Hi all, Ric here again and this is part of
the early Federation series where we delve
into different aspects of the Star Trek galaxy
around the Enterprise era and the formation
of the UFP. This time, we’re looking at
how the books detailed the survival of Trip
Tucker. Spoilers ahead too, I guess?
I’m not a huge fan of bringing back characters
from the dead in most things, unless it’s
been telegraphed as a possibility ahead of
the resurrection. Star Trek has seen all types
of explained resurrections and fake outs over
the years, some even played for laughs at
times such as the many clones of Weyoun. Spock’s
resurrection in the Search for Spock was foreshadowed
by the transference of his Katra and the fact
that he was literally dropped on a planet
that creates and accelerates life. Into Darkness
however, in a flip of the Wrath of Kahn, did
a poor attempt at bringing back Kirk waving
its hand and saying that magic augment DNA
was the cure for even death. For me that latter
was taking it a little too far despite augment
DNA being foreshadowed to have regenerative
properties. I get it was probably just supposed
to cure the radiation while McCoy resuscitated
him, but that’s speculation and a tangent.
So it’s a fine balance to strike when you
kill off a character, but even riskier if
you decide to bring them back. So when I first
heard that Commander Charles Tucker the third
of Star Trek enterprise had been resurrected
in the Romulan War books, my first thought
was, what really? My second thought was hang
on, Trip died after the Romulan war, in 2161…
So why is he being brought back from a death
he never suffered?
So first off, there’s a little wiggle room
in canon to allow for this to happen but at
the end of the day, these are books and Trek
has always treated its books as non-canonical
playgrounds. So it’s up to you how much
faith of the heart, sorry, faith you place
in these events. The wiggle room I am referring
to was in fact caused by the controversial
choice to place the finale of Enterprise as
basically an additional TNG episode being
recreated on a holodeck. Because of the interactive
nature of the holodeck, the tale we are told
in inherently flawed and incorrect so there’s
our tenuous hitching post.
So the books have it that that documented
holodeck recording was in fact a cover story,
one maintained for centuries as no-one really
dug into it because Section 31. So, basically
there are tensions rising between Romulus
and the Coalition of Planets in 2155, especially
Earth and Tucker in particular feels the lack
of decisive action on the Coalition’s part
is inviting disaster. I mean who can blame
him really, he was deeply affected by the
Xindi attack and the loss of his sister in
2153, so he’s rather antsy while the Romulan
threat is growing, having seen first hand
the devastation that interstellar war can
bring.
As a result, colleague and stiff-upper brit,
Malcom Reed gives Tucker a way to contact
Section 31, who immediately find a use for
someone of Tucker’s adaptability and experience.
Even though he’s really not that subtle
a character, a trait you’d kind of want
in a spy, however he was quite familiar with
Romulan tech. Amid many projects the Romulans
are running in preparation for conflict with
Starfleet, one of which was Valdore’s drone
mimicry ship, the Romulan Star Empire is attempting
to break the Warp 7 barrier. If they could
construct a warp 7 engine, they would have
a major edge in the upcoming conflicts as
the only ships capable of just reaching this
FTL speeds were the Vulcans. And they ain’t
sharing.
So, a mission is devised to stall their progress
and is successful, however it needed him to
fake his death so it could be conducted in
secret. This fake out was not meant to be
for long, but things get more complicated
during the mission. It’s kind of hard to
avoid meeting a Romulan or two and Tucker
learns that of the shared history of the Vulcan
and Romulan people. He therefore agrees to
maintain his official status as being dead,
so as not to invite questioning as Section
31 lays out a convincing argument that the
knowledge of the Romulan heritage might fracture
the Coalition before it really has a chance
to flourish.
Eventually, surgically altered to look like
a Romulan and taking gene altering drugs to
even colour his blood, he seizes the opportunity
to return home but ends up being recruited
by Vulcan intelligence, the V’Shar who want
to make use of Trip’s experience.
There were also several other issues to address
however, as T’pol came to realise that he
was still alive because of their Vulcan psychic
connection that tends to form between close
individuals, even across lightyears. Archer
also was aware of Trip’s survival and complicit
in the cover story.
Anyway, the V’shar pretty much stumbled
across Tucker and decided that having someone
who looked Romulan, could act convincingly
Romulan, because human emotions, and had spent
the last few months deep in Romulan territory,
well… it was too much of an asset to let
go. So before he could ever really go back
to Earth, he had more duties to fulfil in
the Earth Romulan War.
Meanwhile, Section 31 fabricated this cover
story, taking the cause of Trip’s fake-out
death and displacing 6 years to 2161. This
would help cover any loose threads and mentions
of Tucker being alive that Section 31 might
miss, should they attempt to scrub the record
entirely, as mentioned the crew of the Enterprise
had developed strong suspicions that he was
still around. However it also creates some
errors, such as making it seems as if the
crew of the NX-01 haven’t changed for its
entire tenure.
This is where the official record that we
see replayed in the holodeck in “These are
the Voyages” came from. In the books universe,
it’s mentioned that Tucker in fact adopts
an alias at the conclusion of his undercover
work and returns to marry T’pol on Vulcan,
still all in secret. They go on to have two
kids, Lorian and T’Mir and Tucker lives
to the ripe old age of 120 while T’pol goes
on to become a Federation ambassador.
It’s not until the 2400s that reporter Jake
Sisko meets with Captain Nog and the two are
pouring over declassified Section 31 files
that they begin to piece it all together.
Nog had been nerding up on 22nd century warp
mechanics when he started coming across discrepancies,
and thus contacted someone to help pull the
threads together, his reporter friend.
Personally, I think the survival to Trip is
implausible, considering the level to which
contrivances had to convene to make it so.
But honestly, I still prefer this outcome
to the unflattering write-off the character
received in the shows. But as always, what
goes on screen is primary cannon and things
from the books are only a hazy maybe at best,
but that the point of his series of Early
Federation videos, to bring you the lore that
otherwise gets ignored.
Even if it really does strain credulity at
times. Thanks for watching this video on the
formation era of the Federation and I hope
to continue delving into this era on the side
with other Star Trek and scifi videos. Lemme
know what you think of Trip’s second wind
in book form, especially if you’ve read
the books in question. Trip lives or Trip
dead. Thanks again, I’ve been Ric, goodbye!
