| Charles "Trip" Tucker |
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| Starfleet Rank Commander |
| Species Human |
| Planet Earth |
| Affiliation Federation |
| Gender Male |
| Portrayed Connor Trinneer |
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An old buddy of Captain Archer's and renowned as a gifted orbital engineer, "Trip" is a charming Southerner with an offbeat sense of humor who is always on the hunt for the next big adventure. Whether it's deep-sea diving, constructing starships in orbit, or interspecies dating, Trip is good to go. Trip is the third senior officer on Enterprise, but he's a "fish out of water" when dealing with new civilizations.
Biographical Overview[]
Trip — his father and grandfather were both Charles, so "Trip" is short for "triple" — has been in Starfleet for 12 years, and has known Archer for eight. The two officers met back when Archer was a commander involved with the NX-Test Program and Trip was a lieutenant on Captain Jefferies' engineering team. Trip and Archer teamed up with Commander A.G. Robinson to convince Starfleet and its Vulcan advisors that the NX program was worth keeping on track. Though they resorted to unorthodox means, launching an NX vessel without permission, they were ultimately successful. From then on, the duo shared a strong bond, and once endured harsh survival training in the Australian outback together. The captain describes his chief engineer as "tough as nails," and has saved Trip's life several times. During an Omega training mission on Titan, Trip's EV pack froze up and he got nitrogen narcosis and tried to remove his helmet — Archer ordered him to keep it on. Likewise, when the two were stranded on a brutal desert planet, Archer saved a delirious Trip from succumbing entirely to heatstroke. For his part, Trip is always there when the captain needs cheering up. When Archer was depressed about Enterprise's botched first contact with the Kreetassans, his chief engineer lightened the mood with a data module of the Stanford vs. Texas water polo match.