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!