Charles Tucker III

Universe :	Prime Timeline
Name :	Charles Tucker III [1]
Species :	Humans

Charles Tucker, better known as 'Trip' to his friends, is the chief engineer of Enterprise. [2] A friend of Archer's for eight years [3], Trip is naturally friendly and has a very easy-going manner and good sense of humour. Nicknamed "Trip" - short for "Triple", since he is the third generation of his family to be named Charles - Tucker is one of Archer's most trusted officers. [2]

All Enterprise crewmembers are naturally interested in exploration, but Trip seems to derive great pleasure from the travels of Enterprise. He is often to be seen waving a camera around [4], and especially enjoys meeting new species and exploring their differences - though he sometimes finds himself struggling to cope with those differences. During a visit to a Xyrillian ship he became the first Human male to become impregnated, though he maintained that he was innocent of any improper behaviour during the contact and that there had been a simple misunderstanding. Fortunately the Xyrillians were able to remove the embryo safely. [3]

This tenancy to get "hands on" with alien cultures came to a head during Enterprise's encounter with the Vissians, when Trip encouraged a Vissian cogenitor to rebel against her culture by learning to read and question its limited role in society. Captain Archer felt that on this occasion Trip had overstepped the boundaries of interference, and refused the cogenitor asylum on board Enterprise. Both Trip and Archer were devastated when they learned that the cogenitor had subsequently committed suicide rather than continue with its restricted lifestyle. [5]

Early on during his time in Starfleet Trip lived near to the Vulcan compound, and in 10th grade at school he had a Vulcan teacher, Mr. Velik. Despite this he shared Archer's distrust of the Vulcans, whom he saw as arrogant and close-minded concerning Earth's ability to handle interstellar travel. [4] Like Archer, he has mellowed somewhat towards the Vulcans through his association with T'Pol - though the two have argued fiercely on more than one occasion, and Trip even once threatened mutiny rather than obey orders from T'Pol that he disagreed with. [6] His attitude was further mellowed by his meeting with the "V'tosh ka'tur", Vulcans who believed that they should experience their emotions. [7]

Trip has become a good friend of Malcolm Reed, though his optimistic stance towards life tends to clash with Reed's pessimism. [2] The two have managed to get through more than one difficult situation together - vacationing on Risa the officers were mugged by some alien shapeshifters who stole literally everything but their underwear. [8] The two once spent several days together in a shuttlepod, during which time they mistakenly believed that Enterprise had been destroyed by an accident of some sort. Trip tried to sacrifice his life to allow Reed more time to be rescued, but fortunately both men survived the incident and came to a mutual understanding that has stood them in good stead ever since. [9]

Trip's sister was one of the seven million killed by the Xindi attack on Earth in 2153. Although he denied that her loss meant any more to him than any of the other victims, he suffered from repressed guilt for a long time afterwards. This manifested itself as insomnia, which T'Pol treated with Vulcan neuropressure. [2] Trip and T'Pol became attracted to one another and slept together in December 2153, though the next day T'Pol claimed that she had only done this as an experiment in Human sexuality. [10]

Trip eventually managed to face up to his sense of loss over his sister's death when he had to write a letter to the parents of an engineer killed in the battle of Azati Prime. [11] He even managed to overcome much of his hatred for the Xindi, to the extent that he was able to work alongside the weapon designer Degra. [12]When Archer led the team which destroyed the Xindi weapon as it approached Earth, Trip remained with Enterprise in the Expanse in order to attack the Sphere network. The attack was successful and the entire network was destroyed, ending the Sphere Builder's attempts to invade the Milky Way galaxy. [13]

Trip accompanied T'Pol to the the Vulcan homeworld in 2154, where he reluctantly attended her wedding to Koss. [14] Shortly afterward Trip took command of the Enterprise whilst Archer investigated the Syrrannite's possible involvement in the bombing of the Human embassy on Vulcan. [15] When he found that the bombing had been arranged by the High Command as part of their plan to invade Andoria, Trip took the Enterprise to inform the Andorians of the attack and took part in the defence of the planet. [16]

When Emory Erickson visited the Enterprise to test the prototype of a new transporter system, Tucker assisted him with adapting the ship's transporter for the test. He later discovered that Emory was in fact lying about the new technology as part of an elaborate deception intended to allow him to recover his son, who had been lost in a transporter accident years before. [17]

Whilst visiting a planet to investigate some Klingon materials, Trip and Hoshi were both infected with a silicon-based virus. Despite the best efforts of Doctor Phlox the pair both died of the infection. However, an Organian who was investigating the crew's reaction to the virus decided to intervene after Captain Archer chose to sacrifice himself to assist in their treatment. The Organian felt that this unique trait of self sacrifice made the Humans worthy of special treatment, and resurrected Trip and Hoshi. Afterward their memories of the Organian intervention were erased. [18]

When the NX-01 was forced to combat a Romulan drone ship which was terrorising the shipping of several different species, Trip and Reed were beamed over to the ship to investigate. He was almost killed whilst trying to incapacitate the vessel when its controllers exposed him to high levels of radiation. Although he ordered Reed to abandon him, Reed instead managed to rescue Trip and disable the ship. On their return to the Enterprise Trip jokingly threatened to put Reed on report for disobeying an order. [19]

Trip struggled with his emotional attachment to T'Pol both during and after her brief wedding. Eventually he reached a point where he no longer felt that he could continue aboard Enterprise, and he requested a transfer to the Columbia. [20] Although the engineering crew found it hard to cope with his demands, he helped to get the ship ready in time to meet her launch date. [21] Trip returned to the Enterprise when the ship's warp drive was sabotaged by Klingon agents, transferring between the ships by the hair raising means of climbing across a cable whilst the ships were travelling at high warp speed. [22] He remained on Enterprise to help in repairs to the engines, much to the dismay of his replacement Commander Kelby. When three Orion women came aboard Enterprise in an attempt to subvert the crew by the use of powerful pheromones, Trip remained unaffected because of the telepathic bond he continued to share with T'Pol after their earlier romantic encounters. He managed to use this immunity to prevent the women from taking command of the ship. He found himself unable to leave the Enterprise, and officially transferred back after the crisis was resolved. [23]

In 2155 Trip and T'Pol were amongst the Enterprise officers who attended the inter-species conference on Earth. They were surprised when Susan Khouri delivered a sample of hair which genetic analysis revealed to be the offspring of himself and T'Pol. Trip and T'Pol travelled to a Lunar mining colony to investigate Terra Prime, a terrorist organisation led by John Frederick Paxton which Khouri had been a member of. Both officers were quickly captured [24], and Paxton attempted to force them to assist with his takeover of the Verteron array on Mars. Trip refused, and was ultimately able to target the array on an uninhabited area of the ocean when Paxton tried to fire it. The child, Elizabeth, had been created by Paxton through genetic engineering as an example of what interspecies breeding might result in - it was Paxton's hope that Humanity would be disgusted by the idea of a Human/Vulcan hybrid. Unfortunately the genetic engineering techniques used were flawed, and Elizabeth did not survive. Ironically her death served to bring the mixed -species crew of the NX-01 crew together in precisely the opposite effect to that which Paxton had hoped for. [25]

Trip and T'Pol did not pursue a romantic relationship after Elizabeth's death, though both remained aboard the NX-01 for the next six years. Whilst the ship returned to Earth in 2161 for the signing of the Federation Constitution it made a brief detour to Rigel X to help Shran recover his kidnapped daughter. Unfortunately the kidnappers were able to board the NX-01 afterwards; fearing that they would kill Captain Archer and other crewmembers, Trip caused an explosion which incapacitated the kidnappers and mortally wounded himself. He died shortly afterwards. [26]

Colour key

Canon source

Backstage source

Novel source

DITL speculation

Associated with

Crew of the Enterprise NX-01

Played by

Series	Season	Actor	Film / Episode Title
ENT		Connor Trinneer
ENT	3	Adam Taylor Gordon	The Xindi

References

#	Series	Season	Source	Comment
1	ENT	1	Broken Bow
2			Various Enterprise episodes
3	ENT	1	Unexpected
4	ENT	1	Strange New World
5	ENT	2	Cogenitor
6	ENT	1	Shadows of P'Jem
7	ENT	1	Fusion
8	ENT	1	Two Days and Two Nights
9	ENT	1	Shuttlepod One
10	ENT	3	Harbinger
11	ENT	3	The Forgotten
12	ENT	3	The Council
13	ENT	3	Zero Hour
14	ENT	4	Home
15	ENT	4	The Forge
16	ENT	4	Kir'Shara
17	ENT	4	Daedalus
18	ENT	4	Observer Effect
19	ENT	4	United
20	ENT	4	The Aenar
21	ENT	4	Affliction
22	ENT	4	Divergence
23	ENT	4	Bound
24	ENT	4	Demons
25	ENT	4	Terra Prime
26	ENT	4	These Are The Voyages...

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Last updated : 2 Apr 2014

Series :	ENT Season 1
Episode :	Broken Bow

Series :	ENT Season
Episode :	Various Enterprise episodes

Series :	ENT Season 1
Episode :	Unexpected

Series :	ENT Season 1
Episode :	Strange New World

Series :	ENT Season 2
Episode :	Cogenitor