Connor Trinneer feels “very lucky” to have played Commander Charles “Trip” Tucker III for 4 seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise, and he essayed the character through many changes. Trip was the Chief Engineer of the NX-01 Enterprise commanded by his best friend, Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula). Trip was also one-third of Enterprise‘s command trio, which included Archer and Subcommander T’Pol (Jolene Blalock), whom Tucker would have a romantic relationship with in Star Trek: Enterprise seasons 3 and 4.
TrekTalks 3 hosted Connor Trinneer in a Celebrity Spotlight panel, which helped raise over $109,000 to benefit the Hollywood Food Coalition. In an interview with Roddenberry Podcasts’ John Champion, Trinneer was asked about how Trip changed throughout Star Trek: Enterprise, which ended with Commander Tucker’s controversial death in Enterprise‘s series finale, “These Are The Voyages…” Check out Trinneer’s analysis of Trip’s story and how Enterprise reflected 9/11, and watch the TrekTalks 3 video at the 4:35:40 time stamp below:
In the beginning, I was given a number of episodes from which to hang myself. And they worked out, so I knew pretty early on – and I was told this pretty early on – and this is what you want, you want the writer’s room to hear your voice ‘cause then they write for you – and they did. It wasn’t until season 3 when the whole Xindi arc happened where his sister passes. He’s mad, he’s angry, he’s sad, he’s overwhelmed.
I don’t think that you can watch our show, and I’ve said this before, without thinking about that, contextually, that 9/11 informed all of it. And when Trip lost his sister… sometimes acting can be sort of therapeutic. I got to express feelings of how 9/11 had operated on me, and through work, I was able to really come to terms in my own way with what that was. So the change in Trip, I found really satisfying. The struggle, which I think everybody was dealing with, [of] ‘What’s the right thing to do? What do you wanna do right now? Where are you going? Who are you gonna be after all of this?’ And that exploration of him was really satisfying and kind of fascinating to be a part of. I feel very lucky.
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Will Trip & Enterprise’s Characters Return To Star Trek?
Connor Trinneer played Trip Tucker again in Star Trek: very Short Treks
At TrekTalks 3, Connor Trinneer heard a familiar refrain from audience members who said they didn’t watch Star Trek: Enterprise when it was originally airing from 2001-2005, but they’d come to appreciate the series after seeing it on streaming. With the growing regard for Enterprise comes interest in seeing Trinneer and his Star Trek: Enterprise castmates return in Star Trek on Paramount+. Amazingly, it was Trinneer who was the first to reprise his Enterprise character despite Trip’s death; Connor voiced Trip in an episode of the non-canonical Star Trek: very Short Treks.
Star Trek: Enterprise‘s John Billingsley, who played Dr. Phlox, cited the many “issues” with Enterprise‘s cast returning for a live-action reunion. For instance, Scott Bakula has moved on from Star Trek and Jolene Blalock has retired from acting. However, there is the potential for Enterprise actors to voice their characters in the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks or Star Trek: Prodigy, just as Connor Trinneer did on very Short Treks. Meanwhile, Connor Trinneer co-hosts the very successful Shuttlepod Show podcast, where he interviews fellow Star Trek luminaries and keeps the flame of Star Trek: Enterprise alive.
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