the delphic expanse

I really enjoy Twilight as an episode for a number of reasons, but recently on another board - I realized just how different Captain Tucker is from his RU counterpart. He's much tougher. Earlier, he has no problem suggesting the execution of POWs via airlock. He seems like Earth's destruction and their situation has hardened him.

I think Trip does have an outlaw streak - as seen in Dead Stop (lightly) and in Cogenitor (with dark results) - and if the Xindi mission failed, I can seem him embracing that side of himself.

Thoughts?

I agree, Captain Tucker looks tough, weary, and totally ready to do what is necessary to take care of his people. I don't know how much thought was put in to it but it seemed to me that Trip aged more than the other bridge crew. The weight of all that responsibility shows on his face. I got the feeling that his crew respected him immensely as their Captain.

I've read criticism about the episode over the fact that the ship is destroyed on Trip's watch. However, he was Captain a lot longer than Archer was - 8 years or so - and clearly kept the Xindi away all that time as well as kept the ship and colony safe. He appears to be an excellent Captain, it's just that their luck finally ran out when the Xindi agent was able to follow Phlox.

The ship was destroyed because the Xindi had spies watching Phlox. That would have happened no matter who the Captain was. As you said Trip was captain a lot longer and was very good at it apparently.

I should probably give a shout out to the fic that made me believe I could write a TnT story in the Twilight-verse. The excellent Tender by Stub. It imagines that once a month Captain Tucker visits T'Pol on the surface of the planet. It's just a little one off.

That story made me think I could shoehorn TnT into the Twilight-verse. So, I did that in Dusk, which I took a lot of crap for in the comments. But I stand by the fact that it's a sad timeline where sad things happen. I might revisit and polish the story if there's a new archive somewhere ( ) but I really enjoyed writing how all the different characters - like Hoshi and Malcolm and Travis - would handle what happened.

Twilight has been a real source of inspiration for me. I wrote quite a few drabbles in the Twilight AU, some from points of view that I'd never written before. One of my favorites is from T'Pol -- Illogical.

I've always like Twilight...it's one of my favorite eps.

I wrote one Twilight-era fic: Do Not Forget Me.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4144759/1/Do_Not_Forget_Me

Wow, LR, that's really powerful. Especially astute are Hoshi's observations of Trip - very on point with what I said in the upthread - and I hadn't read your fic until you posted it! That means 1) the writing and CT's performance is very clear on Trip's transformation and 2) You and I totally agree!


Mareel, interesting little drabble. Twilight does leave the A/T relationship very open to interpretation - so its not difficult to imagine more going on than what we see onscreen. And good job on the Vulcan POV, since I assume you don't often write Vulcan POV!

Honeybee wrote:I really enjoy Twilight as an episode for a number of reasons, but recently on another board - I realized just how different Captain Tucker is from his RU counterpart. He's much tougher. Earlier, he has no problem suggesting the execution of POWs via airlock. He seems like Earth's destruction and their situation has hardened him.

I think Trip does have an outlaw streak - as seen in Dead Stop (lightly) and in Cogenitor (with dark results) - and if the Xindi mission failed, I can seem him embracing that side of himself.

Thoughts?

I'm actually reminded of something Vincent Price once said in an interview. He was asked how he felt about playing so many monsters, and he actually took quite a bit of exception to that--he said that he's never played a monster, he's played reasonable men who were pushed way beyond reason.

That's sort of what I think happened to Captain Tucker. War, the loss of his sister, the loss of his entire family--and maybe even the loss of T'Pol even though she was still alive and well--made him capable of things that Commander Tucker would've found appalling. So I'm not so sure I'd call it an "outlaw streak", but rather something that probably lives within all of us that comes out when circumstances demand it.

I've only seen Twilight maybe... twice. Not because I didn't like it, but because it's too painful for me to watch, it's that good. I think it's the best episode of Enterprise.

I guess I have an over-identification with Archer.

There's a fabulous vid out on YouTube that makes me cry every time, and it's the only way I can "watch" the episode.

Twilight vid