Commander Charles Tucker III, 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 former chief engineer on the NX-01 Enterprise and the current chief engineer of the Columbia (NX-02). Tucker is played by Connor Trinneer. Among southerers, "Trip" and "Trey" are both common appellations for third generation namesakes. While a very knowledgeable engineer, he can be rash and "illogical" (to borrow a phrase from T'Pol). As the only southerner among the crew, his mid-south accent is credible, but inconsistent with his supposed origins as a Floridian.

Tucker has the dubious distinction of becoming the first pregnant human male, in the episode "Unexpected".

During the Xindi mission, Tucker found himself growing close 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. How their relationship plays out during the remainder of Enterprise's fourth season has yet to be seen. In "Observer Effect", T'Pol expressed great concern for Trip, suggesting her feelings for him remain, and the producers of the series have promised a "unique" resolution to their relationship before the series ends.

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 (an event predating her relationship with Trip). 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).

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.

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. Technically, therefore, T'Pol and Tucker are mated (suggested by T'Pol's comments on the matter), although nothing formal has, as yet, come of this.

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 Capt. Hernandez asking to return to Enterprise full-time, a request that was presumably granted. Not long after, Tucker and T'Pol reestablished their relationship.

Family

In 2153, Tucker lost his sister, Elizabeth, in the Xindi attack on Earth which destroyed his hometown of Panama City, Florida. He has no other known siblings. His parents survived the attack and later relocated to Mississippi.

In an alternate timeline shown in the episode "E²", Tucker and T'Pol marry and have a son, Lorian, whose fate after the restoration of the timeline has yet to be revealed.

Trivia

A man of unexpected talents, it is known that Trip enjoys playing the harmonica and 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".

External links

• Charles Tucker III at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek WikiWiki
• STARTREK.COM: Charles "Trip" Tucker