Tell me, somebody, did Mayweather have an extra pip on his uniform before they killed him off in "Twilight"? I don't remember
No. You can’t really see anything, but there nothing to indicate a promotion.
But it gets better.
T’Pol was initially broken up over Trip’s death. While no one mentions Mayweather at all (he’s a statistic with the other crew lost) even though a redshirt equivalent takes his place at the situation room briefing.
But wait! It gets even better.
With the indifference the crew shows in regards to Trip’s death at the founding ceremony, his loss is treated like a red shirt death in TOS. Where the crew is laughing and joking with one another before the credit roll. Except that Trip is not some random redshirt whatsoever - he’s an NX-01 original and mainstay on the ship, and a part of the Big 3. It would be like if the Enterprise crew never mourned Spock after his sacrifice in TWOK, and both the funeral scene and Kirk and David’s discussion about facing death were skipped entirely to go to the bridge. With McCoy line about remembering Spock cut from the scene. And then credits roll.
Meanwhile, the guy that comes to get Archer for his speech is such an random redshirt, and in TOS would have been the one who would have died in Trip’s place. Which, ironically would have made the episode better, on the basis of the crew as a whole is trying to protect a captain they respect, not just Trip. Even with a TOS callback, in a season filled with TOS callbacks, TATV fails.
If the moral of the holodeck adventure was to say, “Riker, remember you have a crew you have lean on for support”, because Trip forgot he had a team, it does not come through in the episode at all. Since no MACOs come to the rescue, and no one from the bridge crew comes down to sickbay to check in with Archer and Phlox after a part of the ship explodes. And it does not matter, since we know what happens in "The Pegasus" anyways.
The never-ending ways this episode fails is hilarious at this point.
Forgive me for not being able to cite a specific source - perhaps someone with more firsthand knowledge can help me out with that. I have read several posts here at TBBS about it.
As I understand it, the script for TATV was a draft that had been written previously, but not used, and not written as the series finale set in the future. This seems to explain the weird lack of updating, other than a few cosmetic changes to uniforms, and T'Pol's longer hair. No mention of the Romulan War, no promotions. (Compare this to the detailed changes brought to the future in "Twilight".) I can't remember if Trip was supposed to actually die, or if this was a cliffhanger and the plan was for him to come back in a subsequent episode.
If I'm misremembering and the script was actually written specifically for the finale, then... good gravy, I have no idea how the Beebs could think this plot or these characters made a lick of sense, much less that this story could serve as an emotionally satisfying farewell to the ENT crew. Not a "good death" by a long shot.
The only thing I heard was that “Zero Hour” was supposed to take place on the holodeck if ENT was cancelled in S3. So, ENT was looking at a holodeck finale either way.
