So do I.
But that's in bed...and I get a helluva lot more lines.
But that's in bed...and I get a helluva lot more lines.
So, who was Travis Mayweather?
- Thread starter MrPointy
- Start date
Mayweather was a decent character that had bad lines. I liked him as a main character, "the best pilot", and his acting was good, but the lines the writers came up with for him came up short for me. He could have been a lot more interesting with the right dialogue and more scenes.
I remember in the original premise of the series posted in TV Guide a year or so before production began--he was "Lieutenant Jospeh Mayweather" and was the most experienced space traveller on the ship. He was someone that was basically going to be a cross between "know it all" T'Pol and "everyman" O'Brien from what I would imagine.
Almost immediately, the character got sandbagged. "They" shifted a lot of dialogue about alien cultures that would have been Mayweather's to T'Pol and decided to basically make him an overgrown kid.
It's possible that Anthony Montgomery was too young to play the part (possibly the reason for making him an ensign instead of a lieutenant?), but after really stripping away the more interesting aspect of the character and eventually deciding that the whole boomer thing didn't work, all that was left was someone who was just slightly little more than an extra, IMO...
Almost immediately, the character got sandbagged. "They" shifted a lot of dialogue about alien cultures that would have been Mayweather's to T'Pol and decided to basically make him an overgrown kid.
It's possible that Anthony Montgomery was too young to play the part (possibly the reason for making him an ensign instead of a lieutenant?), but after really stripping away the more interesting aspect of the character and eventually deciding that the whole boomer thing didn't work, all that was left was someone who was just slightly little more than an extra, IMO...
Travis was like Tom Paris on VOYAGER. Built up with a buttload of promise and then spends most of his respective show's run as an affable dork or putz who occasionally gets in trouble or does something stupid.
Exactly. Mayweather, was the young officer raised on a plodding cargo freighter, traveling routine paths to routine destinations, who had always dreamed of piloting a star ship of exploration. Because we've seen several versions of succeeding Enterprises, or perhaps because the NX-01 seemed to be rather advanced for its time, it may not stick in our consciousness, but he had the honor of piloting of the first Warp 5 ship, with a mission to explore the galaxy. He’s the guy from Podunk who marvels at what a big city Bakersfield, CA is.
Just as Hoshi was the linguistic genius, Travis was there to fly the ship, to do nifty maneuvers when called upon, and he did that. Remember that loop de loop he did to loose the Klingons at the beginning of S3? He was the hot pilot. Outside of that, he was well rounded. I liked him plenty.
Just as Hoshi was the linguistic genius, Travis was there to fly the ship, to do nifty maneuvers when called upon, and he did that. Remember that loop de loop he did to loose the Klingons at the beginning of S3? He was the hot pilot. Outside of that, he was well rounded. I liked him plenty.
True enough. He wasn't totally ignored or undeveloped. But all that early Season 1 buildup about being a space boomer and cargo ships led you to expect he'd end up being a lot more.
He also had no one to play off of. The pilot tried to buddy him with Reed, but "Shuttlepod 1" effectivly ended that. They eluded to Mayweather's pranking Hoshi, but it was never shown. However, they did have a scene where they figured out how to keep Archer alive in his duel with Shran. They were always giving each other the eye whenever there was tension on the bridge; they should have paired them off. It may have been the "Starfleet Academy" kinda premise some people want by coupling the two young and rather inexperienced Ensigns. It might have made a nice episode to have the two of them be force to make tough command decisions alone.
Even Chekov seemed to get more to do. And not only was Chekov not in the original cast the entire duration of the show, but TOS ran one season and 18 episodes less than ENTERPRISE. Sad, really.
That’s an interesting point. I would like to have seen more interaction where the chain of command wasn’t involved, or as pertinent, as was the norm being on a quasi military ship.
Originally I had hoped they'd pair him off with Hoshi for a real friendship and camaraderie both on the bridge and off, seeing as they were easily the youngest of the senior officers and less likely to find a lot of common ground with the others.
Trip was kind of the same way. A gifted small-town hick from Florida who wanted to tinker with warp engines and conduits so he joins Starfleet Training and eventually ends up on Earth's flagship because he has connections(Archer). Local boy makes good and becomes a hero.
