star trek enterprise jonathan archer

Jonathan Archer

Jonathan Archer was a 22nd century Human Starfleet officer and captain of Enterprise NX-01 , United Earth 's first full-fledged starship . In that role, he was responsible for greatly expanding United Earth's presence in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants and making first contact with more than a dozen species , among them Klingons , Andorians , and Xindi .

Considered by historian John Gill , as the " greatest explorer of the 22nd century, " Archer is widely credited with saving Earth from the Xindi and paving the way for the founding of the United Federation of Planets . He went on to become one of the Federation's earliest presidents . ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II ")

• 1 Early life
• 2.1 Before Enterprise
• 2.2.1 First mission
• 2.2.2 Year one: into the unknown
• 2.2.3 Year two: first contact
• 2.2.4 Year three: the Xindi attack
• 2.2.5.1 Returning home
• 2.2.5.2 Augment crisis
• 2.2.5.3 Seeking out the Kir'Shara
• 2.2.5.4 First contact with the Organians
• 2.2.5.5 Babel crisis
• 2.2.5.6 Klingon virus
• 2.2.5.7 Stopping Terra Prime
• 2.2.6 Final mission
• 2.3 Signing the Federation charter
• 2.4 Serving in the Federation
• 4 Moral conflicts
• 5.1.1 Henry Archer
• 5.1.2 Sally Archer
• 5.2.1 A.G. Robinson
• 5.2.2 Charles "Trip" Tucker III
• 5.2.3 T'Pol
• 5.2.4 Thy'lek Shran
• 5.2.5 Malcolm Reed
• 5.2.6 Phlox
• 5.2.7 Hoshi Sato
• 5.2.8 Maxwell Forrest
• 5.2.9 Travis Mayweather
• 5.2.10 Danica Erickson
• 5.3.1 T'Pol
• 5.3.2 Margaret Mullin
• 5.3.3 Caroline
• 5.3.4 Erika Hernandez
• 5.3.5 Riaan
• 5.4 Porthos
• 6 Alternate realities and timelines
• 7 Awards and honors
• 8 Memorable quotes
• 9 Key dates
• 10.1 Appearances
• 10.2.1 Reception
• 10.3 Apocrypha
• 10.4 External links

Early life [ ]

Jonathan Archer was born in 2112 to renowned warp scientist Henry Archer and his wife Sally . Despite being born in Upstate New York , ( ENT : " North Star ", " Storm Front ") Archer variously claimed to have lived "all" or "most" of his life prior to 2151 in San Francisco . ( ENT : " Broken Bow ", " North Star ")

According to the script of "Broken Bow", the opening scene of that episode, showing Archer and his father in front of a sun porch in 2121 , is placed in their apartment in San Francisco.

Jonathan Archer as a boy in 2121

One of Jonathan's earliest inspirations for space sciences was a copy of The Cosmos A to Z , which he got on his eighth birthday , in 2120 , from his father. Jonathan spent hours staring at its front cover depicting the Arachnid Nebula . ( ENT : " Fusion ") His fascination for space led to him wanting to serve in what became the United Earth Starfleet from an early age, so, in at least one astronomy book he owned as a child, he styled his name on the ex libris as "Admiral Jonny Archer". ( ENT : " First Flight ") In 2121 , while he and his father built and flew a remote-controlled starship model, Jonathan eagerly asked his dad when " his new starship " would be ready to fly. Henry responded that it would take many more years, but that Jonathan should not distrust the Vulcans for having held back Humanity's technical progress, as they probably had their reasons. ( ENT : " Broken Bow ")

Prior to Zefram Cochrane 's disappearance in 2119 , Henry took Jonathan on a tour of the Warp Five Complex , where he met Cochrane, Tasaki , and other scientists working at the facility. Jonathan later revealed he was not aware of the significance of his father's work at the time. ( ENT : " Singularity ")

Also in his youth, Jonathan achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts . During his time there, he earned twenty-six merit badges , including a Wilderness badge which he received in a rain forest in New Zealand . ( ENT : " Rogue Planet ") In school, Jonathan was called to the principal 's office only once, for passing notes to Katy Bentley . ( ENT : " The Council ") On the day before he entered flight training, Jonathan asked his father what would happen if he failed. The elder Archer's response was, " Don't fail. " ( ENT : " Daedalus ")

This implies that Jonathan entered flight training while his father was still alive, i.e., no later than 2124, at the young age of twelve.

Tragically, in 2122 , his father started suffering from frequent hallucinations and pain for years, sometimes not even recognizing his own son, the result of Clarke's Disease , dying two years later . However, the relationship that Jonathan shared with Henry's friend, Emory Erickson , strengthened, and Emory became like a surrogate father to him. ( ENT : " Cold Station 12 ", " Daedalus ")

While in ninth grade , around 2127 , Archer was chided by his teacher for waiting until the last minute to finish writing a speech, so he would have had more time to memorize it. ( ENT : " These Are the Voyages... ") As an undergraduate in California , Jonathan was an accomplished athlete in the sport of water polo .

Stanford University is heavily implied to be Archer's alma mater. ( ENT : " Broken Bow ", " Vox Sola ")

During his senior year , he participated in the 2134 North American Water Polo Regionals . The match featured a come-from-behind victory for his team, who were down by two goals in the last minute of play. The nature of the rally became a mantra that Archer carried forward into later life, such that he always believed he could win, no matter the odds. Following the victory in the regionals, he and his team went on to participate in the championship round of the tournament that year. ( ENT : " Vox Sola ")

During his early 20s, Archer was on a trip to East Africa where he witnessed a gazelle giving birth. He remembered his surprise at seeing how fast the newborn managed to stand up on its feet and run along with the herd. ( ENT : " Shockwave, Part II ")

A few years before Starfleet was chartered , Jonathan gave serious thought to serving on a cargo ship , but decided against it. ( ENT : " Horizon ")

Starfleet career [ ]

Before enterprise [ ].

Commanders Archer and A.G. Robinson in 2143

Commander Archer in 2143 , observing Starfleet 's first warp 2 flight

At some point in his career, Archer had a commanding officer who didn't believe that the captain ought to befriend his crew. ( ENT : " Minefield ")

As a commander , Archer was one of four test pilots in the NX Program in the 2140s . In 2143 , he and A.G. Robinson became not-so-friendly rivals in wanting to be the first to fly the NX-Alpha . Though Commodore Maxwell Forrest ultimately gave the assignment to Robinson, Archer had spent the most time in the flight simulations and got the engines to a ninety-two-percent efficiency. Robinson, however, was determined to break warp two . He did, with Archer serving as the flight director in NX-Control , but the NX-Alpha was destroyed; Robinson managed to get out just in time via an escape pod . The incident led Starfleet to suspend the NX program at the urging of the Vulcans.

Robinson blamed the destruction of the craft on flaws in the engine Archer's late father had designed, which eventually led to the two of them coming to blows. Eventually, however, Archer reviewed the data and conceded that Robinson had been right. After devising engine modifications to compensate for the flaws, Archer and Robinson, with the help of Lieutenant Charles Tucker III , took the NX-Beta on an unauthorized field test. With Archer at the controls, the craft achieved a new speed record of warp 2.5 . Archer and Robinson were grounded for three months for their actions, but were successful in convincing Starfleet to resume the program. ( ENT : " First Flight ")

Later in the 2140s, Archer was on Titan as part of the Omega training mission , along with Tucker. When Tucker's environmental suit malfunctioned, Archer saved Tucker's life by preventing him from taking off his helmet on Titan's surface. ( ENT : " Strange New World ")

In ultimately omitted dialogue from the final draft script of " Home ", it was established that Archer had attended command school and that, in survival training , he had climbed a rocky mountain with Hernandez , a classmate of his from command school. The climb took nearly a week and Archer swore he would never set foot on another mountain if he could help it.

A few years prior to the launch of Enterprise NX-01, Archer was a guest aboard a Vulcan Maymora -class ship, the Yarahla , which made a run to a dark matter nebula . He helped set up the graviton telescope , and also spacewalked in a Vulcan EV suit . ( ENT : " Breaking the Ice ")

In 2150 , the final selection for the captaincy of Enterprise took place between Captains Robinson and Archer. Vice Admiral Maxwell Forrest gave the post to the latter, although Captain Gardner was originally considered the most suitable choice by Ambassador Soval . ( ENT : " First Flight ", " Shadows of P'Jem ") Archer's quarters aboard Enterprise were located on E Deck . ( ENT : " Unexpected ")

Many details about Archer's pre- Enterprise career were established in the flashback episode "First Flight". According to Brannon Braga , "showing Archer's early days in the NX program" was a long-standing goal of the ENT writing staff. Braga referred to it as something they had "always wanted to do." ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 145 , p. 31)

Commanding Enterprise [ ]

First mission [ ].

Captain Archer and Commander Tucker inspect Enterprise just before its launch in 2151

Jonathan Archer's mission as captain of Enterprise began in April 2151 , after a Klingon officer named Klaang was attacked on Earth by Suliban who, under the leadership of Silik , were trying to start a Klingon civil war as part of the Temporal Cold War . Enterprise 's historic launch coincided with the Klingon incident, and Vulcan Ambassador Soval believed the launch should be pushed off until the matter with the Klingons had been resolved.

Archer was not happy about the prospects of waiting around once again to launch the much anticipated warp five project and in fact believed that the Vulcan's suggestion to delay the launch was just another way to impede Humanity's space exploration and expansion into the galaxy. Not wanting any further delays or interferences by the Vulcans, he suggested taking Klaang back to Qo'noS himself. Despite objections from the Vulcans, who believed Humans were too volatile and provincial to take on such a matter, Archer's proposal was fully supported by Admiral Maxwell Forrest , who gave Archer three days to assemble his crew and begin the mission. ( ENT : " Broken Bow ")

Archer recruited Denobulan physician Doctor Phlox as the ship's chief medical officer , Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker as chief engineer , and Lieutenant Malcolm Reed was assigned as the ship's armory officer . For the position of communications officer , Archer traveled to Brazil to recruit Hoshi Sato , who was an exolinguist and had a special aptitude with alien languages. It was not easy getting Sato, who was teaching at the time, on board but the prospects of being the first Human to decipher the Klingon language were very tempting. Finally, as a concession to the Vulcans, and to have access to their star charts , Archer had to agree to have a Vulcan science officer with the name of T'Pol on board. It was expected that her assignment was temporary and that she would leave after the Klingon had been returned to his homeworld . T'Pol herself looked forward to the end of her assignment on board Enterprise .

Even though halfway through it looked like the mission was not going to be accomplished, Archer was known for finishing what he had started. Moreover, he did not believe in giving up and returning home, as that would represent failure to the Vulcans and reaffirmation of their long-held beliefs that Humans were not ready for space exploration and should never have embarked on such a "foolish mission." After Klaang was returned to Qo'nos and war averted, Archer received word from Starfleet to "keep going" instead of returning to Earth.

Realizing the mission would have failed without T'Pol's help, he offered to have her on board as his science officer and second-in-command . He admitted that, ever since he could remember, he had seen Vulcans as an obstacle which had been keeping Humans from standing on their own two feet. However, having been given the opportunity to finally begin Enterprise 's missions, he realized he had to leave misgivings about Vulcans behind. T'Pol accepted his offer and made the request to her superiors personally.

Remembering his father and the dream he had envisioned, Archer gave the orders for Enterprise to finally set sail into the unknown. ( ENT : " Broken Bow ")

Archer's mission to Qo'Nos would be the last time a Earth starship would visit the planet until 2257 when the USS Discovery would visit it as an attempt to end the Federation-Klingon War . ( DIS : " The War Without, The War Within ")

Year one: into the unknown [ ]

Archer and his crew on their first away mission on a new M-class planet (later named Archer IV)

Archer and Enterprise made first contact with the Andorians at the ancient Vulcan monastery at P'Jem . Even though the Andorians were initially suspicious of Humans because of their alliance with the Vulcans, they gained some measure of trust , particularly in Archer, when he assisted them in exposing a Vulcan listening post hidden beneath the sanctuary . Even though the decision resulted in the destruction of the ancient monastery, it was the beginning of a close relationship with the Andorians, in particular with Thy'lek Shran , which later proved invaluable when the Andorians came to the assistance of Enterprise during the Xindi mission in the Delphic Expanse . ( ENT : " The Andorian Incident ")

Archer's next venture concerned the discovery of a pre-industrial society populated by the Akaali . A plague was ravaging the planet , and a woman named Riaan , an apothecary , was attempting to determine the cause. Archer helped her, and found that a hidden antimatter reactor in a curio shop owned by a man named Garos had contaminated the water supply. Garos was really an alien who was mining the resources of the planet. Archer exposed him, and when Enterprise disabled his ship , Garos was forced to leave. Archer had come close to Riaan during the events and became briefly romantically involved with her. ( ENT : " Civilization ")

Archer, with Daniels, in the Temporal Observatory

Archer again encountered Silik when Silik, in the disguise of a pilgrim invited on Enterprise , tried to disable the ship. He also met Daniels , who he thought was a crewmember, but was in reality a temporal agent from the future. Daniels informed Archer that Silik was trying to change the future, but Silik denied this and said it was Daniels who was the culprit. When Silik was found in engineering and confronted, he escaped; it was apparent he was the saboteur. ( ENT : " Cold Front ")

Archer helped rescue a Klingon ship that was losing orbit and falling into a gas giant . Bu'kaH , a survivor of the accident, was convinced to cooperate with Archer in a rescue attempt after he convinced her that she would be letting her crew die a dishonorable death. Bu'kaH reluctantly let Archer take her on a reinforced shuttlepod toward her ship, along with an antidote to a neurotoxin which had rendered the crew unconscious. The Klingon crew was rescued along with Hoshi Sato , T'Pol , and Malcolm Reed , who had become marooned on the ship in a previous rescue attempt. ( ENT : " Sleeping Dogs ")

Archer and T'Pol were captured on an away mission on Coridanite by rebels backed by the Andorians against the government supported by the Vulcans. Shran, along with Reed and Tucker, rescued them. ( ENT : " Shadows of P'Jem ")

Archer visited a planet where Eska engaged in hunting sentient beings, telepathic shapeshifters. When they were afraid, they emitted a chemical that gave away their location and made them easy targets. On Archer's orders, Phlox came up with a plan to mask the chemical, which shielded them from the hunter's scans. The hunters left when they could no longer use their scans, and the beings were safe. ( ENT : " Rogue Planet ")

Archer shackled to the bulkhead by the Ferengi

Archer made first contact with the Ferengi later that year, although the aliens in question remained anonymous; official first contact was eventually made by Jean-Luc Picard . The Ferengi captured Enterprise by rendering the crew unconscious, robbing the ship of all valuables. When Archer woke, he, along with Tucker and T'Pol, was able to play the Ferengi off against each other and retake the ship. ( ENT : " Acquisition ")

Archer accompanied an away team to a barren planet to salvage an abandoned ship. They had been told by D'Marr , an alien they met, about the ship and also that it was haunted. Arriving on the planet, the party found that a group of Kantare had inhabited the planet. Their behavior seemed strange, though, especially when Archer offered to transport them back to their homeworld. They learned that all but two of the Kantare were holograms created by Ezral , who blamed himself for the crash and the death of his friends. He had created the holograms to keep his daughter, Liana , company. Enterprise returned both to their homeworld. ( ENT : " Oasis ")

Archer, along with Travis Mayweather , was imprisoned in a Tandaran prison camp. The Tandarans were at war against the Cabal , and had interned innocent Suliban in the camp. Archer learned of the plight of innocent Suliban, who weren't involved with the Cabal but still suffered the wrath of the Tandarans by being imprisoned for years in these camps. Archer and Mayweather, along with Enterprise , escaped and released the Suliban. ( ENT : " Detained ")

Archer was captured by a symbiotic creature who had stowed away on Enterprise . The creature assimilated Archer's nervous system, along with others it had captured. When Enterprise offered to take it back to its home so it could be attached to its large host, it released Archer and the others. ( ENT : " Vox Sola ")

In February 2152 , while fleeing from two hostile Mazarite ships , Archer gave the order to increase speed to Warp 5, the first time the NX-class ship's Warp 5 engine was pushed to its theoretical limit. The ship eventually reached a top speed of warp 5.2, faster than any other Earth vessel had traveled at that point. ( ENT : " Fallen Hero ")

During a visit to Zobral 's village, Archer and Tucker got caught up in a civil war , and after an attack, they became stranded in a vast desert. With Zobral's help, Enterprise rescued them. ( ENT : " Desert Crossing ")

While on shore leave on Risa , Archer met a Tandaran named Keyla , who, in the disguise of a Human, tried to obtain information about the Suliban from him. ( ENT : " Two Days and Two Nights ")

Archer and Daniels in the 31st century

In March 2152 , after it appeared his ship's mission was over because due to destruction of a mining colony on Paraagan II , Archer was transported to April 9 , 2151 by Daniels, who revealed the Suliban were responsible for what had happened. Returning to the present, Archer used knowledge given to him by Daniels, including the technical skill to construct a quantum beacon , to board a Suliban stealth cruiser and prove what they had done.

As a result, Silik demanded Archer be captured. To save Archer, Daniels transported him to the 31st century , causing a major disruption in the timeline that apparently destroyed Earth. Fortunately, Archer and Daniels were able to repair the timeline, though not before Archer managed to learn that he was vital to the creation of the future United Federation of Planets . ( ENT : " Shockwave ", " Shockwave, Part II ")

Year two: first contact [ ]

Archer and Lieutenant Malcolm Reed on the hull of Enterprise

Archer made a regrettable first contact with the Romulan Star Empire . When Reed tried to disarm a mine attached to the hull , a spike thrust out of the mine and through Reed's leg, pinning him to the ship's hull. Archer, with Reed's instructions, was able to disarm the mine and save Reed. ( ENT : " Minefield ") This led to a stop at an automated repair station that was just as dangerous as the minefield. The station used humanoid brains as co-processors in its computer by physically connecting the captive's nervous system to its network. The crew escaped, but not before Mayweather became one of the station's adjuncts and had to be saved. ( ENT : " Dead Stop ")

After insulting the Kreetassans during an away mission, Archer's dog , Porthos , was infected with a deadly disease. Phlox cured him, but not before Archer spent a whole night worrying about the relations with the Kreetassans and comforting his dog. Phlox not only saved Porthos, but provided Archer with advice that solved the diplomatic problem. ( ENT : " A Night in Sickbay ")

Archer led a team of crewmen in teaching a mining colony to defend itself against Klingons. The crewmen stayed with the miners while they drove off the Klingons. ( ENT : " Marauders ")

Archer helped T'Pol track down Menos , a rogue Vulcan agent who had become a weapons smuggler. When Menos played on T'Pol's guilt concerning an earlier incident in capturing another rogue agent, Archer was able to help her put her guilt aside and do the right thing. ( ENT : " The Seventh ")

Archer considers that he may have to die to avoid contaminating Gosis ' pre-warp civilization

Archer and Reed were sentenced to death when exploring a planet. Reed had accidentally left behind a communicator , and when he and Archer tried to retrieve it, they were captured. Their captors believed they were super-soldiers sent by their enemies. Heeding T'Pol's long-offered advice on inter-species contact, Archer decided that he and Reed would have to be hanged in order to avoid contaminating the pre-warp civilization . This early, solemn consequence of the as-yet-uncodified Prime Directive was averted, however, when the crew of Enterprise saved Archer and Reed using a captured, cloaked Suliban cell ship . ( ENT : " The Communicator ")

At one point, the final draft script of "The Communicator" specified about Archer, " He's as close to developing the precepts of the Prime Directive as he's ever come. "

Later that year, Archer granted asylum to Takret refugees. During a radiation storm, they had to take refuge in Enterprise 's catwalk . The military , pursuing the refugees, boarded Enterprise and almost destroyed it when they tried to start the warp engines. ( ENT : " The Catwalk ")

Enterprise investigated a black hole that was part of a trinary star system . However, the radiation from the trinary system affected the crew, causing odd behavior and rendering them comatose. Though the exposure would otherwise have killed the crew, Archer was woken by T'Pol and was able to pilot the ship away from danger. ( ENT : " Singularity ")

Archer was once again drawn into a dispute between Vulcans and Andorians. He avoided a war when he mediated a territorial dispute between the two species. ( ENT : " Cease Fire ")

Archer and Tucker were arrested and sentenced to Canamar for false crimes. A fellow prisoner was able to hijack the ship with their help, but when they found out the prisoner was going to beam off the ship and crash it, killing the rest of the prisoners and guard, they foiled his plot and were rescued by Enterprise . ( ENT : " Canamar ")

When Enterprise discovered a futuristic vessel adrift in space, Archer ordered it brought on board for further investigation, and a Human body was found in the ship. The Suliban and the Tholians claimed that the ship belonged to them, and demanded that Archer turn it over immediately. Archer was worried that the course of the Temporal Cold War could be affected. During the battle, as they tried to activate the ship, it vanished, and the Suliban and Tholians left. ( ENT : " Future Tense ")

Archer fights the Borg

Archer and his crew fought against the Borg two centuries before the USS Enterprise -D 's encounter with them. ( ENT : " Regeneration "; TNG : " Q Who ") Two Borg drones had been found in Earth's Arctic Circle and thawed out by a team of scientists that they then assimilated . These drones were from an unsuccessful attempt by the Borg in the 24th century to stop the flight of Earth's first warp-capable vessel via time travel. ( Star Trek: First Contact ) The drones, old and new, left Earth on an arctic transport which had belonged to the scientists. Enterprise intercepted and destroyed the ship, with Archer and Reed boarding it and setting explosives to make this possible. In the course of doing this, they fought and killed several of the drones. ( ENT : " Regeneration ")

During first contact with the Vissians , Archer became close with their captain, Drennik . Drennik invited Archer to join him when he took a Vissian strato-pod deep into a hyper-giant. This first contact ended tragically when Tucker interfered with a cogenitor , a third gender of the Vissians who were second-class citizens. Archer was asked by the cogenitor to grant asylum, which he denied after a meeting with the Vissians. Drennik contacted Archer and told him that the cogenitor had committed suicide . ( ENT : " Cogenitor ")

Archer's Klingon " tribunal "

In late 2152 , Archer was captured by the Klingons after assisting Raatooras rebels. Put on trial on Narendra III , he was spared the death sentence through the efforts of his lawyer , Kolos . Archer was sentenced to labor in the dilithium mines on Rura Penthe , but managed to escape. He was hunted by the Klingons for this offense, at first through bounty hunters such as the Tellarite Skalaar , resulting indirectly in Archer making Human first contact with the Tellarites. Skalaar believed the Klingons would return his ship to him, but when he found out they had scrapped it, he helped Archer escape. ( ENT : " Judgment ", " Bounty ")

During the expedition to the Delphic Expanse , Archer was hunted by Duras , who had been dishonored when Archer saved the Raatooras rebels from him. Archer destroyed Duras' ship and its crew with it. ( ENT : " The Expanse ")

Year three: the Xindi attack [ ]

Archer considers his new mission in the wake of the Xindi attack

After a Xindi probe attacked Earth in 2153 , Archer was given a new mission: search for the Xindi weapon, which required entering a dangerous region of space known as the Delphic Expanse, in order to find the ones responsible for the attack and prevent them from launching their weapon to destroy Earth. It took nearly six weeks before Enterprise came into contact with an actual Xindi , and even then he proved to be of little help, directing Archer to coordinates that contained nothing but a field of debris which used to be the planet Xindus . ( ENT : " The Expanse ", " The Xindi ")

In September 2153, while investigating an abandoned Xindi vessel on a planet, Archer, Hoshi Sato, and Malcolm Reed succumbed to a virus that mutated them into Loque'eque , a primal lifeform. Tret , the leader of an alien race, attempted to kill Archer in order to eradicate the virus. Even after being cured by Phlox , Archer continued to suffer strange dreams of the Loque'eque city. Phlox kept a sample of the virus as per Archer's instructions, as destroying it would effectively make the Loque'eque completely extinct. ( ENT : " Extinction ")

Archer in the Delphic Expanse

While visiting a planet to obtain trellium-D , a substance that would protect Enterprise from the anomalies of the Expanse, Archer helped rescue a woman, Rajiin , from slavers . However, Rajiin was really an agent of the Xindi, sent to obtain information about the Humans. Thus, the first battle between Enterprise and the Xindi occurred. Xindi-Reptilians boarded the ship and took Rajiin so they could retrieve the information she had obtained. ( ENT : " Rajiin ")

With Archer undergoing a transformation in the course of the third season , Brannon Braga believed that both the new and the old sides of his persona were shown in season three episode "Rajiin". " Here's Archer, who rescues the damsel in distress, which is old Archer, " Braga observed. " And then, when he finds out what's going on, you get the sense that he'll kill her if he has to! " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 151 , pp. 28-29)

Enterprise encountered a Vulcan ship in the Expanse. When Archer and T'Pol boarded the ship to see if there were survivors, they found that the crew had gone insane. The Vulcans were intent on killing them and, after they escaped, Archer's only choice was to destroy the ship. ( ENT : " Impulse ")

Archer spied on a Xindi research facility, and convinced a Xindi-Arboreal , Gralik , that the Humans were not a threat. Gralik gave Archer a canister of kemocite , fuel for the weapon, to analyze. ( ENT : " The Shipment ")

In October 2153 , Archer suffered a mild concussion from an encounter with a spatial anomaly. He eventually recovered. ( ENT : " Twilight ")

Archer tries to blend into a Human population in the Delphic Expanse

Archer encountered a Human colony populated by descendants of 19th century Americans . He helped them reconcile with the Skagarans , who had originally kidnapped them from Earth to work as slaves on their planet. The descendants of the Humans had revolted and taken over the planet, relegating the Skagarans to slaves. Archer, following a gunfight with some local cowboys, helped convince sheriff and town leader MacReady to make changes to the area. When the Humans expressed a desire to be reconnected with Earth, Archer was forced to explain that his ship could not accommodate them. Nevertheless, he promised that Starfleet would eventually recover them. As a stopgap measure, he at least provided them with the current history of Earth to help them reintegrate with the main Human population. ( ENT : " North Star ")

In ultimately omitted dialogue from the final draft script of later season three installment " Similitude ", Archer gave T'Pol and Sim two hours to prepare Enterprise 's shuttlepods for towing the starship.

Archer and T'Pol went back in time with the help of Daniels to stop the Xindi from producing a bio-weapon that would destroy Earth in the past. He killed the Xindi and returned to the present. ( ENT : " Carpenter Street ")

In the final draft script of "Carpenter Street", Archer told Daniels, " I've been wondering when you were going to show up again. " In the final version of the episode, though, Archer instead merely comments, " About time you showed up. "

Archer dealt with a group of religious zealots who hijacked Enterprise , planning to use it in a religious war. When the lead zealot demanded that a crewmember be put to death for the "blasphemy" of taking scans of the "sacred realms", Archer tricked them into using the transporter on Archer himself; allegedly, it would disperse his atoms, but really he was just teleported to another part of the ship. After the ship was retaken, he returned the zealots to their homeworld, where he revealed their planet had been practically destroyed already, asking them before he left to consider if the "truth" really was that important. ( ENT : " Chosen Realm ")

An Andorian starship commanded by Shran helped Archer and Enterprise track down the Xindi weapon by following a signal from one of several kemocite canisters that Archer had planted when he visited a research facility earlier in the year. The Andorians captured the prototype of the weapon, but Shran was under orders to return it to Andoria . Before Shran could leave with the weapon, Archer activated it, and Shran was forced to jettison it before it exploded. Despite the conflict, Shran transmitted details of the weapon to Archer. ( ENT : " Proving Ground ")

In an attempt to gather the whereabouts of the weapon, Archer captured Degra and, using mind control, attempted to convince him that both had been in a Xindi prison. He tried to gain Degra's trust so Degra would give them the location of the weapon. Archer told Degra that the weapon had been used and Earth had been destroyed, but that a civil war had broken out among the Xindi, resulting in a great loss of life. Degra discovered the ruse, but not before he let slip that the weapon was on Azati Prime . ( ENT : " Stratagem ")

Archer caring for the Xindi-Insectoid young

On the way to Azati Prime, Enterprise discovered a damaged Xindi-Insectoid vessel with no life signs on board. There, Archer discovered a hatchery containing Xindi eggs, some of which were still viable. He was suddenly spattered by a strange liquid that spewed from one of the egg sacs, and Phlox determined that Archer had been hit by a mild neurotoxin that made him believe he was the eggs' caretaker, and his actions began to jeopardize their mission. ( ENT : " Hatchery ")

On the way to Azati Prime, Enterprise found a damaged ship containing an injured male alien. It was determined that the alien was a test subject and he threatened that his people, who were from another dimension, would take over the quadrant when Earth was destroyed. They were the Sphere-Builders , who had been manipulating certain Xindi species into destroying Earth. ( ENT : " Harbinger ")

Daniels pleads with Archer to make peace with the Xindi

Arriving at Azati Prime, a fierce firefight began. Archer discovered that the weapon was hidden in an ocean. At that point, he declared he was not going to order any more deaths, instead choosing to personally destroy the Xindi weapon, despite attempts by T'Pol and Daniels to talk him out of it. However, the Xindi intercepted and captured him, though they released him after a lengthy interrogation. Degra was starting to believe the war was being motivated by aliens. ( ENT : " Azati Prime ")

Archer forges an alliance with Degra

In February 2154 , Archer went before the Xindi Council to convince them not to launch the Xindi weapon at Earth. He had a hard time attempting to persuade them, but quickly made an ally of Degra. The other Xindi-Primate councilor , Jannar , and Kiaphet Amman'sor soon came around to Archer's side as well, but Commander Dolim betrayed the Council, stole the weapon, and killed Degra. ( ENT : " The Council ")

In a final battle to save Earth, Enterprise was joined by the Xindi-Aquatics and Xindi-Primates. As the fleet of Reptilian and Insectoid ships were destroyed, the Sphere-Builders, the aliens behind the plot, tried to intervene. Sato was captured by Dolim to decode the weapon's software so it could be activated. The MACOs , under the leadership of Major J. Hayes , rescued her, but Hayes was killed. Archer, along with Reed and the MACOs, used Degra's ship to intercept the weapon. Enterprise proceeded to destroy the spheres in the Expanse.

Boarding the weapon, Archer, with Sato's help, was able to cause a reversal overload that would destroy the weapon. As the away team beamed out, Archer was left behind and confronted Dolim, whom he killed. Enterprise destroyed all the spheres and ended the alien interference. Archer was believed to have been killed, having been aboard the Xindi weapon as it exploded while approaching Earth. ( ENT : " Countdown ", " Zero Hour ")

Archer trapped by Nazis in an alternate 1944

After the destruction of the Xindi weapon, Archer was saved when he was thrown back in time to World War II of an alternate timeline . He found that, as part of the Temporal Cold War, the Na'kuhl were helping the Nazis win the war by conquering America . Archer managed to destroy a Na'kuhl time conduit and end the war. ( ENT : " Storm Front ", " Storm Front, Part II ")

Year four: making friends… and enemies [ ]

Returning home [ ].

Archer back home on Earth in 2154

Following his return to Earth, Archer was dealing with the aftermath of the Xindi mission . He had a heated argument with Ambassador Soval during his debriefing which caused him to take some time off and rekindled his relationship with fellow starship captain Hernandez . ( ENT : " Home ")

Augment crisis [ ]

In May 2154, Archer was sent on a mission to stop a group of rogue Augments , relics of the Eugenics Wars who had been resurrected by Dr. Arik Soong . They had attacked and stolen a Klingon ship, and the Klingons threatened war unless the Augments were brought to justice. Archer, along with Soong, tried to find them. After Soong escaped and joined the Augments, Archer found them at Cold Station 12 , a Starfleet facility where other Augment embryos were stored. He was captured and left to die when the Augments triggered a self-destruct procedure. Archer disarmed the self-destruct, and was able to defeat the Augments, recapture Soong, and preserve the peace with the Klingons. ( ENT : " Borderland ", " Cold Station 12 ", " The Augments ")

Seeking out the Kir'Shara [ ]

The United Earth Embassy on Vulcan was bombed, resulting in the death of Archer's friend and mentor Admiral Maxwell Forrest . Although a Vulcan splinter group, the Syrrannites , was blamed, Ambassador Soval urged Archer to travel to their hideout in Vulcan's Forge and find the truth. Accompanied by T'Pol, he met their leader, Syrran , there. Syrran was secretly carrying the katra of Surak , and prior to his death by wounds from a sandfire storm , he transferred Surak's katra to Archer. Archer, guided by Surak's katra , met with the remaining Syrrannites led by Syrran's lieutenant, T'Pau , and found the long-lost Kir'Shara , a record of Surak's original teachings.

Archer activates the Kir'Shara

Archer and T'Pau headed to the Vulcan capital to confront the Vulcan High Command . It was discovered by Soval, Tucker, and Reed that the bombing had been the work of V'Las , the leader of the Vulcan High Command, who wished to wipe out the Syrranites and start a war of conquest against Andoria. Archer and T'Pau, after presenting the Kir'Shara to the Vulcan High Command, averted a war between Vulcan and Andoria.

In the process, the Vulcan High Command was dissolved, beginning a new era in the development of Vulcan society. No longer would the Vulcans hold back Humanity's advancement into space; for Archer, it was a lifelong dream fulfilled. The event was mutually beneficial: Vulcan society reverted to the more altruistic and logical path Surak had originally intended, and Archer gained a greater insight into Vulcans than ever before as a result of having carried the katra of Surak. ( ENT : " The Forge ", " Awakening ", " Kir'Shara ")

In ultimately omitted dialogue from the final draft script of "Kir'Shara", it was stated that Archer hadn't been able to hold his fingers in a Vulcan salute until he does so in that episode.

First contact with the Organians [ ]

Archer later made first contact with the Organians , though his memories of the event were completely erased. ( ENT : " Observer Effect ")

Babel crisis [ ]

He then become embroiled in high-level galactic intrigue when he rescued Commander Shran from the destruction of the Kumari , which Shran blamed on the Tellarites . However, Archer discovered the truth that the Romulan Star Empire , using a Romulan drone ship in attempts to manipulate other galactic powers into fighting one another, was trying to destabilize the entire region. Discovering the ruse, he organized a landmark combined fleet effort of Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites to search for the Romulan vessel, beginning the first steps in uniting these disparate races against a common enemy. ( ENT : " Babel One ", " United ", " The Aenar ")

Klingon virus [ ]

Archer again came into conflict with the Klingons. They were using Human Augment DNA in attempts to genetically engineer their own Augments, unleashing a virus that threatened the Klingon race with extinction. They kidnapped Phlox so he could help find a cure. Archer was able to rescue Phlox, but not before helping him find a cure for the virus. ( ENT : " Affliction ", " Divergence ")

Stopping Terra Prime [ ]

Archer addresses the proposed Coalition .

Archer foiled a plot attempted by John Frederick Paxton , leader of Terra Prime , a xenophobic terrorist group, who threatened to attack all alien ships and Starfleet Command with the verteron array on Mars . Archer fought Paxton and knocked him unconscious but was unable to stop the verteron array firing at Earth. After the array fired on San Francisco Bay without resulting in any humanoid casualties, Archer was instrumental in Paxton's arrest. Afterward, he was influential in restarting negotiations for the formation of a Coalition of Planets , giving a speech which persuaded delegates from various alien worlds to continue the steps towards an alliance with Earth. ( ENT : " Demons ", " Terra Prime ")

Final mission [ ]

Archer's final mission as captain of the Enterprise would be to Rigel X where he assisted in the rescue of Thy'lek Shran's daughter Talla . It was the last world Archer visited before the Enterprise was decommissioned , which he considered to be "poetic justice. ( ENT : " These Are the Voyages... ")

Signing the Federation charter [ ]

A holographic representation of Jonathan Archer at the signing of the Federation Charter in 2161

Archer's command of Enterprise ended in 2161 , after which he signed the charter ratifying the Coalition of Planets, which ultimately lead to the formation of the United Federation of Planets.

At the time of the signing, Sato had already heard rumors that he had been "tapped for admiral," but Mayweather and Reed agreed that "they'll never keep him behind a desk ." ( ENT : " These Are the Voyages... ")

Counselor Deanna Troi 's line in " These Are the Voyages... ", in which she states " this alliance will give birth to the Federation " suggests that the charter which Archer was to sign at that point in 2161 was not the Federation Charter , but rather the charter of the Coalition that led to the Federation's incorporation. Since the Federation has already been confirmed to have been incorporated in 2161, this would seem to indicate that the Coalition gave way to the UFP within the same year. It is also possible that the Coalition of Planets was simply renamed the United Federation of Planets later in the year, in which case, the charter which Archer is about to sign in this episode may be considered the Federation Charter.

Archer was referred to in the first draft script of the aborted film Star Trek: The Beginning , set in 2159 . He was said to be on Risa, with Enterprise , during a series of Romulan attacks in the Sol system which initiated the Earth-Romulan War .

Serving in the Federation [ ]

After the founding of the Federation, Archer went on to serve in the Federation Starfleet. At his retirement from Starfleet, he was Chief of Staff at Starfleet Command with the rank of admiral . Archer became an honorary member of the Andorian Imperial Guard in 2164 , Federation ambassador to Andoria in 2169 , served as Federation Councilman from 2175 to 2183 , and was ultimately elected President of the United Federation of Planets in 2184 , a post which he held for eight years until 2192 . ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II ")

No date was given for Archer's retirement from Starfleet.

For the biographical display seen in " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II ", writer Michael Sussman wrote a final section of text that didn't end up being visible on screen, stating that a 132-133 years old Archer " … died at his home in Upstate New York in the year 2245 , exactly one day after attending the christening ceremony of the first Federation starship Enterprise , NCC-1701 " . [1] [2]

In January 2155 of the Mirror universe , Commander Jonathan Archer learned about his counterpart aboard the USS Defiant . At first, he protested that his counterpart was not a great man but weak and foolish for his efforts in helping to form the United Federation of Planets (which he dismissed as a "Federation of Fools"), noting that great men should conquer other species rather than work together with them. ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II ")

Secretly, however, Archer resented his counterpart and was insanely jealous of his success, particularly when he learned that the other Archer had a long, respected career as a starship captain, diplomat, and statesman; had two planets named for him; and was noted as the "greatest explorer of the 22nd century." His preoccupation with his counterpart's success eventually drove him to have a mental breakdown, taking the form of hallucinations of the other Archer, who mercilessly taunted him about his own inadequacies. ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II ")

When Ensigns Brad Boimler and Beckett Mariner time traveled from 2381 to 2259 , Captain Pike informed the duo he tried to think how he would've felt setting foot on Archer's Enterprise . ( SNW : " Those Old Scientists ")

Moral conflicts [ ]

Captain Archer aboard Enterprise in 2154

As one of the first Starfleet captains to explore the galaxy , Archer was sometimes faced with moral decisions. Consequently, he was at times forced to bend the morals to which he once strictly adhered, especially during his time in the Delphic Expanse, though he told T'Pol he could not save Humanity if he lost what made him Human. ( ENT : " Damage ")

During Enterprise 's first year in space, the ship visited the Valakians , who were being killed off by an unknown epidemic; they would be extinct in less than two centuries. The other species on the planet, the Menk , who were a second-class species, were unaffected. Archer wanted to know if a cure was possible. Phlox told him that he had found a cure, but that what was happening was natural evolution and that the Menk showed evidence of an awakening and had the potential to become the dominant species on the planet, which wouldn't happen as long as the Valakians were around. Archer's decision to withhold a cure and let nature take its course was against all his principles, but he realized that he had no right to interfere in another culture and play god ; this could be used as an example of an early Prime Directive . ( ENT : " Dear Doctor ")

Enterprise was ordered to evacuate a group of Denobulan geologists from Xantoras , a world that had been taken over by the military. One of the evacuees was an Antaran named Hudak . Hudak was dying, but refused to be treated by Phlox, because the Antarans and the Denobulans were mortal enemies. Phlox wouldn't treat patients against their wishes even when Archer threatened to order Phlox to do so. Archer could not understand Phlox's attitude, but honored his wishes. Phlox was able to convince Hudak to be treated. ( ENT : " The Breach ")

When the Vissians informed him that their cogenitor had committed suicide due, in part, to Commander Tucker's actions, Archer told Tucker that he wasn't in the position to judge the rightness of the Vissian culture and that he hoped Tucker had learned his lesson about interfering in other cultures. ( ENT : " Cogenitor ")

Archer tortures Orgoth

Archer once went so far as to torture an Osaarian pirate named Orgoth in order to find his ship that had stolen weapons, food, and precious supplies. Orgoth's final words to Archer, who was adamant about retaining his own Humanity in the Delphic Expanse, were to warn him that mercy wouldn't serve him well in the Expanse, which Enterprise had recently entered. ( ENT : " Anomaly (ENT) ")

By having Orgoth caution Archer that mercy wouldn't serve him well in the Expanse, the ENT writing staff attempted to foreshadow another moral conflict they would later put Archer through, making him have to resort to piracy just like the Osaarians had. " We wrote that last line because we knew that we wanted Archer to do the very same thing at some point, " related Brannon Braga . ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 151 , p. 33)

Archer authorized Phlox to create a clone of Trip Tucker, Sim , so its neural tissues could be used to save Tucker, who had been hurt in an accident and was dying. This transplant would have ended Sim's life (although in Archer's defense, when Phlox proposed the procedure he believed that he could harvest the necessary tissue and leave Sim alive afterwards). Phlox refused to perform the operation until Sim agreed to it. ( ENT : " Similitude ")

Archer once ordered the destruction of a Xindi monitoring station to prevent it revealing Enterprise 's position to the Xindi. The facility's destruction killed three Xindi in the process. ( ENT : " Azati Prime ")

Archer was so obsessed with accomplishing the Xindi mission that he stole a warp coil from an Illyrian vessel; Enterprise needed the warp coil to be able to stop the Xindi weapon from destroying Earth. The theft left the Illyrian vessel with three years added onto its voyage home. Though he did leave them trellium , food, and supplies, Archer couldn't help but come into a conflict with what he believed was right and wrong. ( ENT : " Damage ")

The moral conflict Archer has to go through in "Damage" was the same situation that the ENT writing staff had attempted to foreshadow in "Anomaly". "'"And wanted to make sure that when he did this, " said Brannon Braga, " he left that [Illyrian] crew stranded and as good as dead, that we didn't find an easy way out of it. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 151 , p. 33)

Relationships [ ]

In ultimately deleted dialogue from the final draft script of " Twilight ", Jonathan Archer told T'Pol about his great-grandfather, Jack Archer , having heard stories about him. Jonathan Archer also implied a comparison between himself and Jack.

Henry Archer [ ]

Young Jonathan and his father, Henry Archer, in 2121

As a boy, Jonathan often built model spaceships with his father. The two also spent time together flying the models.

On Jonathan's eighth birthday, his father gave him his first astronomy book, The Cosmos A to Z . Archer spent hours staring at the cover of this book, which featured an image of the Arachnid Nebula . Shortly thereafter, his father gave him a tour of the Warp Five Complex . ( ENT : " Fusion ", " Singularity ")

Sadly, Henry died from Clarke's Disease when Jonathan was twelve, leaving his mother to raise him. During the last two years of his life, Henry had difficulty recognizing Jonathan or his mother as a result of the disease. ( ENT : " Cold Station 12 ")

There appears to be some contradiction as to when Henry Archer died. Although " Cold Station 12 " stated he passed away when Archer was only twelve years old, dialogue in " Daedalus " suggests that he was still alive when Archer entered flight training.

When Jonathan was on his way to sign the Federation Charter , he and his close friend Charles Tucker would share a drink from a bottle of whiskey that was given to Henry by Zefram Cochrane the day the two broke ground at the Warp Five Complex. ( ENT : " These Are the Voyages... ")

Sally Archer [ ]

Often, when Jonathan had trouble sleeping as a child, he would ask his mother to recite a poem for him. One poem he frequently requested from her was " The Song of the Wandering Aengus ". While listening, Jonathan imagined how the woman in the poem would appear, creating her image in his mind. He did not learn until years later that the poem was written by William Butler Yeats . ( ENT : " Rogue Planet ")

Friendships [ ]

In ultimately omitted dialogue from the final draft script of " The Expanse ", Archer remarked to Admiral Forrest, on the subject of his own opinion regarding non-Starfleet personnel on Enterprise , " T'Pol and Phlox have worked out pretty well. "

In an ultimately rewritten line of dialogue from the final draft script of " Storm Front, Part II ", Archer regarded himself as "a pretty good judge of character."

A.G. Robinson [ ]

Archer was close friends with fellow pilot Commander A.G. Robinson despite the two competing to become the first pilot to test the NX-Alpha . ( ENT : " First Flight ")

In March 2153 , Robinson was killed while climbing Mount McKinley on Earth, a death Archer thought was senseless considering Robinson's close calls flying Warp trials. ( ENT : " First Flight ")

Charles "Trip" Tucker III [ ]

Archer helps Tucker on the Torothan homeworld in 2151

Archer met Charles Tucker III, or "Trip", during the NX Project. Archer was a pilot and Tucker was a lieutenant on Captain Jefferies' engineering team. After the NX-Alpha was destroyed and the project was going to be canceled, Tucker and Archer teamed up with A.G. Robinson to save the program. They launched the NX-Beta without permission, and were ultimately successful. ( ENT : " First Flight ")

In the final draft script of "First Flight", a scene description in the episode's first pre- Enterprise scene that features both Archer and Tucker commented, " Archer has probably seen Trip around the complex, but he doesn't really know him yet. "

Archer and Tucker's friendship continued to grow when both were assigned to the Australian Outback for survival training. Archer saved Tucker's life on a number of occasions. On Titan in 2147 , Tucker's EV pack froze up and he got nitrogen narcosis . Archer stopped him when he tried to remove his helmet. Archer later saved a delirious Tucker from heatstroke when they were stranded on a desert planet. ( ENT : " Strange New World ", " Unexpected ", " Desert Crossing ")

On Enterprise , Tucker became Archer's right arm. They had their meals together and shared many interests. Archer never got tired of listening to Tucker's Southern home-spun stories. Tucker, for his part, knew how to relieve Archer's stress. When Archer was upset about a first contact with the Kreetassans, Tucker gave him a data module of the Stanford versus Texas water polo match. ( ENT : " Vox Sola ")

In ultimately unused dialogue from the second draft script of "Broken Bow", Tucker said about Archer, " So many people'd give their eye teeth to serve with him. I've never met another officer who's earned the kind of loyalty he has. "

No matter what kind of a jam he was in, Archer always knew he could count on Tucker, both professionally and personally as his friend. When in 2152 , Archer and Malcolm Reed – who had been trying to find a communicator left behind on a pre-warp alien planet – were sentenced to death, it was Tucker and his efforts that rescued them from execution by the natives. ( ENT : " The Communicator ") He also rescued Archer from bounty hunters who wished to turn Archer over to the Klingons . ( ENT : " Bounty ")

Tucker and Archer watching water polo

Archer and Tucker's relationship was not always stress-free. During first contact with a race known as the Vissians , who used a third gender called a cogenitor for reproduction , Tucker – who was upset at how it was treated – took it aside in an attempt to open its eyes. The cogenitor didn't have a name and was not allowed to leave its room or receive education. It was even treated somewhat lower than a second-class citizen, which was evidenced by Tucker pointing out, " Even Porthos has a name. "

Tucker had the cogenitor's DNA sampled and in a side-by-side comparison, Doctor Phlox discovered the cogenitor was intellectually on the same level as its counterparts, thus neither superior nor inferior to them. Tucker used this as an opportunity to take on the cogenitor, teaching it how to read and telling it that it had the same rights as everyone else and that it should stand up for itself, asserting its freedom and rights as an individual. When the cogenitor asked for asylum on Enterprise and Archer denied it, it committed suicide rather than keep living as it had.

Archer was both disappointed and furious that Tucker had jeopardized not only their first contact with the Vissians but had also indirectly caused the death of the cogenitor. Tucker told Archer that he had done exactly what Archer would do; a statement which left the captain even more upset, as he himself often had to wrestle with the fine line of doing what he thought was right and interfering with other species . Archer told Tucker it was not his place to judge the fairness of another culture and that he should never have interfered. While Tucker was shocked at how the situation had unfolded, as he never foresaw this going so far, Archer held him responsible for the cogenitor's death and asked him to weigh the repercussions of his actions. Archer did not formally discipline Trip, but made it clear how disappointed he was in him for having acted so impulsively and irresponsibly. ( ENT : " Cogenitor ")

" Whatever it takes "

After the first Xindi attack on Earth in 2153 , Archer was the one to break the news to the Enterprise crew. This was of particular significance to Tucker as his younger sister, Elizabeth , was an architect who lived in Florida – part of the area that had been destroyed by the Xindi weapon.

Even though Archer did not know whether Trip's sister was among the casualties, he comforted Tucker anyway, suggesting she may have been visiting elsewhere when the attack took place. When it turned out that his sister was among the victims killed, Trip's reaction was naturally one of anger towards the Xindi; he and Archer agreed that they would find the people responsible and hold them to account for their actions. " Whatever it takes, " Archer said. ( ENT : " The Expanse ")

During the Xindi mission, Tucker became seriously injured when an explosion on top of the warp core flung him to the lower engineering deck. Upon arriving in sickbay , he had lapsed into a coma, due to extensive neural damage he had sustained. Dr. Phlox insisted the only way to treat him was to use a Lyssarian Desert Larvae to create a clone of Tucker and then use that to harvest the required neural tissue.

Archer, aware of the moral implications, gave the order to proceed, thereby saving Tucker's life. Even though it was not an easy decision and he was aware that the clone would have to be sacrificed, Archer still bonded with him. Phlox gave him the name " Sim ", as he was an exact facsimile of Trip, including all of his memories and experiences. When the time finally came, Archer held a funeral service for Sim who he said was "one of [their] own." ( ENT : " Similitude ")

In ultimately omitted dialogue from the final draft script of "Similitude", Archer commented that, during Trip's boyhood, his father had been "lucky" to have Trip around.

Later that year, Archer was infected with a Xindi-Insectoid neurotoxin causing him to act irrationally. He lost all sense of self and became obsessed with protecting a Xindi-Insectoid hatchery the crew had found. Archer went to great lengths to protect them, such as relieving senior officers of their duties and assigning MACO units to all decks of the ship. It was only due to Tucker's stubbornness that he became aware something was controlling the captain's behavior and, with the help of Phlox and T'Pol , they managed to incapacitate him and cure him of the neurotoxin. ( ENT : " Hatchery ")

As they grew closer to finding the Xindi weapon, Archer managed to convince the weapon's creator, Degra , to help them in their cause. This resulted in him coming aboard Enterprise , where he and Tucker came to blows over the death of Elizabeth. Tucker, out of respect for Archer, calmed down, eventually coming to realize that the whole situation wasn't Degra's fault, for he had simply been acting on what he had been told about Humans . ( ENT : " Azati Prime ", " The Forgotten ", " The Council ")

Sato comforts Tucker upon learning of Archer's supposed fate

The Xindi weapon finally reached Earth in February 2154 , where it was destroyed by a strike team led by Archer. Even though they were successful in their mission, Archer was believed to have been killed in the explosion. This had a noticeable effect on Tucker, who couldn't seem to grasp what had happened.

However, he didn't have much time to grieve when it soon became apparent that the ship had been transported into the 20th century , right amid the events of World War II . Upon investigation, it was discovered that a Temporal Cold War faction was trying to alter the timeline on Earth so the allies never won the war. During an attempt to stop them, Tucker became reunited with Archer, who had survived the explosion and had been transported back in time like the rest of the crew, much to Tucker's relief. ( ENT : " Zero Hour ", " Storm Front ")

Later that year, Tucker became infected with a silicon-based virus , as part of an experiment by the Organians . While Tucker was under quarantine in the decon chamber and his health was continuing to deteriorate, Archer visited him periodically to check how he was. When one of the Organians revealed itself and their "experiment", a plea by Archer convinced the aliens to cure both Trip and Hoshi Sato . ( ENT : " Observer Effect ")

After a somewhat awkward courtship with T'Pol and the feelings he had developed for her, which she could not reciprocate at the moment, Trip requested a transfer to Columbia NX-02 , citing the new ship needed experienced crew. Realizing this was just an excuse, Archer asked Tucker for the real reason, but Tucker did not want to reveal his true motivation for leaving. Instead, he solemnly asked that Archer grant his request as his friend, to which Archer replied, " I'm asking you to stay… as a friend. " Despite this, Tucker still left Enterprise , which put somewhat of a strain on their friendship. ( ENT : " The Aenar ")

Trip eventually decided to return to Enterprise permanently, when he and T'Pol could no longer deny their feelings for one another. Archer and Tucker's friendship remained stable from this point on. ( ENT : " Divergence ", " Bound ", " Demons ")

In 2161 , Tucker died, saving the ship and crew. As he was placed into the medical imaging chamber , he gave one last smile to Archer, as if to reassure him that everything would be fine. ( ENT : " These Are the Voyages... ")

Archer's relationship with Tucker was somewhat outlined in the ENT series bible, written at a point when Tucker had the nickname "Spike". The document stated, " Archer is something of a mentor to Spike, and though he enjoys Spike's unique sense of humor, he's also aware of what other people might think of his Chief Engineer; there are times when the Captain has to keep him in line. "

Archer with T'Pol in 2153

Archer and T'Pol together in sickbay in 2154

Archer's first encounter with T'Pol was not very pleasant for either one of them. Archer had just found out that the Vulcans wanted to delay Enterprise 's much anticipated launch due to the Klingon incident and to make matters worse, T'Pol interjected, berating Archer and Humanity for their volatile and provincial nature that she believed rendered them unfit for space exploration. Archer was angered and his response to her was that he was restraining himself a great deal as he really wanted to just "knock [her] on [her] ass."

When she was later assigned to his ship as his first officer and science officer or as Archer called it "a chaperon", he was looking forward to her leaving after the mission was over as he found T'Pol cold, uncaring, cynical, and humorless. To make matters worse, T'Pol was not particularly fond of Archer's pet dog, Porthos , whose smell bothered her. She insisted on cutting vegetables with a knife as Vulcans do not touch their food and she did not find Archer's initial attempts at humor and breaking-the-ice worth entertaining.

In turn, Archer made it clear to her that she was not to disclose anything they discussed to her superiors on Vulcan. As the mission progressed, however, Archer and T'Pol found common ground. He was wounded saving her life in a fire-fight, and T'Pol assumed command and led Enterprise in pursuit of Suliban who had kidnapped Klaang. As the acting captain, she could have easily turned around and left but she chose to continue the mission, knowing that it was what Archer wanted.

This gave him a new-found respect for her, as he was surprised at the loyalty she exhibited after the initial cold reception. The mission was a success and when T'Pol was scheduled to leave Enterprise as agreed, Archer asked her to join his crew, as he no longer wanted to hold grudges and was instead eager to start freshly with the Vulcans. ( ENT : " Broken Bow ")

Archer and T'Pol sharing a blanket while being held hostage at the monastery

Archer began to trust T'Pol when she didn't turn a blind eye when the secret Vulcan surveillance listening post beneath the monastery at P'Jem was revealed and she helped Archer expose it to the Andorian Imperial Guard . ( ENT : " The Andorian Incident ")

When Ambassador V'Lar came aboard Enterprise in 2152 , she sensed a great bond between Archer and T'Pol, of "trust… and friendship." ( ENT : " Fallen Hero ")

T'Pol took meals in the captain's mess, and once drank wine and entertained Archer with a story of an ancestor who visited Earth before first contact. Archer convinced T'Pol to interact with the crew. She went to movie night with them, and actually liked a movie called Frankenstein . ( ENT : " Carbon Creek ", " Horizon ")

Archer lent T'Pol support when she was sent on a troubling mission for the Vulcans: She was to apprehend a former Vulcan agent who had become an arms dealer . Archer assisted her and reassured her self-doubts during the mission. The incident solidified the trust between the duo. ( ENT : " The Seventh ")

Developing Archer's relationship with T'Pol in "The Seventh" was one of the main goals the ENT writing team had mind while they wrote that outing. " In the same way T'Pol is kind of Archer's mentor out there, sometimes it's nice to see him give her guidance when it comes to dealing with emotions, " observed Brannon Braga . ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 145 , p. 25)

Archer opened up to T'Pol when his good friend and former rival, A.G. Robinson , died. T'Pol listened to Archer's story about the two of them and offered him a shoulder to lean on. ( ENT : " First Flight ")

Archer hugs T'Pol

In the end, it was T'Pol who was with Archer before he gave a speech at the signing of the Federation Charter . Overcome with emotion, T'Pol and Archer embraced before his speech. ( ENT : " These Are the Voyages... ")

Archer and T'Pol's embrace in "These Are the Voyages…" wasn't scripted.

Increased friction between Archer and T'Pol in 2152 lead Dr. Phlox, who also had a degree in psychiatry , to believe that Archer was sexually attracted to T'Pol but was frustrated; Archer believed a romantic relationship between him and his first officer would be inappropriate. Phlox believed that Archer's inordinate anger toward T'Pol's opinions on him and other unexpected behavior he exhibited stemmed from Archer subconsciously knowing that his attraction to her was inappropriate.

At first, Archer denied that there was any sexual attraction but after an erotic dream with T'Pol in it, he opened up to the doctor, wondering what to do. Phlox told him that simply being aware of it would be the best course of action, as talking to her about it would make matters worse. In a later discussion with T'Pol, Archer told her that he would like to minimize the friction between the two of them, a type of friction which could especially develop between people of the opposite sex .

Archer spoke to T'Pol, apologizing for the friction. T'Pol replied that she was also attracted to him, but pointed out that they were " not in a position to allow [themselves] to become attracted to one another. " ( ENT : " A Night in Sickbay ")

In the alternate timeline in which Archer was afflicted with anterograde amnesia, T'Pol resigned the captaincy and spent twelve years caring for Archer on Ceti Alpha V . Over the years, she learned more about Archer while he continuously forgot everything past the day he became ill. It became apparent, however, that T'Pol had begun harboring romantic feelings for Archer. In 2165 , a way had been found to eradicate the interspatial parasites that were preventing Archer from forming new memories. Phlox suggested to T'Pol that, if the treatment worked, everything between Archer and T'Pol might be different. ( ENT : " Twilight ")

Archer's relationship with T'Pol was originally detailed in the ENT series bible, at a time when T'Pol was planned to instead be named T'Pau . The document remarked, " Archer has mixed feelings about T'Pau; she embodies the arrogance and high-mindedness of the Vulcans who kept his father from realizing his dream of space exploration. But he also realizes that T'Pau is a more seasoned space traveller, and he often relies on her wisdom and experience; at times, he even enjoys her dry sense of humor. Archer and T'Pau will continue to butt heads regarding Humanity's new role in the 'intergalactic neighborhood', but they will also develop a long-lasting friendship that is rather unique for its day – the bond between Human and alien. "

Thy'lek Shran [ ]

Thy'lek Shran

Shran during his first encounter with Archer at P'Jem

Shortly after taking command of Enterprise , Archer encountered the Andorian Commander Thy'lek Shran . In their first confrontation, at the Vulcan monastery at P'Jem , Shran believed Archer's crew were there to help the Vulcans spy on the Andorians. While being kept hostage , Archer managed to contact Enterprise , which sent a rescue team . During a firefight inside the monastery's reliquary , one of the Vulcans accidentally destroyed a tapestry , which was covering the entrance to the Vulcans' listening post . Archer asked T'Pol to give Shran all the data she had collected, to which Shran said that he owed a debt to Archer. ( ENT : " The Andorian Incident ")

In 2152, Shran met with Enterprise crewmembers attempting to rescue Archer and T'Pol from the rebels on the planet Coridanite . He told them he had "lost sleep" over the fact that he owed a favor to Archer, and so wanted to help rescue him to write off his "debt". ( ENT : " Shadows of P'Jem ")

Later that year, Shran insisted to Vulcan ambassador Soval that Archer be the mediator at talks between their two species, because on their previous encounters, Archer had been "objective". The Vulcans were initially annoyed at the request, due to their disdain with Humans, but eventually agreed, and the negotiations were completed successfully. ( ENT : " Cease Fire ")

In late 2153 , Shran's ship, the Kumari , was dispatched to the Delphic Expanse to secure the prototype Xindi weapon, to use in their conflict with the Vulcans. Shran arrived in the Expanse and aided Enterprise , claiming (under false pretenses) that the Vulcans had only spared one officer to help Enterprise during their mission. The Kumari and Enterprise were able to effect a joint mission to steal the prototype, which was stored in the Kumari 's cargo bay.

However, Shran then informed Archer of the Imperial Guard 's plan, and gave Archer an escape pod so he could return to Enterprise . When encountering spatial anomalies, Enterprise caught up with the Kumari , and Archer told Shran that he would detonate the weapon in the Andorian ship's cargo bay if necessary. Shran thought he was bluffing, but Archer proceeded with his plan and, although jettisoned, the resulting explosion severely damaged the Kumari . Later, Shran covertly sent Archer invaluable information on the weapon. ( ENT : " Proving Ground ")

As the Xindi weapon approached Earth, the Kumari provided assistance, destroying Xindi Commander Dolim 's ship, telling Archer that now the Human was in his debt. ( ENT : " Zero Hour ")

In 2154 , Shran led a group of Andorian ships attempting to stop a Vulcan fleet launching a preemptive strike against them. As the Vulcans were ordered to destroy Enterprise , Shran went to their assistance again, claiming that Archer now owed him two favors. ( ENT : " Kir'Shara ")

The two met again in November 2154, when the Kumari was attacked and destroyed by a Romulan drone ship posing as a Tellarite cruiser. Shran was very bitter about the loss of his ship, and openly blamed the Tellarites. However the Romulan plot was eventually revealed by Archer, who was attempting to keep an already fragile alliance between the Andorians, Tellarites and the Vulcans. ( ENT : " Babel One ", " United ", " The Aenar ")

In 2158 , Shran went into hiding. Three years later , he enlisted Archer's help in looking for his daughter, Talla , who had been abducted. The pair were able to initiate a rescue, with the help of the Enterprise 's crew. ( ENT : " These Are the Voyages... ")

Malcolm Reed [ ]

Reed and Archer in a tense moment in 2154

Early in Enterprise 's mission, Archer took steps toward forging a relationship with his senior staff , including his armory officer , Malcolm Reed. During the first year of their voyage together, Archer and Hoshi Sato took great pains to learn more about Reed, even going so far as to contact members of his family to discover his likes and dislikes. While the effort culminated in a friendly birthday celebration for Reed, the relationship between Archer and Reed failed to develop substantially. ( ENT : " Silent Enemy ")

Archer, with Reed, after they survived a Romulan mine blast

It wasn't until a full year after the launch of Enterprise that Archer and Reed were able to plan a private breakfast in the captain's mess . While Reed mistook the meal for a more professional meeting, Archer was able to coax the armory officer into a personal, though somewhat awkward conversation. Speaking freely, Reed revealed that he felt Archer was too lax a commanding officer. These sentiments were later repeated when Archer chose to risk his own life in an attempt to save Reed when he became trapped on the hull of Enterprise during the Romulan minefield crisis. Though both men survived and some level of trust was achieved between Archer and Reed, a closer relationship failed to materialize and Reed continued to doubt Archer's resolve as an effective commander. ( ENT : " Minefield ", " Singularity ")

In 2154 , following the Xindi mission, Archer and Reed clashed when Reed's loyalty to Section 31 put him in direct conflict with Archer. Performing a minor act of sabotage against the investigation into the disappearance of Dr. Phlox, Reed was subsequently thrown into the brig . Though several heated conversations took place, Archer was able to get through to Reed and the mission ultimately proved successful. ( ENT : " Affliction ", " Divergence ")

Phlox reassures Archer in 2161

Archer initially met Dr. Phlox in San Francisco upon learning of the incident involving the Klingon Klaang in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. Phlox was treating Klaang and saved his life; this impressed Archer, who recruited Phlox soon after to serve as chief medical officer aboard Enterprise . Phlox was one of only two aliens among the crew, and became one of its most valuable members. He became one of Archer's most trusted advisers and on many occasions, his counselor. Phlox also played devil's advocate for Archer. There were a few issues that they came into conflict over, but this only strengthened their friendship. ( ENT : " Broken Bow ")

Early in the mission, Archer and Phlox argued over a cure for an epidemic on the planet Valakis , whose population had two species, the Valakians and the Menk . Phlox discovered that the illness was genetic, and that the Menk were evolving and would become the dominant species, while the Valakians would become extinct. Archer wanted to give them a cure, but Phlox believed that it was not ethical, because such a cure would interfere with nature. Archer was eventually convinced that they had no right to play God , and gained a new respect for Phlox and his counsel. ( ENT : " Dear Doctor ")

Archer looked to Phlox for advice on how to deal with various races, since Phlox had experience in such matters. He sought advice on how to deal with the Klingon Bu'kaH , in order to persuade her to help with a rescue attempt. Archer was convinced by Phlox to apologize to the Kreetassans and avoided a diplomatic incident. He even told Phlox about his attraction to T'Pol. Phlox endeared himself to Archer when he saved Archer's dog, Porthos. ( ENT : " Sleeping Dogs ", " A Night in Sickbay ")

Archer returned the favor when an Antaran refused to be treated by Phlox because the Denobulans and the Antarans were mortal enemies. He convinced Phlox to set aside his preconceptions, and attempt to persuade the Antaran to accept treatment. Phlox's attempts were successful, and the Antaran gave his consent. ( ENT : " The Breach ")

Phlox and Archer continued their friendship for the rest of Enterprise 's mission, depending on each other for not only friendship, but counseling.

Hoshi Sato [ ]

Archer and Hoshi Sato work to diffuse the Axanar situation in 2151

A white-knuckled explorer from the beginning, communications officer Hoshi Sato was at first hesitant to reveal her misgivings to her captain. Not long after the discovery of a derelict Axanar vessel in 2151 , Archer was able to coax Sato into describing her fears.

While Archer was sympathetic, he nevertheless expected Sato to perform her duties and placed confidence in her abilities in diffusing a situation involving an attacking Axanar vessel. Taking strides to overcome her difficulties, Sato later made it a point to volunteer for missions, offering to join T'Pol and Malcolm Reed on a severely damaged Klingon starship, and later opting to stay alone with the alien Tarquin for a short time in 2153 . ( ENT : " Fight or Flight ", " Sleeping Dogs ", " Exile ")

Hoshi was Archer's choice for looking after Porthos before surrendering himself to the Cabal in 2152 . ( ENT : " Shockwave ")

By the end of the Xindi mission, Sato had become one of Archer's most valued officers, ultimately aiding him in disarming the Xindi weapon despite having been injured by Xindi-Reptilians . ( ENT : " Zero Hour ")

A deleted scene from " The Expanse " dealt with the relationship between Archer and Sato. In dialogue that wasn't in the final edit of that scene but was in the episode's final draft script, Archer told her, " You've been invaluable to this mission… to me … ever since we left spacedock. You were a little shaky at first… but who wasn't? "

Maxwell Forrest [ ]

Admiral Maxwell Forrest was Archer's mentor and fully trusted him as a capable starship captain devoted to the mission. When the Vulcans, and in particular Ambassador Soval , objected to Archer returning Klaang back to Qo'noS , Forrest backed Archer up and gave him the Enterprise assignment, asking him to "[not] screw this up". After the success of the mission, he was so pleased that Enterprise got the green light to continue its mission of exploration and first contact. ( ENT : " Broken Bow ")

In 2154, when the Enterprise returned home from the Delphic Expanse, he forced Archer to apologize to Soval after an emotional outburst in debriefing, maintaining the respect Forrest had for Archer. ( ENT : " Home ")

He and Admiral Forrest remained close friends until the Admiral's death on Vulcan when the United Earth Embassy was bombed by what was assumed to be Syrrannite terrorists. ( ENT : " The Forge ")

In the final draft script of " First Flight ", a scene description remarked about Archer's relationship with Forrest, prior to the former's posting aboard Enterprise , " We'll see there is a bit more formality between them – they aren't yet the good friends we know they'll become. "

Regarding Archer's sorrow in the aftermath of Forrest's death, the script of "The Forge" noted, " Forrest was more than his commander and friend – Archer has lost another connection to his father. "

Travis Mayweather [ ]

Archer comforts Travis Mayweather in the " sweet spot "

In many ways, Archer was a role model for his young helmsman , Travis Mayweather . Following the death of Mayweather's father in 2152 , Archer personally comforted Mayweather, and granted him permission to visit his family aboard the ECS Horizon . ( ENT : " Horizon ")

During their time in the Delphic Expanse , Mayweather was one of the few officers to whom Archer opened up. As the Enterprise neared Azati Prime , Archer refused to allow Mayweather to go on what amounted to a suicide mission, choosing to go himself. He confided in Mayweather that he had asked for too many sacrifices already, opting to pay what Mayweather described as a penance. ( ENT : " Azati Prime ")

Danica Erickson [ ]

Danica and Jonathan met when they were both children as Jonathan's father, Henry was a good friend and co-worker with Danica's father, Emory. During this time, Archer would constantly chase Danica around her backyard with a plastic laser pistol. ( ENT : " Daedalus ")

Romances [ ]

Archer's dream that helps him realize he is sexually attracted to his first officer, T'Pol

In 2152, Archer took Porthos on a mission to get plasma injectors. During that visit to the Kreetassans homeworld, Porthos urinated on a sacred tree – offending the Kreetassans – and acquired a pathogen. While Porthos was sick, Archer realized – thanks to Phlox – that he was sexually attracted to his first officer. He knew that sexual attraction was inappropriate and Phlox coached him to be aware of it. He and T'Pol discussed it. ( ENT : " A Night in Sickbay ")

During the Xindi mission, Archer and T'Pol discussed Rosemary's Baby when Enterprise was hit by an anomaly. Archer saved T'Pol from the anomaly, but became infected with parasites that kept him from creating long-term memories. T'Pol was subsequently made Captain, but she resigned her commission to become Archer's caregiver. She fell in love with him. Archer's parasites were eventually removed, and when that happened, the years T'Pol was his caregiver never happened. It's unclear if their relationship had ever become romantic in this timeline, but she stated at one point that their relationship was much deeper than it had been previously. ( ENT : " Twilight ")

Margaret Mullin [ ]

In 2136 , when Archer was 24 years old and in flight school in San Francisco , he met Margaret Mullin , with whom he became romantically involved. The night before he graduated, he asked her to marry him. Margaret turned him down as she did not want to become "a Starfleet widow." ( ENT : " Twilight ")

Caroline [ ]

Some time prior to 2143 , Archer had a relationship with Caroline . When she moved to New Berlin , however, he decided to get drunk in the 602 Club . ( ENT : " First Flight ")

Erika Hernandez [ ]

Later in the 2140s, Archer was romantically involved with Hernandez . However, he discontinued the relationship when he became Erika's superior officer. In 2154 , after Erika became captain of the Columbia NX-02 , they briefly rekindled their romance. ( ENT : " Home ")

Riaan and Archer

In 2151 Archer had a brief romantic relationship with Riaan , an Akaali female apothecary he met when they made first contact with their species . He introduced himself as " Jon " to her and told her he was from another city. When his translator malfunctioned and he was in danger of being exposed as an alien , Archer quickly kissed her to prevent her from asking questions. When later on they got to know each other better and came closer and he was about to leave the planet, he kissed her again while she joked that the translator must have malfunctioned again. ( ENT : " Civilization ")

A love interest of Archer's, Becky , was established in a scene from " The Expanse ", though the scene (and therefore also the relationship) was ultimately deleted . Before the scene was cut, Scott Bakula commented that he believed Archer's relationship with Becky was an asset to the development of Archer and had potential. " All we've ever really heard about from Archer is his father. So here is an opportunity to say, 'Oh, he has a life' apart from Enterprise […] It's not like he's going to come back [from the Xindi mission ] and marry this woman, " Bakula remarked. " He has a very comfortable history with this lady and it could go a lot of ways. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 145 , pp. 42 & 45)

Porthos [ ]

Porthos was Archer's pet beagle – his "buddy" as he once called him – and he had him since he was six weeks old. Archer's girlfriend 's mother had a beagle that he was particularly crazy about. Even after Archer and her daughter broke up, he stayed in touch with the mother. When the dog got pregnant, he was the first one she called. There were four males in the litter, the four Musketeers as they were called. ( ENT : " A Night in Sickbay ") Porthos lived with Archer on Earth in mid- 2150 before moving to Enterprise in April 2151. ( ENT : " Broken Bow ", " Shockwave ")

On Enterprise , Porthos had a dog basket in Archer's quarters as well as a mat he could lie down on in the captain's ready room. Archer also kept a small supply of cheese in a cupboard, something he gave Porthos as a treat now and then, until he realized the "treat" was causing him mild gastrointestinal distress . ( ENT : " Broken Bow ", " Dear Doctor ")

Aware that Porthos needed to get off the ship from time to time, Archer occasionally allowed him to visit habitable planets and took him on certain away missions . It was on one such visit to the Kreetassan homeworld that Porthos picked up a deadly pathogen . Archer was incredibly upset that his "best friend" was at risk of death, and stayed at his side until Doctor Phlox could develop a cure. Porthos eventually made a full recovery. ( ENT : " Fight or Flight ", " A Night in Sickbay ")

In 2153, Archer allowed Porthos to accompany Enterprise to the Delphic Expanse in search of the Xindi weapon to the objection of Commander Tucker who believed the Expanse may have unknown properties which could affect him. Early on during the Xindi mission, it became evident that Porthos could sense the anomalies present in the Expanse. He had attempted to alert Archer to one, however, the captain did not understand the warning until after the anomaly had passed through his desk. ( ENT : " The Expanse ", " Anomaly (ENT) ")

Alternate realities and timelines [ ]

Archer in an alternate timeline

In 2153, an anomaly infected Archer's hippocampus with interspatial parasites , causing anterograde amnesia by impairing the synaptic pathways that allowed him to form new long-term memories. Though the crew tried to keep Archer up to date so he could function as captain, Starfleet Command eventually relieved him of command; he spent most of his time in his quarters. Earth was destroyed in 2154, but Archer remained on board until 2156 , when Enterprise reached Ceti Alpha V. T'Pol took care of him for nine years (she apparently developed feelings for him as time went on, although Archer naturally could not reciprocate them, as he would never remember having done so the next morning). In 2165 , Phlox arrived from Denobula with a cure. Destroying one of the clusters of parasites, Phlox and T'Pol discovered that destroying them now also destroyed their existence in the past as well, and realized that, by destroying the parasites in the present, they could completely change the outcome of Enterprise 's original mission in the Delphic Expanse. As Enterprise was boarded by Xindi forces, Archer initiated a subspace implosion, eradicating the remaining parasites and thus preventing himself from ever having been infected in 2153. ( ENT : " Twilight ")

In the final draft script of "Twilight", the version of Archer from 2165 was described thus; " He looks about a decade older than the Jonathan Archer we know… there are a few lines around the eyes, and his temples have gone gray. " He was additionally described as having "graying hair".

In 2154, Enterprise was flung to the year 2037 while en route to the Xindi Council planet . Archer decided that the ship would become a generation ship, and that the crew's descendants would be the ones to complete the ship's mission and stop the Xindi weapon . Archer eventually married an Ikaaran woman named Esilia . One of his descendants was Karyn Archer . ( ENT : " E² ")

In 2258 of the alternate reality created by Nero 's attack on the USS Kelvin , Archer was still an admiral in Starfleet . Montgomery Scott attempted to prove his theories about transwarp beaming by beaming Admiral Archer's prized beagle . The dog was never seen again, and when Scott was transferred to a small, cold, and almost forgotten research outpost on Delta Vega , he believed that his blunder was the reason he ended up there. ( Star Trek )

Archer's first name wasn't used on screen, but Star Trek writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci confirmed that the Archer mentioned in Star Trek is a reference to Enterprise , [3] and later confirmed that it is, indeed, the same Jonathan Archer. [4] Jonathan Archer would be 145 in 2257, although it was never actually stated when Scotty used the dog.

Awards and honors [ ]

Starfleet biography of Jonathan Archer, circa 2268

In 2154 , several dozen North American schools were renamed for Jonathan Archer following the successful resolution of the Xindi crisis , including the former high school of Hernandez . ( ENT : " Home ")

In ultimately unused dialogue from the final draft script of "Home", Hernandez even referred to Archer as "the most recognized person on the planet," as of 2154.

Archer earned an impressive list of commendations during his career, including the Starfleet Medal of Valor with clusters, the Star Cross , the Preantares Ribbon of Commendation , and the Federation Citation of Honor . ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II ", biographical display )

Listed among Starfleet's finest captains during the 2250s .

In the 23rd century , historian John Gill hailed Archer as "the greatest explorer of the 22nd century ." ( Biographical display in ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II ")

In 2256 , Archer was one of Starfleet's most decorated captains, ranked among other legends such as Robert April , Matt Decker , Philippa Georgiou , and Christopher Pike . ( DIS : " Choose Your Pain ")

Two planets were named for the former captain: Archer's Planet in the Gamma Trianguli sector , and Archer IV , the first M-class planet explored by Enterprise . ( Biographical display in ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II ") Archer's Comet was also named in his honor. ( ENT : " Breaking the Ice ")

There have been at least three Federation starships named the USS Archer , with the registry numbers NCC-627 , NCC-44278 , and NCC-76725 , respectively. ( SNW : " Strange New Worlds "; Star Trek Nemesis ; PIC : " Võx ") In 3190 , Archer Spacedock was named in his honor when the Federation began retro-fitting their existing fleet in order to carry out Starfleet's original mission of exploration. ( DIS : " Kobayashi Maru ")

The biography's given dates of 2150 as the start of Archer's command of the Enterprise and 2160 as the end of his tenure appear to be incorrect. In the series finale, it was specifically stated that the ship had been out in space for ten years, and it is known from the start of the series that the ship was launched in 2151 . However, it is possible that Archer assumed command of Enterprise in late 2150 , which is corroborated in ENT : " First Flight ", and that the NX-01 was officially decommissioned in late 2160 prior to the founding of the Federation. It is also just as likely that Archer took command of Enterprise before it was commissioned, meaning that the ten years of active service ended in 2161 but Archer would have been the commanding officer for eleven years total. (See External links below for stills of original production artwork.)

While the biography states that Archer was the only Human to have two planets named after him, this was put into perspective in another record from the same episode, as Zefram Cochrane was also said to have "planets" (i.e. at least two) named after him.

Memorable quotes [ ]

" Volatile? You have no idea how much I'm restraining myself from knocking you on your ass. "

" We can't be afraid of the wind, ensign. "

" Human beings have a code of behavior that applies whether they're Starfleet officers or space boomers, and it isn't driven by revenge. Just because someone isn't born on Earth doesn't make him any less Human. "

" Someday … my people are going to come up with some sort of a doctrine, something that tells us what we can and can't do out here, should and shouldn't do. But until somebody tells me that they've drafted that directive … I'm going to have to remind myself every day … that we didn't come out here to play God. "

" Once you give up, the game's over. "

" An old girlfriend's mother had … this beagle I was crazy about. Even after her daughter and I broke up, we stayed in touch. When the dog got pregnant, I was the first one she called. Four males in the litter – the Four Musketeers. I've had Porthos since he was six weeks old. "

" I don't like bullies, Trip. Not on Earth, and not out here. "

" I need what was taken from me. There's too much at stake to let my morality get in the way. "

" I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to find your ship. And if that ends up causing me remorse, then it's something I'm willing to live with. "

" We'll find a way through this. But I won't leave anyone behind, not if I can help it. I can't try to save Humanity without holding on to what makes me Human. "

" I need Trip. Trip . I'll take whatever steps necessary to save him. " " Even if it means killing me? " " Even if it means killing you! " " You're not a murderer. " " Don't make me one. "

" You did the right thing. " " It seems the longer we're out here, the more I have to keep telling myself that. "

" We're in bad shape – I can't deny that, but we're still in one piece. Enterprise is a tough ship. She took more than anyone could ask her to and then some. And so have all of you. I wanted to say thank you. I only wish I could thank the eighteen crewmen who were lost. Like you, they understood how important our mission is, and they accepted the risks. We came into the Expanse not knowing what we'd find, with no one to rely on but ourselves. We're going to succeed – to accomplish our mission – for everyone on Earth who's relying on us, and for the eighteen. "

" You've changed, captain. " " And not at all for the better! "

" I've been told that people are calling us heroes. When it comes to my crew, you won't get any argument from me. But I think it's important that we remember the heroes who aren't with us – the twenty-seven crewmen who didn't make it back. Without their sacrifice, I wouldn't be standing here right now. None of us would. But I'm sure I speak on behalf of my entire crew when I say … it's good to be home. "

" Up until about a hundred years ago … there was one question that burned in every Human – that made us study the stars and dream of traveling to them: "Are we alone?" Our generation is privileged to know the answer to that question. We are all explorers, driven to know what's over the horizon, what's beyond our own shores. And yet … the more I've experienced, the more I've learned … that no matter how far we travel, or how fast we get there … the most profound discoveries are not necessarily beyond that next star. They're within us – woven into the threads that bind us – all of us – to each other. The final frontier begins in this hall. Let's explore it together. "

" Here's to the next generation. "

" Just beyond the next planet, just beyond the next star … "

Key dates [ ]

Archer performing a Vulcan salute

• 2112 : Born in Upstate New York on Earth to Henry and Sally Archer
• 2124 : Henry Archer dies of Clarke's Disease
• 2143 : Along with A.G. Robinson , becomes the first Human to achieve warp 2.5
• 2150 : Becomes commanding officer of the starship Enterprise NX-01
• Becomes one of the first Humans to set foot on Qo'noS
• Makes first contact with the Suliban
• Makes first contact with the Xyrillians
• Makes first contact with the Andorians
• Initiates first Human-initiated first contact with a sentient species, the Akaali
• Makes first contact with the Kreetassans
• Orders Enterprise to exceed Warp 5 for the first time.
• Travels to the 31st century and learns he will become an important part of the formation of the United Federation of Planets
• Makes First contact with the Arkonians
• Makes first contact with the Tholians
• Put on trial on Narendra III by the Klingons
• Makes first contact with the Tellarites
• Transformed into a Loque'eque
• Travels back in time to the year 2004

Archer transformed into a Klingon hybrid in 2154

• Travels to the mid- 20th century
• Holds the katra of Surak for a short time
• Makes first contact with the Organians
• Transformed into a Klingon hybrid
• 2155 : Attends the opening ceremony of the Coalition of Planets
• Helps rescue the daughter of Shran
• Signs the Federation Charter
• 2169 : Becomes Federation Ambassador to Andoria
• 2175 : Serves as Federation Councilor
• 2184 : Is elected Federation President
• 2192 : Steps down as Federation President

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ].

• " Broken Bow "
• " Fight or Flight "
• " Strange New World "
• " Unexpected "
• " Terra Nova "
• " The Andorian Incident "
• " Breaking the Ice "
• " Civilization "
• " Fortunate Son "
• " Cold Front "
• " Silent Enemy "
• " Dear Doctor "
• " Sleeping Dogs "
• " Shadows of P'Jem "
• " Shuttlepod One "
• " Rogue Planet "
• " Acquisition "
• " Detained "
• " Vox Sola "
• " Fallen Hero "
• " Desert Crossing "
• " Two Days and Two Nights "
• " Shockwave "
• " Shockwave, Part II "
• " Carbon Creek "
• " Minefield "
• " Dead Stop "
• " A Night in Sickbay "
• " Marauders "
• " The Seventh "
• " The Communicator "
• " Singularity "
• " Vanishing Point "
• " Precious Cargo "
• " The Catwalk "
• " Cease Fire "
• " Future Tense "
• " Canamar "
• " The Crossing "
• " Judgment "
• " Horizon "
• " The Breach "
• " Cogenitor "
• " Regeneration "
• " First Flight "
• " The Expanse "
• " The Xindi "
• " Anomaly (ENT) "
• " Extinction "
• " Impulse "
• " The Shipment "
• " Twilight "
• " North Star "
• " Similitude "
• " Carpenter Street "
• " Chosen Realm "
• " Proving Ground "
• " Stratagem "
• " Harbinger "
• " Doctor's Orders "
• " Hatchery "
• " Azati Prime "
• " The Forgotten "
• " The Council "
• " Countdown "
• " Zero Hour "
• " Storm Front "
• " Storm Front, Part II "
• " Borderland "
• " Cold Station 12 "
• " The Augments "
• " The Forge "
• " Awakening "
• " Kir'Shara "
• " Daedalus "
• " Observer Effect "
• " Babel One "
• " The Aenar "
• " Affliction "
• " Divergence "
• " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II " (file photo and hallucination only)
• " Terra Prime "
• " These Are the Voyages... " (hologram)

Background information [ ]

Jonathan Archer was played by Scott Bakula in all episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise set in the prime universe and the 22nd century, with the only non-appearance of the prime Archer being " In a Mirror, Darkly ", which still include Bakula playing a version of the character. Prior to playing Archer, Bakula never considered that he might like to play a captain in Star Trek . ( The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years , p. 36) The young version of Archer in "Broken Bow" was portrayed by Marty Davis .

The character of Captain Archer was initially conceived by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga . They originally imagined the character as " a captain who was an adventurer and who was lighthearted, " said Berman. " A little bit of Captain Kirk and a little bit of Chuck Yeager . " ( Broken Bow , paperback ed., p. 248) Braga noted, " We knew we wanted our captain to be a down-to-earth, Harrison Ford kind of guy. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 9 , p. 21)

Archer's first name was originally to have been "Jackson". ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 33, No. 5, p. 21) He was to have been called "Jack" colloquially. [5] While having the first name "Jackson", a character description of Captain Archer was written in the ENT series bible. It described him as " Early 40's. Physical. Intensely curious. Born and raised an explorer by his father, an engineer who worked on the warp 5 project. Unlike the Captains in centuries to come, Archer exhibits a sense of wonder and excitement, as well as a little trepidation about the strange things he will encounter. He holds a grudge against the Vulcans, who he blames for impeding Humanity's progress. But his Science Officer is Vulcan, and he's struggling to reconsider those preconceptions. Although he has a strong sense of duty, he's a bit of a renegade – he's not afraid to question orders or even disobey them, if he feels in his gut that he's right. Archer was there when the first girders on the Enterprise were put into place. And when the Vulcans tried to suspend the maiden launch after the Broken Bow Incident, claiming Humans weren't ready for interstellar travel, Archer helped persuade Starfleet to press on […] The Kirks and Picards and Janeways will one day have the benefit of the Captains who preceded them. But Jackson Archer is the prototype. He's making history with every light year. Because he knows his Captain's Logs will be studied for years to come, he keeps especially detailed reports. "

While Archer was still planned to have the first name "Jackson", a character breakdown sheet sent from Paramount to talent agents, upon seeking an actor to play the role, described the character thus; " Early 40s. Physical. Bold personality. Intensely curious. Born and raised an explorer. Unlike the Starfleet captains in centuries to come, he exhibits a sense of wonder and excitement, as well as a little trepidation about the strange things he will encounter. He holds a grudge against the Vulcans, who he blames for impeding Humanity's progress. But his science officer is Vulcan, and he's struggling to reconsider those preconceptions. Although he has a strong sense of duty, he's a bit of a renegade – he's not afraid to question orders or even disobey them if he feels in his gut that he's right. " [6]

Rick Berman and Brannon Braga definitely had a certain type of actor in mind for the role of Archer. Berman explained, " We were looking for a little Han Solo quality. We were looking for a little boyishness. We were looking for somebody who had a sense of excitement and awe and was his own man, someone who was young and fit, someone who embodied those heroic qualities that haven't really existed since Captain Kirk. " ( Broken Bow , paperback ed., p. 254) Berman commented further, " We sort of thought of a Han Solo type, a younger Harrison Ford. Somebody with a sense of humor, and somebody who […] was very Human and very accessible. " (" Broken Bow " audio commentary , ENT Season 1 DVD / Blu-ray )

Archer's first name was eventually switched to "Jonathan". This was because research turned up exactly one person in the United States of America with the name of "Jackson Archer". ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 33, No. 5, p. 21) The change was listed as one of six revisions of character names in a one-page "script note" at the start of the final draft script of " Broken Bow " (the page was dated 1 May 2001 ).

The revised final draft script for "Broken Bow" established that Archer was nine years old in the very first scene of Enterprise , set in 2121 , and thirty-nine in 2151 . [7] However, a "Behind the Scenes of Enterprise " section in the novelization of Broken Bow (paperback ed., p. 251) states that he was created as "a man in his mid-forties." When the adult version of Archer was introduced in the script, the teleplay quoted a section from the series bible and character breakdown, stating, " Unlike the Starfleet Captains in centuries to come, he exhibits a sense of wonder and excitement. " [8]

British actor Simon MacCorkindale claimed he was offered the role of Captain Archer, but turned it down. [9] Brannon Braga, however, once stated that Scott Bakula was the only actor seriously considered to play Archer. (" Broken Bow " audio commentary , ENT Season 1 Blu-ray ) Rick Berman reminisced about the option of casting Bakula, " When his name was brought up to us by the studio, we jumped for it. " ( Broken Bow , paperback ed., p. 254) Braga noted, " Scott Bakula was an actor who was pretty much the actor who we had in mind all along for the role […] We actually had a meeting with Scott, to discuss the […] character, and he just seemed so perfect. He seemed like he really was Jonathan Archer. He was not your typical spit-and-polish captain. He was more of an everyday guy, with some extraordinary abilities, who… was perfect. And people kinda knew […] Scott Bakula, so you felt like you kinda knew the guy already. So, in every regard, Scott was just perfect in the role. " Berman believed the phrase "a very intelligent and very gracious man" could be applied to both Archer and Bakula. (" Broken Bow " audio commentary , ENT Season 1 DVD / Blu-ray ) Shortly after Bakula was cast, Berman enthused, " "Scott personifies the charm and intelligence that the role calls for. " [10] When first asked to play Captain Archer, though, Bakula was uninterested in the offer. " I may have even said, 'I'm not interested in, you know, the next captain [after Janeway].' " When Bakula was informed he would be playing "the first captain," about 100 years before Kirk, Bakula accepted the part. ( The Captains ) " They had him pretty much on the page when I got the pilot script, " Bakula reflected. " It was exciting to read him because he's a lot like Kirk: very emotional and very given to being angry, and, sometimes, acting before he thinks. I thought that was a great way to go, and I thought it would be an exciting kind of character to create. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 7 , p. 14) Berman reminisced, " When we found out that Scott was interested, it was very exciting for all of us. " (" Broken Bow " audio commentary , ENT Season 1 DVD / Blu-ray ) The fact that the role of Captain Archer went to Bakula partly made him the most widely known actor to be hired to play the lead role of a captain in a Star Trek series. " As a recognized actor he brings a little validity to the show, " Berman remarked. " It doesn't hurt to have someone who is recognizable […] I cannot think of a single soul I would rather have playing that role. " ( Broken Bow , paperback ed., pp. 253-254) Bakula was forty-six when he began appearing as Archer.

The call sheets throughout Star Trek: Enterprise consistently omitted Scott Bakula's name, referring to him as "Archer", whereas the other key cast members were actually referred to by their own names on those same call sheets.

Scott Bakula found the ENT producers allowed him "a fair amount of input" in shaping the persona of Jonathan Archer. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 7 , p. 14) " We didn't realize how likeable and down-to-earth Scott would be, " Brannon Braga divulged, shortly after ENT Season 1 began, " so we're giving him more moments that are a little bit more laid back. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 9 , p. 22)

Following the casting of Scott Bakula as Jonathan Archer, Brannon Braga observed about the captain, " He's a bit of a Davy Crockett-type character in that he's got the flair for frontier diplomacy, but there are no protocols. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 7 , p. 16)

Brannon Braga and Rick Berman wanted Archer's command style to initially be indecisive (such as in the second installment of ENT, " Fight or Flight "). " That [indecisiveness] was planned, " remarked Braga, following the first season. " We wanted a captain who was gung-ho to get out there and explore, and then realizes the galaxy's not quite what he expected […] You could say he's indecisive, but to me, that's part of the fun. We want to see him frustrated. Gradually he does start to get his space legs. But that's something you want to see depicted, because it's good character drama. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 139 , p. 23)

Archer was altered for the third season , as a reaction to Earth being threatened by the Xindi. " We set up a harder-edged Archer, who's willing to kill or torture a man if he has to. It's a loss of innocence, " Braga explained. " Archer went out into space wide-eyed and all-embracing. And here he is now, realizing that maybe the Vulcans were right – maybe we weren't ready […] He has to take a different view of what it's like to be out there on a ship. It's no longer about exploring. It's about saving his people. So there's definitely a corruption of his character. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 151 , p. 28) The change in Archer's personality was noted in the final draft script of " Chosen Realm ", with a scene description referring to Archer as having "judicious caution borne of time spent in the Expanse."

Archer's hairstyle changed, during the course of the series, from a classic comb-over to a shorter, straight-banged haircut that he ended up sporting by the conclusion of the show's third season. Between production of that season and the fourth one , Hair Designer Michael Moore commented, " The short hair on him was a good move. When we first started, they went with the traditional cut kind of longer, part to the side and all. It kind of morphed into what it is now. We just blow it dry really quickly with a little product in there to give it a little texture so it doesn't lay down flat or anything. That's the extent of his look – pretty no-nonsense. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 152 , p. 30)

In the final draft script of ENT's penultimate episode, " Terra Prime ", Archer was regarded as "the man who summoned the future."

In November 2012 , Brannon Braga stated on his Twitter account that the show's fifth season would have revealed the mysterious Humanoid Figure (aka Future Guy) in the Temporal Cold War to be Jonathan Archer, "trying to correct history." [11]

Reception [ ]

Some fans were at first hopeful that, due to the retro approach of Enterprise , Archer would be very similar to Kirk. When it was revealed that Archer was to originally be depicted as indecisive, however, some of those fans were initially unsure what to make of the new captain. ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 139 , p. 23)

Paramount was initially noncomittal to confirm repeated claims that Scott Bakula had been cast as Jonathan Archer. On 25 April 2001 , Daily Variety reported, " Meanwhile, Paramount Network TV declined comment on ongoing reports that Scott Bakula has been tapped to lead the next Star Trek series, subtitled Enterprise." [12] However, by the time filming was actually about to start, there was a formal announcement that Bakula had indeed been selected; with filming set to begin on the following Monday, a Daily Variety report on Friday 11 May 2001 declared, " The Enterprise has a new captain: After weeks of negotiations, Scott Bakula is officially on board the next Star Trek series. " [13]

Early in the run of Star Trek: Enterprise , Malcolm Reed actor Dominic Keating remarked, " The fact that they've got Scott Bakula as the captain is just terrific. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 7 , p. 26) At about the same time in the making of the series, Maxwell Forrest actor and veteran Star Trek performer Vaughn Armstrong referred to Bakula as having "a volatile undercurrent that will make his character pretty exciting." ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 9 , p. 47)

UPN , the network that aired Enterprise , did not share the enthusiasm of Keating and Armstrong, however, as they were of an opinion that Bakula's performance was one of the reasons for the poor performance of the series; Brannon Braga has revealed that, by the end of Season 3, UPN had decreed that if the series was to be renewed for a fourth season – the network actually already of a mind not to do so – a necessary step would be ridding the series of Bakula (who was, in effect, already looking for a new job, as he too was led to believe that Enterprise would not be renewed). Rick Berman fought UPN's decree tooth and nail, successfully as it turned out. That the series was renewed for a last season, and thus allowed for an encore of Jonathan Archer, was in no small part due to the fact that strong backing was received from an unexpected corner, as Bakula has unequivocally cited Garry Hart – a former UPN head and Star Trek supporter, who had just been promoted to another position within the conglomerate – as the driving force behind the renewal, thereby thwarting the cancellation intents of the person or people who succeeded him at UPN. ("Before Her Time: Decommissioning Enterprise ", ENT Season 4 Blu-ray special features)

In 2003 , Mark Jones and Lance Parkin , writers of the review reference book Beyond the Final Frontier (p. 357), commented about Archer therein, " Scott Bakula often appears surprisingly stiff, given the warmth, intelligence and humour he demonstrated on Quantum Leap – you get the sense he's not being given the freedom and creative control he had on that show. However, even on low power, he dominates the show. "

Apocrypha [ ]

The novel Beneath the Raptor's Wing gives Archer's middle name as "Beckett", a nod to Sam Beckett (also portrayed by Scott Bakula) in Quantum Leap .

In the Star Trek: Myriad Universes novel, A Less Perfect Union , John Frederick Paxton destroys Starfleet Command and ends the talks for the Coalition of Planets. Archer continues to work toward creating a political alliance between Vulcan, Andoria, Tellar, and other worlds, with the belief Earth would eventually join as well. His actions are opposed by the Isolationist Party, who has taken control of the Parliament and recalls him for court martial. In this novel, he also performs the marriage between Trip Tucker and T'Pol. He also married Erika Hernandez sometime prior to 2199 and died sometime after 2244 .

At the very end of the novelization of Star Trek , "Archer's prized beagle" rematerialized on the Enterprise transporter pads, moments before the ship jumped to warp on its new voyage. A similar scene is depicted at the end of IDW's " The Truth About Tribbles, Part 2 ", but in this version, the beagle rematerializes months after the events of the film rather than during it and occurs as a result of various attempts at continued experimentation with Transwarp by Montgomery Scott in his desire to save the beagle.

External links [ ]

• Jonathan Archer at Wikipedia
• Jonathan Archer at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Jonathan Archer at the Star Trek Online Wiki
• 1 USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-G)
• 3 Daniels (Crewman)

Star Trek: Enterprise - What Happened To Jonathan Archer?

Quick links, where was jonathan archer at the end of star trek: enterprise, what happened to jonathan archer, jonathan archers star trek legacy.

• Captain Jonathan Archer was instrumental in the formation of the Federation and had a lasting impact on Star Trek lore.
• His legacy continued beyond his command of the Enterprise NX-01 as he achieved the rank of Admiral and later served as President of the United Federation of Planets.
• Archer was considered the greatest human explorer of the 22nd century, and references in subsequent future iterations of Star Trek demonstrate his enduring influence.

Star Trek fans didn’t meet Captain Jonathan Archer until Star Trek: Enterprise was first broadcast in 2001. The show proved controversial with fans as it set the background for the classic series they loved and suffered the franchise’s customary slow start. But by the end of the show’s four seasons, there was no doubt they’d been watching one of the most important figures in Star Trek history.

The commander of the first NX ship launched by the United Earth Starfleet, Archer could travel further than any human captain thanks to its warp-five engine. He helped create a revolution in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, making first contact with many alien species and helping to found the United Federation of Planets. Not only that, he was also the first captain to bring his pet beagle, Porthos, on away missions. But what happened to him after his time aboard the first ship dubbed the USS Enterprise was over?

Star Trek: Enterprise What Happened To T'Pol?

Enterprise ’s ending after four short years was controversial as it relied on an intervention from The Next Generation for its big send-off. As the first live-action Star Trek series not to earn seven seasons since the Original Series , the show occupies a lower place in the franchise rankings than it should. But over those four years, the show packed in an incredible legacy for Captain Archer and his crew, creating franchise history up to the formation of the Federation.

In Enterprise ’s first season, Archer made a not overly successful first contact with the Klingon Empire, as he was drawn into a confusing temporal war that would last for three years of his command. During his second year, that temporal cold war developed as the Enterprise was unlucky enough to come into contact with species fans knew far better than the crew, like the Romulans and Borg.

Star Trek: What Happened To Dr. Phlox?

Archer’s second year in command ended with disaster, but a renewed direction, as Earth suffered a devastating attack from an alien probe. A season-long arc through the show’s third year saw Archer and crew travel to the Xindi homeworld to destroy a super weapon that could eradicate Earth. Having convinced the Xindi that humanity wouldn’t pose an existential threat to the Xindi homeworld 400 years in the future, the Temporal War was soon, apparently, resolved. That left the fourth year to examine the crew’s influence on Star Trek as the show took a more confident approach to craft and confirm Star Trek lore rather than trying to work around it.

In year four, the Enterprise tackled augmented humans and helped the Klingons overcome the resulting augment virus that radically changed the warrior race’s appearance to the one seen in the Original Series . There was time to subvert the Orion Slave Girl stereotype that had long been a joke at the franchise’s expense, and even introduced fans to how the captain and his crew fared in the Mirror universe with a story that was both a prequel and sequel to Kirk’s adventures.

Perhaps Archer’s most significant on-screen achievement was foiling the machinations of the Romulans to create an alliance with the Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites. That would be cemented when he played a major role in signing the United Federation of Planets Charter.

Star Trek: Ranking Every Iteration Of The USS Enterprise

The last time fans saw Captain Archer was just before making a speech at the signing of the Federation Charter, or an immediate precursor to it, in 2161. Strangely, what happened to the captain is mainly recorded not in expanded or continuing fiction or subsequent series but in Enterprise ’s final two-parter, ‘In A Mirror Darkly.’ The fan-pleasing trip to the Mirror universe was a prequel to ‘Mirror, Mirror,’ and a sequel to ‘The Tholian Web,’ but mostly a great bit of publicity for the Prime universe Archer.

In ‘In A Mirror Darkly,’ fans discovered what happened to the USS Defiant when it phased from the Prime universe during ‘The Tholian Web’ — it arrived in the Mirror universe, almost 100 years in the future. Naturally, when Mirror Archer’s renegade crew hijacks the Defiant to seize control of the Terran Empire, they can’t help but look at the ship’s records.

Star Trek: The Relationship Between Vulcans & Romulans, Explained

A handy screenshot from the ship’s database revealed that Prime Archer commanded the Enterprise for 10 years between 2040 and 2050. We know that after the Federation Charter was signed, he became ambassador to Andoria in 2069 for six years (five years after becoming an honorary member of the Andorian Imperial Guard). Archer then took up a position on the Federation Council until 2183, and between 2184 and 2192, he was the President of the United Federation of Planets.

At retirement, Archer was listed as Chief of Staff at Starfleet Command with the rank of Admiral. ‘In A Mirror Darkly’ teleplay writer Michael Sussman has confirmed further details to the biography seen in the episode. The screen also recorded that Archer lived to about 133 years and died near where he was born in Upstate New York in 2245. Sussman’s neat intention was to confirm that Archer died one day after the christening of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701.

Star Trek: 6 Worst Things Done By The Federation, Ranked

As Mirror Sato explains in ‘A Mirror Darkly,’ Jonathan Archer’s name is “among the most recognized in the Federation.” The Mirror version of Archer is enraged by his counterpart's success, arguing that, “Great men are not peacemakers; great men are conquerors.” The successful, lauded, and praised counterpart with two planets named after him in the Prime universe haunts and taunts the Mirror incarnation as his paranoia grows and he heads to a typically unsavory end.

According to his profile, historians called Prime Archer the "greatest explorer of the 22nd century,” and subsequent iterations of Star Trek have enjoyed name-checking him. Perhaps the strangest reference comes from the Kelvin Timeline . During 2009’s Star Trek , Kirk encounters Montgomery Scott on the cold and remote research outpost of Delta Vega in 2258. The engineer blames his predicament on demonstrating his transwarp theories by beaming a longer-lived Admiral Archer's prized beagle to who knows where.

Star Trek: The USS Enterprise's Best Commanding Officers, Ranked

In the Prime universe, Discovery ’s first season listed Archer as one of Starfleet's most decorated captains as of 2256, alongside Matt Decker, Philippa Georgiou, and two other captains of the Enterprise, Robert April and Christopher Pike. In Strange New Worlds , Captain Pike references Archer when encountering star fleet personnel from the future in ‘Those Old Scientists.’

Time may have become a far more serious factor had Enterprise received a fifth season. In 2012, co-creator Brannon Braga confirmed that the mysterious ‘Future Guy’ who had helped and hindered the Enterprise during the series would have been confirmed as Captain Archer himself , attempting to correct history from the future.

While from a fan’s perspective, Archer sits in the lineage of iconic Starfleet captains like Janeway, Sisko, Picard, and Kirk, his placement in the timeline means he has to embody Star Trek at the dawn of Starfleet. Thanks to his time and technology limits, Archer was probably the most morally challenged captain fans have seen. He was prompted to make judgment calls that Star Trek had never imposed on other captains, which is saying something considering the extreme circumstances of captains Janeway and Sisko.

As a linking figure between the viewers and the more enlightened crews of the 23rd and 24th centuries, there’s no doubt he was a success despite the tricky assignment. Despite seeing too few of his years aboard the USS Enterprise, the franchise committed to giving him an impressive legacy, and it's likely fans will hear his name again.

Star Trek: Enterprise

Release Date September 26, 2001

Genres Sci-Fi

Creator Rick Berman, Brannon Braga

Number of Episodes 98

Network UPN

Why Star Trek: Enterprise’s Captain Jonathan Archer Deserves More Love

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

One of the most asked questions among diehard Trekkies is, “Are you team Kirk or Picard?”. A heated discussion would then ensue, with some voices in favor of Star Trek: The Original Series ’ charismatic and brazen James T. Kirk (William Shatner), while others would stand firmly behind The Next Generation ’s and Picard ’s reigning Thespian, the more composed Jean-Luc Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart).

In a franchise boasting twelve shows and thirteen movies (and counting), though, there is a plethora of equally competent and selfless characters who have helmed Starfleet’s starships, especially Voyager ’s Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), Deep Space Nine ’s Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), and Paramount+’s Strange New World ’s Christopher Pike (Anson Mount).

One particular show, however, does not quite generate the same enthusiasm : Star Trek: Enterprise , which ran on UPN from 2001 to 2005, and is still streaming on Netflix. It serves as a 22nd-century prequel to TOS , chronicling how Captain Jonathan Archer ( Scott Bakula ) and his crew were the first to explore the Alpha and Beta quadrants under the flag of the United Earth, aboard the Enterprise NX-01. Most viewers don’t care much for the story’s development or its captain, arguing that he lacks the others’ charisma and aptitude. Here are a few reasons why you should cut Archer some slack, and maybe even see him in a more favorable light.

Related: Patrick Stewart's Best Moments as Jean-Luc Picard, Ranked

He Didn’t Have Much Going on For Him

Being the first to venture into deep space, make contact with species like Andorians, Romulans, Tholians, and the Xindi, and pilot a prototype that lacked the technology you’re used to (he barely had Warp 5), Archer was really just winging it, and learning from his mistakes. He dealt with issues that his successors didn’t need to, and paved the way for procedures like the Prime Directive, alert colors, and first-contact protocols. There is a reason he is Kirk’s childhood hero, after all, despite refraining from seducing every alien female he bumped into.

His Initial Optimism and Idealism

Archer wasn’t only furthering United Earth’s presence in the first two quadrants and establishing the guidelines to interstellar politics; he was also making his father’s dream of deep-space exploration come true. Henry Archer (Mark Moses) was the main engineer of the Enterprise NX-01, and one of the pioneers of the warp-five engine. He died leaving Jonathan with a strong sense of duty, and a love for the sciences and for space adventure.

It was with this enthusiastic mindset that the captain first started his journey. Having spent hours as a boy staring at an image of the Arachnid Nebula, for instance, he finally got the chance to admire it in person in the episode Fusion. Though ridiculed by audiences, his initial candor was entirely understandable, and would slowly turn into disenchantment as he encountered more and more hostile aliens, and both spatial and temporal anomalies. This character development had one upside, though: it eventually made Archer a more confident leader, a skilled diplomat, and a more experienced military tactician.

In a meeting with the fan-favorite Andorian commander, Shran ( played by the prolific Jeffrey Combs ), he remarks, "I imagined my first diplomatic mission would involve sitting around a big table, toasting with champagne, signing things with lots of pens…", to which an amused Shran retorted, "The pink skin sense of humor."

He still kept some of his idealism, though, as evident by his speech to his crew in season 3:

"I'm going to ask all of you to think back to the day when this ship was first launched. We were explorers then. When all this is over, when Earth is safe, I want you to get back to that job. There are four hundred billion stars in our galaxy, we've only explored a tiny fraction. You have a lot to do. Of all the captains who will sit in this chair, I can't imagine any of them being more proud than I am right now."

He Was the First to Save the Earth from Hostile Aliens

Archer may not have been the Emissary of the Prophets or the barrier between the Borg and the assimilation of entire galaxies, but he was the first captain to save the Earth from many disasters in both the present and the future, including the Temporal Cold War with the Suliban and the destruction of the planet with a Xindi bioweapon. Yes, he did have to resort to frowned-upon acts, such as torture a prisoner, clone his chief engineer to save him with harvested organs, thus killing said clone (but not before getting his permission), or steal a warp coil, but he was desperate to keep both his crew and his home world alive.

Through the seasons, Archer was thrown in many previously unchartered situations, and was frequently getting captured, tortured, stabbed, burned, and infected by a mutagenic virus and subspace parasites. This first deep-space mission certainly wasn’t all hunky-dory.

Related: Most Realistic Alien Invasion Movies of All Time

There Would Be No Federation Without Him

"We are making history with every light year."

After brokering peace treaties between feuding species, and securing a lasting alliance with the Andorians thanks to his friendship with Shran, Archer would go on to help found what would later become the United Federation of Planets, whose first members were Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites. What better way to shield the region from Romulan threat? He was a widely respected officer, and at least three starships and two planets would be named after him.

He Was Deemed Worthy by Surak Himself

Surak is considered to be the ultimate Vulcan role model, and the greatest philosopher and scientist ever, according to Spock himself. Right before his death, his katra or spirit was sealed within an ark. In Enterprise , the ark was found, and its force absorbed by the mortally wounded Vulcan Syrran, who then had to momentarily transfer it to Archer. Much to the surprise of the Syrranites present, the transfer worked.

Following this and for four days, the captain would have several spiritual encounters with Surak, who would give him the mission of recovering an artifact that is destined to unite the feuding Vulcan factions. A mere human must be really special to be bestowed the honor of hosting this particular katra.

Off-duty, Archer was a laidback person with simple taste, who enjoyed watching water polo matches. For this exciting adventure, he brought along his pet Beagle Porthos, named after one of the Three Musketeers, cajoling him, giving him treats, and nursing him when needed in Sick Bay. Surely that should make him more appealing to Trekkies who also happen to be animal lovers.

• Enterprise (NX-01) personnel
• Federation presidents
• Starfleet admirals
• Starfleet captains
• Starfleet personnel (22nd century)

Jonathan Archer

• Edit source

Jonathan Beckett Archer was a member of the Earth Starfleet and one of the most important figures of the 22nd century . As a captain , he commanded the Enterprise , Earth 's first warp five starship from 2151 to 2161 . As Enterprise 's commanding officer , Archer's exploits were responsible for the emergence of the United Earth as a key player in interstellar politics. During his ten-year command, he made first contact with dozens of species , including the Klingons , Andorians , Tholians and Suliban . Archer and the Enterprise crew were also responsible for saving Earth from a devastating attack by the Xindi , and helped bring about an end to the so-called Temporal Cold War . His actions as Captain of the Enterprise paved the way for the founding of the United Federation of Planets , of which he eventually became president in the late 2100s . ( ENT : " Broken Bow ", " The Andorian Incident ", " United ", " In a Mirror, Darkly ", " Terra Prime ", " These Are the Voyages ")

• 1.1 Early life
• 1.2 Starfleet
• 1.3 Enterprise
• 1.4 The Delphic Expanse
• 1.5 Homecoming
• 1.6 The war
• 1.7 Later career
• 2.1 Bring Back Kirk
• 3.1 Charles Tucker III
• 3.4 Charles Clow
• 3.5 Robert April
• 5 Chronology
• 6 External links

Overview [ ]

Early life [ ].

Young Jonathan and his father Henry Archer in 2121 .

Jonathan Archer was born upstate New York on Earth in 2112 , the son of warp physicist Henry Archer . He grew up in and around San Francisco . An experienced boy scout , Jonathan "always wanted to join Starfleet." Henry Archer died of Clarke's Disease in 2124 , leaving Jonathan to be raised by his mother, Sally . The elder Archer's friend Emory Erickson became a surrogate father to Jonathan. ENT : " Broken Bow ", " North Star ", " Rogue Planet ", " Cold Station 12 ", " Deadaelus ")

Starfleet [ ]

Jonathan Archer in 2143 , observing Starfleet's first warp 2 flight

Archer joined Starfleet just after the service was chartered, attending flight school in San Francisco. By 2143 , he was a commander and test pilot for the NX Program alongside A.G. Robinson . ( ENT : " Twilight ", " First Flight ")

Archer met Trip Tucker in 2143 while he was with the NX program. The two men would eventually become best friends and Tucker would serve aboard the Enterprise as chief engineer . from her launch until his death, saving Archer's life, in 2161 . ( ENT : " First Flight ", " Broken Bow ", " Strange New World ")

In 2147 , Archer met and befriended the older Commander Charles Clow over similar interests in Warp Field Theory and Earth's future in exploration. They remained in close contact even after the launch of Enterprise . Archer even signed a letter of recommendation for Charles' son Chris into Starfleet Academy , unbeknownst to the younger Clow. ( RPG : Star Trek: Poseidon - The Birth of the Federation )

Around the same time, Archer was in a romantic relationship with Erika Hernandez , later the captain of the Columbia . Archer broke off their relationship when he became her commanding officer, but they revived it years later after Hernandez's own promotion in 2154 . ( ENT : " Home ")

Enterprise [ ]

Enterprise (NX-01) in 2151

In 2150 , Archer was selected to command Enterprise , launched in 2151 . Their first mission involved returning Klaang to the Klingon homeworld and a disastrous contact with the Suliban . During the first year of the ship's mission, Archer and the Enterprise made first contact with the Andorians . Together they exposed a Vulcan listening post on P'Jem , and Archer gained a grudging, unlikely ally in Shran . ( ENT : " Broken Bow ", " The Andorian Incident ")

Other early missions included first contacts with the Axanar and Akaali , and additional encounters with the Klingons , Andorians and Tandarans . ( ENT : " Fight or Flight ", " Civilization ", " Sleeping Dogs ", " Shadows of P'Jem ", " Detained ", " Two Days and Two Nights "

It was also during Archer's first year of command that he encountered the 31st century time traveler Daniels , who repeatedly recruited Archer and his crew to help preserve the timeline from other parties involved in the Temporal Cold War . ( ENT : " Cold Front ", " Shockwave ", " Shockwave, Part II ")

In 2152 , Archer made a fateful first contact with the Romulan Star Empire at an interstellar minefield, defended a mining colony from Klingons, became involved in another Vulcan-Andorian conflict, and was nearly sent to the penal colony of Canamar . ( ENT : " Minefield ", " Marauders ", " Cease Fire ", " Canamar ")

Later that year, he was captured by the Klingons after lending aid to Rha'daran rebels. Tried on Narendra III , Archer was sentenced to imprisonment on Rura Penthe . Rescued by the Enterprise , he was pursued by both the Klingons and bounty hunters, like Skalaar , which marked humanity 's first contact with Tellarites . ( ENT : " Judgment ", " Bounty ", " The Expanse ")

The Delphic Expanse [ ]

The Xindi superweapon in 2154

After Earth was attacked by the Xindi , Archer led the Enterprise into the Delphic Expanse to find the Xindi, and either make peace or destroy their superweapon. The quest took nearly a year, but the mission was successful, saving the galaxy from the Sphere Builders and bringing an end to the Temporal Cold War. ( ENT : " The Expanse ", " The Xindi ", " Countdown ", " Zero Hour ", " Storm Front ")

While in the expanse, Archer and the Enterprise discovered a colony of humans kidnapped from the Ancient West by the Skagarans , and helped make peace between the two peoples. ( ENT : " North Star ")

Homecoming [ ]

After destroying the Xindi superweapon before it reached Earth, Archer was thrown back in time to an altered 1944 , where the Nazis had conquered America , with the help of the Na'kuhl . Aided by his crew, Daniels and Silik , Archer managed to restore the timeline and end the Temporal Cold War. ( ENT : " Storm Front ", " Storm Front, Part II ")

Months later, Archer became involved in stopping Dr. Arik Soong and his group of Augments , and the threat they posed. The mission took the Enterprise into the Borderland , where they encountered both Orions and Klingons. Archer confronted Soong at Cold Station 12 and pursued the Augments into Klingon space, destroying their vessel and the cryogenically frozen embryos left from the Eugenics Wars . ( ENT : " Borderland ", " Cold Station 12 ", " The Augments ")

When the Earth embassy on Vulcan was bombed, killing Admiral Forrest , Archer's friend and commanding officer, Archer and T'Pol investigated the bombing. Their investigation led to encounters with the Syrranites , Archer's melding with Surak 's katra , the recovery of the Kir'shara , the dissolution of the Vulcan High Command and, ultimately, the Vulcan Reformation . Archer gained a much deeper insight into Vulcans from holding the katra of Surak in his mind. ( ENT : " The Forge ", " Awakening ", " Kir'Shara ")

Sometime later, Archer and the Enterprise rescued Shran and his crew from the destruction of the warship Kumari , ostensibly by Tellarite forces. However, Archer uncovered a plot by the Romulan Star Empire to destabilize the region by manipulating the local powers into conflict. Once the ruse was discovered, Archer organized a historic combined fleet of Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites to seek out the drone ship , marking the first steps toward uniting the four races. ( ENT : " Babel One ", " United ", " Aenar ")

When Klingon agents kidnaped Dr. Phlox , Archer, the Enterprise and the Columbia pursued him into Klingon space, where it was discovered that Klingon experiments with the Augment wreckage had created a virus that was wreaking havoc on their genome. Phlox was rescued, but in the process, Klingon DNA was temporarily grafted to Archer's, which helped to find a cure. ( ENT : " Affliction ", " Divergence ")

Closer to home, Archer and his crew stopped John Frederick Paxton and Terra Prime from attacking all aliens in and around Earth, along with Starfleet Command as part of their paranoid, xenophobic plans for "pure" humanity. Following the incident, he was influential in resuming negotiations to form a Coalition of Planets , which would eventually lead to the Federation . ( ENT : " Demons ", " Terra Prime ")

The war [ ]

Captain Archer and Enterprise played a prominent role in the Earth-Romulan War . In addition to being the Captain with the most battle experience, Captain Archer's findings also contributed to United Earth's tactical analysis of the Romulan Empire.

In 2156 , Captain Archer attended the launching ceremony for the Discovery (NX-04) . His good friend, Commander Charles Clow , had been assigned there as executive officer, and the Captain made a consorted effort to see his friend off on his first deep-space assignment. Unfortunately, Commander Clow was killed barely a year later due to a random Romulan attack. His death gave Archer new resolve, who helped lead the epic Battle of Sector 2148 for Starfleet. After that victory, critical intel was gathered, contributing to Earth's major and final victory at the Battle of Cheron . ( RPG : Star Trek: Poseidon - The Birth of the Federation )

Later career [ ]

A holographic representation of Archer at the signing of the Federation Charter in 2161

Archer's command of Enterprise ended in 2161 , after which he signed the charter ratifying the Coalition of Planets which would ultimately lead to the formation of the United Federation of Planets .

Archer went on to serve in the Federation Starfleet , retiring years later after he served as Chief of Staff at Starfleet Command , holding the rank of Admiral . In appreciation for all his service, Archer became an honorary member of the Andorian Imperial Guard in 2164 and Federation Ambassador to Andoria in 2169 . He became a Federation Councillor in 2175 , and was elected President of the United Federation of Planets in 2184 , serving for eight years until 2192 . ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II ")

According to one biography, Archer "...died at his home in upstate New York in the year 2245, exactly one day after attending the christening ceremony of the first Federation Starship {{ship|USS|Enterprise|NCC-1701|, NCC-1701]]". ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II " graphic)

Bring Back Kirk [ ]

At some point prior to the Xindi incident , Archer is met by Captain James T. Kirk who, having used a Guardian of Forever to visit the NX-01 , enlists Archer's help in settling the Temporal Cold War in the 24th century . Beamed over to the Enterprise -A , Archer provides his method of unmasking the fleet Suliban Cabal , allowing Starfleet to find and destroy the base commanded by Silik .

Relationships [ ]

Charles tucker iii [ ].

Archer met "Trip" Tucker in 2143 and saved his life during an EVA exercise in 2147 . They became best friends before their assignment to Enterprise , unswervingly loyal to each other.

Despite early friction, stemming from T'Pol's view of humanity's "inexperience" and his own distrust of Vulcans, Jonathan Archer came to respect, and later befriend his XO and science officer , even admitting to a romantic attraction between them (which never materialized).

After numerous encounters during the early days of Enterprise 's mission, Archer and the Andorian Shran developed a mutual respect, which over the years grew into a strong friendship.

Charles Clow [ ]

Similar interests in optimistic ideology and exploration of the cosmos sparked a close friendship between Archer and Commander Charles Clow which continued until the Commander died in 2157 . Not only did they work together, but Archer and Clow were also brotherly, sharing interesting stories of the NX Test Program, as well as amusing stories of personal functions. Archer even helped Charles' son Chris enter Starfleet Academy , and fought beside his eldest son Matt in the Battle of Cheron . Charles' death hit Archer hard but gave him resolve enough to lead United Earth to victory at the end of the Earth-Romulan War . ( RPG : Star Trek: Poseidon - The Birth of the Federation )

Robert April [ ]

Admiral Archer and Robert April met during a commissioning ceremony for the Daedalus -class USS Enterprise . (" Friend or Foe ")

Captain Archer became friends with nearly every one of his senior crew aboard Enterprise , especially with Hoshi Sato and Travis Mayweather .

His mentors were Emory Erickson and Maxwell Forrest . It wounded Archer deeply when Forrest was killed in the embassy bombing on Vulcan.

Archer would marry and have several children, literally becoming the grandfather to a new generation of Starfleet officers. His descendants in the 24th century included Valerie Archer and Ben Bartholomew . He was also related to Nick Keller through their shared Beckett family bloodline. ( Star Trek: Pendragon )

Starfleet biography of Archer, circa 2268

Even within his own lifetime, Archer became a legend on Earth. After the resolution of the Xindi crisis, dozens of schools were renamed in his honor. ( ENT : " Home ")

In the 23rd century , historian John Gill hailed Archer as "the greatest explorer of the 22nd century ," and two planets were named after the former captain: Archer's Planet in the Gamma Trianguli sector , and Archer IV , the first M-class planet explored by Enterprise . ( ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II " graphic)

Archer's Comet and the Federation starship USS Archer were also named for him ( ENT : " Breaking the Ice "; Star Trek Nemesis )

A building at Starfleet Academy 's Command Staff College was named after Jonathan Archer. ( Beverly Crusher Investigates: The Death on the Kobayashi Maru )

Admiral Marcus Ramirez , shortly after being appointed Starfleet commander-in-chief during the Four Years War , gave a rousing speech at Archer Arena. ( Axanar : Prelude to Axanar )

The State University of New York system was renamed Archer University in his honor as one of New York State 's most famous natives. There were many campuses in municipalities throughout the state, including Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo and Cortland upstate, and Stony Brook on Long Island . ( Star Trek: Avenger : " Nearly a Valediction ")

Jordan Rudess claimed that he was, in fact, Jonathan Archer, and indeed many people from earth's past, including Elizabeth II of England, the mathematician Euler and the composer Vivaldi. If this is true, then Archer's legacy is much more widely spread, and he was, in fact, a non-corporeal being of great power. ( Star Trek: Paradigms : "Sometimes there's rain")

Archer Spacedock, in the 32nd century, may have been named for either Henry Archer , Jonathan Archer, or both. ( DIS : " Kobayashi Maru ")

Chronology [ ]

• 2112 : Born in upstate New York on Earth to Henry and Sally Archer
• 2124 : Henry Archer dies of Clarke's Disease
• 2143 : Along with A.G. Robinson , becomes the first Human to achieve warp 2.5
• 2150 : Becomes Commanding Officer of the Starship Enterprise NX-01
• Becomes one of the first humans to set foot on Qo'noS
• Makes first contact with the Suliban
• Makes first contact with the Andorians
• Travels to the 31st century and learns that he will become an important part of the formation of the United Federation of Planets
• Put on trial on Narendra III by the Klingons
• Transformed into a Loque'eque
• Travelled back in time to the year 2004

• Transformed into a Klingon
• Travels to the mid-20th century
• Held the katra of Surak for a short time
• Makes first contact with the Organians
• 2155 : Attends the opening ceremony of the Coalition of Planets
• Helps to rescue the daughter of Shran
• Signs the Federation Charter
• 2169 : Becomes Federation Ambassador to Andoria
• 2175 : Serves as Federation Councillor
• 2184 : Is elected Federation President
• 2192 : Steps down as Federation President

External links [ ]

• Jonathan Archer article at Memory Alpha , the canon Star Trek wiki.
• Jonathan Archer article at Memory Beta , the non-canon Star Trek wiki.
• 1 Thomas Crowe
• 2 Star Trek: Remington

• More to Explore
• Series & Movies

Star Trek: Enterprise - Scott Bakula on Captain Jonathan Archer

Hear from the captain himself!

Looking into our Starchive, we came across a gem of an interview!

Scott Bakula takes us back, to before the pilot of Star Trek: Enterprise 's debut, to learn more about his character Captain Jonathan Archer, his sentiments around their mission as well as the purpose of the maiden voyage, and more.

Stay tuned to StarTrek.com for more details! And be sure to follow @StarTrek on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .

Heroes Wiki

-Welcome to the Hero/Protagonist wiki! If you can help us with this wiki please sign up and help us! Thanks! -M-NUva

• Adventurers
• Animal Kindness
• Egalitarian
• On & Off
• Neutral Good
• Star Trek Heroes
• Status Dependent on Version
• Lawful Good
• Science Fiction Heroes
• Determinators

Jonathan Archer

Jonathan Archer was the main character of the Star Trek television series Star Trek: Enterprise . He is the commanding officer of Enterprise (NX-01), Earth's first warp 5 starship which would go on to make Earth and humanity a major player in interstellar politics.

He was portrayed by Scott Bakula, who also played Dr. Sam Beckett in Quantum Leap and currently stars as Dwayne Pride on NCIS: New Orleans .

• 4 Navigation

History [ ]

Jonathan was born 2112 in upstate New York. His father, Henry, was a renowned scientist who worked on developing the first warp five engine which would allow humanity to travel faster and farther than they had ever been able to before. Sadly, Henry Archer died before the first warp 5 vessel, Enterprise (NX-01), took flight.

As an adult, Jonathan joined the Earth Starfleet. In the 2140s, as a Commander in the NX Program, he worked hard to become the first human to travel at warp two, only for that distinction to be given to his rival, A.G. Robinson . It was during this time Archer first met and befriended Charles Tucker III. After the NX-Alpha was destroyed during a flight test, Archer and Robinson clashed angrily, but resolved their differences and worked together to prove to the Vulcans that Starfleet's warp 2 engine was functional. The two men were grounded for three months for their unauthorized test, but they were successful in convincing Starfleet to continue working on the NX Program.

Several years later, Archer rose to the rank of Captain and was assigned command of Enterprise . After taking command Archer met his friend and fellow Captain A.G. Robinson for what would be the last time as Robinson would die a few couple years later in an accident.

In 2151, he led his crew on their first mission to return Klaang, a Klingon who crash-landed on Earth, to his homeworld, and had his first encounter with an alien race called the Suliban, who were a faction embroiled in the Temporal Cold War. After Klaang was successfully returned to the Klingon homeworld, Enterprise began its mission of exploring the galaxy.

As Captain of the Enterprise , he made first contact with the Andorian people, meeting the Andorian Commander Shran in 2151. Archer was responsible for helping the Andorians and Vulcans to set aside their differences and beginning to work together for the first time in history.

Archer was a key player in the Vulcan Reformation of the mid 22nd century when he took on the katra of Surak , and was able to find the Kir'shara - which contained Surak's original writings. Bringing the Kir'shara back to the capital, his actions enabled Minister Kuvak to force the Romulan backed Vulcan leader V'Las out of power. After the discovery the Vulcan people realized how far they had strayed from Surak's teachings, and worked to bring themselves back to Surak's original vision for Vulcan society.

In 2153, Earth was attacked by the Xindi, and Enterprise was called back to Earth, where it was refitted with weapons so Archer and his crew could find the Xindi and prevent them from launching a superweapon that would destroy the entire planet. After a dangerous, year-long mission in the Delphic Expanse, Enterprise destroyed the Xindi superweapon.

Archer on the bridge of the Enterprise .

The following year Archer's actions helped lay the ground work for the founding of the United Federation of Planets . Due to his diplomatic efforts local species such as Tellarites, Andorians, Vulcans, Cordianites, and Rigellians began working together. The attempts by the Romulans to destabilize the region failed, and thanks in large part to Archer diplomacy brought the species together in a Coalition of Planets.

Archer retained command of the Enterprise through 2160, when the ship was severely damaged in the closing battle of the war against the Romulans . In the days after the war, he was promoted to Commodore and was sent to an Earth Outpost with T'Pau to sign the peace treaty with the Romulans ending the war. He was later one of the human signatories to the Federation Charter, which established the United Federation of Planets.

After the founding of the Federation, Archer was promoted to Admiral and became chief of staff after the retirement of Samuel Gardner. Archer faced a number of challenges, including criminal organizations like the Orion Syndicate who were opposed to the law and order the Federation was bringing to the quadrant, the threat of the automated Ware, and Section 31.

During this time there were calls to name one of the new Starfleet vessels under construction Enterprise . Archer resisted these calls, feeling Starfleet should wait ideally until he was gone before naming a Federation ship Enterprise . After Captain Resthenar sh'Prenni and the crew of the USS Vol'Rala (the Andorian word for Enterprise ) sacrificed themselves in a battle against the Klingons, Archer cancelled plans in progress for naming as the next USS Enterprise a ship currently under construction, feeling the name should be honorably retired for a while. As a result it would be over half a century in either the prime or Kelvin timelines before Starfleet launched a ship named Enterprise .

He later served on the Federation Council and, in the late 22nd century as President of the United Federation of Planets. Shran later named Archer as an honorary member of the Imperial Guard.

In the prime reality Archer died at his home in upstate New York on July 5, 2245, one day after attending the christening of the first Federation starship Enterprise (NCC-1701). In the alternate reality created by Nero's interference, Archer was still alive in 2258 when that reality's Enterprise had been launched.

By 2256 Archer was listed as one of the most decorated Captains in Starfleet, along with Robert April , Philippa Georgiou , Christopher Pike , and Matthew Decker. Noted Federation historian John Gill called him the greatest explorer of the 22nd century.

At least two Starfleet vessels were named after Archer, the 23rd century Hermes -class USS Archer and a 24th century USS Archer that was assigned to Battle Group Omega in 2379.

It was due to Archer's experiences in carrying Surak's katra that Spock knew that it was possible for a human brain to temporarily house a katra . This gave Spock the confidence to transfer his katra to Leonard McCoy before sacrificing himself to save the USS Enterprise from the effects of the Genesis wave, and allowed for the eventual refusion of Spock's body and mind after Spock was retrieved from the Genesis Planet.

Archer was still remembered over 1,000 years after his mission on the Enterprise and his Presidency when the Federation commissioned the new Archer Spacedock to help rebuild Starfleet in 3190 as the Federation finally began to recover from the cataclysmic Burn of the 31st century.

Navigation [ ]

• 1 Lydia Deetz (Beetlejuice)
• 3 Misaki (Terminator Zero)

Whatever Happened To The Cast Of Star Trek: Enterprise?

The sixth series in the long-running "Star Trek" franchise," "Star Trek: Enterprise" ran from 2001 to 2005 on the UPN Network (now The CW). The series, created by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, took place approximately a century before the events depicted in " Star Trek: The Original Series " (TOS) and followed the crew of the first starship named Enterprise (not the one depicted in "TOS") as they had their first encounters with the show's most iconic alien races, such as the Klingons and Vulcans. Scott Bakula was at the helm as Captain Jonathan Archer, leading his diverse crew through four seasons of science fiction adventure before the show's abrupt cancellation in 2005.

Like all "Star Trek" alumni, the cast of "Enterprise" has enjoyed a certain degree of acclaim long after their series left the air, thanks to the ardent "Trek" fanbase. Some have continued to act and gain even greater fame, while others have settled comfortably into careers split between doing new work and looking back nostalgically at their "Trek" experiences. Following is a list of the primary cast members of "Enterprise," as well as several actors who played recurring roles, and what they've been up to since the mighty starship was permanently parked in spacedock.

Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer

As Captain (and later Starfleet Admiral) Jonathan Archer, actor Scott Bakula led the crew of the Enterprise through four seasons of adventures on "Star Trek: Enterprise." Bakula was arguably the best-known cast member on the series, having earned a Golden Globe and multiple Emmy nominations as the time-traveling hero of the original "Quantum Leap." Bakula was also visible to film and TV audiences through appearances in high-profile projects like "American Beauty" and "Murphy Brown," as well as extensive work in Broadway theater productions.

After "Enterprise" completed its final mission in 2005, Bakula remained extremely active as both a leading man and guest or recurring player. He starred as Special Agent Dwayne "King" Pride in seven seasons of "NCIS: New Orleans," for which he netted a People's Choice Award nomination in 2015. Bakula also starred in the critically-acclaimed, Peabody Award-winning comedy-drama "Men of a Certain Age" with Ray Romano and Andre Braugher, and guested on series ranging from "The Simpsons" to a very funny episode of "What We Do in the Shadows," in which Nandor and Nadja confuse him for Count Dracula. 

On the film front, Bakula has collaborated with Steven Soderbergh on several occasions, including the 2009 feature "The Informant!," the TV drama "Behind the Candelabra" — which earned him a fifth Emmy nomination in 2013 — and most recently, the 2023 science fiction thriller "Divinity," which Soderbergh produced.

Jolene Blalock as Science Officer T'Pol

Landing the role of Science Officer (and later First Officer) T'Pol on "Star Trek: Enterprise" proved to be the big break for Jolene Blalock's acting career. It also turned out to be her most notable screen role: the former model enjoyed guest appearances on series like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and "JAG" prior to joining the cast of "Enterprise." While appearing on the series, she also turned up twice on another small-screen sci-fi drama, "Stargate SG-1," and co-starred with Ray Liotta in a thriller, "Slow Burn," which was filmed in 2003 but released in 2007.

Blalock gave only a handful of film and TV appearances after "Enterprise" ended in 2005. The majority of these were guest appearances on "CSI: Miami" and "House," and co-starring turns in the Jason Segel comedy "Sex Tape" and several direct-to-video features, such as "Starship Troopers 3: Marauder." She appears to have stepped away from acting after 2017, preferring instead to focus on her marriage to Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, with whom she has three sons. The couple also oversee the Rapino Foundation, a charitable organization that benefits developing nations.

Connor Trinneer as Chief Engineer Trip Tucker

Washington State native Connor Trinneer graduated from stage work and bit parts on television to romantic hero status when he was cast as chief engineer Charles "Trip" Tucker on "Star Trek: Enterprise." Trip's primary storyline was an on-and-off relationship with T'Pol throughout all four seasons of the series, though the pair eventually settled for friendship prior to his apparent death in the final episode of the series. For his work on "Enterprise," Trinneer earned Saturn Award nominations in 2002 and 2003.

Trinneer's post-"Enterprise" work has featured a recurring run as the villainous Wraith Michael on "Stargate: Atlantis" and guest roles on numerous series, including "9-1-1," "NCIS: Los Angeles," "and "24." Film projects included a lead in the SyFy original movie "Star Runners" in 2009 and "Unbelievable!!!" a broad comedy featuring 40 cast members from various "Trek" series, including his "Enterprise" co-stars Linda Park, Dominic Keating, and John Billingsley. 

More recently, Trineer appeared in the Tom Cruise drama "American Made" (as President George W. Bush) and Steven Spielberg's "The Fabelmans." In 2023 he reprised the role of Trip Tucker in an episode of the animated short series "Star Trek: Very Short Treks." He's also co-hosted several popular "Star Trek" podcasts, including "The Shuttlepod Show" and "The D-Con Chamber," with "Enterprise" co-star Dominic Keating.

Dominic Keating as Tactical Officer Malcolm Reed

British-Irish actor Dominic Keating was already well-known in his native England for roles on series like "Desmond's" before crossing the pond to play Tactical Officer Malcolm Reed on "Star Trek: Enterprise." Keating came to the United States in the late 1990s and landed guest roles on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and other series before joining "Enterprise" for all four seasons on the UPN Network.

Keating remained busy as both a live-action and voice-over actor in the years after "Enterprise." A four-episode arc as an Irish mobster on "Heroes" and guest roles on series like "Prison Break" and "Sons of Anarchy" kept him on screen into the mid-2010s, while video games like "Diablo 3" and "World of Warcraft: Legion" made excellent use of his vocal talents. Keating also played an '80s-era British pop star in a series of TV spots for Sprint/Nextel in the 2010s. More recently, as noted earlier, Keating teamed with Connor Trinneer to co-host the "Star Trek" podcasts, "The Shuttlepod Show" and "The D-Con Chamber."

Linda Park as Communications Officer Hoshi Sato

Shortly after graduating from Boston University in 2001, Linda Park embarked on both her screen acting career and her tenure as a "Star Trek" hero by landing the role of communications officer Hoshi Sato on "Star Trek: Enterprise." Park, who made her feature film debut that same year with a small role in "Jurassic Park III," remained busy with other projects during the series' four-year run, including the 2004 feature "Spectres" starring fellow "Trek" vet Marina Sirtis. She also made her debut as a producer with the 2003 short film "My Prince, My Angel."

Park quickly segued to series regular work on the short-lived "Women's Murder Club" and a recurring role on Starz's "Crash," which was inspired by the 2004 film of the same name. Guest roles on "NCIS" and "Castle" kept her busy for much of the next decade, though she revisited the "Trek" universe in the short fan film "Star Trek: Captain Pike" in 2016. The following year, she joined the cast of "Bosch" for three seasons while also appearing on shows like "The Affair" and "Grey's Anatomy."

John Billingsley as Dr. Phlox

John Billingsley had been active on television and in films for over a decade prior to landing the role of Dr. Phlox on "Star Trek: Enterprise." His work included roles in features like "High Crimes" and on network series like "Northern Exposure" and "The West Wing," as well as a recurring turn as serial killer George Marks, the only criminal to escape capture on "Cold Case."

When "Enterprise" came to a close in 2005, Billingsley resumed his busy TV and film schedule , which included recurring roles as the creepy, vampirized coroner Mike Spencer on "True Blood," scientist Shenandoah Cassidy on the short-lived "Intelligence," and conspirator Terrence Steadman in Season 1 of "Prison Break." 

By the mid-2010s, Billingsley was appearing in multiple series per year: between 2014 and 2019 alone, he was in episodes of "Bones," "Twin Peaks," "The Orville," and "Lucifer," while also enjoying recurring roles on "Turn: Washington's Spies" (as the father of Revolutionary War spy Robert Townsend) and the Freeform series "Stichers," in addition to his work on "Intelligence." His busy streak has continued well into the next decade, with guest turns on "Station 19," "Manhunt," and "Pam and Tommy."

Anthony Montgomery as Ensign Travis Mayweather

Ensign Travis Mayweather served as the Enterprise's navigator and helmsman throughout the four-season run of "Star Trek: Enterprise." As played by actor Anthony Montgomery, Mayweather lent stalwart support to the Enterprise crew's adventures, and on occasion, became the focus of an episode. Among these was the Season 2 episode "Horizon," which introduced viewers to Mayweather's family and his complicated relationship with his father and brother.

Montgomery, whose grandfather was the legendary West Coast jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery, was familiar to TV viewers prior to "Enterprise" through a recurring role on the WB series "Popular," a short-lived early TV credit for Ryan Murphy. When "Enterprise" completed its final mission in 2005, Montgomery moved on to guest roles on "Grey's Anatomy" and the rebooted "Magnum, P.I." and recurring roles on series like "Greenleaf." He also returned to series regular work with the BET limited series "The Family Business" in 2020. 

In addition to his acting career, Montgomery also released a pair of albums of original music and created a graphic novel series, "Miles Away," with writer Brandon Easton.

Vaughn Armstrong as Admiral Maxwell Forrest

Though Vaughn Armstrong's name may not seem immediately familiar to you, he holds something of a celebrated place in the "Star Trek" universe. Armstrong played 12 different characters on four separate "Trek" series, including nearly every alien race in the show's vast array of extraterrestrials, including multiple Klingons, a Borg, and a Romulan. However, he's probably best known as Starfleet commander Admiral Maxwell Forrest, who initiated the Enterprise's missions, on 14 episodes of "Enterprise." True to form, Armstrong also played Klingon and Kreetassan commanders on the series as well.

The LA theater veteran, who appeared in episodes of "Wonder Woman," "Days of Our Lives," and "Melrose Place" prior to his run on "Enterprise," remained very busy after the show's conclusion. Guest and recurring TV credits include "Mad Men," "Modern Family," and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," while Armstrong also turned up in several independent features (including "Unbelievable!!!") and lent his voice to several "Star Trek" video games. In addition to his acting work, Armstrong also led the Enterprise Blues Band, a folk and blues group that featured several other "Trek" performers in its lineup, like Richard Herd and Casey Biggs.

Gary Graham as Ambassador Soval

Though science fiction fans may often associate actor Gary Graham with the mostly forgotten "Alien Nation" spinoff series and its many made-for-TV features, the Long Beach, California native also made several appearances in another long-running sci-fi franchise. Shortly after guest-starring on an episode of "Star Trek: Voyager," Graham played the Vulcan ambassador Soval on 12 episodes of "Star Trek: Enterprise," and reprised the role in the short "Star Trek" fan film "Prelude to Axanar." He also turned up in two other "Trek" fan films, "Of Gods and Men" and "Renegades," as well as the slightly more professional "Unbelievable!!!"

Graham's pre-"Trek" and "Alien Nation" credits included the films "All the Right Moves" and Stuart Gordon's "Robot Jox," and after "Enterprise," he appeared in episodes of "Nip/Tuck" and "Crossing Jordan." He kept busy with roles in low-budget independent films throughout the 2000s, including the critically panned "Jeepers Creepers: Reborn" in 2022, and also played in various amateur bands. The 73-year-old Graham died of cardiac arrest on January 22, 2024.

Randy Oglesby as Degra

Randy Oglesby was another character actor who found regular employment on various series within the "Star Trek" universe. He made his first appearance on a Trek series in an episode of "The Next Generation" and later played multiple characters on "Deep Space Nine," while also enjoying a guest shot as a Brenari refugee on "Voyager." He is perhaps best known for playing Degra, the architect of the world-destroying Xindi weapon, on 10 episodes of "Enterprise." He also played a Xyrillian on "Unexpected," the fifth episode of Season 1, before taking on Degra in Season 3.

Oglesby began acting in the early 1980s, appearing in films like "Pale Rider" and on series like "Dallas" under the names Thomas or Tom Oglesby. After adopting his middle name (Randall) for screen work, Oglesby appeared steadily through the 1990s and 2000s in projects like "Independence Day" and "Pearl Harbor" before making his "Enterprise" debut. He continued to appear on other series during this time period, most notably on "The Practice" and "JAG"; post-"Enterprise" roles included guest shots on "Mad Men," "True Blood," and most recently, "WandaVision" (as Wanda's doctor). Oglesby also enjoyed a recurring role on " For All Mankind " as the conservative governor and later vice-president Jim Bragg.

Jeffrey Combs as Commander Shran

Actor Jeffrey Combs is perhaps best-known for his horror film roles, including mad scientist Herbert West in the "Re-Animator" trilogy, along with "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Would You Rather." But Combs also has a long history of film and television roles outside of the horror genre; like Gary Graham, these included guest and recurring appearances on numerous titles in the extended "Star Trek" universe. One of his best-known "Trek" turns came as the flinty Andorian commander Shran on 11 episodes of "Enterprise" between Seasons 1 and 4.

Combs' "Trek" work also included multiple characters on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," as well as appearances on "Star Trek: Voyager" and voice-acting on "Star Trek: Lower Decks" and several "Trek" video games. Combs' post-"Enterprise" roles have been firmly divided between live-action and animated projects: the former included episodes of "The 4400," "Cold Case," "Gotham" and "Creepshow," while Combs could also be heard voicing characters on "Transformers: Prime" (as Ratchet), "Ben 10: Omniverse," "The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes" (as The Leader) and "SpongeBob SquarePants."

Rick Worthy as Jannar

Like Jeffrey Combs, Gary Graham, and other versatile character actors on this list, Rick Worthy turned up in several different film and television projects within the "Star Trek" franchise. The most substantial of these was a recurring appearance as the sloth-like Arboreal named Jannar on 10 episodes of "Star Trek: Enterprise," but eagle-eyed viewers can also catch Worthy as a Klingon on "Deep Space Nine," two different androids and a Starfleet crew member on "Voyager," and as an Elloran officer in the 1998 feature "Star Trek: Insurrection." Two years prior to that appearance, Worthy also lent his voice to the 1996 video game "Star Trek: Klingon."

Worthy's credits prior to "Enterprise" included appearances on "NYPD Blue" and "Stargate SG-1," and he remained exceptionally busy on TV after the "Trek" series came to a close in 2005. He played the humanoid Cylon Simon in eight episodes of the "Battlestar Galactica" reboot and later turned up in multiple episodes of "Heroes," "Supernatural" (as the Alpha Vampire), and "The Vampire Diaries" (as the father of Kat Graham's character, Bonnie Bennett). More recently, Worthy enjoyed lengthy runs as Resistance member Lem Washington on "The Man in the High Castle," and as Henry Fogg, dean of the magic university Brakebills, on "The Magicians."

Star Trek: Enterprise’s Jonathan Archer reminds us that making mistakes is human

By chad porto | mar 28, 2020.

Jonathan Archer of Star Trek: Enterprise often gets overlooked by Trek fans but he’s just as full of amazing quotes as any other Starfleet Captain.

Jonathan Archer is a gem . The main character of Star Trek: Enterprise and the first captain of the titular ship, often fails to make waves in the fandom. In part because the series he was on wasn’t met with the most critical of approval. So Archer and his actor, Scott Bakula, are often frozen out when fans talk about memorable quotes or moments. Not this writer, however.

The Bakula is gold in my book.

This week’s Saturday Night Seminar takes us to the first episode of the second season of Enterprise. Archer is up against it again, having to deal with those ‘point eared bastards’. Vulcan ambassador Soval is in the middle of criticizing Archer and his crew for Soval believes to be a lack of success during their first ten months as a ship. Archer though isn’t having his guff.

"We’re going to stumble, make mistakes – I’m sure more than a few, before we find our footing. But we’re going to learn from those mistakes. That’s what being human is all about."

– Jonathan Archer from Shockwave, Part II 

I think that’s a good sentiment to have during this period of a shutdown. We’re going to be a bit antsy. A big angsty even. We’re going to snip and snipe. Yet it’s important to remember that it takes us a while to adapt and we will as needed. As a species, we’re tougher than we realize. So it’s always good to remember these words.

Learn from your mistakes. You’ll make plenty of them, so you’ll have plenty of opportunities to discover something new.

Next. March Madness Star Trek Edition: The Battle for Starfleet Sweet 16. dark

Memory Beta, non-canon Star Trek Wiki

A friendly reminder regarding spoilers ! At present the expanded Trek universe is in a period of major upheaval with the continuations of Discovery and Prodigy , the advent of new eras in gaming with the Star Trek Adventures RPG , Star Trek: Infinite and Star Trek Online , as well as other post-57th Anniversary publications such as the ongoing IDW Star Trek comic and spin-off Star Trek: Defiant . Therefore, please be courteous to other users who may not be aware of current developments by using the {{ spoiler }}, {{ spoilers }} OR {{ majorspoiler }} tags when adding new information from sources less than six months old (even if it is minor info). Also, please do not include details in the summary bar when editing pages and do not anticipate making additions relating to sources not yet in release. THANK YOU

• Memory Beta articles sourced from novelizations
• Memory Beta articles sourced from comics
• Memory Beta articles sourced from short stories
• Memory Beta articles sourced from video games
• Memory Beta articles sourced from games
• Humans (22nd century)
• 2112 births
• Earth Starfleet personnel
• Starfleet personnel
• Starfleet personnel (22nd century)
• Starfleet commanders
• Starfleet captains
• Enterprise (NX-01) personnel
• Starfleet admirals
• Starfleet chiefs of staff
• Federation ambassadors
• Federation Presidents
• Political leaders
• Federation Councillors
• Politicians
• Government officials
• Time travellers
• Rura Penthe prisoners

Jonathan Archer

The son of famed warp specialist Henry Archer , Jonathan was appointed captain of Enterprise , Starfleet 's first Warp 5 starship , in 2151 ; his leadership aboard Enterprise helped establish United Earth as a legitimate interstellar power and pave the way for a full-scale revolution in Alpha Quadrant politics, leading to the establishment of the Coalition of Planets and later the United Federation of Planets . During his Starfleet career Archer rose to the rank of Admiral and position of Chief of Staff , before retiring from Starfleet to take on a string of political positions; Federation Ambassador to Andoria , a Federation Councillor , and as one of the Federation's earliest Presidents . ( ENT episode : " In a Mirror, Darkly "; ST - Destiny novel : Mere Mortals )

• 1.1 Early life
• 1.2.1 Early career
• 1.2.2.1 The Xindi
• 1.2.2.2 The Romulan War
• 1.3.1 Admiral at large
• 1.3.2 Chief of Staff
• 1.4 After Starfleet
• 3 Personal timeline
• 4 Alternate timelines
• 6.1 Notes and References
• 6.2 Connections
• 6.3.1 References
• 6.4 External links

History [ ]

Early life [ ].

Jonathan Archer, the son of Henry and Sally Archer , was born in Upstate New York in 2112 . ( ENT episode & novelization : Broken Bow , ENT episode : " In a Mirror, Darkly ")

When Jonathan could not get sleep during his childhood, his mother would often recite The Song of the Wandering Aengus . He did not learn that it was a poem by W. B. Yeats until he was much older. ( ENT episode : " Rogue Planet ")

In December 2120 , Jonathan decided to hike Nacaijin Gorge before he and his parents would leave for San Francisco . However, his parents wanted him to take their dog, Maska but Jonathan decided to go without him. As he approached the gorge, he was following a Suliban Cabal agent. Jonathan was then kicked into the gorge and fell through the ice. However, he was then saved by Maska. Jonathan then saved the beagle from falling through the ice. However, he then realized that the beagle was not Maska when it vanished. Jonathan then went home and made sure his parent would bring Maska along with them to San Francisco. ( ENT - Waypoint comic : " The Fragile Beauty of Loyalty ")

From an early age, Jonathan had an interest in space flight and technology, such as the model starship that he built with his father when he was nine in 2121 . ( ENT episode & novelization : Broken Bow ; ENT episode : " North Star ")

His paternal great-grandfather, Nathan Archer , was a captain in the United Nations Peace Directorate who served in North Africa during the Eugenics Wars ( 1992 - 1996 ). ( ENT episode : " Hatchery ", ENT - Strange New Worlds 9 short story : " The Rules of War ")

Earth Starfleet [ ]

Early career [ ].

In the 2130s , Archer attended Earth Starfleet Flight School based in San Francisco ; he was accepted into Starfleet and the NX program in 2132 .During his time there, he had a relationship with Margaret Mullin . The day before graduating from Flight School in 2136 , the 24-year-old Archer proposed to Mullin outside of her apartment on Westgate Avenue, but she turned him down, stating that she did not want to become a "Starfleet widow." ( ENT episode : " Twilight ", ST reference : Federation: The First 150 Years )

By 2143 , Archer was a Commander working on the NX Program, the legacy of his now-deceased father's work. There he met A.G. Robinson and Charles Tucker III , both of whom became close friends. The first prototype, the NX-Alpha , with a mission to break the Warp 2 barrier, was destroyed during flight. Robinson, piloting the flight, became the first person to eject in an escape pod while at warp. On the suggestion by Vulcan advisers that the engine design required further simulation and bench-testing, the NX Program was canceled after this incident. Convinced the design was already sound, the cancellation did not stop Archer and Robinson, with assistance from Tucker, from making an unauthorized test flight using the NX-Beta prototype. They successfully launched the Beta and used the ship to reach a speed of Warp 2.5. With this obvious success, the program was reconsidered and subsequently reinstated by Starfleet Command ; however, as a result of their actions, Archer and Robinson were grounded for three months, pending an inquiry. ( ENT episode : " First Flight ")

Captain of Enterprise [ ]

By 2151 Archer was a Starfleet Captain and was poised to take command of the Enterprise NX-01, the first ship to utilize his father's warp five engine design. Archer persuaded his superiors to bring the launch of the Enterprise forward three weeks when a Klingon, Klaang , crash landed on Earth; Archer wished to return the injured Klingon home to Qo'noS . The mission resulted in Archer and the Enterprise becoming entangled in the Temporal Cold War , as Klaang had been shot down by the Suliban Cabal when he was trying to deliver evidence that the Suliban were manipulating the Klingons into Civil War . Archer successfully outmaneuvered the Suliban and delivered Klaang to Qo'noS, averting the civil war. With the Enterprise already out into space Starfleet granted Archer permission to commence the ship's mission of exploration. ( ENT episode & novelization : Broken Bow )

The first Class M planet discovered by Archer on the Enterprise 's mission was in the 61 Ursae Majoris . While a toxic pollen in the atmosphere caused problems for the initial landing party from the Enterprise a cure was later discovered and the planet, named Archer IV in Jonathan's honor, was colonized. ( ENT episodes : " Strange New World ", " In a Mirror, Darkly ")

The Xindi [ ]

On March 22, 2153 , a prototype Xindi weapon appeared in Earth orbit, cutting a swath from Florida to Venezuela , killing seven million people. Enterprise was recalled and outfitted with new weapons. With a tip-off from the Suliban and their temporal benefactor Archer then took the Enterprise into the mysterious Delphic Expanse to find the Xindi and stop them launching an even more powerful weapon which threatened to destroy Earth and Humanity. ( ENT episode : " The Expanse ")

In the Expanse the crew discovered that the Xindi had been manipulated into attacking Earth by the Sphere Builders , a faction from a possible future timeline who were attempting to alter their history so that Humanity was wiped out and unable to found the Federation ; which had been responsible for repelling a Sphere Builder invasion in their version of the 26th century . ( ENT episode : " Azati Prime ")

Archer and his crew successfully destroyed the Sphere Builder artifacts responsible for the Expanse's existence, convince the majority of the Xindi Council that Earth posed no threat, and managed to destroy the Xindi superweapon before it could destroy Earth. ( ENT episodes : " The Council ", " Countdown ", " Zero Hour ")

The Romulan War [ ]

During the Earth-Romulan War , Archer led a task force to liberate Berengaria VII from the Romulan Star Empire . On July 22, 2156, Archer went to the Klingon Empire to ask them to aid United Earth against the Romulans. ( ENT - The Romulan War novel : Beneath the Raptor's Wing )

In May of 2159 , Archer and Enterprise saved a Vulcan scientist named T'Uerell from the Romulans . After this, there were a series of missions that Archer was assigned to, and came to learn that T'Uerell was behind many disasters in the Alpha Quadrant , including infecting planets with toxins, destroying a Starfleet facility with crew members on board, and attempting to use toxins to annihilate Earth. This plan was thwarted by Archer and his task force. T'Uerell went into hiding and was not heard from until the late 23rd century , where she was intercepted by James T. Kirk and the USS Enterprise . ( ST video game : Legacy )

In 2160 , Archer commanded the Starfleet forces at the Battle of Cheron . After fierce fighting, Starfleet emerged victorious with the timely arrival of Andorian, Tellarite and Vulcan ships, but Enterprise was badly damaged and had to be towed home. ( ENT - The Romulan War novel : To Brave the Storm )

Federation Starfleet [ ]

Admiral at large [ ].

Shortly after the war, Enterprise was decommissioned because her spaceframe was judged to be too compromised. Not long after this Archer was diagnosed with decaying neurological damage and was deemed unfit for captaining another starship so he accepted a promotion to the rank of Admiral . He initially wasn't too happy with this change, but once he grew accustomed to the earthbound assignment, he realized that he could do much good in his new position for Starfleet and the Federation.

As of September 2162 , Archer had assigned the USS Endeavour as his personal flagship and would sometimes be called upon to meet leaders of other species on behalf of Starfleet. He was also authorized to offer help, as done in the case of the Tandarans who had lost people to kidnappings. Occasionally, Archer would be invited to meetings with the higher echelons of Starfleet Command for his input as a former starship captain, and his opinion was highly respected. After the Tandaran mission, Doctor Phlox determined that Archer's condition was caused by the transporter technology, and he wasn't the only one. Thus the use of transporters were suspended in the Federation.

During the Vertian crisis , Archer would encourage Admiral Shran, now Chief of Staff for the Imperial Guard portion of Starfleet, and Federation Defense Commissioner Min glasch Noar not to jump headlong into a war which almost occurred due to the manipulations of the Orion Syndicate and the Raldul alignment . With the help of his old friend, Charles Tucker, agent of Section 31 , Archer uncovered the Orions' plot to manipulate many officials, including Noar. ( ENT - Rise of the Federation novel : A Choice of Futures )

By 2164 , Phlox managed to halt Archer's neurological degeneration and repair most of the existing damage. In March of that year, he and Commissioner Soval traveled to Rigel V to meet with the leaders of the Rigelian Trade Commission about their interest to join the Federation. They addressed a number of topics, and the Directors decided to send a delegation to the ambassadorial conference held on Babel Station a few months later.

During the talks, Archer spent much time with Director Sedra Hemnask and eventually the two slept together. However, Hemnask felt that they should keep their relationship secret, fearing that people would think that Archer seduced her in effort to influence her into joining the Federation. Archer agreed and respected her wish even when he was accused with the assassination attempt of Federation Councillor Anlenthoris ch'Vhendreni . All evidence pointed to Archer, but his only alibi would have been Hemnask so he choose to stay silent. Eventually, Lieutenant commander Astellet ch'Terren and former investigator T'Rama cleared Archer's name, and they discovered that Hemnask could be involved.

When Archer confronted her, Hemnask revealed that she was indeed trying to discredit him but in a different way. She seduced Archer, and intended to reveal their relationship to the same effect she said she tried to prevent earlier. She also confessed that she was doing this out of concern for her family who was in the possession of the criminal organization First Families of Rigel , but wouldn't have carried out the plot after she got to know Archer and fell in love with him.

After everything settled, the delegates eventually worked out the details and at the end of the year, the reformed Rigel system officially entered the Federation with the name United Rigel Worlds and Colonies . Archer, after realizing how much he desired a partner, but looked for one in the wrong place, he finally asked out his childhood friend Danica Erickson . ( ENT - Rise of the Federation novel : Tower of Babel )

Chief of Staff [ ]

In 2165 , Admiral Samuel Gardner retired from Starfleet and Admiral Archer succeeded him as Chief of Staff of the UESPA branch of the Federation Starfleet. ( ENT - Rise of the Federation novel : Uncertain Logic )

After Starfleet [ ]

On January 1, 2169 , Archer retired from Starfleet, continuing his work as a diplomat by taking on the position of Federation Ambassador to Andoria . ( ENT episode : " In a Mirror, Darkly "; ST - Destiny novel : Mere Mortals )

He served as Ambassador to Andoria until 2175 , when he was elected to the position of Federation Councillor for United Earth . He ascended to the presidency in 2185 , serving two terms. ( ENT episode : " In a Mirror, Darkly ")

Starfleet biographical file of Jonathan Archer, circa 2268 .

John Gill described Archer as the " greatest explorer of the 22nd century ". A century later Elias Vaughn considered Archer to be one of Earth's most eminent explorers alongside the likes of Leif Eriksson , Ferdinand Magellan , Meriwether Lewis , William Clark and Neil Armstrong . ( ENT episode : " In a Mirror, Darkly "; DS9 novel : Twilight )

As of the mid- 23rd century Archer was the only Human to have two planets named in his honor: Archer's Planet in the Gamma Trianguli sector , and Archer IV in 61 Ursae Majoris . ( ENT episode : " In a Mirror, Darkly ")

By 2256 , Archer was considered one of the most decorated captains in Starfleet history, along with Robert April , Matt Decker , Philippa Georgiou and Christopher Pike . ( DSC episode : " Choose Your Pain ")

Up to at least the mid- 24th century , cadets at Starfleet Academy had to learn about Archer in their studies, as Ro Laren had during her attendance.

In 2385 , Altek Dans read about Archer while researching Federation and Bajoran history. ( DS9 novel : Sacraments of Fire )

Personal timeline [ ]

Alternate timelines [ ].

In an alternate timeline , while in the Delphic Expanse in 2153 , Archer sustained injuries which crippled his brain 's ability to form new long-term memories , leaving him unable to recall more than the last few hours (and the whole of his life up to the point of injury). In this condition, he was unable to continue in command. The Enterprise was unable to stop the Xindi plot against Earth in time, the planet was destroyed and the Xindi exterminated every human colony they could locate. Archer, under the care of T'Pol , was one of the survivors who relocated to a secret colony on Ceti Alpha V . ( ENT episode : " Twilight ")

In another alternate timeline in which John Frederick Paxton destroyed Starfleet Command and ended the talks for the Coalition of Planets in 2155 , Archer continued to work toward creating a political alliance between Vulcan , Andoria , Tellar and other worlds, with the belief Earth would eventually join as well. His actions were opposed by the Isolationist Party , who had him recalled to Earth after they took control of the Parliament in 2161 and put before a court martial . He performed the marriage between Trip and T'Pol, and himself married Erika Hernandez prior to 2199 . He died at some point after 2244 . ( TOS - Myriad Universes novel : A Less Perfect Union )

Appendices [ ]

Notes and references [ ].

• ↑ 1.0 1.1 Archer's middle name of Beckett was established in the ENT - The Romulan War novel : Beneath the Raptor's Wing , it is presumably a reference to Samuel Beckett, the protagonist in the series Quantum Leap , who was also played by Scott Bakula .
• ↑ 2.0 2.1 ST reference : Federation: The First 150 Years
• ↑ Archer's command of the Enterprise is listed as ending in 2160 in his biography from ENT episode : " In a Mirror, Darkly ", however the later episode " These Are the Voyages... " contradicts this, showing Archer in command into 2161 .
• ↑ The 2184 start year for Archer's presidency conflicts with the four-year term system established in Articles of the Federation . One possible explanation might be that the dates refer to the year of his election rather than the year he took office.

Connections [ ]

Appearances [ ], references [ ].

• TOS novel : A Contest of Principles

External links [ ]

• Jonathan Archer article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• Archer's biography pages from "In a Mirror, Darkly" ( I , II ), from Mike Sussman's website.
• 1 Achilles class
• 2 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
• 3 USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) personnel

Screen Rant

Every way archer's enterprise is different from kirk & picard's.

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Star Trek's Prequel Movie Means Enterprise's Original Premise Can Finally Happen

Star wars: who's abeloth, & why is she important to ahsoka season 2, ncis: origins trailer introduces a young leroy jethro gibbs with a lot to prove.

Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) commanded the first starship called Enterprise in Star Trek , and much of its design and functionality was a precursor to the Enterprise ships led by Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). As a prequel set in the mid-22nd century, Star Trek: Enterprise ( originally titled simply Enterprise ) allowed the franchise to retcon much of the starship's familiar technology and tropes originated

Star Trek: Enterprise retconned the NX-01 Enterprise as the first starship of that name. Since it launched in 2151 before the founding of the United Federation of Planets, the NX-01 Enterprise was the flagship of United Earth's Starfleet, and it was the first Terran vessel to explore deep space. Captain Archer's historic voyage laid the groundwork for the formation of what would formally become the United Federation of Planets in 2261. As a prequel, Star Trek: Enterprise also followed the basic formula of Star Trek: The Original Series so that T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) became the first Vulcan First Officer of an Earth starship, predating Spock (Leonard Nimoy) by a century. The NX-01 Enterprise itself introduced the precursor of what would become standard and famous features of Kirk and Picard's 23rd and 24th-century Enterprises.

Related: Why Enterprise's Trip & T'Pol Romance Was So Controversial (But Still Good)

6 Archer's Enterprise Was Smaller Than Kirk's & Picard's

Captain Archer's NX-01 Enterprise had a crew complement of only 83, made up almost entirely of humans except for T'Pol, who held the dual role of Science Officer and First Officer, and Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley), the ship's Denobulan physician. Archer's crew complement grew when the MACO space marines came aboard in Star Trek: Enterprise season 3. The NX-01 was far smaller than Captain Kirk's deep space heavy cruiser, the Constitution-class USS Enterprise NCC-1701, which had a crew that numbered 433. And Kirk's crew size was double the number of the Enterprise under its previous commander, Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds .

In the 24th century of Star Trek: The Next Generation , Captain Picard's Galaxy-class Enterprise-D boasted a crew of over 1,000, which includes Starfleet Officers, their families, and other multi-species personnel. The NX-01 was also the first flagship of Starfleet, establishing the legacy that Picard's Enterprise-D held in the 24th century. Pike and Kirk's Enterprise was later retconned to be Starfleet's flagship in the 23rd century, just as the Enterprise in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies was the flagship of the Federation in the Kelvin Timeline.

5 Archer's Enterprise's Top Speed Was Warp 5

The NX-01 Enterprise boasted Starfleet's first Warp 5 engine designed by Captain Archer's father, Henry Archer, which was based upon the original warp engine built by Dr. Zephram Cochrane (James Cromwell) in Star Trek: First Contact . Cochrane's historic first warp space flight achieved the speed of light, but it was still too slow for meaningful deep space travel. Dr. Archer's Warp 5 engine made deep space exploration possible for humans, and it was a milestone achievement for its era.

However, Warp 5 is still incredibly slow compared to the later Enterprise ships. A century after the NX-01, Captain Kirk's Constitution-class Enterprise had a top speed of Warp 8. The maximum warp of Captain Picard's Enterprise-D was 9.8. The upper limits of warp could be exceeded for short periods of time, but the later Enterprises could simply blow the doors off of Captain Archer's NX-01 were they ever to theoretically race.

Related: Every Time Star Trek Brought Back Kirk's Enterprise Bridge

4 Archer's Enterprise Had Different Weapons & Defenses

Kirk and Picard's Enterprises had very similar and iconic weapons, such as phasers, photon torpedoes, and deflector shields for defense. To hammer home how new Starfleet and the NX-01's technology was in the 22nd century, Star Trek: Enterprise gave Captain Archer's ship weapons and defenses that were primitive precursors to Kirk's and Picard's. The NX-01 used unreliable and substantially weaker spacial torpedoes at first, which were replaced by photonic torpedoes (the harbinger of photon torpedoes) at the end of Star Trek: Enterprise season 2. The NX-01 also had phase cannons, the predecessor to phasers.

Meanwhile, United Earth's Starfleet completely lacked deflector shield technology in the mid-22nd century (even though their allies, the Vulcans, already had deflector shields). Instead, the NX-01 used polarized hull plating, which would harden the Enterprise's hull to defend against attacks. Unfortunately, polarized hull plating proved to be an insufficient defense, but it was the best the Enterprise era's United Earth had at the time. The NX-01 also didn't have tractor-beam technology. Instead, it utilized a device called the Grappler to latch onto other starships and objects in space.

3 NX-01 Enterprise Had A Decontamination Chamber

Perhaps the most notable feature Captain Archer's NX-01 had that Kirk and Picard's Enterprises lacked was the decontamination chamber. In Star Trek: Enterprise 's early era of space exploration, the NX-01's crew had to utilize a special gel and spend ample time in decontamination after returning from away missions. Enterprise's infamous decontamination scenes were also purposely designed to give the prequel a sexier edge that the prior Star Trek shows lacked since they involved Archer and his crew stripping to their undergarments and rubbing decontamination gel on each other. Kirk and Picard's transporters instantly provide decontamination, making the NX-01's chamber unnecessary.

2 Shuttlepods Were Safer Than NX-01 Enterprise's Transporters

Captain Archer's NX-01 Enterprise lacked the huge hangar bays that were standard in Kirk and Picard's Enterprises. Instead, the NX-01 used shuttlepods that docked from the bottom of the saucer section. Although the NX-01 had a functioning transporter, the crew was wary of using them for biomatter, and especially of beaming people in and out of the ship. Instead, the shuttlepods were the preferred mode of transport to and from planets.

Related: Why Star Trek Should Resurrect Trip (& Ignore Enterprise's Finale)

1 Life Aboard Archer's Enterprise Was Different From Later Star Treks

Kirk's Enterprise boasted far more amenities for life in deep space than Captain Archer's NX-01. Captain Archer's NX-01 had protein resequencers, which were precursors to Star Trek's miraculous food replicators , but Archer's Enterprise carried real food aboard. The Captain and crew's meals were also prepared by a chef, who was never seen in Star Trek: Enterprise . A chef, who was similarly never seen, was also occasionally mentioned in Star Trek: The Original Series and the Star Trek movies, and the Enterprise-A even had a galley in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Compared to the NX-01, or even Kirk's NCC-1701, Picard's Enterprise-D was a practically massive floating city in space that housed the population of a small town. The Enterprise-D also had holodecks, which Kirk and Archer's starships lacked. The NX-01 Enterprise was more akin to living aboard a submarine in space; its interior was more utilitarian, although Captain Archer's Enterprise had amenities like a gymnasium, and the crew often held movie nights. When its chronological context is taken into consideration, NX-01 in Star Trek: Enterprise was the foundation for what would become the larger and more powerful versions of the Starship Enterprise.

Next: Strange New Worlds Makes Pike's Enterprise Like Picard's In 1 Big Way

• SR Originals
• Star Trek: Enterprise

• Cast & crew
• User reviews
• Episode aired Apr 21, 2004

Captain Archer has been returned to Enterprise by the Xindi council awaiting a hearing. But after a heavy attack by the Reptilians, Enterprise is stranded without a functional warp drive. Th... Read all Captain Archer has been returned to Enterprise by the Xindi council awaiting a hearing. But after a heavy attack by the Reptilians, Enterprise is stranded without a functional warp drive. They meet another ship in trouble because of space anomalies. The ship's captain isn't willi... Read all Captain Archer has been returned to Enterprise by the Xindi council awaiting a hearing. But after a heavy attack by the Reptilians, Enterprise is stranded without a functional warp drive. They meet another ship in trouble because of space anomalies. The ship's captain isn't willing to trade in their warp coil and Archer must make a tough decision. Meanwhile T'Pol is h... Read all

• James L. Conway
• Gene Roddenberry
• Rick Berman
• Brannon Braga
• Scott Bakula
• John Billingsley
• Jolene Blalock
• 17 User reviews
• 4 Critic reviews

Top cast 34

• Capt. Jonathan Archer

• Sub-Cmdr. T'Pol

• Lt. Malcolm Reed

• Ensign Travis Mayweather

• Ensign Hoshi Sato

• Cmdr. Charles 'Trip' Tucker III

• Illyrian Captain

• Cmdr. Dolim

• Xindi-Primate

• Sphere-Builder Woman
• (as Josette Di Carlo)

• Operations Division Ensign
• (uncredited)

• Ensign Billy

• MACO Soldier

• Illyrian Crewman

• Engineer Alex
• Brannon Braga (showrunner)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia This episode contains the first mention of stardates in the series. The stardate is communicated to Enterprise by Degra.
• Goofs T'Pol states that the Enterprise will need to travel at least warp 3 to reach a destination 4 light years away in 3 days. Although this is strictly true, in The Expanse (2003) , the 50 light year journey took 3 months at warp 5, meaning that a 4 light year journey at warp 5 would take around 7 days. This means the Enterprise would have to travel faster than its maximum speed of warp 5 to reach the destination in just 3 days.

Captain Jonathan Archer : How long have you been a doctor?

Dr. Phlox : Nearly forty years.

Captain Jonathan Archer : And in all that time... did you ever do anything you thought was unethical?

Dr. Phlox : [after a pause] Twice. Why?

Captain Jonathan Archer : I'm about to step over a line - a line I thought I would never cross. And given the nature of our mission, it probably won't be the last.

Dr. Phlox : Probably not. May I ask what you're planning to do?

Captain Jonathan Archer : There could be more casualties.

Dr. Phlox : I'll be ready.

• Soundtracks Where My Heart Will Take Me Written by Diane Warren Performed by Russell Watson Episode: {all episodes}

User reviews 17

• planktonrules
• Apr 8, 2015
• April 21, 2004 (United States)
• United States
• Official Site
• Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (Studio)
• Paramount Network Television
• Paramount Television
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 43 minutes
• Dolby Digital

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• IMDb Answers: Help fill gaps in our data
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed.