I probably covered this a bit when I reviewed "Affliction" and "Divergence", but I feel like having Trip temporarily transferring to Columbia was an opportunity that wasn't fully taken advantage of. Now, to be fair, with the show ending so soon after, they probably COULDN'T have really done any more with it, but if that hadn't been the case, I would've kept Trip over there a few episodes longer.
The idea of having one of our main characters transfer to another ship and work with another crew for an extended period of time is an appealing concept that no series had really done before. If anyone's a fan of the US version of "The Office", it's kind of similar to Jim transferring to the Stamford branch for the first few episodes of season 3 (interestingly, largely for the same reasons Trip did).
We got to see him interact with Captain Hernandez a bit, and it was nice to see her being a captain and not just flirting/hooking up with Archer. Having Trip stick around a bit longer would've given time to introduce a few MORE members of the crew. We never met the first officer, the doctor, or anyone else. Fleshing out this whole other crew would've been interesting, and even when Trip inevitably goes back to Enterprise, you've still established the people working on Starfleet's only other deep space ship, which could come in handy in future episodes.
On top of that, the rest of the Enterprise crew would've had to deal with a new engineer and life without Trip, so there's something to do on their end as well. We never really learned much about Kelby (not even his first name!), so getting to know him and perhaps having him grow into his new assignment could've been neat.
As it stands, I thought Trip's abrupt return in "Bound" made him not look very good. Not only is he ditching his new captain and crew just after their launch (forcing Hernandez to select a new engineer and then go all the way back to Earth to get him or her), but he promises Kelby he's not planning to take his job out from under him, and then immediately goes back on his word. In fact, he might've already done so when he talked to Kelby, and was just lying right to his face!
As I said, I though it was a missed opportunity.
The idea of having one of our main characters transfer to another ship and work with another crew for an extended period of time is an appealing concept that no series had really done before. If anyone's a fan of the US version of "The Office", it's kind of similar to Jim transferring to the Stamford branch for the first few episodes of season 3 (interestingly, largely for the same reasons Trip did).
We got to see him interact with Captain Hernandez a bit, and it was nice to see her being a captain and not just flirting/hooking up with Archer. Having Trip stick around a bit longer would've given time to introduce a few MORE members of the crew. We never met the first officer, the doctor, or anyone else. Fleshing out this whole other crew would've been interesting, and even when Trip inevitably goes back to Enterprise, you've still established the people working on Starfleet's only other deep space ship, which could come in handy in future episodes.
On top of that, the rest of the Enterprise crew would've had to deal with a new engineer and life without Trip, so there's something to do on their end as well. We never really learned much about Kelby (not even his first name!), so getting to know him and perhaps having him grow into his new assignment could've been neat.
As it stands, I thought Trip's abrupt return in "Bound" made him not look very good. Not only is he ditching his new captain and crew just after their launch (forcing Hernandez to select a new engineer and then go all the way back to Earth to get him or her), but he promises Kelby he's not planning to take his job out from under him, and then immediately goes back on his word. In fact, he might've already done so when he talked to Kelby, and was just lying right to his face!
As I said, I though it was a missed opportunity.
