Star Trek: Enterprise ended its four season run by killing off the popular Chief Engineer, Trip Tucker.
And I’m pretty sure that no fan of Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer), the folksy and charming chief engineer of the first Enterprise, has forgiven the writers of “These are the Voyages,” Rick Berman and Brannon Braga for such an unnecessary extermination. Trip’s death didn’t improve the episode, and it served no useful purpose. I suppose one could say it made Trip a hero, but he had already shown that side of himself multiple times in the four seasons of the series. And now, eighteen years later, his character remains deceased except for in follow-up literary tie-ins.
On May 13, 2005, Star Trek: Enterprise aired its final episode and faded to black, leaving a serious stain on the franchise with many fans up in arms about Trip’s death and an episode that was more Star Trek: The Next Generation than Enterprise. It’s not like any of this comes as a surprise to the writers. Even Braga admitted in a tweet in 2015 that “killing Trip probably wasn’t a good idea.”
I'll admit killing Trip probably wasn't a great idea. https://t.co/VkpAM8ioN8
— Brannon Braga (@BrannonBraga) May 11, 2015
Mistakes can be corrected, and that’s why Trip Tucker needs to be resurrected.
How many Star Trek characters have been brought back from death? Some of the leading characters like Spock, Captain Kirk (when he supposedly died at the beginning of Star Trek: Generations), Data, and even Admiral Picard, to name a few, perished only to be revived. With the exception of Picard, because it was his show, none of these characters needed to be brought back to life, but they were because it made for excellent storytelling. And that’s exactly what Trip’s resurrection would be.
At this stage, it doesn’t even matter which series he shows up on as there is always an explanation for small matters like this in Star Trek. Star Trek: The Next Generation brought James Doohan onboard the Enteprise after he’d been stuck in a transporter buffer for 75 years. Spock was reborn. Captain Kirk was stuck in a Nexus with a wonderful life. And let’s not forget Star Trek: Voyager’s Neelix who died twice and was saved with a holographic set of lungs in the first episode and by Seven of Nine’s nanoprobes in the second instance. Oh, and of course, there was the creative way Star Trek: Discovery brought back Dr. Hugh Culber. So, literally, anything in this franchise is possible, and with all these possibilities, it’s beyond time to bring back Trip and right a wrong and a disservice to Star Trek: Enterprise.