Would TnT have kept their relationship to themselves?

[Asso]

In any case, Zane Gray, people know who you are, and people want your stories to read.
And I don't think I am a lone voice.

[Alelou]

There is a fic (I will try to find it) where Trip & T'Pol issue a joint statement about Elizabeth and her death and their relationship. I could see Starfleet Command "asking" them to do something like that.

That would be "Commander Tucker Proposes."

[WarpGirl]

I'm pretty new here too well writing almost a year. However, I read Zane's stories on HoT and they made me like ENT when I hated the series with a passion. Well I still hate the series, the characters I love, the episodes not-so-much. I would like more stories from Zane too.

I still can't see Trip willingly say anything about Baby Elizabeth or T'Pol to hungry reporters.

[Alelou]

Neither can I. I can't even see Starfleet WANTING Trip to talk to reporters. They'd try like hell to contain that, believe me.

[Aikiweezie]

Neither can I. I can't even see Starfleet WANTING Trip to talk to reporters. They'd try like hell to contain that, believe me.

Yup. Our favorite Engineer can be a loose cannon at times. I can only imagine how pissed off he'd get if some reporter asked him a stupid question about T'Pol or Elizabeth!

[Silverbullet]

What would Trip do?

I have always hated the way the Trip character was written. He is supposedly a brilliant Engineer, Brave, Trustworthy, Loyal. Yet he was portrayed as a hick at the start of the series, a Weakling (always got knocked on his butt and down for the count) a Loose Canon. the two sides don't square. He says he spent years becoming a chief Engineer. That doesn't sound like a HIck or a loose Canon. Sonds like a man who set a goal and achieved it through hard work and being careul not to step on any toes.

I think that trip would sit down and discuss the situation with T-Pol and then abide by whatever decisionn they made on the situation. He certainly would not put T-Pol in any difficulties.

[Aikiweezie]

What would Trip do?

I have always hated the way the Trip character was written. He is supposedly a brilliant Engineer, Brave, Trustworthy, Loyal. Yet he was portrayed as a hick at the start of the series, a Weakling (always got knocked on his butt and down for the count) a Loose Canon. the two sides don't square. He says he spent years becoming a chief Engineer. That doesn't sound like a HIck or a loose Canon. Sonds like a man who set a goal and achieved it through hard work and being careul not to step on any toes.

I think that trip would sit down and discuss the situation with T-Pol and then abide by whatever decisionn they made on the situation. He certainly would not put T-Pol in any difficulties.

I agree that the writing for Trip for frequently schitzo. He is a brilliant Starfleet Officer, yet he's also supposed to be an uneducated hick. The two do NOT match up. One episode he's extremely capable in command of the ship while T'Pol & Archer are absent - the next he's doing something unbelievable STUPID. I, too really hate that, although he did seem to be more balanced near the end of the series. I still think that even the most controlled man just night loose it with a reporter when it comes to the Paxton/Elizabeth situation, though. He's an emotioal guy, very protective of those he cares about and I think that would be the one thing that would set him off.

[Alelou]

I don't know how you can separate the way Trip was written from Trip. How did you decide you liked him? How early does the Trip in your head diverge from the Trip that was written and portrayed on the show? From the very beginning? You must have to always carry in your head the show you actually saw and the show you wanted to see at the same time.

I can think of a few scenes where I think the writers went the wrong way with Trip's character, but not a whole lot. If there were a lot, I don't think I'd be here, because I never would have developed a liking for Trip in the first place.

Maybe I should be more understanding. I started writing X Files fic when the show infuriated me and I wanted to 'correct' it. Even so, though, I would correct it by working off of what I saw -- not by just writing fic as if the annoying stuff had never happened. If Mulder was a clueless douchebag, I'd make him deal with the consequences of that, or I'd come up with a good reason why he was a clueless douchebag -- I wouldn't just rewrite him so that he was a nicer guy all along. Because then that just wouldn't be Mulder, but some other guy. If I'm going to rewrite him to be fundamentally different, I might as well create a new character with a new name and do my own stuff.

[Aikiweezie]

I don't know how you can separate the way Trip was written from Trip. How did you decide you liked him? How early does the Trip in your head diverge from the Trip that was written and portrayed on the show? From the very beginning? You must have to always carry in your head the show you actually saw and the show you wanted to see at the same time.

It was the inconsistency that drove me nuts. I did like his character right from the start. Hey, no one is perfect - I have and continue to do dumb things even though I should know better, but I just think that is was a little off to portray him one minute as a true professional and then next some hick who could barely speak English.

[Alelou]

Well, other than *the_abomination*, which had that weird line from Hoshi, I never saw him as barely speaking English. I saw him as generally not being concerned about whether he was using the vernacular or not, because the man has no pretences. Some people associate his Southern speech patterns with being a hick, but they're the ones who are leaping to the wrong conclusion.

I think it's captured nicely when T'Pol tries to define "intransigent" for him and he says, "I KNOW what it means." He does.

Unlike many of my students. <sigh>

[Aikiweezie]

Well, other than *the_abomination*, which had that weird line from Hoshi, I never saw him as barely speaking English. I saw him as generally not being concerned about whether he was using the vernacular or not, because the man has no pretences. Some people associate his Southern speech patterns with being a hick, but they're the ones who are leaping to the wrong conclusion.

I think it's captured nicely when T'Pol tries to define "intransigent" for him and he says, "I KNOW what it means." He does.

Unlike many of my students. <sigh>

I must clarify. It's certainly not something I saw in the character it was comments by other characters.

[honeybee]

Although I agree that sometimes the writing was inconsistent - Trip was almost never portrayed as stupid (and I choose to ignore that line in *the_abomination*) except maybe in The Seventh or a few other bad episodes. Rather, he was portrayed as emotional - someone, despite being an engineer, who operated on instinct and passion rather than pure logic. Sometimes this worked out, sometimes it didn't. But he was also portrayed over and over as absolutely essential to the running of the ship - far more often than he was made into a buffoon.

And he certainly rarely, if ever, spoke improperly. Having an accent is not improper. But people do project stupidity onto a southern accent. And maybe a few writers of the show made that mistake.

[panyasan]

I never noticed the accent much - maybe because I am tonedeaf when it comes to American accents - and never associated Trips Southerness with being a hick or something. Also his sentences aren't the one of an uneducated man - to my ear at least. He made some moves that I thought were slightly our character, some I had trouble with, but he came off for me as a strong man. Not overly emotional even. Yes, he did have tears in his eyes when he spoke of his sister and cried for his daughter, but it annoys me to great lenght that people portray Trip as a sniffling, easy to cry, even weak person based on that. That kind of events would make any man cry.
But I agree, it would be difficult for Trip to hide his relationship with T'Pol, especially confronted with questions about his daugther. Based on what I saw in season four, I think he would pull it off (with great effort) without any outburst.

[pdsldl]

I would think it would depend on the circumstances. If he was blindsided by a reporter who made lewd comments or asked improper questions than he might overreact. But if he was interviewed with knowledge beforehand and had a chance to prepare I think he'd do fine. He might be emotional (Elizabeth's death and the impact that would have on he and T'Pol would have to take a toll) but I think he'd hold it together and keep things private to protect T'Pol and their life together. He also wouldn't want to do anything to cause problems for Starfleet or Archer.

[WarpGirl]

Trip's personality never bothered me even when he was being a "regular guy" he never seemed stupid to me. However I did find his tendency of going into something first and thinking later to be very jarring in late seasons. I also found him assuming things before having all the facts to be a little jarring post season 2. Other than that I adore Trip. With T'Pol the only problems I had with her was her tendency to bend to peer pressure vulcan or human and the TD. And not the fact she was addicted to TD the reasons for it.

Honestly from the impressions I got from their entire relationship including the rough spots... Neither of them wanted it public. Trip occasionally confided a little in Malcolm but I never saw either of them want to broadcast it to anyone. Trip more so than T'Pol. That's why I never bought the idea that they would be loud about it. Proud yes. Loud and public? No. It's theirs nobody else's. And while I don't think he'd automatically lose control over questions I can't see him answering any.