In the science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise, Soval,
portrayed by Gary Graham, is the Vulcan ambassador to Earth in the 22nd
century. His main assignment appears to be advising Earth's Starfleet
Command.

Attitude toward humans

Jonathan Archer, Captain of the Starship Enterprise, is not particularly
fond of the Ambassador as he appeared to play a major role in the Vulcan
discouragement of Earth's deep space program. He even went so far as to
object to Archer's command of the Enterprise. Soval placed T'Pol on
board the Enterprise (possibly to hinder what he viewed as the illogical
humans), but T'Pol became one of Archer's most trusted officers.

Soval continued his criticism of Enterprise's mission, particularly
after the crew, along with a group of Andorian commandos led by
Commander Shran, discovered a listening post beneath the Vulcan
sanctuary of P'Jem which was being used to spy on the Andorians.
Nevertheless, Soval reluctantly agreed to work with Archer when they
were both dispatched to mediate a dispute over a planetoid claimed by
both the Vulcans and Andorians. The situation was jeopardized early on
when their shuttle was shot down while en route to meeting with Shran.
Fortunately, Archer was able to defend the Ambassador and discover that
Andorian soldiers acting against Shran's order were responsible. After
initial talks between Soval and Shran proved promising, Soval conceded
that Archer's service had been useful in the situation.

After the Xindi attack on Earth that killed seven million humans, Archer
claimed that a mysterious figure from the future who was allied with the
Suliban had given him information on the rationale for the attack, and
more vitally, the name of the alien race responsible for the attack --
the Xindi. Soval was markedly skeptical of this claim, and personally
attempted to discourage Enterprise from entering The Delphic Expanse,
the mysterious region of space the Xindi call home.

Soval came to appreciate Archer's efforts in saving Earth, and his
attitude toward humans warmed considerably after the man in charge of
Starfleet Command, Admiral Forrest, sacrificed his own life to save the
Ambassador's during a bombing inside the Earth Embassy on Vulcan (see
the episode entitled "The Forge" for more).

It was subsequently revealed that Soval, in fact, had developed a deep
affinity and even affection for humans and that his earlier actions were
more to protect them than to hinder them. Nonetheless, after Archer and
his crew helped to prevent a war between Vulcan and Andoria and exposed
corruption within the Vulcan High Command (which was subsequently
dissolved - see "Kir'Shara"), Soval agreed with the decision for Vulcan
to stop looking over Earth's shoulder in space exploration matters.

Soval represented Vulcan at initial talks held in 2155 aimed at forging
an alliance of worlds including Earth, Vulcan, Andoria and the Tellarite
homeworld, an organization that, in 2161, would become the United
Federation of Planets. Although Soval had initially opposed Jonathan
Archer's mission, when Archer gave a key speech at the start of the 2155
summit, it was Soval who led the applause afterwards.

Soval's fate has yet to be chronicled. He is not seen attending the 2161
inauguration of the UFP in the finale episode "These Are the Voyages..."
but that is not an indicator of his fate.

Troubles with the Vulcan High Command

Soval is capable of conducting mind melds, an act considered taboo
amongst Vulcans of the 22nd Century. In order to extract information
about the bombing of Earth's embassy on Vulcan, Soval conducted a
mind-meld between himself and an ailing human MACO security guard at the
embassy who had witnessed the attack. This mind-meld is considered to be
the first such between a Vulcan and a human.

After the confession of his mind-melding abilities, Soval was forced to
resign from the Vulcan High Command. He consequently joined the
Enterprise crew in an effort to prevent a Vulcan preemptive strike
(based entirely on falsified information) against Andoria. Due in large
part to his efforts, a full scale Vulcan-Andorian war never took place,
and the Vulcan High Command was swiftly overthrown for its part in
attempting to start the war. Soval was subsequently reinstated as
ambassador.

Personality

When first encountered, Soval was surprisingly emotional for a Vulcan.
It was suggested in a couple of episodes that this was due to his
long-term exposure to humans, and may be one of the reasons why he
encouraged T'Pol to return to Vulcan prior to the Xindi mission.

The nature of Soval's relationship with T'Pol is unclear. It has been
suggested that the two might be related in some way, but nothing has
been confirmed in canon. Speculation that he might be her father was
discounted by the revelation that T'Pol's father is dead.

As a child, Jonathan Archer referred to Soval as "Ambassador Pointy".

Mirror Universe

In the Mirror Universe, Soval is a non-commissioned Starfleet science
crewmember aboard the ISS Avenger. After the Mirror T'Pol convinces
Soval that Vulcans need not continue to be slaves, Soval attempts to
lead Avenger's alien crewmembers in a rebellion against the Terran
Empire, but dies when the Avenger is destroyed by the USS Defiant under
the command of Jonathan Archer. The Mirror Soval has a goatee, a
reference to the Mirror Spock seen in the original series episode
Mirror, Mirror.