Charles Tucker III
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Charles 'Trip' Tucker | |
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| Species: | Human |
| Gender: | Male |
| Hair color: | Blondish-brown |
| Eye color: | Blue |
| Date of death: | October 10, 2161 |
| Home planet: | Earth |
| Affiliation: | Starfleet |
| Posting: | Enterprise chief engineer Columbia chief engineer |
| Rank: | Commander |
| Portrayed by: | Connor Trinneer |
Commander Charles Tucker III, (2121-2161) known as Trip (for "triple", since he is the third generation of his family to be called Charles Tucker), is a fictional character in the television series Star Trek: Enterprise. Tucker is the chief engineer on the NX-01 Enterprise and also briefly served as chief engineer of the Columbia (NX-02). He is played by Connor Trinneer.
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[edit] Biography
Charles Tucker first met Jonathan Archer about a decade prior to the launch of Enterprise when the two worked together on an early Warp 5 prototype vessel built on Archer's father's Warp engine design.
While a very knowledgeable engineer, he can be rash and "illogical", a fact that early on caused friction between Tucker and Enterprise's Vulcan science officer, T'Pol. During the first year of Enterprise's mission, Tucker found himself coping with situations no Starfleet engineer had ever coped with, and was a key player in the vessel finally achieving its then-record breaking speed of Warp 5. Tucker also had to contend with a more dubious honor when he become the first pregnant human male, in the episode "Unexpected" (an event T'Pol continued to tease him about months later).
Tucker was also not against enjoying the occasional romantic liaison, including one with an exotic alien princess (as seen in the second season episode "Precious Cargo"). When challenged about these dalliances, Tucker's stock phrase was "I was a perfect gentleman."
The death of his sister Elizabeth in the Xindi attack on Earth left Tucker emotionally scarred and unable to sleep without experiencing vivid nightmares. At the request of Dr. Phlox, he agreed to undergo Vulcan neuropressure treatments with T'Pol. Although the treatments required very intimate contact between the two, there was no signs at first of anything beyond a professional relationship developing between the officers.
At a crucial point during the Xindi mission, Tucker suffered a potentially fatal injury. The only way to save his life was to create a clone in order to harvest needed brain cells. The clone, named Sim, grew to adulthood over only a few days and many of the crew became fond of him, in particular T'Pol who actually kissed Sim after he confessed to being attracted to T'Pol — but adding that he was uncertain whether those feelings were his own or Trip's. Against Sim's objections, Archer ordered him to undergo the medical procedure to extract the needed cells in order to save Trip's life, even though this proved fatal to Sim. (The episode in which this occurs, "Similitude", is one of the most controversial in all of Star Trek history).
As the Xindi mission progressed, Tucker found himself growing closer to T'Pol, and the two briefly became lovers (an event T'Pol later dismissed as an experiment, though the real cause was a side-effect of her addiction to the substance Trellium D which affected her emotional judgement). Later, however, the two found themselves continuing a somewhat clandestine relationship.
Tucker realized he was in love with T'Pol during a trip to Vulcan with her after the Xindi mission, during which she decided to marry Koss in an arranged marriage. Although T'Pol's mother encouraged Trip to express his feelings to her daughter, Trip chose not to do so. Later, following the annulment of her marriage to Koss, Trip considered becoming involved with her again, however T'Pol told him that she was not interested in reviving their relationship. In "Observer Effect", T'Pol expressed great concern for Trip, suggesting her feelings for him remained strong, despite her claims to the contrary.
In 2154, during a mission to prevent a Romulan automated marauder from starting a war, Trip determined that his emotional attraction to T'Pol was negatively affecting his ability to do his job. After the mission he requested, and received, a transfer to the new Warp 5 starship, the Columbia (NX-02) under the command of Captain Erika Hernandez. Within two days of his assignment to the vessel, several of Columbia's engineering crew request transfers. During this period, Tucker began experiencing vivid daydreams involving T'Pol, not realizing that she was actually unintentionally communicating with him via a newly discovered mental ability that was unlocked when she began performing mind melds. In the episode "Bound", it was revealed that Tucker and T'Pol had somehow psychically bonded when they had made love a year earlier, although this link didn't apparently manifest itself right away.
During the events of the episode "Divergence", Tucker was temporarily reassigned to Enterprise in order to facilitate repairs following a run-in with the Klingons. He subsequently submitted a request to Captain Hernandez asking to return to Enterprise full-time, a request that was presumably granted. Not long after, Tucker and T'Pol reestablished their relationship.
Tucker served as Archer's chief engineer for a full decade, and prepared to transfer to one of the newly-built Warp 7-capable starships following the decommission of Enterprise in 2161, which was to coincide with the signing of the United Federation of Planets charter. The finale episode "These Are the Voyages..." revealed that Trip and T'Pol ended their romantic relationship at some point after the events of "Terra Prime", for reasons as yet unrevealed. Despite this, the two remained close and Trip had to reassure T'Pol that the decommissioning of Enterprise and their reassignment to different vessels, would not have any bearing on their friendship.
During a brief mission prior to the decommissioning of Enterprise, Tucker gave up his life in order to prevent Archer from being killed by a group of aliens that had invaded the ship. He was the only member of the original NX-01 command crew not to survive to see Archer sign the charter of the United Federation of Planets.
[edit] Family
In 2153, Tucker lost his sister, Elizabeth, in the Xindi attack on Earth which destroyed his hometown of Panama City, Florida. In a first season episode, " Fusion," Tucker revealed he had a brother who he practiced "dancing with," although we never saw him. His parents survived the attack and later relocated to Mississippi; they were invited to attend the signing of the UFP treaty in 2161, and kept their promise to attend even after Trip's death. T'Pol requested the opportunity to meet them at this occasion, but it's not known if she did. Little is known of Trip's parents except Archer described them as being "eccentric."
At least three offspring have — directly or indirectly — been linked to Tucker:
In 2151, Tucker was accidentally impregnanted by a Xyrillian female, but had the unborn fetus transplated into another Xyrillian before it was born. The offspring was not genetically related to Trip as Xyrillian reproduction only utilizes the mother's genes. No further information about this offspring has been revealed. (Episode: "Unexpected")
In an alternate timeline shown in the episode "E2", at some point following an incident that sent Enterprise back to the year 2037, Tucker and T'Pol marry and have a son, Lorian, whose fate after the restoration of the timeline has yet to be revealed.
In 2155, in the episode "Demons", Tucker learns that he has a six-month-old daughter, the mother apparently being T'Pol. It was revealed that the daughter was cloned using Trip and T'Pol's DNA stolen from the Enterprise by an infiltrator. The cloning procedure was improperly executed, however, and the daughter — whom T'Pol named Elizabeth after Trip's sister — died soon after being rescued. The child's death left Tucker emotionally devastated as T'Pol — herself emotionally drained — tried to comfort him.
[edit] Alternate timelines
In the alternate timeline seen in "Twilight", Tucker becomes the captain of Enterprise following the incapacitation of Jonathan Archer and the resignation from Starfleet of T'Pol. He is killed when Enterprise's bridge is destroyed soon before Archer resets the timeline.
As stated above, the episode "E2" takes place in another altered timeline, however except for the fact that Lorian is the son of T'Pol and Trip, little else is revealed of the alternate Trip except that he is long deceased (the cause apparently was a tragic one, but not specified in the episode) by the time Lorian's version of Enterprise rendezvous with its namesake.
[edit] Mirror Universe
In the Mirror Universe, Tucker is the chief engineer of the ISS Enterprise, but is badly disfigured because of heavy delta ray radiation emanating from his Enterprise's engines. This version of Tucker has an ongoing sexual relationship with the Mirror T'Pol, who once exploited this relationship in her attempt to sabotage the Enterprise - she used a mind meld to implant a post-hypnotic suggestion in Tucker's mind. It is implied this isn't the first time she has used him in this way. Tucker is subsequently caught and tortured in the Agony booth, but vehemently denies any wrongdoing, insisting that he has always been loyal. This version of Tucker, along with much of the ISS Enterprise crew, travels to the USS Defiant (NCC-1764) - which had been discovered in the Mirror Universe - and tries to get the ship working to further the Mirror Jonathan Archer's attempt to take over the Terran Empire. Trip successfully foils a plot by the mirror Phlox to sabotage key systems aboard the Defiant.
[edit] Novels
In the framing story of the Enterprise novel, Last Full Measure, officially released in May 2006 but available for purchase in April, it is revealed that Tucker did not actually die in the events of "These Are The Voyages", but survived and lived to be over 120 years of age (Trip meets the young James T. Kirk and family). The whethertos and whyfors of this are expected to be addressed in the planned "Enterprise Relaunch" series of novel, beginning in 2007 with The Good That Men Do (the cover of which features Trip, apparently on a Romulan ship, implying that the cover-up of Trip's survival has something to do with the Earth-Romulan War).
As with most Star Trek books, this novel's canon status is debatable, but considering the distaste most fans felt for These Are The Voyages..., Tucker's survival and the negation of the series finale should not be ruled out as valid.
[edit] Quotes
- "Warp 5... that's Neptune and back in six minutes!" - Archer and Trip musing about the capabilities of this new ship they've been assigned to.
- "Where no dog has gone before!" - Upon noting Porthos' heading straight for the nearest tree when accompanying an away team on a mission.
[edit] Trivia
- Trip Tucker is from Florida and speaks with a distinct Southern accent.
- A man of unexpected talents, it is known that Trip enjoys playing the harmonica. He is also knowledgeable about the ancient Oriental board game, Go and actually has a Go board in his cabin (he is seen playing the game with the title character of the episode "Cogenitor").
- Trip is also fond of movies as he is responsible for choosing movies for the ship's "movie night". His knowledge of poetry appears not to extend far beyond limericks, however.
- He is also an expert scuba diver, who taught Archer how to dive. In 2161, his quarters were decorated with photographs of sports such as scuba diving and fishing, and he also had a model of the Frankenstein Monster.
[edit] External links
| Regular characters on Star Trek | |||
| The Original Series | Kirk | Spock | McCoy | Scott | Uhura | Sulu | Chekov | Chapel | Rand — Animated Series: Arex | M'Ress | ||
| The Next Generation | Picard | Riker | Data | La Forge | Worf | B. Crusher | Troi | W. Crusher | Yar | Pulaski | ||
| Deep Space Nine | B. Sisko | Kira | J. Dax | Odo | Bashir | O'Brien | Worf | J. Sisko | Quark | Rom | Nog | E. Dax | Garak | Martok | Damar | Dukat | Weyoun | Winn | ||
| Voyager | Janeway | Chakotay | Tuvok | Paris | Torres | Kim | Doctor | Neelix | Seven | Kes | ||
| Enterprise | Archer | T'Pol | Tucker | Reed | Phlox | Sato | Mayweather | ||
