In Step with Scott Bakula

By James Brady

November 25, 2002, Parade Magazine

Captain Kirk, Captain Picard, Captain Janeway- and now Captain Archer.
Scott Bakula, as Archer, takes us inside the new Star Trek series, Enterprise.

The original Star Trek and its various sequels have been among the most enduring franchises in TV history. And even before this latest incarnation of Star Trek, titled Enterprisebegan its first season on UPN this fall, I got to talk with its star, Scott Bakula. How did Bakula, as "Capt. Jonathan Archer" and the rest of the cast and crew feel about their voyage and their vehicle?

"It's an exciting show that has a sensuality about it," said Bakula.  "There's a lot of excitement on the set. I wasn't a Trekkie myself at first, but then in the early '70s I got hooked when I was in college.  We'd all get together in our dorm room and watch."

As a prequel, Enterprise takes place in an earlier era of space travel. So, is the sci-fi hardware less high-tech, more primitive than on Star Trek?

"The television technology is more advance." said Bakula." But the ship is much smaller and has a submarine feel to it. So much so that [the producers] went to San Diego and spent time on a sub. The hardware is more hands-on. We're talking less to computers, and there is more pulling of levers. I think the audience is going to feel, since this is set not that far into the future, that there's more a sense of possible. It's wagon train time, like the Old West, much closer to the essence of Roddenberry [Gene Roddenberry, who created the show back in the '60s]. We're not in leotards, but in jumpsuits made of cotton and with pockets." Then Bakula added with a laugh: "We're the first Star Trek crew ever to have pockets."

Bakula (the name is Czech Bohemian) appeared in the 1999 Oscar winning film American Beauty. "From day one, when I first read the script of American Beauty I wanted to be a part of it," he said. "Obviously it wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but it was about what's going on behind the closed doors of America." He also was in the film Life as a House with Kevin Kline, released last month, but Bakula may be best known for his 4 1/2 years on TV in Quantum Leap, a sci-fi series that earned him four Emmy nominations as Best Actor and won him a Golden Globe.

He and Chelsea Field - his "mate," as he calls her - live in Los Angeles with four children between them. Are the kids Trekkies? "The 5-year-old and the 2-year-old are too young," said Bakula, "and my 17-year-old daughter is a Star Wars and X-Files fan, but my 10-year-old son will love this."



Brady's Bits
Scott Bakula calls this new role as Captain Archer on Enterprise a dream assignment.
"It's a long-term commitment ," says Bakula. "And I am still allowed to do other projects."
How does he gets along with the producers and the writers?
"They listen to me," he says. "The writers are very conscientious guys." Through his own BPI Productions he starred with Elizabeth Perkins in a TV movie for Showtime called What Girls Learn, which aired last month. He also starred in the film Role of a Lifetime, a contemporary love story set in London. "It's completed, and now we're looking for a buyer," he says. There's yet another facet to Bakula's talent: The guy can sing, which he has done at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, the Kennedy Center - and even as the voice as "Danny the Cat" in a Warner Bros, animated musical Cat's Don't Dance.




You can view the exclusive photos from the photo session for Parade Magazine here.
Special thanks to Kara Leigh and trekenterprise for the photos.:)
Thanks to to Janey, Bastblack and Cathy for helping me to locate a copy of this magazine.:)