Why did they kill off Starfleet's first "miracle worker" at the end?

[5billionof5billion]

With Voyager, we had B'Lana. With DS9 the closest thing was O'Brien. With Next Generation, there was LaForge; and with TOS there was Scotty; but before there was Scotty, there was Trip. They never killed off any of the others, so why did they kill off him? HMMMM?
God bless, Jason Irelan

 

[Spot261]

Ummm....really not sure what you want here? Four Starfleet engineers survive the series to presumably die at a later date, one dies on screen (although the plan had been for him to survive had the series been renewed). That seems to be just about it really. What explanation could there be without creating links that don't AFAIK exist between them?

 

[Greg Cox]

For what it's worth, they brought him back in the novels . . ..

 

[Nebusj]

Well, they were going to kill off Travis Mayweather, but nobody could remember if they'd done it already or not.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

B&B really screwed the pooch (well they screwed up a lot of ENT) with Trip's death. I remember reading that Trip's death had always been planned but had the show gone on for 7 season, they would have wibbly, wobblied his death in the future into a "what if". Berman said that TATV was a planned for season 3 (I think a middle of the season episode), but they held it over till season 4. They were out of touch and thought a death in the final episode would add some 'umph" to the finale. They were wrong.

 

[Captain Rob]

Trip didn't die. It was just a holodeck fantasy custom written to evoke a emotional response from Riker.
Nothing in the holodeck fantasy can be trusted to be factual.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

Trip didn't die. It was just a holodeck fantasy custom written to evoke a emotional response from Riker.
Nothing in the holodeck fantasy can be trusted to be factual.

TATV never happened. It couldn't have happened, because Pegasus and TATV don't align together at all and the series (ENT) ended with Terra Prime.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

TATV never happened. It couldn't have happened, because Pegasus and TATV don't align together at all and the series (ENT) ended with Terra Prime.

What he said

Forget/ignore TATV and you'll have a happier life.

Did you feel this way when they killed off Yar or Spock as well?

 

[M.A.C.O.]

What he said

Forget/ignore TATV and you'll have a happier life.

Did you feel this way when they killed off Yar or Spock as well?

I cried when Spock died, but held out hope he'd be brought back and he was.

I didn't miss Tasha until season 2 and 3. Idk, but I missed her presence on the ship. TNG season 1 I rewatch a lot because of the nostalgia and the original crew being together again. Even though it has a fair share of clunkers.

I felt nothing when Jadzia died, but I did miss her during season 7.

I do miss Captain Pike in the reboot universe, though.

 

[nerdyfangirl74656]

With Voyager, we had B'Lana. With DS9 the closest thing was O'Brien. With Next Generation, there was LaForge; and with TOS there was Scotty; but before there was Scotty, there was Trip. They never killed off any of the others, so why did they kill off him? HMMMM?
God bless, Jason Irelan

Read The Good That Men Do by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin and you'll feel a lot better

 

[Dukhat]

They never killed off any of the others, so why did they kill off him?

Because the people who wrote the episode that he was killed in thought that they knew how to write dramatic character deaths. They were quite incorrect.

 

[fireproof78]

Because the people who wrote the episode that he was killed in thought that they knew how to write dramatic character deaths. They were quite incorrect.

Here I came in to say exactly this. Instead, I'll just quote it

 

[5billionof5billion]

What he said

Forget/ignore TATV and you'll have a happier life.

Did you feel this way when they killed off Yar or Spock as well?

I didn't like when Yar and Spock died because they were main characters. When I saw The Wrath of Khan back when it came out after trying to get through the original episodes even though I couldn't understand them that well when my brother-in-law would be watching them, so I thought the show was running when it came out.
There were too many internet acronyms to figure out what people were saying like AFAIK and TATV. Some of the Enterprise episodes weren't too bad.
I liked that I was able to fast forward through scenes that looked too lewd. I'm confused by the method to that alien girl's "madness" when they were trying to deal with the Xindi and she was doing the same thing to T'Pol that she was to Archer because I didn't think the Xindi were interested in launching a biological weapon against the Vulcans and were wanting DNA information about them too? Towards the end, the episodes had confusing plots to them.
The episodes of this one and Voyager were okay, but they made it hard-pressed to find a favorite main character. The second Vulcan regular was the closest to a main character on Voyager until they had a Borg regular joined the cast, and the closest to thing I could find for a favorite on Enterprise was the third Vulcan.
God bless, Jason Irelan

 

[apollo1984]

Why, they simply wanted to end the series on a bang so they probably chose the fans more favoured characters I mean would anybody realise it if they did the same to Travis?

 

[nerdyfangirl74656]

Reed would have been a better choice. Sorry Malcolm

 

[Willow]

Reed would have been a better choice. Sorry Malcolm

Actually, though Malcolm was my favorite character, I would have to agree with you! He was the tactical officer, and it would have made much more sense had he died in some type of conflict or battle. Both Major Hayes and Corporal Hawkins were killed during armed conflict.

It would have made much more sense had Trip died in an engineering mishap. Having him die during "Similitude" would have made more sense than the TATV ending. Heck, even having him die during the battle at Azati Prime would've made more sense. (Actually, it would have made sense to me had half the engineering staff perished during that battle).

 

[5billionof5billion]

The only character that I wouldn't be bothered by the ending of for sure would be Troi because she had too many tendencies to freak out for little or no reason and could be annoying at times when she wasn't doing that like when her mom would come for a visit, and she'd start in on her. With all due respect, Lwaxana had her own share of problems like a tendency to act too much like a dog in heat at times; but she became more respectable in some of her last episodes on DS9.
With Trip's death it seemed to leave out the likelihood of Enterprise movies because neither of the chief engineers on the other two Enterprises were killed off in the end.
God bless, Jason Irelan

 

[T'Arwen]

Why, they simply wanted to end the series on a bang so they probably chose the fans more favoured characters I mean would anybody realise it if they did the same to Travis?

I think people would have said "gee, what a stupid death." So TATV still would have sucked but people wouldn't hated it as much. Having seen Trip perform McGyver-like miracles, it was very OOC for him to die like that. Since Travis was severely underdeveloped as a character, the death wouldn't have been as sore of a thumb.

 

[nerdyfangirl74656]

I think, part of the problem too, is that TATV came after Terra Prime, which was such a solid Trip ep. So it makes Trip's death seem even worse.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

I think, part of the problem too, is that TATV came after Terra Prime, which was such a solid Trip ep. So it makes Trip's death seem even worse.

Not just that, but Elizabeth's death (Trip and T'Pol's baby, named after Trip's sister) which occurred in Terra Prime. Then you conflate's Trip's only sibling Elizabeth dying in the season 2 finale The Expanse, and you can't help but feel wretched about Trip's death in TATV. The entire future of the Tucker line was wiped out by B&B.