Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we'll continue to have faith of the heart and review Emory Erickson, a character from Enterprise, based on a suggestion from regular show contributor "Chris on Twitter."
Unlike the story of Zephram Cochrane, the inventor of warp drive, there had been no stories or investigation into the invention of transporter technology before the show Enterprise aired. That left an opening for show runners to have an episode featuring the inventor of this technology, and that character is Emory Erickson.
Erickson is a human inventor with several inventions, but most notable is of course the molecular transporter. We learn that Erickson is a bit of a father figure to Captain Archer thanks to being close friends with Harry Archer, the Captain's father, before Harry passed away of Clarke's Disease. Thus, it was only fitting to see Erickson appear on Archer's ship later.
Before we get to that appearance, in 2139 Erickson developed a sub-quantum teleportation device. Several volunteers including his son Quinn tried out the device, but they all disappeared, never to be seen again. Erickson tried the device himself, but it left him mostly paralyzed. When he discovers that his son and the others were trapped in subspace rather than dead, he spends all his time trying to find a solution to bring his son back.
QUOTE (from Daedalus)
That brings us to 2154, 15 years later, and the wheelchair-bound Erickson arrives on the Enterprise to apparently test a new transport method. But rather than actually perform this test, he was on the ship in an effort to try and track down his son, who was found to be in a subspace bubble called The Barrens. Ericsson does retrieve his son Quinn with the help of the Enterprise crew, but Quinn dies seconds after re-materializing. While this is a tragic end, Erickson believes it was a better fate than the purgatory of being lost in subspace.
Just like how Zephram Cochrane becomes a complex character with flaws in the movie First Contact, this episode of Enterprise makes a similar character out of the inventor of the transporter. For example, Erickson evokes President Franklin D Roosevelt with his insistence on standing and supporting himself at a transport controller despite being wheelchair-bound. Erickson will go down in lore as one of the most important innovators of the era, despite being haunted by his past and his life just like Cochrane.
Emory Erickson was played by Bill Cobbs. Cobbs started acting in the 1970s and continues to do so today at the age of 84. He grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and served as an Air Force radar technician for nearly a decade before entering acting as a profession. It's perhaps fitting that one of his most memorable TV recurring appearances came on The Drew Carey Show, because..."Cleveland Rocks."
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