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Captain Jonathan Archer, played by Scott Bakula, is the captain of the starship Enterprise (NX-01) in the fictional television series Star Trek: Enterprise. He was born in upstate New York and spent many years of his life in San Francisco, California.
His father Henry Archer was a part of the early Starfleet team to help design Enterprise, so it was only fitting that Jonathan took command. He grew up with a distrust of Vulcans, since he perceived them as having held back Humanity's progress, particularly with regard to his father's Warp 5 engine.
Archer's favorite sport is water polo and has a pet dog named Porthos.
Biography
He has the distinction of making Earth's official first contact with dozens of alien races, including the Andorians, the Axanar, the Romulans, the Tandarans, the Tellarites, the Tholians, and the Xindi.
Although initially optimistic, Archer became involved in his first mission as captain of the Enterprise in the Temporal Cold War.
In a dispute with the Klingon Empire in 2152, Archer was convicted and sentenced to exile on Rura Penthe. With his escape, a bounty was put on his head and tensions with the Empire increased.
With the Xindi attack on Earth in 2153, Archer became a changed man, determined to seek out and confront the perpetrators. This pushed him to commit desperate acts of questionable morality to ensure a future for Earth.
While on his mission to locate the Xindi, Archer was briefly transformed into a member of the extinct Loque'eque species by a mutagenic virus. He later was afflicted by subspace parasites, creating an alternate timeline in which the Enterprise mission failed and Earth was destroyed. ("Twilight") With the help of Crewman Daniels, he and T'Pol traveled back in time to 2004 Detroit to prevent the release of a Xindi-reptillian bioweapon. ("Carpenter Street") By the end of the third season, Archer was presumed dead when the Xindi superweapon was destroyed. However, he was transported back to the early 1940's, as was the Enterprise herself.
Although initially distrustful of his science officer, T'Pol, Archer has grown to trust her implicitly and supported her when she chose to resign her Vulcan commission in order to stay aboard Enterprise for the Xindi mission. Episodes in the first and second seasons seemed to suggest that Archer and T'Pol had the potential to become more than just close friends. Archer is openly jealous when a Vulcan suitor pursues T'Pol in "Fusion"; he insists the Vulcans won't take something away from him that's important ("Shadows of P'Jem") -- meaning her. He assists her in finding help with her Pa'nar syndrome and indicates he's happy she'll be staying aboard ("Stigma") and many other instances. However, it appears his drive to complete the Xindi mission and save Earth, coupled with T'Pol's developing a relationship with Charles Tucker perhaps has removed this possibility. In the alternate timeline of "Twilight" T'Pol becomes Archer's caretaker for more than a decade after the subspace parasites rob him of his short term memory; the question of how far their relationship had progressed in this timeline goes unanswered, but it is made clear that some bond of love existed by that point, albeit somewhat one-sided as this alternate future Archer is unable to retain memory of it. It remains to be seen whether anything close to this occurs in the "real" timeline, even though the author of Twilight indicated eventually Archer and T'Pol would marry in the ST Communicator. (A point some think was in jest.)
In 2154, Archer helped a faction of Vulcans fight an oppressive government on their planet. During this incident, he was the recipient of the katra, or living spirit, of the great Vulcan philsopher Surak. The katra was later transplanted into a Vulcan priest and Archer was left unharmed, although it remains to be seen what impact the experience may have on him in the long run.
The time traveler Daniels had revealed that Jonathan Archer would eventually have a major role in the founding of the United Federation of Planets in 2161. He briefly took Archer ahead in time to the point where Archer is about to sign the Federation accords on Earth.
In an early episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation ("Yesterday's Enterprise"), produced a decade before Star Trek: Enterprise was conceived, the planet Archer IV is mentioned twice; it is possible that the planet was named in Archer's honor, but the franchise has never said one way or the other whether that was the case. In the film Star Trek: Nemesis, which takes place more than 200 years after Enterprise, it was revealed that a starship, the U.S.S. Archer, is part of Starfleet; this vessel is presumably named for Jonathan Archer.
Another possible (albeit retconned) reference to Archer might be found in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "In the Flesh", aired three years before Enterprise debuted, in which the Voyager crew discover an alien recreation of Starfleet Command, populated by creatures masquerading as Starfleet officers. One has the name Commander Valerie Archer who says she comes from a Starfleet family. Assuming a "real" Valerie Archer exists on Earth, this could be a descendent of Jonathan Archer.
Trivia
- Some fans have nicknamed Archer "Captain Quantum", because of Scott Bakula's previous role of Sam Beckett in Quantum Leap. Bakula himself once suggested that Captain Archer's middle name is Beckett...
- In early stages of writing, the character of Jonathan Archer was called Jeffrey Archer. This was reportedly changed to avoid clashing with the notorious UK politician/author Jeffrey Archer. Another name considered for the character was Jackson Archer, until someone by that name was discovered.
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