Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 7 – “Dominion”Tuvok (Tim Russ) has an extensive history in the Star Trek universe both before and after Star Trek: Voyager‘s timeline. Tuvok was the closest friend and a trusted advisor of Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) during their time navigating the Delta Quadrant aboard the USS Voyager. Janeway’s loyalty to Tuvok led her to make the controversial decision to end the life of Tuvix (Tom Wright), the hybridized version of Tuvok and Neelix (Ethan Phillips) created by a transporter malfunction.
Janeway was the second legendary Star Trek captain that Tuvok served under during his Starfleet career, which stretches from the 23rd to the 25th centuries. This time span rivals that of the USS Enterprise’s Spock (Leonard Nimoy), who continued to play an integral role in Federation politics after he resigned his Starfleet commission. As revealed in Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 7, Tuvok continues to serve in Starfleet in the 25th century, but has been captured and replaced by a Changeling infiltrator, with his whereabouts currently unknown. Here is Tuvok’s Star Trek history, from the early days of his Starfleet career to his capture by the Changelings.
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Tuvok In Star Trek’s 22nd Century
Tuvok’s first Starfleet posting was aboard the USS Excelsior, commanded by Captain Hiraku Sulu (George Takei), and the Vulcan was present during the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Despite being a junior Science Officer, Tuvok strongly objected to Sulu ignoring Starfleet orders to rescue his friends Captain James T Kirk (William Shatner) and Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley). In later years, perhaps influenced by his experiences aboard the USS Voyager, Tuvok reflected that he had possibly been wrong to object to Sulu’s actions.
After spending three years on the Excelsior, Tuvok had grown tired of interacting with Humans, whom he believed were egocentric and intent on making the universe more like them. As a young Vulcan, Tuvok had been pressured into joining Starfleet by his parents, and he had a negative experience. Tuvok resigned from Starfleet and returned to Vulcan in 2296. For fifty years, he taught archery at the Vulcan Institute for the Defensive Arts, prepared for an aborted attempt to undergo the kolinahr ritual, married T’Pel (Marva Hicks), and became a father to four children.
Tuvok In Star Trek: Voyager
By 2349, raising four children made Tuvok better appreciate the struggles that his own parents had experienced, and he decided the time was right to return to Starfleet. Tuvok felt that he could learn more about Humans and other species by serving as a security officer in Starfleet. He worked his way up the ranks from an Ensign on the USS Wyoming to an instructor at Starfleet Academy. Tuvok’s strict adherence to Starfleet security protocols led him to embarrass Kathryn Janeway in front of three Starfleet admirals on their first meeting after she failed to observe the proper protocol.
Despite this, Tuvok and Janeway became friends, and she often looked to him for advice throughout her Starfleet career. Janeway selected Tuvok to be her security officer on the USS Voyager around the same time that he was sent to infiltrate the Maquis terrorist organization. It was during this covert mission that Tuvok and the crew of the Maquis ship, the Val Jean, went missing in the Badlands, requiring Voyager to investigate. This investigation led Voyager to the Delta Quadrant and the eventual merging of the Maquis and Starfleet crews as they set out to return home. Tuvok went further than any Vulcan had ever gone before, continuing the legacy of those historic Vulcans that helped prepare Humanity for space travel.
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Tuvok played an integral role in turning his former Maquis comrades into Starfleet officers, drawing on his formidable record as an instructor at Starfleet Academy. As Janeway’s Chief of Security, Tuvok was often called upon to investigate crimes committed aboard Voyager and consulted on how best to punish the guilty parties given how far away they were from Federation space. One of Star Trek: Voyager‘s most interesting characters, Lon Suder (Brad Dourif), was a Betazoid murderer, whom Tuvok attempted to rehabilitate by reconciling his violent tendencies during a mind meld.
Tuvok used a Vulcan mind meld to assist Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) to finally sever her connection from the Borg Collective, and he also attempted to stabilize the increasingly dangerous psychic powers of Kes (Jennifer Lien), to no avail. In the final year of Voyager’s journey through the Delta Quadrant, Tuvok was part of Janeway’s dangerous mission to implant a pathogen inside the shared mind of the Borg Collective by willingly accepting assimilation alongside Janeway and Lieutenant B’Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson). Tuvok’s experiences as a father also helped him to advise Lieutenant Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) on his own impending fatherhood.
Tuvok In Star Trek: Lower Decks
In the Star Trek: Voyager finale, “Endgame”, it was revealed that Tuvok had contracted a degenerative neurological condition that could only be cured by a mind meld with a family member. Stranded in the Delta Quadrant, it was likely that he wouldn’t arrive back in the Alpha Quadrant in time. Thankfully, Voyager returned from the Delta Quadrant after seven years, and Tuvok continued his Starfleet career after returning to the Alpha Quadrant.
Star Trek: Lower Decks season 3 revealed that Starfleet promoted Tuvok after Star Trek: Voyager. Commander Tuvok assisted with the exoneration of Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) when she was framed for bombing Pakled Planet. It was Tuvok who extracted the information that the holorecording of Freeman’s attack had been falsified. Hilariously, and typically for Lower Decks, this heroic tale of espionage involving Tuvok and Captain Morgan Bateson (Kelsey Grammer) took place while the Lower Deckers were busy trying to steal the USS Cerritos to launch their own rescue mission.
Tuvok In Star Trek: Picard Season 3
Captain Tuvok appears in Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 7, as Seven reaches out to her former friend for help locating Captain William Riker (Jonathan Frakes). However, there’s a heartbreaking twist as it’s revealed Tuvok is a Changeling imposter. The Tuvok Changeling taunts Seven and the crew of the USS Titan-A by saying that, while Tuvok is still alive, he’ll pray for death once the Changelings’ plans for Frontier Day are enacted. It’s possible, therefore, that the real Tuvok may appear in the Star Trek: Picard season 3 finale, rescued from the Changelings by Seven.
Tuvok’s appearance in Star Trek: Picard season 3 is the second time that the Vulcan has been name-checked in the spinoff series. In Picard season 2’s Confederation reality, Tuvok’s name appears in an intelligence report that reveals his role in the dark Star Trek timeline. He’s listed as a Fleet Commander, and the leader of the Vulcan Defense Forces during the Confederation’s war against the Vulcans. Like his Vulcan forebear Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Tuvok continues to have a rich history beyond Star Trek: Voyager in multiple timelines.
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.
