Portrait of a Character – Gary Hodgkins
Gary Hodgkins starts out with a lot of strikes against him and doesn’t improve much.
Origins
I wanted a MACO who would be, at times, a bad guy, or a guy with some pretty hard luck. Star Trek: Enterprise canon didn’t really cover that, but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t cover it in fanfiction. Enter Gary Hodgkins, who first shows up in Intolerance.
Portrayal
Gary Hodgkins (Justin Long)
I wanted him to be fairly young and perhaps a decent-looking guy who has a lot of bad things happen to him. He deserves many of these bad things, both in our universe and in the mirror. Bad stuff can happen!
I selected Justin Long for this portrayal.
Personality
Duty-bound but sometimes difficult, Gary follows along in the mischief that Dan Chang often finds himself getting into. It isn’t until the end of his life in the first E2 kick back, and during the second, that he finally becomes a decent person. In the prime universe’s prime timeline, he doesn’t really get a chance. This is because, in Intolerance, he becomes permanently disfigured and disabled. This forces him to leave active Starfleet service. He’s often paired with Tristan Curtis as they are friends and sometimes, quite literally, partners in crime.
Relationships
Sophie Creighton
Because Gary dies young during the first kick back in time (and he has behaved rather badly), he has no relationship then. But in the second kick back, he and Sophie wed. I only give a little about their relationship but there’s a lot on their descendants.
Their grandson Richard marries Jolene Tucker, T’Pol and Tripp‘s (and Susie Money and Mario Lattimer’s) granddaughter. Jolene and Richard’s twins, Stephen and Stephanie, are married (respectively) to Marie Helêne Archer (granddaughter of Jonathan, Esilia, Lili, and José) and Connor Greer IV, who is the father of canon character Greer (although that character did not have a canon first name or even a first initial).
Mirror Universe
Justin Long as MU Gary Hodgkins (image is for educational purposes only)
Gary has numerous issues in the mirror universe. He is seen in Coveted Commodity, loyally guarding the Empress in Sick Bay and spelling trouble for Travis.
In Temper, in the first temporal dislocation, he loses his life with a lot of other people from both universes when the Luna is destroyed in a head-on collision with the Bluebird.
In the second temporal dislocation, he dies during a Calafan slave revolt. And in the correct Mirror Universe timeline, he is falsely accused (as is Tristan Curtis) and is executed for helping Chip and Lucy get away with the Empress’s twin children, Takara and Takeo.
Quote
“The captain, when he told us all about it, he said he hoped it wasn’t due to a lack of trust. I mean, I can see how it could be really upsetting. He married an Ikaaran woman the last time out. To know that she kept something that big from him, I mean, that’s gotta be hard.”
Upshot
I’m not so sure where I can go with Gary, as he’s got to be off the ship (the nature of his disability means that he’s got to fly a desk). But there’s no reason why I can’t show him before Intolerance, or in an office or civilian capacity otherwise.
