Blalock Joins Cast of Seeker

One way to grab attention for a successful but low-profile show is to recruit a few big names for supporting roles. And Legend of the Seeker is certainly giving it a shot. Having already secured Buffy/Angel star Charisma Carpenter for a guest-starring stint on the second-season premiere, we're now hearing that Jolene Blalock, who played T'Pol on Star Trek: Enterprise, has joined the cast in a recurring role.

Blalock has already begun filming her role as a key villain for the second season, a mysterious Sister of the Dark who's described as possessing very powerful magic. She not only threatens Richard's (Craig Horner) quest to defeat evil forces, we're told, but her ultimate goal is to destroy Kahlan (Bridget Regan). Man, everybody's a hater. Blalock's other credits include the direct-to-DVD Starship Troopers 3 and a couple of episodes of Stargate SG-1, but all anyone remembers is T'Pol.

The second season of the New Zealand-filmed sword-and-sorcery syndie, based on Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth book series, will premiere the weekend of November 7. The first season was just released on DVD.

Carpenter is also playing a heavy - in this case, "a feisty Mord'Sith warrior woman who regularly make Richard Cypher's life miserable." You know how the fanboys reacted to this news - this means we'll be seeing Carpenter in red and black leather.

More familiar faces include Friday Night Lights's Aimee Teegarden, who will be guest starring in a future episode as a Confessor who gets between Richard and Kahlan.

I have mixed feelings about seeing Blalock playing an evil sorceress. On the one hand, she played one of the most unpleasant Vulcans in the history of the Star Trek franchise. On the other hand, her character was badly crafted and badly written, just like every other character on Enterprise - so maybe it wasn't her fault?

Plus, there were times when T'Pol came across as an evil sorceress herself, so maybe this is perfect casting for her.