Really? I thought they integrated him into the script very well. It always seemed a little weird to have two people driving in the original series- I mean, on a submarine, one of them controls each one of the two turbines on a submarine, so that makes sense... but are the two nacelles on the Enterprise independent?
So he's there because he's a kid genius, and he's not a backup driver or anything- he's a ... logistician... or something. Help everywhere wiz kid.
I thought the way they integrated him, and the little joke about his accent were good.
-kv