Was there a novel where you didn't find him whiny? If not, would you read a novel--well-written--that focused on Mayweather? Third question: Are you a fan of the Hoshi Sato character?
Mayweather was not only played by the worst actor to ever have a main cast role on Star Trek, but the character himself was a walking joke. Totally forgetful, nothing interesting about him, and very annoying as well. Yes, like you. Race has nothing to do with this discussion, but you had to start up that nonsense.
Go over to TNZ sometime. That place has its share of people who see race in anything and everything. There are a couple of people there who probably think White-Out is a sinister racist plot.
Travis had potential, and I, not having to much thought into how creative I can be, can already decide that I'd have made Travis' deep space experience come into play more often then it did (read, ever). Archer was a pilot, yes, but Travis was a deep space pilot, surely he had more experience with nebula's and asteroids and the like then even T'Pol? Travis' familiarity with a family operated ship (it pretty much is ran by family and friends) could have been used to come into some conflict with a more military (or better termed, formal/regulated) environment where the basic principles might be the same, but how it's done is totally different (Somewhat like they showed in "Horizon") Why not even an alien species Horizon ran into before, and Archer seeks Travis's guidance in dealing with them?
Hi, please refrain from personal sniping. It isn't necessary or helpful to the topic discussion. Thanks.
They did. S1 -- "Fortunate Son." Travis also talks to Trip in "The Catwalk" about a similar situation his family faced when he was a kid. The trouble is, the writers created an interesting backstory for Travis and didn't bother to develop it. They preferred to develop ways to put as much of T'Pol on display as possible. (Seriously, they couldn't find a pair of pajamas that would fit Jolene? )
Bingo. Travis had a lot of buildup in the earliest episodes in the fall of 2001, only to have most of that potential squandered when the focus switched to the show's main troika and the lesser lights in the main cast ended up getting only token attention. Travis was supposed to have far more deep-space experience than virtually anyone else on Enterprise, but by the time the series ended you got the feeling even Chef saw more of the cosmos and had a more badass reputation than Travis ever did.
That was my point, that early on there were hints and even a build up of this, with no follow through or pay off. A shame, because there was a ton of potential in there, something that could explain why a rather large man (Not that size matter, but I've seen people menion that he looks to fit security better) with more deep space experience then anyone else on the ship chooses to be a pilot. In any case though, I'd have liked to see more of Hoshi/Travis, because there was a few references throughout the series that they were pretty tight with each other, to such an extent where Travis played jokes on her and she could laugh it off.
Yeah, another thing about Travis that could have been filled out. Hoshi says in "Dead Stop" he played pranks on her. Yet we never saw him do any such thing. Travis' pranks could have been the basis of a joke gone wrong that leads to problems with a first contact, putting Travis at the center of an interstellar incident. It also could have been the basis of a fun B-plot. As long as they didn't overdo, it would have been a neat personality trait.
While it's quite accurate to say Shran is more interesting than Mayweather, i think it to have have Shran a full time character would have diminished his positive effect on the show. Better to have Jeffery Combs in large portions sparingingly than in small portions all the time
I doubt i would read a Trek novel, period. Then closest i got to that was reading Alan Dean Foster's novelizations of the original series episodes when I was 12 years old.I just can't seem to hold Trek novels in any regard whatsoever.
That could be said for pretty much the entire cast, and that includes the ones who actually were allowed to appear on screen more than five minutes a week. But as far as potential goes, Travis had the most out of any character. He was always accustomed to space and the writers could have made him into the knuckle-headed know it all that butts head with Archer or one that could provide information on species that Starfleet's database didn't have. Instead, be was more Ensign Kim than Ensign Kim ever was. Going back over the last season of DS9 this week makes it all the more glaring at what piss poor writing this whole cast got. While most of the the latter show's reoccurring characters were that in name only, the reverse is true of Travis, Hoshi and to a lesser extent Reed and Phlox.
While he was put in the background for a while. He was still a character we all knew and liked. So I think killing him would have only hurt the series. He was still useful and a face we all knew. But there really wasn't any connection to where it would hurt the audience, at least for me, if he were to die. People might be like 'wtf', but it just wouldn't have helped the show at all.
I always thought it was too bad we didn't see more of Travis Mayweather's background of having been born in space and his experiences with other Alien races could've proeved handy for the Enterprise crew. Also Hoshi was very underused character. One thing I really liked about the Enterprise novel Rosetta by Dave Stern the A plot dealt with Hoshi anf the B-Plot story we learned that a corrupt alien Politician had cheated Travis' family on the Horizon out of alot of money during a Cargo run and we get to see Trip,Malcom and Travis with the help of the Bynars uncover the truth of Travis' father being cheated out of being paid and the reasons why the politician did it.And another important plot in the book having to do with Hoshi's storyline.At least we got to see Travis get more character developement more story than he ususally got the tv series.
I went back and watched ENT some time ago with this in mind. Travis is as involved in episodes as any of the other supporting characters until the Xindi season. Then he falls off the map.
The problem with expanding Travis is you then short cut another character. Malcolm or Hoshi most likely.
True...and as much as I loved ENTERPRISE for the most part weren't Hoshi and Malcolm also shortcutted? Malcolm didn't get a lot of meaty background info after Year 1 until, well, the Section 31 stuff came up towards the end of the series. For most of the show's almost-100 episodes Malcolm was just the limey guy whose ancestors were heroes in the Royal Navy.