The Forge, Awakening, and Kir'Shara. Set before Amok Time, T'Pau was played by Kara Zediker who physically appeared in only the second two episodes of the three. In The Forge, she appeared on a display which was added later as the role was only cast for Awakening.