scifi weekly | 7th September 2001 ::.::.:..

scifi weekly interview with Patrick Lee

7th September 2001

Scott Bakula makes a quantum leap for a Trek with producer Rick Berman 

Enterprise, UPN's highly anticipated new Star Trek series, will offer Trekkers an entirely new take on the 35-year-old franchise, taking it back to its beginnings. Co-created by longtime Trek producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, Enterprise will be set in the 22nd century and chronicle the first tentative steps of the human race into the galaxy, aboard the first warp ship to bear the famous name.

But though Enterprise will be something new, it comes from Trek veterans, including Berman. Berman was hand-picked by Trek creator Gene Roddenberry to co-pilot Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987, and assumed the mantle of executive producer upon Roddenberry's death in 1991. He has been involved in every Trek series and movie since then.

Enterprise also stars someone familiar to genre fans: Quantum Leap star Scott Bakula, who will take on the role of Capt. Jonathan Archer. He joins a cast that includes Connor Trinneer, Jolene Blalock, Dominic Keating, Anthony Montgomery, Linda Park and John Billingsley.

Berman and Bakula spoke to reporters during last month's UPN fall preview in Pasadena, Calif. The following combines comments made during a press conference and afterward in interviews with Science Fiction Weekly. Enterprise debuts with a two-hour episode at 8 p.m. Sept. 26.

Scott Bakula, can you describe Capt. Archer?

Bakula: My guy grew up in the system. His dad was an engineer in the [warp-drive] project. And worked on developing the warp five engine. So [Archer]'s kind of a brat of the space program. He's a little bit brash. He's a little bit in people's faces. He doesn't like being told what to do per se. He's a great captain, I think. But he's going to make some mistakes. He's very human. He's more similar to Kirk than to Picard. ...
It's been a blast. I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd be standing toe to toe with a Klingon screaming in my face and spitting all over me.

These are the first pioneers going out into space, and their experiences are all for the first time and the first everything. So we're finding it all very interesting to try and make all these things new, because we're all so familiar with what Star Trek has been. And we have to kind of unlearn all of that and start from scratch. So this character is bold and brash and, yes, the closest to Kirk—even though I'm a hundred years before Kirk—than any of the other captains.

This franchise probably more than any other job on television carries with it an almost certainty of a long-term commitment. Can you talk a little bit about the thinking that went into it for you at this stage in your career, signing on to something that's almost guaranteed to be five to seven years?

Bakula: Well, at this point in my career, one thing I've learned is you never count on anything, so if we get through the first 13 [episodes], and we're still rolling, I'll be happy. ... I approached it really as I approach everything. At the end of the day, they put a two-hour script in front of me that I just thought was fantastic and a character that I really wanted to play, and that I thought should it go for a while, there would be room to do a lot of different things with it, and there would be a lot of opportunity for this character with the other characters on the ship. So to me it's like a gift that this kind of job exists in this town. ... It seems all of a good thing.

Might you possibly write or direct an episode of Enterprise?

Bakula: Possibly. Rick is wonderful that way. Not all executive producers in this town are. My last, ... [Quantum Leap executive producer Donald P.] Bellasario, was that way. But Rick has been very forthcoming. He knows that I direct. But I really want to get my feet firmly on the ground here and devote all my attention to this first season and getting a solid start. I really want the show to be great and not worry about anything else right now.

You've already dealt with one cult fan base. How are you going to deal with an even larger one?

Bakula: Hopefully, we'll all blend together nicely, and everybody will get along. It should be great, actually. I'm really looking forward to it.

What's it like dealing with a huge fan base?

Bakula: It's kind of like when you're on stage in front of a live audience, you know that every move is being watched and analyzed, and hopefully then in the midst of that, people get lost in what you're doing, and they buy everything you're doing, instead of thinking about what you're doing. ... I've had a certain experience with it already with Quantum Leap, a very similar kind of fan style and fan feelings about the show. So in a way, it makes you prepare harder, it makes you work harder. ... I had a great experience with the Quantum Leap fans, and I do to this day, so it's not a bad thing for me. They were always very respectful of me and who I am and what I do, and to be quite honest, I'm not anticipating it to be that much different.

Will there be a romance between Archer and T'Pol, the Vulcan character played by Blalock?

Bakula: No. There's tension, but not friendly tension.

How would you describe their relationship?

Bakula: Very dynamic and very strident.