Trip's accent?

[DamarsKanar]

So I'm watching Enterprise for the first time and have always assumed that they were going for a kind of 'southern gentleman' thing with Trip. I know his sister lives in Florida before she was killed but I just assumed that she had moved there as an adult.
But the last episode I watched was Harbinger in season 3 and in that it is said that Trip's family is FROM Florida and he grew up there....
Now maybe I'm ignorant of American accents (I'm from the UK) but I have never heard of anyone from Florida with Trip's accent before. Is there a population of Florida that does have this accent? Or is there any other explanation for this? It seems so out of left field to me and I'm struggling to find google answers...(typing Florida accent into youtube didn't exactly give me an example like Trip's...).

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

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These examples seem consistent with Trip's accent.

Connor Trinneer is apparently from Washington state.

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[DamarsKanar]

Well I've learned something today! Thanks a lot. I had been wondering whether maybe the writers were trying to make things simpler or something, streamlining the fact his sister lived there with him being from there so as not to cause confusion and just kind of ignoring the accent thing (which I had noticed was slipping a bit more than usual this season - though I still think Trinneer is probably the best actor in the show).
I wonder still whether he was intended to be from Florida originally or whether they fit that in later.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I found the following info about the writers' bible for Enterprise online:

Charlie Tucker - The Enterprise's Chief Engineer was involved with technology for all his life, starting when he worked on an ocean reclamation project in the Florida Keys when he was young. He later ended up building starships at the early Utopia Planitia shipyards, where he built quite the reputation for himself.

https://www.trektoday.com/news/270701_04.shtml
So his Floridian origin would appear to be implicit rather than explicit. However, I don't have access to the full document.

 

[MFB]

At the start of the series it was only fixed that Trip is from the south. So Trinneer choose one accent but not a Florida accent. In an interview on the Enterprise DVDs/Blu-rays Trinneer sais he was a bit mad when the producers later told him Trip came from Florida and he has chosen the wrong accent. But only short time after they had visitors on the set from Clearwater, FL and the congratulated him for imitating the Clearwater accent so well.

 

[DamarsKanar]

Okay so maybe it was implied but not set in stone and not communicated to the actor...but hey, I guess it turned out all right after all!
It's funny how these things are communicated to other countries...when we less travelled Britons hear that accent we would instantly think Georgia, Texas even - a typical 'southern' state. But the foreign perception of Florida is...I guess, Miami beaches and a totally different vibe!
Ah well, Star Trek is all about opening up knowledge of other cultures. As someone with a very mixed and ambiguous accent myself, this kind of thing always fascinates me.

 

[Tim Thomason]

Northern Florida (the "Panhandle") is on the border of typical southern states Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, and has a lot of crossover in accents. There's also the difference between locals (which Trip apparently is) and the sizable amount of snowbirds/retirees who generally come from Northeastern and Midwestern states.

The writer's bible implies that he may come from the Keys, and visitors from central Florida (Clearwater, near Tampa Bay) thought he matched them.

It's also 150 years in the future, after most likely a refugee crisis during WWIII that could've evolved the Central/Southern Florida accent to Trip's. Accents historically change largely over the course of a hundred some years as well.

 

[psCargile]

There is only one way to do a Southern accent properly, and that's to cast a Southern actor/actress. And even then it varies from region to region. We don't talk as funny in Middle GA, as they do down in Waycross.

I never thought Trip's accent was out of place for a generic Southerner.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Maybe one of Trip's parents was from another part of the South and thus Trip picked up the accent from them.

 

[Jedman67]

I'm from one of the Miami suburbs; Trips does not have a typical "South Florida" accent.
Also, the Keys (an island chain stretching over a 100 miles from the coast of Miami) are not really part of the "South Florida" culture; which is effectively a transplanted NorthEast metropolis in the south. The Deep South actually starts just north of Palm Beach County. It's pretty imaginable that the "Southern" accent would work for Keys natives.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Which makes me wonder why Patrick Stewart never used a French accent, other than the one time I heard him actually say "merde."

 

[DamarsKanar]

Which makes me wonder why Patrick Stewart never used a French accent, other than the one time I heard him actually say "merde."

Maybe Picard spoke French the whole time but the Universal Translator gives him an English accent (just as it gives aliens American accents)?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Which makes me wonder why Patrick Stewart never used a French accent, other than the one time I heard him actually say "merde."

IIRC, they tried having him talk like that, but it was a disaster and so they just let him use his real voice.

And let's be honest, would any fan want Sir Pat to use any accent other than his own?

Although technically speaking, his real accent was a Yorkshire one, it's probably just as well that Picard didn't talk like THAT either.

 

[KennyB]

Northern Florida (the "Panhandle") is on the border of typical southern states Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, and has a lot of crossover in accents. There's also the difference between locals (which Trip apparently is) and the sizable amount of snowbirds/retirees who generally come from Northeastern and Midwestern states.

The writer's bible implies that he may come from the Keys, and visitors from central Florida (Clearwater, near Tampa Bay) thought he matched them.

It's also 150 years in the future, after most likely a refugee crisis during WWIII that could've evolved the Central/Southern Florida accent to Trip's. Accents historically change largely over the course of a hundred some years as well.

I am originally from Pensacola Florida, and I never had a problem with Trip's accent or his love of pecan pie and fried catfish.......all seemed very legit.

 

[Paul Weaver]

Accents may well change over the next 140 years.

 

[SPCTRE]

Trinneer sais he was a bit mad when the producers later told him Trip came from Florida and he has chosen the wrong accent. But only short time after they had visitors on the set from Clearwater, FL and the congratulated him for imitating the Clearwater accent so well.

That's an awesome tidbit

 

[MacLeod]

Which makes me wonder why Patrick Stewart never used a French accent, other than the one time I heard him actually say "merde."

I thought the answer was obvious following WWIII France was annexed by the UK.

But perhaps this is one instance in which they should have changed the characters background to better match the actor. (Though from memory I think there was some reason why GR went with Jean-Luc Picard)

 

[Tenacity]

And let's be honest, would any fan want Sir Pat to use any accent other than his own?

If Stewart could do a great French accent, and do it consistantly over the course of years, then yes I would have liked for him to have done one.

 

[Kor]

Maybe Picard spoke French the whole time but the Universal Translator gives him an English accent (just as it gives aliens American accents)?

The very few times when he actually spoke French in dialog, he did so with an English accent too. Clearly, English has become the first language of France by the 24th century.

Kor

 

[Captrek]

Which makes me wonder why Patrick Stewart never used a French accent, other than the one time I heard him actually say "merde."

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