Mayweather was born in 2126 aboard the ECS Horizon, a human J-class cargo ship, and visited many places such as Trillius Prime, Draylax, Vega Colony, and both Tenebian moons. He is a "boomer", meaning he grew up in space aboard cargo ships, and that he has more experience in space than even his commanding officer, Captain Jonathan Archer. Mayweather is a quiet and enthusiastic young man who is a highly skilled pilot and has some spelunking experience. He has at least one brother, Paul, who became the captain of the Horizonafter the death of their father, the ship's previous captain, in January 2153. Their mother, Rianna, was the ship's medic and chief engineer. There is also mention that Mayweather has a sister who is married, but she is never seen. Mayweather returned home to the Horizon circa January 10, 2153 while the Horizon was heading to the Deneva colony. While heading to Deneva Station, the Horizon was attacked by pirates but Mayweather's experience with weapons from Starfleet allowed the Horizon to defend herself against her attackers. Over the course of the series, Mayweather has been injured, incapacitated, or even "killed" more times than any other character in the primary cast. When was first conceived, Mayweather was intended to be a lieutenant, because of his experience in space. His rank was changed to Ensign because the producers thought that having Mayweather and the older Malcolm Reed at a similar rank wouldn't be believable.
In the two-part episode "In a Mirror, Darkly", the Mirror Universe version of Travis Mayweather is a sergeant in the MACO corps. He eventually allies himself with the Mirror Hoshi Sato in her attempt to take over the Terran Empire.
Reception
According to author David Greven, "Ensign Travis Mayweather, the helmsman, is African American and a complete blank, rarely given even one non-technobabble line an episode; without the slightest exaggeration, it is entirely accurate to say that Nichelle Nichols' Uhura on had more lines of dialog." In 2016, Travis was ranked as the 33rd most important character of Starfleet within the Star Trekscience fiction universe by Wired magazine, out of 100 characters.
