LogFAQs > #933427830

#51 Travis Mayweather
"..."

Oh, Travis. My dear, sweet Travis. You're the butt of so many jokes between Kaelee, Eddv, and myself. It's not your fault; truly, we adore you. You were shunned like no other Star Trek main cast member has ever before been shunned. At first, you existed; then, quite suddenly, you did not. I'm not talking Tasha Yar here -- you didn't die, though who would have noticed if you had? Nor do I speak of Janice Rand -- you didn't exit the show out of nowhere, though again, who would have known? Instead, you sat at the helm for all four seasons of the undervalued Star Trek: Enterprise, the pilot whose identity could feasibly be a question seen during a Double Jeopardy square... on a nerds only episode of Jeopardy.

It's almost as if your very existence is the talk of triviamongers. "You remember Travis?" "Who?" "Travis. Travis Mayweather." "Yeah, no. Listen, you're kind of in my way; I need to get to the hardcore Star Trek convention downtown stat." Sometimes, sweet readers, it really do be like that. The writers gave him a backstory ("I'm from space!") and a first-season spotlight episode ("My family's also from space!") and it's an open secret that actor Anthony Montgomery's subpar performance in that episode helped seal his fate. And that's an honest damn shame, because if you squint enough to remember he has lines in future episodes, you might notice that Montgomery's acting steadily improves.

Perhaps I overstate the problem. It is true that young Travis occasionally goes off-world. He even stands beside Charles "Trip" Tucker, a character who exists, when the Xindi attack leaves Florida a gaping wound of devastation known as bad CG. But do you even remember this? If you answered yes, congratulations. You win a token black guy Travis Mayweather trademark bewildered smile.

At the very end stretch, during the final two episodes prior to the largely-maligned timeskip series finale, new showrunner Manny Coto decided to give Travis Mayweather an honest-to-god subplot involving an ex-girlfriend with less than noble intentions. It's a peculiar sighting and not a very good one but a sign that had Enterprise continued perhaps things would have gotten a bit better for the guy. More impressively, the "In a Mirror, Darkly" two-parter just a few episodes beforehand played the ultimate in-joke trick card by giving Travis a place beside the successful new Empress of the Terran Empire. "Look," you could hear the newer staff members cry out in fitful unison. "We remembered this character."

I'm grateful for that, but not grateful enough to keep this perilously invisible character around any longer.

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Hi! I'm Quinton.
Did you know that Emilia Clarke will be my wife in 2023?