Scott Bakula On Archer, Enteprise Finale & Future Trek + More Emmy Pics

As Captain Jonathan Archer Scott Bakula lead the crew of the NX-01 for four years on Star Trek: Enterprise. And in a new interview, the actor talks about how the show bowed out, where he wanted to see Archer go. He also talks about the possibility of returning to Trek. Excerpts below, plus more pictures of Scott at the Emmys last night.

 

Bakula on Enterprise’s "odd" end and Archer’s road not travelled

In talking to the official Star Trek site, Bakula was mostly diplomatic talking about the controversial finale for Enterprise "These are the Voyages", saying that he was "off-put by it" and he wasn’t sure he ever "got" what Rick Berman and Brannon Braga were trying to do with it, but noted that it was "their call". As for where he would like to have taken Captain Archer, Bakula noted:

Things were dictated by the times, by it being post-9/11, but I wanted us to hopefully get back to having a little bit more fun on the show and to get out of that whole Xindi thing. That would have been fun. I think we were pointing in that direction. I think the group was ready to go. The cast was ready to get there, and I think we could have had a blast. But we just didn’t get to go there. And I wanted Archer to kind of grow up and lighten up a little bit.


Scott Bakula as Capt Archer with Jonathan Frakes as Cmdr. Riker in Enterprise finale "These Are The Voyages"

Go to the official Trek site for the rest, including Bakula talking about about Chuck and a "cameo" in the Quantum Leap movie.

Archer in Star Trek sequel? – Bakula is ready

As we all know, Scott Bakula’s character of Archer did get a shout out in the 2009 Star Trek movie, when Scotty was talking to Spock Prime and Kirk on Delta Vega, admitting that he lost Admiral Archer’s beagle. Since then Star Trek co-writer Bob Orci has confirmed that the "Admiral Archer" is the same Jonathan Archer as seen in Enterprise. And of course, since the events of Enterprise happened before Nero attacked the USS Kelvin and split the Trek timelines, all of Enterprise is in the same timeline as the new movie timeline. Bakula was asked if JJ Abrams called with a "great way" to get him into the next movie what would he say, and Bakula’s simple reply was "Yes."


Scotty (Simon Pegg) was exiled to Delta Vega by Admiral Archer – could Scott Bakula appear in the Star Trek sequel?

POLL: What do you think of the idea?

[poll=614]

Bonus Pics – Scott at Emmys

Here are some more pics of Scott at the Emmy’s from Sunday night in Lost Angeles


Scott Bakula on the red carpet at the Emmy Awards


Scott Bakula with Joel McHale at Emmy Awards


Scott Bakula and wife Chelsea Field dancing at Governor’s Ball

 

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I like Scott Bakula as an actor and he seems like a genuinely nice person, but he WAS sadly miscast in Enterprise.

I think he should have a big role in the next movie. At least the same amount of screentime as Pike had. I’d be way more enthusiastic then.

So if Admiral Archer is alive and well in Kirk time, i wonder if Tpol survive Vulcan explosion.

In my opinion, Star Trek – Enterprise should be continued under director abrams and his team. it is the only series that takes place in both time – lines and it should really be continued.

A cameo or something like this could be the begining of more tv – seasons of STAR TREK ENTERPRISE: the series is full of life, still now.

On my website there is a link to a petition about ENT.

Matthias

I am all for an Archer cameo. Everyone involved with Enterprise always have said what a great guy he was to work with, just an all around nice guy. It would be nice to see him one last time. I generally liked Enterprise as a whole, but I do agree with others who were hugely disappointed with the finale. This would not erase that, but at least it would give him a chance for a proper farewell.

To be honest, I would not even have an issue with a substantial role, but that is highly unlikely. The Abrams team made a decidely clean break from the Berman years. But I could see them having him show up in a cameo role, maybe to mend fences with Scotty, or even just to see the Enterprise get an official launching. In any event, the writers are creative enough to find a way for Bakula to appear without it being distracting or taking away from the overall story.

Alright, here’s what REALLY needs to be in the next movie:
Scotty busy redoing the engineering room,
Updates on the Shields and the phasers so they look canon,
Porthos (!) and Amanda saved via the transporter.
A cool name like STAR TREK: To Boldly Go…
A look at new Vulcan,
And either the Gorn, angry because new Vulcan is in their territory, or the Klingons after Spock Prime with the info Nero gave them.
I can dream can’t I? ;)

I have to agree with Mr. Bakula about the Xindi-related episodes. While Trek has always taken on current social issues, that story arc took the whole series into a dark and brooding place. They lost me as a viewer during that season.

TOS and even TNG managed to balance the dramatic equation with some well-timed humor to break the tension. “Enterprise” never seemed to be able to adopt this model even though they eventually found ways to close episodes with a light-hearted comment.

Ample nacelles. That’s all I’m sayin’.

It’s a real shame. They had a great cast of committed actors and the writers failed them. :( Scott Backula seemed to get what the show should have been better than the writers.

Still Enterprise did manage to have a few gems.

Carbon Creek is one of the better Trek episodes, but they didn’t flesh out their supporting cast well-enough and made the human leads too infallible/unlikeable.

The alien races either strayed too far from canon or weren’t particularly interesting.

Isn’t archer really old in the movies? Like 140?

#3 I’m betting T pol was working on the Vulcan embassy on Earth.

If not Archer, than a Porthos spot would be a funny nod.

If I remember, T’Pol was uncomfortable by Porthos; it would be a strecth to have a 30-second scene with Spock finding and having to handle the dog for a second.

Did the novelation or one of the scripts end with Porthos rematerializing in the Enterprise transporter?

A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo by Bakula could be fun.
Imagine: The admiral is finishing up an inspection tour of the Enterprise and gives Scotty the evil eye as he passes by…

Great interview with Scott. He is always so diplomatic and positive.

Honestly, I think Scott Bakula would have been a lot better than Tyler Perry in Star Trek ’09. There’s a certain logic to it, and have an added sentimental value for fans at the end of the movie when the Admiral promotes Kirk to Captain of the Enterprise.

Just watched an episode of the Gadget Show on Five in the UK, a mainstream show, and the presenter went to visit a futuristic hotel room, very Star Trek like and what did he utter on walking in?! “I feel like Jonathan Archer!” Archer!!! not Kirk , not Picard, Sisko or Janeway, oh no! As a huge ENT fan i totally geeked out. I know it was just one guy saying it, but that has got to say something about current status of the ENT in the minds of the public, whether it be new JJ trek fans checking out old stuff or people just plain discovering it and liking it. I’d like to think so anyway.

#15 – I think Tyler Perry is a fine actor but he was brought in because of his substantial fan base.

Someone needs a haircut….

While an Archer cameo would be fun, the character would be around 180 years old! Not sure it would work out very well….

I think that having Scott Bakula in Trek 12 would be a great Idea. maybe have him with Scotty as they try and get porthoes back. Or maybe a little bigger role. But Scott is right about the ending of Enterprise. Also most everyone thinks that season 4 of Enterprise was it’s best and that they were finaly getting on track and if they would have made it to season 5 then they would have made seasons 6 and 7 and who knows maybe an 8th.

Re: Quantum Leap Movie. They better not do some cheesy reboot like the A-Team. I want to see Bakula as Sam. Make it a two hour film where he has to do 1 final mission before he can leap home.

Some of the bad guys like Xindi could show up in the next Trek movie.

#22. Actualy the Xindi are no longer the enemy as Capt Archer was able to make peace with them and in fact some xindi even helped Archer destroy the weapon.

#19 See Encounter at Far Point.

Two points: first, put Bakula in the sequel in a cameo role; second, the JJ-verse is NOT the same as the Enterprise one!

1) At the moment, the JJ-verse is very new and lacks a strong, visible connection to the established 50+ years of original canon. Of course, having Spock Prime in Trek 2009 helped a great deal. But it still felt like a disparate universe, a very different universe, when there should be a strong, visible link to what came before. Having a small cameo scene (or scenes) with Archer ordering Kirk about or inspecting the Enterprise would provide a further, good link to past-Trek. Also, Bakula is a well-known actor, a fairly ‘big name’, and it would certainly do no harm to have him in the film.

2) However, I still dispute the contention that Enterprise is necessarily part of the canon in this new universe. The writers might well say so (apparently they have); but they are effectively gods in this universe and might just be telling those persons what they want to hear. For remember that this film employs the multi-verse concept: every thing that can happen, does happen – somewhere. I.e., there are an infinite number of alternative realities. The writers can pick any one of these possible time-lines and make them actual: whatever they want to happen, they can have happen in ‘their’ time-line. To further strengthen this view, consider this. If this new time-line follows on from Enterprise (which as I’ve explained above would be a remarkable, truly remarkable happenstance) then this universe should, in obvious and important ways, be the same as the Enterprise one. Why then has the planet Delta Vega ‘moved’? Why has Kirk’s brother, no small character in Trek lore, ‘changed’ his name? Why, in such a short space of time, have the ships, weapons, etc (though not Engineering!) advanced so very much?

No, this is not the same time-line as Enterprise. The reason the planet DV has moved is because the writers thought (correctly) that it would be more dramatic to have it near Vulcan: it is no where near Vulcan in Enterprise. The reason Kirk’s brother’s name has changed is either an oversight or a detail thought too trivial to uphold. The reason the technology is incomparable with Enterprise or even the later Trek series/movies is because, unlike Enterprise, this universe has been designed to look as futuristic as possible (bar Budgineering). This is a different time-line. But the casual fan/Trekkie probably won’t realise this. Finally, why might people want to say that it is in fact the same time-line? Well, it would then be a strong link to prior Trek. Otherwise, the only link to prior Trek, however crucial he was, would by Leonard Nimoy’s small cameo. Otherwise, it would be all new. And the Trekkies might not like that…

“Ente-prise” finale?

“In A Mirror, Darkly” reportedly indicated (in the bio Archer read on the Defiant) that Archer survived to see the launching of NCC-1701, but that was original universe Trek where the NCC-1701 launched 10-20 years before Kirk.

I can imagine an old Admiral Archer speaking with Scotty in the Engineering section, and apologising for leaving him stranded, with Scotty accepting the apology, and perhaps indicating a kind of friendship they may have shared.

Perhaps Kirk would come in and find them both drinking and reminiscing, Archer would leave with some advice for them both, perhaps about remembering that Starfleet was about exploration of the unknown, and as Archer leaves for a shuttle, his theme from Enterprise hinted at warmly before moving to the next scene.

A touching tribute to what has come before, with a sense of warmth, that can be used to provide some insight for newer fans about the true mission of Starfleet.

#27. Correct. Remember that on the Tng Pilot Encounter at Far Point that Dr. MCcoy was 137 years old. So yes Archer can be in the next Movie and of course Topol being a long lived Vulcan can also be there if she was not on Vulcan of course. Also. The Enterprise time line being before Nero interfeared can be the same time line with all events that happend. The Romulan War and the founding of the Federation and Archers Speach. Though Charles Trip Tucker the 3rd did not die.

Sorry, but putting Bakula in the film makes little sense. ENT was the least watched of the sequel series so who, exactly, would it appeal to?

(Like most here, I believe ENT was misguided from the first utterance of the phrase “temporal cold war” and should have been doing stories in season one that they didn’t actually do until season four.)

You know, I have mixed feelings about the prospect of Bakula being included in the next Trek film in some capacity, because I like the guy and didn’t feel he was the problem with “Enterprise” per se, but at the same time, I think there needs to be a concerted effort to steer clear of prior Trek efforts, especially when it comes to shows that weren’t a success, like “Enterprise” and “Voyager”.

OneBuckFilms – I like the idea of having the Enterprise music playing for Archer’s cameo. One of my problems with Trek 2009 was the lack of identity in the music. It was a very different (and sadly for me too repetitive) soundtrack. It was a good soundtrack; but there was a wealth of Star Trek music that was ignored. The TMP/TNG theme and Kirk’s theme from TWOK were big oversights, in my opinion; as were the many great TOS tracks. Having the TOS theme playing at the end was a nice touch; but not enough for me. There were so many references to prior trek in the film; none of these, sadly, were musical. The music should tell the story of the film. And the music should be part of the identity of the film: of the franchise (think of Bond or LOTR or Star Wars….or old Star Trek). In the sequel, why not have Ilia’s theme, the Klingon theme (if appropriate), Life is a dream, or any other themes of bits of themes from past Trek – even if just a few bars.

#1. Harry Ballz
“I like Scott Bakula as an actor and he seems like a genuinely nice person, but he WAS sadly miscast in Enterprise.”

Perhaps. But he wasn’t the biggest problem with “Enterprise”.

Berman and Braga were.

Absolutely get Bakula in the new one as a cameo.

This should have been done in the previous one.

#32 —

You are very right. One need only watch the pilot episode and the launching of the Enterprise.

The scene should have been sweeping and majestic. Instead, we got quickly cut VFX shots and listless music that laid there like a sad rug.

#2. robowarrior
“I think he should have a big role in the next movie. At least the same amount of screentime as Pike had. I’d be way more enthusiastic then.”

No –I’m inclined to be against even a cameo for Bakula in the next movie, and they probably can’t have both Greenwood as Pike and Bakula as Archer in it. Chances are there wouldn’t be enough screen time to do either character justice if they chose to try and ‘split the difference’.

25

You are, of course, 100% right but, and I have asked myself this on a few viewings, would it really have been that much of an ordeal to the production team to have had the little pre-titles scene correlate exactly with what had gone on before? Not that it ruins what is an brilliant movie, but just a little pre-titles nod to older fans – as soon as the big ol’ Star Trek logo had kicked in, they’d be free to do whatever- which they did…and it was awesome.

New Quantum Leap movie premise:

Sam leaps into actor Scott Bakula who has to remove Berman from ST:E and make sure Manny Coto completes years 5,6 &7 before leaping home…..

:-)

For anyone that doesn’t own it already, I found ENT season 1 at Wal Mart for 20 bucks. Unfortunately, the rest of the series is still going for 50-60 bucks.

I had to chcek the price tag two or three times before heading to the counter, thinking it was a mistake.

They’re sold out online, but you may still be able to find it in store.

http://tinyurl.com/2dcbv4d

I agree with StarFuryG7 that Enterprise and Voyager were disappointing (to say the least!). But a cameo for Archer can’t be a bad idea, surely? At most, it can only be unnecessary: it can’t make or break the story. But it would be a nice link to prior Trek and a homage for the fans, wouldn’t it: in the same way that De’s cameo was in Farpoint for TNG. Furthermore, it’s very easy to put Archer in the sequel. Unlike most of the other, main characters such as Kirk or Picard, he hasn’t died in the future, nor yet to be born! To put Kirk or Picard et al in the sequel would take considerable effort and screen-time: not so with Archer. Besides, it seems that Bakula has some unfinished business with Trek; whereas, it seems as if Trek is closed book for many other Trek actors…

No on an Archer cameo in the new movie. I love Scott Bakula, but Archer doesn’t mean a thing to the general public. People would just say, “Hey, what’s the guy from Quantum Leap doing there?”

Hated QL, loved Enterprise.

Pre-Xindi = Wah! Enterprise is too much like Star Trek, nothing new!

Xindi story arc= Wah! Its too new and different from what we want in Trek!

Post Xindi-Hmm, I guess its not so awful.. hey! Where’d the show go?

Basically, from kids who only knew Deep Snore Nine and Star Trek: Lost In Space as “Star Trek”.

I agree with Scott, it would have been fun to get back to more Trek-ie episodes, but the whiners got their way, show cancelled, how to wrap it up quickly?

“These are the voyages” was the only way to do it right. Unless, someone has/had a better idea?

Based off of the events in Enterprise, there is no reason to not assume that in Star Trek ’09 timeline, T’Pol is alive and near Archer’s side.

dear writers/producers

Scott Bakula in Star Trek 2012 (as a good guy) – don’t mind if it’s a a one liner, him walking with Prothos in the background, a cameo or a larger role.

Okay, I’ll say it. Are you guys really serious? Bakula before Shatner? Get real! If they are going to write an extensive cameo for anyone it will be Shatner, who (a) was Kirk, and (b) is hugely popular right now.

Hologram scene cut from the the first new-trek script, please…

What’s with the hair?

I think a T’Pol cameo would make more sense. And Archer could have another verbal cameo mentioning the admiral, or have a ship names the USS Archer or hell….. even USS Tucker.

If they make the Romulans the big-bad in the next film, they can can involve Scott in old age make-up as Admiral Archer in some way.

Maybe without, if Spock brings up some historical records of the Earth-Romulan War. Some brief background footage showing Archer aboard the NX-01 leading the armada and then cut to him signing the Federation charter.

People, PORTHOS IS LONG DEAD. Dogs only live 20 or so years, do you really think that Porthos could live an extra 100+? Capt Archer just probably had Beagles all his life. They never said in the movie that the dog’s name was Porthos.

PS. Please stop suggesting having “Porthos” or another Beagle in the next movie, possibly getting de-materialized. Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds. :/

25. Alec – August 30, 2010
Two points: first, put Bakula in the sequel in a cameo role; second, the JJ-verse is NOT the same as the Enterprise one!

[
The warp 5 project preceded the Nero time loop by almost 100 years
]

1) At the moment, the JJ-verse is very new and lacks a strong, visible connection to the established 50+ years of original canon.

[
Really? Look closer, it’s a huge departure, ENT was more aligned, just the bridge alone…
]

2) Why then has the planet Delta Vega ‘moved’? Why has Kirk’s brother, no small character in Trek lore, ‘changed’ his name? Why, in such a short space of time, have the ships, weapons, etc (though not Engineering!) advanced so very much?

[
Thats Abrams flawed vision, DV is nowhere near Vulcan, he “forgot” about Sam Kirk, but the technology was pretty organic in its state of evolution, though
]

No, this is not the same time-line as Enterprise.

[
It is until the arrival of Nero.

Not to defend Abrams, but since the arrival and report of Nero, this likely altered Starfleet R&D which accelerated tech like weaponry.

I remember folks who didnt pay too much attention claim that the NX-01 was way more advanced than the NCC-1701, they were wrong, too.

The Abrams universe is all new, which means our beloved TNG characters might not even have/will be born. So in one movie, Abrams killed off all we know of TNG and after, and cemented Enterprise.

At least we know the Borg are still around.

]