Trinneer Talks Fatherhood and Fantasy Roles

Connor Trinneer (Tucker) says that no matter how much Star Trek may have changed his life, it's nothing compared to the impact of becoming a father.

"It's changed everything – I feel as though I've been somehow rerouted electrically, in my brain or in my heart," Trinneer told Eclipse Magazine. Though he has a recurring role on Stargate Atlantis and a fan base that has made him a popular guest at Star Trek conventions, the actor said of raising his son, Jasper, "It's the most amazing thing that I've ever done and am continuing to do."

Out of the 98 episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise, Trinneer noted, "you get some good ones and some bad ones." He felt fortunate to have had "some really good stories come my way", which allowed him to stretch as an actor, and said he was not disappointed with how Tucker's life ended in the finale: "I really took it as a compliment that half of that episode centred around the death of my character."

As for the finale of the series as a whole, though he understood that the producers wanted a link to other Star Trek shows, "the way in which it happened really felt like it took the thunder out from underneath us and I felt ripped off. We had been doing this for four years, we are already cancelled, why don't you let us put it to bed?" He remains pleased with Tucker, he said, because "he was allowed to be passionate about what he was working on or committed to and I found him to be such a dimensional character. He had a sense of humour, he had a sense of authority, and having those strong character traits, makes any situation a lot of fun to play."

Having played a pregnant man in an early Enterprise episode, he is unfazed playing a genetically engineered character on Stargate Atlantis - Michael, who discovered that he is part Wraith during the show's second season and will return during its third. The Atlantis team is responsible for his character's dilemma, a storyline the actor calls "pretty timely - what's your responsibility to yourself in conflict and what's your responsibility to your enemy? If you consider yourself a civilised society, is it a moral, ethical issue to refabricate somebody's essence or DNA or whatever and make them non-violent?"

It's a dilemma, he added, to be in a profession that "can put you in some positions that pay you a ton of money but really don't bring out the best in you", but he enjoys the quality of work from the people he has acted with. But the biggest astonishment for Trinneer is how being a father has changed him.

"You really do wind up looking through their eyes," he said of his child. "And you really do feel as though you would stop a train for them. I've never wanted something so much for somebody in my life - and that's his happiness. I'm constantly shocked and amazed by the whole thing."

The full interview is at Eclipse Magazine.

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