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T'Pol

T'Pol is a fictional character in the Star Trek franchise. Portrayed by Jolene Blalock in the series Star Trek: Enterprise, she is a Vulcan who serves as the science officer aboard the starship Enterprise (NX-01).

Concept and creation
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. Instead, after determining there were legal difficulties in using the original series character, the producers created T'Pol. Brannon Braga also said the idea was dropped to avoid having to deal with any legal issues, and also that T'Pol was simply easier to pronounce. Marjorie Monaghan, Blalock and an unnamed actress, were the final three considered for the role. By that time, Berman said they had seen hundreds of actresses, and they struggled to find a "beautiful woman who can act and doesn't want to go right into feature films". Casting director Ron Surma had Blalock in mind from the beginning but her agents said she was not interested. Braga thought Blalock was perfectly cast, "We wanted a sexy Vulcan, a Kim Cattrall-type, and we definitely got that".

Overview
T'Pol is the first Vulcan officer to serve a prolonged term on a human vessel. T'Pol served aboard the Enterprise for 10 years (2151–2161). To compare, the previous record was just 10 days. As a sub-commander serving the Vulcan High Command, she was stationed aboard the Enterprise in April 2151, as an observer to Captain Jonathan Archer and his crew, who the High Command insisted, were not ready for interstellar space exploration. After the success of the Enterprise's initial mission led to the vessel being given an extended exploration mandate, T'Pol requested to stay aboard.

T'Pol remained aboard the Enterprise despite several attempts by her superiors to recall her to Vulcan. T'Pol's decision brought considerable scrutiny upon her from her superiors, and increasing support for her from her captain; she ultimately resigned from the High Command and accepted a field commission from Starfleet in 2154, resulting in her being granted the Starfleet rank of Commander.

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.

T'Pol is more emotional than many other Vulcans and has always struggled to control her emotions, something that greatly concerned her mother. Her emotions became even more difficult to control following an exposure to trellium ore, a toxic substance which damaged the part of her brain responsible for emotional control. Nonetheless, T'Pol serves as an icon of Vulcan integrity. Her willingness to question the decisions of her superiors, and her respect for Captain Archer position her at the fulcrum of human/Vulcan relations.

Before Enterprise
In Season 3, episode 24 "Zero Hour", while talking with Trip on February 14, 2154, T'Pol states that she "will only be 66 years old" on her next birthday. This places her birth in 2088 or 2089 (as measured on Earth), making her 62 or 63 years old at "Broken Bow". T'Pol was born the only child of T'Les, an instructor at the Vulcan Science Academy, and her (never named) husband. Per Vulcan tradition, T'Pol was bonded with a Vulcan named Koss while they were children and expected to marry as adults ("Breaking the Ice").

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").

Approximately 16 years before joining the crew of the Enterprise, T'Pol served as an agent for the Vulcan intelligence service. At age 47, she completed her training for the Vulcan Ministry of Security. During an early mission to apprehend a pair of Vulcan criminals, she was forced to shoot and kill one of the fleeing men. 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. Given the option to once again suppress her memory of killing, she chose to live with it instead ("The Seventh").

While in the Ministry of Security, T'Pol was also involved in mission operations at Tomed near Romulan space. Serving under her was Major Talok. However, unbeknownst to T'Pol, Talok was a Romulan spy disguised as a Vulcan working in league with corrupt Administrator V'Las of the Vulcan High Command. Their goal was to promote the eventual conquest of Vulcan by the Romulan Star Empire ("Kir'Shara").

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. When the mission was successful and the Enterprise greenlighted to continue its mission of exploration, T'Pol elected to remain on board as science officer ("Broken Bow").

Pa'nar, trellium, mind melds, and emotion
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. Tolaris introduced her to the concept of the mind meld, which at the time was considered a taboo activity among Vulcans. She severed her relationship with Tolaris after she asked him to stop the mind meld and he refused, attempting to continue the meld without her consent (essentially a form of mental rape), and causing her to forcefully break the link. She later learned that she had contracted Pa'nar Syndrome from the encounter. This condition was kept in check with medication. In 2154, T'Pol, who had been told that Pa'nar was an incurable virus, learned that the condition was in fact caused by an improperly trained melder, and contrary to what the intolerant (and soon to be overthrown) Vulcan High Command had decreed, it was indeed curable by the touch of an experienced mind – provided to T'Pol by T'Pau.

T'Pol was told that she is genetically incapable of initiating mind melds herself, however following the 2154 overthrow of the Vulcan regime that stigmatized mind-melding she learned otherwise. She performed her first mind meld upon Hoshi Sato, with the assistance of Jonathan Archer, who had learned details about mind melds during a period of time when he held the katra of Surak. 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. It was established a year later (in "Bound") that this is because of a mating bond between the two.

During T'Pol's early years aboard the Enterprise, she demonstrated an unusual (for a Vulcan) willingness to explore human culture and customs, although she stated that certain human foods do not agree with her. After a discussion with Commander Charles Tucker, she described pecan pie, as a dessert made of "mostly sugar". She began attending the ship's weekly film night social event (with Captain Archer), and expressed particular admiration for the 1931 film Frankenstein. She was reportedly less successful at mastering the art of eating with chopsticks, to the amusement of her crew mates. Prior to her posting aboard the Enterprise, T'Pol on at least one occasion left the Vulcan Compound in San Francisco and visited a jazz music club; the chaotic music generated an emotional response that came back to haunt her during a brief period when she abandoned her nightly meditation ritual (concurrent with her experimentation with mind-melding).

T'Pol also became adept at "play acting", which she found was often needed in order to successfully fulfill a mission. For example, she once pretended to be a slave when Ferengi pirates hijacked the Enterprise ("Acquisition"), distracted a group of Suliban invaders by acting deranged ("Shockwave (Part II)"), and pretended to be a domineering Vulcan commander preparing for an execution ("Precious Cargo"). In the latter example there is a clear indication that T'Pol enjoyed taking part in this sort of deception.

On several occasions during her first two years aboard the Enterprise, T'Pol resisted efforts by her family and the Vulcan High Command to get her to leave the ship and return to her Vulcan obligations. 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.

In 2153, after being ordered to leave the Enterprise and return to Vulcan, T'Pol resigned her commission with the Vulcan High Command in order to accompany the crew of the Enterprise into the Delphic Expanse to find the Xindi, a mysterious race accused of killing seven million humans on Earth. Despite being technically a civilian, she remained as first officer of the Enterprise and the crew continued to refer to her by her High Command rank of Sub-Commander during the mission.

While investigating the Vulcan ship Seleya ("Impulse"), which had become trapped in The Expanse, T'Pol experienced the side effects of Trellium-D, a compound the ship had used to protect itself from anomalies within The Expanse, but which had the side effect of creating psychosis in Vulcans. T'Pol's brief exposure led to her experiencing extreme paranoia and losing control of her emotions. She recovered upon returning to the Enterprise. The compound, which Commander Tucker brought aboard, was necessary to line the ship so that the Enterprise could traverse the Expanse. Captain Archer, rather than line the ship with the concoction (lethal to T'Pol), stored it in a locker in the cargo bay.

T'Pol found herself wanting to experience more of the emotions the Trellium-D had unlocked. In "Damage", it is revealed that she discovered how to liquefy small, safe amounts of the compound and began to secretly inject herself with it, beginning approximately three months prior to the Enterprise arriving at Azati Prime ("Azati Prime"). This led to what she felt was improved relations with her crew mates, in particular chief engineer Trip Tucker, which led to a sexual relationship in "Harbinger" after she understood she was experiencing jealousy when Tucker began making romantic overtures toward a MACO on board. In the same episode, she later attempted to deflect the importance of the act by referring to it as merely an exploration of human sexuality. However, this one-time encounter resulted in the formation of a psychic bond between Trip and T'Pol which does not manifest until the second half of season 4.

Over time, as T'Pol became addicted to the Trellium-D injections, her emotions began to flow more freely. This came to a head when the Enterprise reached Azati Prime ("Azati Prime") and Jonathan Archer chose to undertake a suicide mission in order to complete the Xindi mission. T'Pol's emotional reaction toward Archer's departure and presumed death incapacitated her as a commanding officer (ending up in crying and an attempt to recover him). She attempted to hide her condition, and the Enterprise was nearly destroyed in a subsequent Xindi attack which may or may not have been made worse by T'Pol's state.

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. Soon after, she lost her temper with Archer (who had since returned to the Enterprise). He indicated he needed her for a difficult (and morally questionable) mission. She was nearly killed while trying to recover more Trellium-D after experiencing an erotic dream involving Tucker. This led her to seek medical help from Dr. Phlox to whom she confessed her addiction.

Although T'Pol subsequently overcame her addiction, Phlox determined that she had permanently damaged her brain, and as a result might never achieve the same level of emotional control she once had. A subsequent encounter with an elderly version of herself (due to an Expanse-related anomaly seen in the episode "E²"—an alternate universe episode) indicated that she will live with the after effects of her Trellium-D exposure for the rest of her life. The older version of T'Pol served aboard an alternate time line version of the Enterprise, which had been transported into the past. Aboard the alternate Enterprise, T'Pol and Trip Tucker had married and conceived a son, Lorian, who at the time of the encounter was the captain of the alternate Enterprise. The older T'Pol advised her that Trip Tucker could provide a safe outlet for her newfound emotions if she could learn to trust him. She also advised her younger self that she could not imagine what her life would have been like without him. T'Pol did not choose to pursue a romantic relationship with Trip when the Enterprise returned to normal space in the Expanse.

Following the Xindi mission, she continued to experience difficulty controlling her emotions and became particularly emotional following the death of her mother.

T'Pol, who (at the time) held the record for the longest time spent by a Vulcan serving with humans, has demonstrated her ability to adapt. 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).

It's revealed that she has a sense of humor, one she can demonstrate (as she has in "Future Tense" and other shows, including "Bound"). 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.

Following the death of her mother (see below), the divorce of her husband Koss and the discovery of the Kir'Shara, T'Pol began to re-evaluate Surak's teachings and what it means to be Vulcan. As a result, she began to distance herself from some of her crew mates, choosing to spend her free time studying the newly found word of Surak. Her decision had an adverse effect on her relationship with Commander Tucker. (In "Bound", she re-established her romantic relationship with Trip. T'Pol asked Trip to return to the Enterprise and, when he replied that he "would think about it" she showed her emotional commitment by pursuing him down the corridor and kissing him.)

She has also experienced some success in controlling her emotions to a greater degree than she had over the two years. T'Pau's therapeutic mind-meld cured the Pa'nar Syndrome and may have helped restore some of her emotional balance as well. 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. Despite this, she has admitted to Phlox that she had never before felt so unsure of herself.

Relationship with Charles "Trip" Tucker III
The relationship between T'Pol and Trip Tucker is a complex one. Initially, the two had a somewhat combative association.

During the third season of Enterprise, while the ship was engaged in pursuing the Xindi weapon in the Expanse, T'Pol and Tucker became increasingly intimate. This process began because Trip had trouble sleeping. Dr. Phlox urged T'Pol to assist Trip by using Vulcan neuropressure, a system of massage that T'Pol referred to as "intimate" and which is frequently conducted in a semi-clothed state.

A few episodes after this, starting in "Impulse", T'Pol begins to take Trellium-D, which has the result of lowering her barriers and producing greater emotion.

In "Similitude", when Doctor Phlox grows a mimetic symbiote of Trip – complete with Trip's memories – the Sim confessed to T'Pol that he (they?) had a deep attraction to her. In "Harbinger", a few months after Trellium-D usage and neuropressure sessions, T'Pol learns that Trip is attracted to a MACO aboard the Enterprise. T'Pol begins to display signs of jealousy regarding Trip's activities with another woman aboard the Enterprise and Trip is jealous of Sim for having been the one to admit "their" feelings for her – ultimately, she and Trip have sex. Afterward, T'Pol attempts to distance herself from the act by referring to it as an exploration of human sexuality. After they engage in sex in "Harbinger", they do not engage in the act again in season 3.

In "E²", an alternate timeline is revealed where Commander Tucker and T'Pol get married and have at least one child, who they meet, called Lorian. It creates an awkward situation but further illuminates their relationship.

In "Zero Hour", T'Pol reveals her age to him, which she indicated Vulcans consider "intimate" information.

In Home, at the end of the Xindi mission, when Trip tells her he has no home left to go to, T'Pol invites him to accompany her home to Vulcan. After arriving on Vulcan, T'Pol is blackmailed into marrying her original betrothed, Koss, in order to save her mother's career. Her mother, T'Les, realizes Trip is in love with her daughter and suggests to him he should express his feelings to T'Pol before the ceremony so that she could have all available information. Trip declines, saying that she is under enough stress and he cares about her too much to make things even more difficult for her. However, T'Pol was not unaware of his feelings. 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.

In "Kir'Shara," following the discovery of the Kir'Shara in season four, T'Pol's husband divorces her and Trip attempts to reconnect their relationship. T'Pol is studying the original teachings of Surak, and disregards that request. Hurt, Trip decides to make a new start and transfers to Enterprise's sister ship NX-02 Columbia, then working up prior to being commissioned. While he is away on Columbia, both he and T'Pol experience telepathic contact in the form of both waking daydreams as well as dreams while sleeping.

An emergency requires Trip to return to the Enterprise. While he is aboard, an attempted takeover by Orions reveals that Trip is the only human aboard who is immune to the pheromones emitted by the Orion women, which proves to T'Pol they have bonded. An undetermined amount of time after the two learn of their bond, their relationship undergoes a major shock during the Terra Prime episodes when Trip and T'Pol learn that they have a child. 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. The baby, a girl, was named Elizabeth after Trip's sister. As stated by Phlox, the child has Trip's eyes and T'Pol's ears. Elizabeth does not survive due to a flawed procedure during the cloning process. Trip revealed this to T'Pol when he went to her quarters to try to console her. 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. The two grieved together for Elizabeth, whom they had accepted as theirs.

Relationship with Jonathan Archer
When T'Pol first reported to duty aboard the Enterprise, Archer resented her assignment due to his distrust of Vulcans and the fact that the Vulcans had refused to provide starcharts and a copy of the Vulcan database unless T'Pol was assigned to the crew. T'Pol would butt heads with Archer about his style of command during the ship's early missions, chastising him for taking chances just to be able to explore new planets. As time passed, T'Pol proved to be a valuable asset to Archer due to her time in space and her past experiences as an officer with command experience. Indeed, her command experience is what secured her position as First Officer. 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. Her sense of loyalty went so far as to compel her to resign her position with Vulcan High Command and join Enterprise without a commission from either Starfleet or the Vulcans during her mission in the Delphic Expanse. During the Delphic Expanse mission, T'Pol continued to serve as First Officer despite her not holding a commission. After the Delphic Expanse mission, T'Pol opted to remain with Starfleet and with Archer's assistance, bypassed Starfleet training, was directly commissioned with the rank of Commander, and was formally assigned as Archer's First Officer. On the occasions when Archer was thought killed, T'Pol showed her affection for him to the point of crying during the Xindi mission when she believes he has been killed in "Azati Prime". She also grieves in "Zero Hour", when she believes he is dead, by holding close a book of his and pets his dog, Porthos.

In one alternate timeline (depicted in "Twilight"), T'Pol devoted her life to caring for Archer when parasites robbed him of the ability to store long-term memory (the same ones with which he was infected while saving her life). Dr. Phlox later implied that T'Pol had fallen in love with Archer during the time that she took care of him.

Starfleet service
Near the end of the Xindi mission, T'Pol revealed to Archer and Tucker that she was considering enlisting in Starfleet. Following the Xindi mission, she accepted the commission and received the rank of Commander. In May 2154, T'Pol officially assumed duties as a Starfleet officer.

The final episode "These Are the Voyages..." reveals that T'Pol remained Archer's first officer aboard the Enterprise for a total of ten years. Her relationship with Trip allegedly ended at some point within a year of the death of their cloned child in 2155 (see "Family", below), although she remained emotionally attached to him and expressed concern that she would never see Trip again after the decommissioning of the Enterprise in 2161. Trip's death on a minor mission just prior to the decommissioning affected her deeply, and she expressed a desire to meet his parents.

She also grew comfortable in confiding in the ship's chef during the years prior to the finale. Dialog in the finale suggests that T'Pol was to be assigned to another vessel following the decommissioning of the Enterprise. 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.

Family
Little is revealed of T'Pol's family until the fourth-season episode "Home", in which her mother T'Les appears. T'Pol's father is deceased. T'Les was an instructor at the Vulcan Science Academy, but resigned in 2154. In the episode "Awakening", she died in her daughter's arms during an attack on a Syrranite encampment in the desert region known as The Forge. T'Pol grieved upon her mother's death; following the death of Trip in 2161, she confessed to Archer that she missed her mother more as time went by.

T'Pol has no siblings. As a child, she had a pet sehlat.

T'Pol was engaged to marry a Vulcan named Koss prior to the start of the Enterprise's mission, with the marriage scheduled for 2151 (about a week after the events of "Breaking the Ice" to be precise) but elected to delay her marriage indefinitely. 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. She appears to be unaware that Trip has fallen in love with her (although in "The Augments" it is clear that she is beginning to realize his feelings). Prior to her marriage, she negotiated with Koss' family to defer the one-year Vulcan residence obligation required of newly-wed Vulcan females, in order to join Starfleet as a commissioned officer and stay aboard the Enterprise. Only a few months after their marriage, Koss released T'Pol from their arrangement following the death of her mother, and shortly after the marriage was officially dissolved.

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. T'Mir (T'Pol's great grandmother) was involved in a survey mission when her spacecraft crash landed on Earth in 1957. She and two other Vulcan crew members were forced to live among humans for several months in a small American mining town called Carbon Creek, hiding their Vulcan identity. 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. T'Pol kept her great-grandmother's purse.

In the alternate timeline seen in "E²", T'Pol marries Trip and they have a son, Lorian, who becomes the captain of the Enterprise upon the death of Captain Archer. In this episode, T'Pol met an older version of herself (approximately 180 years old).

The fourth-season episode "Demons" revealed that T'Pol had a six-month-old daughter, the father being Trip. It was later learned that a terrorist group called Terra Prime had created the child by cloning. Samples of T'Pol and Trip's DNA stolen from the Enterprise were the source of the child's genetic material. The cloning procedure, however, was not performed correctly. The child — whom T'Pol named Elizabeth in honor of Trip's deceased sister — died soon after being rescued from the Mars facility where she was being held.

The existence of a psychic bond between T'Pol and Trip is revealed during the fourth season; no such psychic bond is indicated between T'Pol and Koss. The final episode, "These Are the Voyages...", mentioned that T'Pol and Trip ended their relationship within a year of the events of "Terra Prime".

Outside of established Star Trek canon, novels have been published based on the series that retconned this, saying that the two are still involved with each other. The book The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm states that T'Pol has two children—a daughter T'Mir and a son Lorian.

Mirror Universe
A two-part episode in the fourth season, "In a Mirror, Darkly", introduced a Mirror Universe version of T'Pol. This version is more cynical and openly emotional than her "real universe" counterpart, and is also openly sexually manipulative, particularly of Commander Tucker.

In the Mirror Universe, T'Pol underwent pon farr at some point in the recent past, and Trip mated with her in order to get her through it. Physically, she differs from her real universe counterpart in that she has long hair (in reality, Blalock eschewed her wig for her normal hair) and, like other female officers in the Terran Empire, she wears a two-piece uniform with a bare midriff (although after transferring to the captured USS Defiant (NCC-1764), she adopts a TOS-style miniskirt uniform temporarily until she is able to obtain a more standard Empire uniform).

Mirror-T'Pol's mind meld abilities appear to be somewhat more advanced than those of her counterpart, as she is capable of placing a form of post-hypnotic suggestion into the minds of those with whom she melds; since the real universe T'Pol had only recently learned how to meld, it is unlikely she had yet achieved this level of melding proficiency. 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. T'Pol becomes convinced that Archer will never allow Vulcans to be equals, and tries to stop him from taking over the Empire. Mirror-T'Pol was inspired by reading the historical logs of our universe's Defiant, which revealed a universe where Humans, Vulcans, and other aliens lived as equals in a benevolent Federation. After recruiting the ISS Avenger's alien crew members to the rebellion, T'Pol is caught and interrogated by Archer. Archer and Hoshi Sato express a desire to have her executed following her interrogation, the Defiant immediately enters battle, and Mirror T'pols fate is not shown.

During the episode's stated date of January 2155, T'Pol foreshadows future events, such as the fall of the Terran Empire after several centuries (which would be chronicled in the Mirror Universe episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.)

Portrayal
Blalock turned down the role three times before accepting. The costume and makeup, including ears and wig, took about two hours to apply. Blalock found it helped her get into character: "It's really cool. Once I'm in the outfit, I am T'Pol." She describes the character as "feline in movement" and says "she does not look at humans condescendingly, though she is a superior race, so it may seem that way. She's just learning about human nature and the positives of feeling emotion."

Blalock was daunted by the prospect of stepping into the shoes of Spock, to live up to the work of Leonard Nimoy that defined what it meant to be a Vulcan. Co-star John Billingsly (Doctor Phlox) said Blalock was very method in her approach to T'Pol, and that she redecorated her trailer so that she was surrounded by beautiful space images. Blalock wanted the character to be "more Vulcan", stating: "I personally believe that T'Pol should have more of her Vulcan culture. I don't believe she should be so desperate to be like everyone else, because the original Star Trek which I grew up with, had a very simple message that I took from it, and that is that not everyone is like me, and I'm not perfect, and nobody's perfect, and that's okay." She felt the character was undermined by inconsistencies and continuity problems. For example: "T'Pol gets sick, terminally ill, and they never readdress it. There's the characteristic where Vulcans don't eat food with their hands, and yet they'll write scenes where T'Pol is eating popcorn at a movie or Trip will bring T'Pol a peach."

She found T'Pol's relationship with Trip unlikely, not seeing what common ground the characters had: "They write it, I do it. I don't see it, personally. T'Pol's a Vulcan—how could she have a relationship? And he's so emotional."

She was critical of how the character ended up, and said, "I wish the best for T'Pol, and I don't wish her to be viewed as everything that they made her—a drug addict, weak woman, confused, lost."

Reception
Peter Schorn of IGN said that Blalock's performance and the character itself were fine but was critical of the setup. He said the character immediately stood out as "an obvious retread of Jeri Ryan's fanboy-delighting Seven of Nine character from Voyager" and that despite every other Vulcan wearing loose robes, T'Pol wore a skintight jumpsuit, which "showed how craven the producers could be and how little they thought of the audience as being anything more than hormone-enthralled nerds." Reviewing the series premiere, Hal Boedeker of the Orlando Sentinel singled out Blalock for praise: "Star Trek purists might not be amused, but the captivating Blalock energizes the franchise. Enterprise needs every bit of pizazz she can supply." 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." In his 2022 rewatch, Keith DeCandido of Tor.com praised Blalock, saying she overcame the setup and costume of the character "to give us a magnificently mature and complicated character."

In 2016, Wired ranked T'Pol as the 10th most important character of Starfleet within the Star Trek science fiction universe. In 2017, Screen Rant ranked T'Pol the 8th most attractive person in the Star Trek universe. In 2018, The Wrap ranked T'Pol as the 28th best character of Star Trek overall. They said her "acting could sometimes be as ridiculous as her fanservice outfits" but that it was fun to watch the Vulcan grapple with their emotions. In 2018, CBR ranked Jolene Blalock as the 17th best actor of the Star Trek franchise. Chris Snellgrove said the Blalock was a victim of both bad writing and bad direction. When the show needed ratings they found ways to remove her clothes; he said "this exploitation is desperate and sad, and the actor deserved better." CBR ranked T'Pol as the 4th "fiercest" female character of the Star Trek universe. 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."

Awards
For her performance as T'Pol, Blalock was nominated for a Saturn Award in the category Best Supporting Actress on Television, which she won. Blalock was again nominated in the same category, three more times.

title: T'Pol


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license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User talk:Mathus~enwiki


text:
Saye Zerbo

Saye Zerbo (27 August 1932 – 19 September 2013) was a Burkinabé military officer who was the third President of the Republic of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) from 25 November 1980 until 7 November 1982.

He led a coup in 1980, but was resisted by trade unions and was overthrown by Major Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo and the Council of Popular Salvation (CSP).

Biography
Saye Zerbo was born Tougan, French West Africa, on 27 August 1932. He went to school in Mali and Saint-Louis, Senegal. Then he joined the French military in 1950 and attended the military academy Saint-Cyr. As a paratrooper, Zerbo took part in both the First Indochina War and the Algerian War of Independence. After Upper Volta's independence from France in 1960, he transferred to that country's army in 1961.

In the military government of Sangoulé Lamizana, who ruled Upper Volta from 1966, Saye Zerbo was minister of foreign affairs from 1974 to 1976. He also held the positions of commander of the regiment in the capital Ouagadougou and director of the military intelligence agency.

On 25 November 1980, Zerbo staged a coup against President Lamizana, who had been re-elected democratically in 1978, and took on the positions of head of state and government. The constitution, which had been introduced in 1977, was suspended and the Military Committee of Recovery for National Progress (Comité Militaire de Redressement pour le Progrès National; CMPRN) established. The trade unions in the country opposed his seizure of power, although they had supported Zerbo for a long time, and on 7 November 1982, Saye Zerbo was deposed in another coup d'état. He was succeeded by Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo as the head of the Council of Popular Salvation (Conseil du Salut du Peuple; CSP).

After being deposed, Zerbo was also incarcerated. On 4 August 1983, Ouédraogo was deposed by Thomas Sankara. In May 1984, Zerbo and Lamizana were put on trial for various crimes. Zerbo was sentenced to 15 years in prison. During his imprisonment, Zerbo converted from Islam to Christianity. He was released from jail in August 1985. After Blaise Compaoré had deposed Sankara he sought Zerbo's advice. Zerbo's conviction from 1984 was annulled on 18 February 1997 by the supreme court of Burkina Faso.

Zerbo's third daughter Araba Kadidiatou Zerbo is married to the former Prime Minister of Burkina Faso Paramanga Ernest Yonli.

title: Saye Zerbo


text:
Sangoulé Lamizana

Aboubakar Sangoulé Lamizana (31 January 1916 – 26 May 2005) was an Upper Voltese military officer who served as the President of Upper Volta (since 1984 renamed Burkina Faso), in power from 3 January 1966, to 25 November 1980. He held the additional position of Prime Minister from 8 February 1974, to 7 July 1978.

Biography
After Upper Volta achieved complete independence from the French Union in 1960, opposition parties either merged with the governing party, Union démocratique voltaïque (UDV), or were banned, transforming Upper Volta into a single party state, headed by Maurice Yaméogo as President. Yaméogo's one-party regime elicited much unrest; student strikes and mass demonstrations by students, labor unions, and civil servants. Yaméogo was forced to resign after a general strike and a military coup on 3 January 1966, giving power to General Sangoulé Lamizana on the demonstrators' demand.

Lamizana served as nominal head of a "provisional military government" until a new Constitution, ratified on 14 June 1970, provided for a four-year transition to fully civilian elected leadership; he was also foreign minister from 1966 to 1967. Elections under the new Constitution delivered a clear majority of the assembly to the UDV.

In the early 1970s the effect of a five-year drought and increasing desertification in the Sahel brought the threat of famine to several nations including Upper Volta. The resulting economic dislocation encouraged factionalism in the government, headed by Gérard Kango Ouédraogo, the prime minister who had been appointed by Lamizana. Again military intervention and dissolution of the assembly brought Lamizana back in control, essentially now as dictator.

Lamizana's regime had international recognition and visited with U.S. President Richard Nixon. On 15 October 1973 Lamizana met with President Nixon and briefed him on the Sahel drought in the Oval Office. Lamizana explained that he represented himself and the other Sahel governments and hoped to secure aid during the famine and drought. Nixon promised to provide as much help as he could.

His personal party following was styled the National Movement for Renewal, although that became a short-lived formation. A new Constitution was written and approved in a referendum in 1977, and Lamizana was reelected in open elections in 1978; this election is generally considered as being among the most democratic ever held in West Africa. Later Lamizana joined UDV.

With the support of unions and civil groups, Col. Saye Zerbo overthrew Lamizana in a bloodless military coup in November 1980.

title: Sangoulé Lamizana


text:
The Man with the Golden Gun (novel)

The Man with the Golden Gun is the twelfth and final novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series and thirteenth Bond book overall. It was first published by Jonathan Cape in the UK on 1 April 1965, eight months after the author's death. The novel was not as detailed or polished as the others in the series, leading to poor but polite reviews. Despite that, the book was a best-seller.

The story centres on the fictional British Secret Service operative James Bond, who had been posted missing, presumed dead, after his last mission in Japan. Bond returns to Britain via the Soviet Union, where he had been brainwashed to attempt to assassinate his superior, M. After being "cured" by the MI6 doctors, Bond is sent to the Caribbean to find and kill Francisco Scaramanga, the titular "Man with the Golden Gun".

The first draft and part of the editing process was completed before Fleming's death and the manuscript had passed through the hands of his copy editor, William Plomer, but it was not as polished as other Bond stories. Much of the detail contained in the previous novels was missing, as this was often added by Fleming in the second draft. Publishers Jonathan Cape passed the manuscript to Kingsley Amis for his thoughts and advice on the story, although his suggestions were not used.

The novel was serialised in 1965, firstly in the Daily Express and then in Playboy; in 1966 a daily comic strip adaptation was also published in the Daily Express. In 1974 the book was loosely adapted as the ninth film in the Eon Productions James Bond series, with Roger Moore playing Bond and Fleming's cousin, Christopher Lee, as Scaramanga.

Plot
A year after James Bond's final confrontation with Ernst Stavro Blofeld, while on a mission in Japan, a man claiming to be Bond appears in London and demands to meet the head of the Secret Service, M. Bond's identity is confirmed, but during his debriefing interview with M, Bond tries to kill him with a cyanide pistol; the attempt fails. The Service learns that after destroying Blofeld's castle in Japan, Bond suffered a head injury and developed amnesia. Having lived as a Japanese fisherman for several months, Bond travelled into the Soviet Union to learn his true identity. While there, he was brainwashed and assigned to kill M upon returning to England.

Now de-programmed, Bond is given a chance to again prove his worth as a member of the 00 section following the assassination attempt. M sends Bond to Jamaica and gives him the seemingly impossible mission of killing Francisco "Pistols" Scaramanga, a Cuban assassin who is believed to have killed several British secret agents. Scaramanga is known as "The Man with the Golden Gun" because his weapon of choice is a gold-plated Colt .45 revolver, which fires silver-jacketed solid-gold bullets.

Bond locates Scaramanga in a Jamaican bordello and manages to become his temporary personal assistant under the name "Mark Hazard". He learns that Scaramanga is involved in a hotel development on the island with a group of investors that consists of a syndicate of American gangsters and the KGB. Scaramanga and the other investors are also engaged in a scheme to destabilise Western interests in the Caribbean's sugar industry and increase the value of the Cuban sugar crop, running drugs into America, smuggling prostitutes from Mexico into America and operating casinos in Jamaica that will cause friction between tourists and the local people.

Bond discovers that he has an ally who is also working undercover at the half-built resort, Felix Leiter, who has been recalled to duty by the CIA and is working ostensibly as an electrical engineer while setting up bugs in Scaramanga's meeting room. However, they learn that Scaramanga plans to eliminate Bond when the weekend is over. Bond's true identity is confirmed by a KGB agent and Scaramanga makes new plans to entertain the gangsters and the KGB agent by killing Bond while they are riding a sight-seeing train to a marina. However, Bond manages to turn the tables on Scaramanga and, with the help of Leiter, kill most of the conspirators. Wounded, Scaramanga escapes into the swamps, where Bond pursues him. Scaramanga lulls Bond off-guard and shoots him with a golden derringer hidden in his palm. Bond is hit but returns fire and shoots Scaramanga several times, killing him at last.

Characters and themes
The central character of the novel is James Bond. In The Man with the Golden Gun, he appears with a different personality from the previous stories and is robot-like, according to author of the "continuation" Bond novels, Raymond Benson. Benson also felt that Bond's character had not been developed any further than in the previous books. The historian Jeremy Black noted that when given two opportunities to kill Scaramanga in cold blood, he cannot bring himself to do it. The first time this happens, Bond sits in a car behind Scaramanga; the method of killing would be to shoot him in the back of the head and this is compared to the technique used by both the KGB and Nazis. According to Black, Bond has to rise above the actions and act more suitably for a British fictional hero. Once the mission is completed, Bond is offered the KCMG, but he refuses the honour and reflects on his own name, "a quiet, dull, anonymous name", which had been Fleming's aim when he first named the character. Benson also points out that the touches of humour displayed by Bond in the previous novels disappeared and he appeared in the book as cold and emotionless.

For the first time in the Bond canon, M's full name of "Admiral Sir Miles Messervy KCMG" was finally revealed. Despite being the target of the failed assassination attempt, not only does M not press charges against Bond, he sends him out on further missions.

According to Benson, the main adversary of the novel, Francisco Scaramanga, is more a henchman than a major adversary and "a second-rate, smalltime crook who happens to have gotten lucky with his shooting." Comentale, Watt and Willman note that Scaramanga had the same character profile as Herr von Hammerstein, the former Gestapo officer who is the chief of counterintelligence for the Cuban secret service in "For Your Eyes Only".

There are two main themes in the novel. The first involves Scaramanga providing the Rastafarians with drugs in return for fires in the sugar plantations, a return of the theme used in "Risico", of drugs being used for political purposes to undermine the West. This was part of a wider conspiracy by Scaramanga and his KGB connection, Hendricks, to destabilise the region by a campaign of industrial sabotage against companies based in Jamaica, including Reynolds Metal, Kaiser Bauxite and Aluminia.

Black notes that the independent inquiry at the end of the novel, conducted in Bond's hospital bedroom, was undertaken by the Jamaican judiciary and the CIA and MI6 were recorded as acting "under the closest liaison and direction of the Jamaican CID"; Bond and Leiter are also awarded the Jamaican Police Medal for "Services to the Independent State of Jamaica." Black observes that this was the new world of a non-colonial, independent Jamaica, underlining the collapse of the British Empire.

Background
Ian Fleming wrote The Man with the Golden Gun at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica in January and February 1964, completing it by the beginning of March. His health affected him badly during the writing process and he dropped from his usual rate of two thousand words a morning to a little over an hour's worth of work a day.

As with his previous novels, Fleming used events from his past as elements in his novel. Whilst at Kitzbühel in the 1930s, Fleming's car, a Standard Tourer, had been struck by a train at a level crossing and he had been dragged fifty yards down the track. From that time on he had associated trains with death, which led to their use as a plot device not just in The Man with the Golden Gun, but also in Live and Let Die, Diamonds Are Forever and From Russia, with Love.

As well as using events from his past, Fleming also used names of individuals he knew for some of his characters. The editor of The London Magazine, Alan Ross, had provided Fleming with details about the effects of the electroshock therapy that Bond went through and, by way of thanks, the novel's SIS station chief in Jamaica, Commander Ross, was named after him. Similarly, Fleming used the name of the secretary of the Royal St George's Golf Club, Mark Nicholson, for the CIA representative at the hotel. Tony Hugill, the sugar planter mentioned in the novel, was named after a member of Fleming's 30 AU unit who managed the Tate & Lyle plantations in the West Indies after the war and the book's main villain, Francisco Scaramanga, was named after George Scaramanga, an Etonian contemporary of Fleming's: the pair are said to have fought at school.

The effects of the two Eon Productions Bond films released prior to the writing of the novel (Dr. No and From Russia with Love) were reflected in the novel through the increased number of gadgets used. One of these was the poison gun used in the scene of the attempted assassination of M. The idea was taken from the story of Bohdan Stashynsky, who defected from the Eastern Bloc to the West in 1961. Stashynsky was put on trial for the murder of Ukrainian nationalist leaders Lev Rebet and Stepan Bandera and stated that he had used a poison-spray gun to do it.

Fleming returned to Britain with a completed first draft of the manuscript in March 1964 and wrote to the copy editor of all his novels, William Plomer, saying it needed a lot of re-writing. As time went on Fleming became increasingly unhappy with the book and thought about re-working it in the spring of 1965, but was persuaded against it by Plomer, who considered the novel viable for publication. Five months after returning from Jamaica, on the morning of 12 August 1964, Fleming died of a heart attack. His obituary in The Times noted that he "had completed and was revising a new novel, The Man with the Golden Gun."

Despite William Plomer's original thought about the state of the manuscript, editors Jonathan Cape were concerned enough about the story to pass the manuscript to Kingsley Amis to read on holiday, paying him £35/15 shillings for his thoughts and advice, although Amis' subsequent suggestions were not used by Cape. Cape had taken the step because they thought the novel was thin and "feeble". Raymond Benson has noted that the thinness comes from a lack of the rich detail and descriptions which are normally present in Fleming's work, but which are missing from The Man with the Golden Gun; Benson suggests that these details were normally worked into the second draft by Fleming, but their absence shows that no such additional work was done on this occasion. The Man with the Golden Gun was published posthumously, eight months after its author's death.

Release and reception
The Man with the Golden Gun was published in the UK on 1 April 1965 by Jonathan Cape, was 221 pages long and cost eighteen shillings. Cover artist Richard Chopping undertook the cover design again and was paid 300 guineas for the artwork. The Man with the Golden Gun was published in the US in August 1965, was 183 pages long and cost $4.50. Even before the US edition was published, The Man with the Golden Gun was ninth place on the best-seller lists, with 80,000 pre-orders for the hardback version.

Reviews
Critics did not praise The Man with the Golden Gun, although much of the criticism was muted. Fleming biographer Henry Chandler noted that the novel "received polite and rather sad reviews, recognizing that the book had effectively been left half-finished, and as such did not represent Fleming at the top of his game." Kingsley Amis wrote in the New Statesman that the book was "a sadly empty tale, empty of the interests and effects that for better or worse, Ian Fleming made his own." Meanwhile, the critic for The Times wrote that the novel would "doubtless be followed with close attention by the keen-eyed admirers of the many-wiled Bond."

Maurice Richardson, writing in The Observer, lamented that "perhaps Ian Fleming was very tired when he wrote it. Perhaps ... he left it unrevised. The fact remains that this posthumous Bond is a sadly sub-standard job." His praise for the novel was muted, admitting "it isn't of course by any means totally unreadable but it's depressingly far from the best Bond." Writing in The Observer's sister paper, The Guardian, Christopher Wordsworth noted that "since Goldfinger 007 has been toiling hopelessly in the wake of the Zeitgeist." Prior to this novel, Wordsworth writes, "the distance between Live and let Die, Ian Fleming's second and best, and You Only Live Twice, his last and worst, is a long iron down the Sandwich fairway." The Man with the Golden Gun, however, sinks to the level of a "farrago".

William Trevor, writing in The Listener, was dismissive of the work, thinking that "Bond continues to behave with so little originality that neither Templar nor Drummond, Marlowe nor Nick Charles, would have paused to waste a pellet on him"; he continued, saying that "this present work is once again a fantasy for grown-up children, neither as clever nor exciting as the early thrillers of Edgar Wallace or the boys adventure stories of fifty years ago." Trevor did admit that "for those who like to escape to Bondsville, the old boom-town hasn't changed a scrap."

The critic for Time was damning, saying that "It may have been just as well that Fleming died when everybody still thought he could do no wrong". Meanwhile, the critic for Newsweek said that "James Bond should have had a better exit. Sadly [it] ... ends not with a bang but a whimper. The world will be a vastly more lacklustre and complicated place with 007 gone."

The Associated Press wrote that "Bond and Fleming were fun. They entertained, sometimes mildly, often grandly – but always consistently. Life will be less interesting without them." In his review for The New York Times, Charles Poore wrote that The Man with the Golden Gun was "a gory, glittering saga". Poore noted that "The Gee-whizzery ... starts early and never flags" and that, despite the passing of Fleming, "the James Bond spirit soars on". The critic for Books and Bookmen lamented the fact that "Bond has gone out like a lamb; even the girls are below par, while the villain seems like a refuge from a seedy Western. But we'll miss our James".

D.A.N. Jones, writing in The New York Review of Books, thought The Man with the Golden Gun was "an innocuous run-of-the-mill adventure story of 1911 vintage", Anthony Lejeune, writing in the National Review, thought that it "is undeniably slight, but, like everything Fleming wrote, intensely readable ... In a sense Fleming's job was finished. He had irrevocably transformed the genre in which he worked". Lejeune went on to say that "in highbrow novels sex and violence are treated gloomily: in Fleming's stories they are presented cheerfully with full enjoyment."

Adaptations
The Man with the Golden Gun was published in serial form in the Daily Express newspaper on a daily basis from 22 March 1965 onwards.
 * Newspaper serialisation (1965)

This novel was also serialised over four issues of Playboy from April through July 1965.
 * Playboy serialisation (1965)

The novel was adapted as a daily comic strip which was published in the Daily Express newspaper and syndicated around the world. The adaptation ran from 10 January to 10 September 1966. The adaptation was written by Jim Lawrence and illustrated by Yaroslav Horak. The strip was reprinted by Titan Books in The James Bond Omnibus Vol. 2, published in 2011.
 * Comic strip (1966)

In 1974, Eon Productions made the ninth Bond film, loosely based on the novel. The film starred Roger Moore as Bond and Fleming's cousin, Christopher Lee, as Scaramanga. The film moved away from Jamaica to the Far East and borrowed from the martial arts genre that was popular in the 1970s. The plot also changed and used the 1973 energy crisis as a backdrop to the film, allowing the MacGuffin of the "Solex agitator" to be introduced.
 * The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

title: The Man with the Golden Gun (novel)


text: Talk:Dexter's Laboratory

title: Talk:Dexter's Laboratory


text:
Spy Game

Spy Game is a 2001 action thriller film directed by Tony Scott and starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. The American–French–German–Japanese co-production grossed $62 million in the United States and $143 million worldwide on a $115 million budget, and received mostly positive reviews from film critics.

Plot
In 1991, the United States and China are close to a major trade agreement, with the President due to visit China to seal the deal. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) learns that its asset Tom Bishop has been arrested at a People's Liberation Army prison in Suzhou and will be executed in 24 hours, unless the U.S. government claims him and bargains for his release. Bishop's actions, unsanctioned by the CIA, risk jeopardizing the agreement. A group of CIA executives summon Nathan Muir, a veteran case officer and Bishop's mentor, who plans to retire from the Agency at the end of the day. While purportedly interviewing Muir to learn his history with Bishop, the executives seek a pretext for not intervening on Bishop's imprisonment. Unknown to them, Muir was tipped off about Bishop's capture by fellow CIA veteran Harry Duncan, the Hong Kong Station Chief.

Muir leaks the story to CNN through an MI6 contact, Digby 'Digger' Gibson in Hong Kong, believing that public pressure would force American intervention. They are stalled briefly before a phone call to the FCC from Deputy Director for Operations Charles Harker results in CNN retracting the story as a hoax. Muir met Bishop in 1975, when Bishop was a United States Marine Corps Scout Sniper during the Vietnam War. Muir gives Bishop a mission to eliminate a high-ranking North Vietnamese military officer. Bishop and his spotter, Tran are able to assassinate the target despite being compromised, although Bishop takes out a pursuing enemy attack chopper. Bishop escorts the now wounded Tran to safety, impressing Muir. In 1976, Muir recruited Bishop as a CIA asset in West Berlin, where Bishop was tasked with procuring assets in East Germany. Then he discusses Bishop's spy work in Beirut in 1985, during the War of the Camps, which was their last mission together.

In a series of flashbacks, Bishop is troubled by Muir's conviction that civilian "assets" who endangered a mission should be sacrificed to preserve the "greater good." After Bishop attempts to countermand Muir during a mission to save the life of an asset, Muir emphasizes that he will not tolerate dissent, and would not rescue Bishop if he was captured going "off the reservation". During a mission in Lebanon, Bishop, posing as a photojournalist, meets relief worker Elizabeth Hadley. While using her to connect with an asset for the mission, they became romantically involved. Muir distrusts Hadley, and reveals to Bishop that she was exiled from the United Kingdom. Hadley later confesses to Bishop that she was involved in the bombing of a Chinese building in Britain, which was supposed to be empty but contained Chinese nationals. Bishop reveals to Hadley his true identity. Muir elects again to sacrifice a civilian asset for the sake of their mission, and Bishop cuts professional ties with Muir. Muir, fearing that Hadley could threaten the Agency and potentially Bishop, makes a deal with the Chinese, exchanging Hadley in return for an arrested U.S. diplomat. Chinese agents kidnap Hadley, and a Dear John letter is forged and left for Bishop.

In the present, Muir realizes that Bishop went to China for Hadley. In a series of misdirections, he forges a directive signed by the Director of Central Intelligence to begin "Operation Dinner Out", a rescue mission spearheaded by a SEAL team that Bishop had developed as a "Plan B" for his own attempt at rescuing Hadley. Using $282,000 of his life savings and a misappropriated file on Chinese coastline satellite imagery, Muir enlists Duncan to assist him in bribing a Chinese energy official to cut power to the prison for 30 minutes, during which time the SEAL rescue team will retrieve Bishop and Hadley. Harker is suspicious that Muir is working against the CIA, but when he confronts Muir before the gathered executives, Muir "confesses" to unprofessionally using company resources to gather information about his intended retirement home, which he has distorted the evidence to support. Bishop is rescued along with Hadley, and surmises that Muir was responsible for saving him when he hears the helicopter pilot refer to "Operation Dinner Out", which was also the code name for an operation Bishop used to get a birthday gift for Muir while they were in Lebanon. When the CIA officials are belatedly informed of the rescue, Muir has already left the building and is seen driving safely off into the countryside.

Cast

 * Robert Redford as CIA Case Officer Nathan D. Muir
 * Brad Pitt as CIA Operative Tom Bishop
 * Catherine McCormack as Elizabeth Hadley
 * Stephen Dillane as Deputy Director for Operations Chuck Harker
 * Larry Bryggman as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence Troy Folger
 * Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Gladys Jennip, Muir's Secretary
 * Ken Leung as CIA Agent Li
 * David Hemmings as CIA Case Officer Harry Duncan
 * Michael Paul Chan as CIA Agent Vincent Vy Ngo
 * Garrick Hagon as Director of Central Intelligence Cy Wilson
 * Todd Boyce as CIA Agent Robert Aiken
 * Matthew Marsh as Dr. William Byars
 * Andrew Grainger as CIA Operations Officer Andrew Unger
 * Shane Rimmer as The Estate Agent
 * Ho Yi as The Prison Warden
 * Benedict Wong as CIA Agent Tran
 * Adrian Pang as CIA Agent Jiang
 * Omid Djalili as CIA Agent Doumet
 * Dale Dye as Commander Wiley, USN SEAL
 * Demetri Goritsas as CIA Agent Billy Hyland
 * Charlotte Rampling as Anne Cathcart
 * Matthew Walker as MI6 Agent Digby 'Digger' Gibson
 * James Aubrey as CIA Agent Mitch Alford
 * Colin Stinton as CIA Agent Henry Pollard
 * Amidou as Dr. Ahmed
 * Andrea Osvárt as Muir's Cousin in Berlin

Production
The film was made in Morocco between November 5, 2000, to March 19, 2001 and ín Budapest and was originally to be directed by Mike van Diem. Pitt passed on playing the title role in The Bourne Identity for this project. It made its worldwide premiere at the Mann National Theatre on November 19, 2001.

Home video
The film was released by Universal Studios Home Video on DVD and VHS on April 9, 2002.

Box office
Spy Game opened at number three behind Monsters, Inc. and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, earning $21.6 million during its opening weekend, combined with $30.6 million from its first five days. The film grossed $62,362,785 in the United States and $143,049,560 worldwide.

Critical response
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie an approval rating of 64% based on 133 reviews and an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "The outcome of the kinetic Spy Game is never in doubt, but it is fun watching Robert Redford and Brad Pitt work." Metacritic gave the film a score of 63 out of 100 based upon reviews by 29 critics. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two and a half stars out of four and said, "It is not a bad movie, mind you; it's clever and shows great control of craft, but it doesn't care, and so it's hard for us to care about."

Novels
In 2022 Michael Frost Beckner, the co-screenwriter of Spy Game, published a trilogy of novels featuring characters from the film: Muir’s Gambit, Bishop's Endgame, and Aiken in Check.

title: Spy Game


text:
Surface-water hydrology

Surface-water hydrology is the sub-field of hydrology concerned with above-earth water (surface water), in contrast to groundwater hydrology that deals with water below the surface of the Earth. Its applications include rainfall and runoff, the routes that surface water takes (for example through rivers or reservoirs), and the occurrence of floods and droughts. Surface-water hydrology is used to predict the effects of water constructions such as dams and canals. It considers the layout of the watershed, geology, soils, vegetation, nutrients, energy and wildlife. Modelled aspects include precipitation, the interception of rain water by vegetation or artificial structures, evaporation, the runoff function and the soil-surface system itself.

When surface water seeps into the ground above bedrock, it is categorized as groundwater, and the rate at which this occurs determines baseflow needs for instream flow, as well as subsurface water levels in wells. While groundwater is not part of surface-water hydrology, it must be taken into account for a full understanding of the behaviour of surface water.

Glacial hydrology is a part of surface-water hydrology; some of the runoff from glaciers and snow also involves groundwater hydrology concepts.

title: Surface-water hydrology


text:
Bolton Field

Bolton Field is a public airport in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio, United States. It is a towered airport operated under the Columbus Regional Airport Authority. It is one of 12 general aviation reliever airports in Ohio recognized in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) and is a reliever airport for John Glenn Columbus International Airport.

Most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, but Bolton Field is TZR to the FAA and has no IATA code.

History
Bolton Field opened on October 24, 1970, a day after Franklin County Common Pleas Court rejected a move by a nearby private airport (located on Darby Dan Farm) to stop it. Major Harry Charles Davidson, a WWII veteran residing in Groveport, Ohio, was the first airport manager at Bolton Field. Major Harry Charles Davidson was appointed by Mayor of Columbus, Jack Sensenbrenner. The airport is named after long-time Port Columbus International Airport Superintendent Francis A. "Jack" Bolton, honored posthumously when the city dedicated the airfield to him at its opening. The airport was built to handle personal and business aviation, freeing Port Columbus for commercial traffic.

In 1980, the operation of John Glenn International Airport (formerly Port Columbus International Airport) and Bolton Field Airport was transferred from the City of Columbus to the Columbus Airport Authority; in 2003, the Columbus Airport Authority and the Rickenbacker Port Authority merged to create the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, which manages John Glenn Columbus International (CMH), Rickenbacker International Airport (LCK) and Bolton Field (TZR) airports.

The airport is home to regular events hosted by the Experimental Aircraft Association's Young Eagles Program.

Facilities and aircraft
Bolton Field covers 1500 acre and has one asphalt runway (4/22), which measures 5,500 x. Fuel is available; planes can use tiedowns or hangars for parking.

Capital City Jet provides flight instruction, fixed-base operations, and air charter services. FBO amenities include a conference room, a crew lounge, snooze rooms, a courtesy car, and more.

Columbus State Community College has an Aviation Maintenance Training Program on the field.

Scioto Valley 99s and Central Ohio Balloon Club are aviation organizations located on the grounds. There is also a barbecue restaurant on the field, which offers dinner and airplane rides each year on Valentine's Day.

For the 12-month period ending ending June 7, 2022, the airport had 26,932 aircraft operations, average 74 per day. It was nearly 100% general aviation as well as <1% air taxi and <1% military. For the same time period, 64 aircraft are based at this airport: 57 single-engine and 6 multi-engine airplanes as well as 1 helicopter. This is down from 74,511 aircraft operations and 82 based aircraft in 2011.

Incidents and accidents

 * On October 8, 1992, an aircraft veered left and departed the runway while landing at Bolton Field. The probable cause of the accident was found to be the pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane.
 * On June 18, 1993, upon approach for landing on grass runway 22, a Glasflügel H-101 glider registered N101AZ, encountered a powered airplane, which had entered the landing pattern. The pilot extended his base leg to the approach to accommodate the aircraft. He then decided that it would be difficult to complete the landing on the planned runway, so he switched to a site he was unfamiliar with. During this landing, the glider impacted a ditch. The ultra-light aircraft suffered damage to its tail section.
 * On March 23, 2003, a Piper PA-22 was substantially damaged during takeoff from Bolton Field. A CFI onboard was providing instruction to the private pilot flying, who himself had not flown since 1983. On the accident takeoff, the aircraft was almost at takeoff speed when it began to veer to the right. The CFI took control of the airplane and attempted to correct; however, the airplane departed the right side of the runway, and ground-looped. The left main landing gear collapsed and the left wing struck the ground. The probable cause of the accident was found to be the pilot under instruction's failure to maintain directional control, and the flight instructor's delayed remedial action.
 * On February 14, 2017, a Beech D55 Baron impacted runway 22 at the Bolton Field Airport following a loss of left engine power during takeoff. Just after takeoff, the left engine began to lose power and its rpm began dropping. The left seat pilot transferred control to the right seat passenger, who tried to land the aircraft on the remaining runway. The aircraft landed hard, but the right seat pilot managed to stop the aircraft on the runway surface. The left main gear was found to have collapsed. The probable cause of the accident was found to be the partial loss of left engine power during takeoff and initial climb, which led to a hard landing in gusting crosswind conditions; the reason for the loss of engine power could not be determined because postaccident examination of the left engine revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.

title: Bolton Field


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Home zone

A home zone (or play street) is a living street (or group of streets) as implemented in the United Kingdom, which are designed primarily to meet the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, children and residents and where the speeds and dominance of cars is reduced. Quiet lanes are a similar concept in rural areas.

History
The Highway Act 1835 banned the playing of football and street games on the highway with a maximum penalty of forty shillings (£0 as of 2015). In 1860 Taverner John Miller, MP for Colchester reported to the House of Commons that in the previous year 44 children had been sent to prison in London and Middlesex for failure to pay fines for playing in the street, highlighting the case of a 12-year-old boy sent to prison for 5 days for playing rounders. In 1925 Nancy Astor MP noted in the Commons that "There is no more pitiable sight in life than a child which has been arrested for playing in the street". By 1935 over 2,000 young people under the age of seventeen are prosecuted for playing in the streets.

In 1934 Leslie Hore-Belisha became Transport Minister and initiated a number of road safety schemes in response the rising number of Road Casualties in Great Britain; these included the zebra crossing and a proposal to introduce play streets to the UK, which had been successfully operating in the USA. Following a trial of 200 Play Streets in Manchester and Salford from 1936, the Street Playground Act 1938 allowed councils to designate streets as playgrounds where games could be played.

In 1957 the Transport Minister was asked in the Commons if he was aware that playground streets regulations were being ignored and were frequently used by through traffic; the Minister responded saying that the size of Playground Streets signs had recently been increased in size to make them more prominent. Play street legislation was included in section 49 of the Road Traffic Act 1960.

By 1963 there were 750 such streets around the country, but there was also growing conflict between the needs of children and the needs of motorists. In that year Ernest Marples, the Transport minister, was asked in the Commons if he could make a statement about the issue of car parking in play streets; he responded by indicating that he had only occasionally received complaints about parking issues in play streets. In the same year a petition was presented in the Commons from residents objecting to the illegal use of their playground street in Westminster being used by through-traffic and by people parking cars By contrast, the minister was also questioned in the Commons about a recently approved Playgrounds Street Order for a number of streets in Newcastle which was reported to have been opposed by all residents. In 1976 Trevor Huddleston, the Bishop of Stepney commented that Britain appeared to prefer motor cars to children 'by cluttering up Play Streets with parked cars'. By the 1980s Playgrounds Streets had been largely forgotten; there were streets which retained the signage and accompanying traffic restrictions, however residents' parked cars left no space for play.

Home Zone
The main enabling legislation for home zones is given in section 268 of the Transport Act 2000 which allows the creation of 'use orders' which are orders that 'permit the use of a road for purposes other than passage' such as social interaction and children's play. In 2002 Farley Bank, a cul-de-sac in Hastings was designated as a Play Street giving children traffic-free space for play between 8am and sunset.

Quiet Lane
The same act introduced the concept of the Quiet Lane which allows similar social uses in rural roads, following pilot projects in Kent and Norfolk.

Principles
These principles are similar to those of the shared space type schemes, which apply also to a wider range of environments and follow closely the pattern of the Dutch woonerf schemes.

Encouraging children's play is an important aim of many home zone schemes. Home zones have a very good safety record, but are not primarily designed as road safety schemes.

Home zones are encouraged by the UK Government as part of new residential areas. Although it is not possible for prospective residents to be involved in the design of new streets, steps can be taken to involve them in their maintenance and management. Residents must be need to be consulted by the local Traffic Authority on the precise uses that can take place on the street (specified through a 'Use Order') and the appropriate speed of traffic on the street (specified through a 'Speed Order') before the home zone can be legally designated and signed.

Home zones often involved the use of shared space, where the street is not strongly divided into exclusive pedestrian and traffic areas. Concerns have been expressed over the inability of blind and partially sighted people to use shared space streets. Providing a clear route for pedestrians that is kept free of traffic, by using street furniture for example, is one way of meeting the needs of the visually impaired.

Well-designed home zones often include features such as benches, tables and play equipment to encourage social interaction. Street trees and areas of planting, ideally maintained by residents, will often feature. On-street parking also forms part of the layout in most schemes.

Traffic speeds are kept low – with a typical target speed being around 20 km/h (10–15 mph) – through the overall design of the street and features such as sharp changes of direction for traffic and narrowings where only one motor vehicle can pass at a time. Traditional traffic calming features such as road humps can also be used, but should be integrated into the design rather than being added as an engineered afterthought.

Examples of UK practice include Staiths South Bank in Gateshead, which at over 600 homes was the largest newbuild home zone development in the UK at the time it received planning consent. Most contemporary UK schemes have involved public realm works to existing streets in older Victorian housing areas, often to meet regeneration or traffic calming objectives.

title: Home zone