A Star Trek Producer Has A Perfect Idea To Bring Back Scott Bakula's Captain Archer

Being a captain in a "Star Trek" show is usually a surefire ticket to sci-fi notoriety — doubly so if the character happens to be played by "Quantum Leap" veteran Scott Bakula. However, Captain Jonathan Archer and his show, "Star Trek: Enterprise," never really got their just desserts. After four seasons of struggling to make waves, the show ended with a whimper of a series finale titled "These Are The Voyages... ." 

Instead of offering fans true closure, "These Are the Voyages..." opts to let "Star Trek: The Next Generation" characters William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) hijack the show. A companion piece of sorts to "The Next Generation" Season 7 episode "The Pegasus," the finale is effectively a series of holodeck moments Riker sifts through as he seeks inspiration from Archer's actions leading up to the signing of the Federation Charter (the founding document of the United Federation of Planets). This peculiar finale is the last we see of Captain Archer in the live-action "Star Trek" universe. Still, if you ask "Star Trek: Enterprise" producer and writer Michael Sussman, more Archer could (and by all rights, should) be on the way. 

Sussman's vision is to make a show inspired by "The Next Generation" sequel spin-off "Star Trek: Picard," with the focus on Archer's later years as the president of the United Federation of Planets. He revealed in an interview with TrekMovie that Bakula is on board with the idea, too. "One of my aspirations would be that the series could do for 'Star Trek' what 'Andor' did for 'Star Wars,'" Sussman said. "It's a show where you can tell adult stories about adults and tell them in a very grounded, realistic way."

Michael Sussman planned out a whole future for Scott Bakula's erstwhile captain in the "Star Trek: Enterprise" Season 4 Mirror Universe episode "In A Mirror, Darkly, Part II." In the episode, a screen briefly shows a future version of Archer's Starfleet personnel file, which details his exploits well beyond the end of the series. The bio, Sussman told TrekMovie, was born out of necessity. "It occurred to me that someone on the writing staff, not the art department, needed to write this graphic," he said. "Somebody needed to think about this, right? This was going to be a graphic that spelled out Archer's life and career after the series ended."

While writing the graphic, Sussman took the opportunity to strap a political rocket on Archer's back. According to the bio (which is technically canon because it's visible to the audience), the character goes on to serve in a number of important Federation positions, from ambassador to Andoria to Federation councilman, and finally, president. 

Armed with a rough outline of the prospective Archer-centric series and Bakula's enduring star power, Sussman has already discussed the project (the working title of which is "Star Trek: United") with franchise boss Alex Kurtzman's people. Whether the show takes off remains to be seen, but Sussman is optimistic about the project's future: "The hope is that Paramount is planning to invest more in 'Star Trek' on television, and they've been very clear about how they want to make Paramount+ a real player in the streaming space," he said. A "Star Trek" take on "Andor" with Bakula as the lead certainly seems like a potentially solid step toward that goal.