Malcolm and Trip friendship

[WarpGirl]

Well if there was no T'Pol I'd find it hard to be attracted to Trip on any level other than physical. Trip is too much like one of my brothers, thank God my brother looks nothing like him. T'Pol makes him romantic for me.

But watching Malcolm and Trip is like watching male bonding at its finest. I LOVE IT.

[Lady Rainbow]

I can understand why Malcolm and Trip are great friends. Part of it is because "opposites attract" (Malcolm's reserved, Trip wears his heart on his sleeve. etc.). Some of it is probably because as the Armory Officer and the Chief Engineer, they end up working on the same problems on the ship. One of my favorite scenes w/the Duo is in "Singularity", when they're sitting in the Mess Hall. They're obsessed w/their respective projects, but not too obsessed (yet) to ignore each other. I mean, Malcolm's still asking Trip's opinion on his "Reed alert".

My hubby's a Southerner and an engineer like Trip, so I'm sorta biased, and I'm a native-born Brit and I've got a thing for accents. LOL.

[WarpGirl]

I don't think Trip is as open with his heart as most people seem to believe he is. I think he lets people see what he wants them to see. And I think Malcolm is the same way.

[Alelou]

Yet when Trip is unhappy we always know it.

[WarpGirl]

As a TV audience yeah. But that's not what I meant.

[Alelou]

Yes, okay. Still, I don't think he's as good at hiding it from others as he wants to be. From T'Pol, maybe. Everyone else, not so much.

[WarpGirl]

Um Archer, Phlox, Hoshi, the only one he isn't good at hiding from is Malcolm and it's because they do the same thing only in different ways.

[Alelou]

Don't see it that way myself re Archer and especially not re Phlox, but whatever. I'm tired, g'night.

[WarpGirl]

Archer had no clue why Trip wanted to leave ENT. And I can't believe he was so completely stupid as to TnT being good friends and Trip getting more and more "upset" after Vulcan. I know Archer's a bit dense but after a 12 year friendship HELLO! He's so shocked Trip's had any problems at all? Not even I can accept Archer as that STUPID and uncaring. And I hate the man.

Phlox maybe it's just that he doesn't get human romance quite yet. But Trip was a bit of a wreck, (and completely unprofessional) in that ep. And he missed just how bad it was.

[Alelou]

I don't see it that way. I think Archer did have a clue -- and certainly enough to know that nothing Trip was telling him was the real reason -- but wasn't willing to address it if Trip wouldn't. Which was probably wise since there were very good reasons for this whole thing to remain unspoken between them. And Phlox knew perfectly well what was going on, but what was he supposed to do? Clamp leg irons on Trip?

Honestly, Trip made a perfectly reasonable decision under the circumstances. It was a good decision. He just didn't know the bond was going to make it pointless.

[WarpGirl]

I wasn't criticising Trip's decision. But in the reactions I was in the Andorian Arc with Trip's friends only Malcolm got anywhere close to the anguish Trip was going through. By his face and gestures I saw Archer as completely clueless to Trip's state of mind. And Phlox just doesn't get how humans view love. How can he? It's not his fault.