Character Insight No. 223: Best of Captain Archer

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we wrap up the "Best Of" series for Enterprise with a profile of Captain Jonathan Archer.  Lots to cover, so we'll skip the theme song for once.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp223

In the season 2 episode A Night in Sickbay, Archer must deal with watching his dog Porthos suffer from complications of an away mission while also overcoming some serious pent-up sexual tension as well. We learn the background of how he and his companion Porthos came to be:

Captain Jonathan Archer: 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.

In the season 2 episode First Flight, we see Archer as a commander competing with a friend and colleague A.G. Robinson for the right to lead the initial warp flight projects and starships. When Robinson gets the initial upper hand for a warp 2 flight, Archer shows how difficult he would be to console if it hadn't turned out the other way when Enterprise comes along:

Ruby: [trying to comfort Archer] They'll need a pilot for the next flight.
Commander Jonathan Archer: D'you remember what Buzz Aldrin said when he stepped on the moon?
Ruby: No.
Commander Jonathan Archer: Nobody does. Because Armstrong went first.

In Season 2's Cogenitor, the Enterprise crew helps establish what will become the Prime Directive when it interferes with a culture during an otherwise positive first contact mission. Trip finds the enslavement of a third gender of the Vissian race unacceptable and he educates it regarding human culture, which leads to it's suicide and this outburst from Captain Archer:

Captain Jonathan Archer: I might have expected something like this from a first-year recruit. But not you. You did exactly what I'd do? If that's true, then I've done a pretty lousy job setting an example around here. You're a senior officer on this ship. You're privy to the moral challenges I've had to face. You know I've wrestled with the fine line between doing what I think is right and interfering with other species. So don't tell me you know what I would have done when *I* don't even know what I would have done!

Finally, the season 4 two-part episode Demons/Terra Prime before the series finale was a high point for Archer's character and the show as a whole, as Archer fights for a different vision of how humans will interact with other worlds in the proposed Federation as compared to John Paxton, a xenophobic terrorist played by Peter Weller and intent on banishing all non-humans from Earth. Archer provides the following speech in one of many things he does to try and realize his dream for the future of Earth:

Captain Jonathan Archer: [speaking to the alien delegates] 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.

Captain Archer may not be considered one of the strongest lead characters in Star Trek history, but Scott Bakula did well when provided good scripts to develop his character. He's definitely one of the bright spots in Enterprise...not to be confused with the theme song, which we must never forget as we wrap up our series on Enterprise main characters... [FAITH OF THE HEART]