[Ron]

Following on from a discussion in the Favourite Season Poll about Travis being played by two different actors I thought we could have a poll about Travis II. Travis wants to get Blake of course so for the story it probably made sense to have the character played by a second actor. What do you think?
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Last Watched: Aftermath, Jan 2020

[ZEN]

I'm a fraid Brian Croucher's 2 wasn't a patch on Stephen Greif's rendition of the character. A great pity Stephen didn't reprise his role.

Brian Croucher's would have been better has another "eye patch" less Officer methinks, but not as Travis
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Wisdom must be gathered, it can not be given


nothing like the 1st cuppa tea in the morning.

B7 Episodes watched since January 2017 = 354

[Futsie]

I guess that by "should he have had another name" you're asking if he should have been a completely separate/new character? I seem to remember that the revenge-against-Blake obsession in season 2 wasn't that important, and he seemed more interested in capturing the , avoiding the Federation while keeping Servalan's support, or getting to Star One first so he could wipe out humanity

So in that case, I think they could have written a completely new character as Servalan's accomplice and still done pretty much the same things with him. Although I suppose the "final act" of destroying humanity is an interesting and disturbing end to the Travis character arc of bitterness and obsession with revenge and where that can lead.

So anyway, assuming that the question is asking if we should have had a new character instead of Travis II, I've voted "undecided" coz I think there are some things in season 2 that are relevant to the Travis character continuing, and others that could have involved some new character. Travis could never actually GET his revenge unless Blake was going to be killed off, so he seems to be reduced to occasionally mentioning his desire to kill Blake while getting conveniently thwarted from doing so, and the rest of the time apparently getting on with other stuff ...
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[Ron]

[Mary Lou Jensen]

Totally new character as I could never believe him as Travis anyway. I loved the 'new' version, but he was never real Travis, a new characger with the same name is all
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[MagnusGreel]

Travis I's repeated humiliations drove him into becoming the bitter loose cannon we're calling Travis II. Croucher probably played this version of Travis better than Grief could have, but I don't know for sure, of course. Anyway, they were showing changes in a single character. What they were doing with that character becomes meaningless, if they make him a new character with a new name partway through.

It's hard to get past the different accent, but the change in Travis between s1 and s2 would have happened, even if Grief had stayed on. It was intentional. A Grief-like Travis went through experiences that changed him into a Croucher-like Travis.

I always preferred S Grief before, but this time around, I prefer Croucher. Grief's oh-you've-thwarted-me-again-I'll-get-you-Blake-if-it-takes-my-last-breath self-indulgent "drama" got increasingly pathetic. Thank heaven he snapped and became Croucher, because if that had gone on, there would have been big bite marks in all of Servalan's office furniture, every time he dropped by.

Croucher's great at the barely-controlled maniacal shouting that makes you think he just might shoot everybody in the room for kicks, and he moves great. I love his jumping out of the trial room in "Trial" just as it's being sealed. Just seeing the guy run over a quarry pile is cool. He really gets across how tightly wound up Travis is.

PS-- I deny that Travis 2 was less obsessed with Blake. He kept setting traps for Blake even when he had to worry about his own survival. Eventually though, events came along that compelled him to place other things higher on his list than killing Blake. And since the humiliating defeats drove Travis 1 nuts, more of the same in s2 might have made trying to get Blake too much to take for him. His mania could have easily shifted to something much more pleasing to the ego, total power through Star One-- and with total power, he could of course also kill Blake. (If there were such a thing as "total power", whatever that means).

He may even have gotten it into his head that since HE couldn't kill Blake, Blake must be so formidable a figure that only total power over all could enable him to succeed. I like that as a possible maniacal motivation for him.

[Ron]