Lower Decks: LTJG Richard Matthews

Lower Decks: LTJG Richard Matthews

Matthews-plainLTJG Richard Matthews has been around for a short while now, enough to make himself a bit of a name aboard the USS Apollo, but having been transferred as a new face aboard a brand new ship, he hopes to do much of the same aboard the Vigilant. Here to tell us a bit about the character, the writer for Mr. Matthews is anything short of  average.
Hailing from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, Matthew Gough has been the brains behind the character known as Richard Matthews. Besides engaging in some creative writing here in our humble community, he leads a pretty outgoing lifestyle, with activities ranging from cooking, hiking, rock climbing and deep-water soloing. Of course, like most of us, he does find time to exercise not just his body, but his brain as well. With activities like reading a few good books, movie marathons by genre, he’s sure to keep the creative juices flowing nicely.
Brought up a TNG child, Matthew isn’t unfamiliar with Star Trek by any means. he recounts the time he made a point to watch his regularly scheduled cartoons one Saturday morning, and managed to stay in the living room to hang out with his father… “and I saw my first episode of Star Trek ever.” How many out there can remember their first episode? At any rate, Matt stumbled upon this great community while searching through YouTube. He came across a video created by a fan, and was interested enough to wander towards the website. It’s all history from there.
“My character is Richard Matthews, yes I’m incredibly uncreative when it comes to naming. His duty post is that of a science officer. When I first signed up and was assigned to a ship the original duty post I had put in for, which was medical, was all filled up. So I tweaked the character’s history a little and went for my second choice the science officer.” it was a few minor changes that brought him to where he is now, a thriving young writer aboard the Vigilant for its debut launch. Those of us on the Apollo were sad to read his final sim with us, but glad he was venturing out into the universe.  ” [I] Have yet to regret how things have turned out. The ship he is currently assigned to is the newly commissioned USS Vigilant, though I’d like to point out that he started his journey aboard the USS Apollo.”
When it came to creating his character, “He needed flaws, but not too many and they couldn’t be too extreme. Because while I was trying to not make him into a Marry Sue, all perfect and super intelligent and what not. I couldn’t go to the extreme and make him this bumbling idiot you know? So I made good use of the Marry Sue litmus test and tried to keep in mind, While Richard was a normal person, he did have to be exceptional enough to make it in the Treky world.”
At the time of the interview, LTJG Matthews was still dry docked aboard the Vigilant. “The Vigilant is still dry docked and the first mission was suppose to be a simple ship launch. But then Klingon spies got involved and even worse so did the planets politicians! So now the crew is trying to deal with a people of the federation who may or may not cut ties with them and join the Klingon Empire. But they are also trying to get their ship ready to launch before the Zakdornians try to seize it…” It’s never a dull moment in our community! In addition to being more active and volunteering for OOC groups, Matt is looking to make full Lieutenant at some point on his current posting. With a set goal, and plenty of writing power and imagination, this young man will do well to attain those goals, and become a household name in time. Until then, carry on Lieutenant!

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