Star Trek The Magazine | January 2002 ::.::.:..

STAR TREK THE MAGAZINE

January 2002, Volume 2, Issue 09

 

SCOTT BAKULA "I'm finding out all kinds of things about him" Star Trek's latest captain is leading, rather than following in the footsteps of Kirk, Picard, Sisko and Janeway. Scott Bakula talk about his groundbreaking role as Enterprise's Captain Jonathan Archer.

Unusually for STAR TREK, the new series features an actor who is already a major star; Scott Bakula is famous not only for numerous TV, theater, and film roles, but also for his five-year leading-role stint as Dr. Sam Beckett in 'Quantum Leap'.

Studio approach
It was the 'Quantum Leap' connection that inspired Paramount to approach Scott in the first place. He says, "Kerry McCluggage and Garry Hart [TV executives] talked to me about it a while ago, before they'd seen a script, to see if I might be interested. The idea of being the first captain on the first starship was very exciting. I told them I'd love to see the script when it came in, and that I'd meet Rick and Brannon if I liked it." Did that mean the studio had him in mind from the very beginning? "I don't believe they did - certainly not Rick and Brannon. Rick and Brannon have a pretty free hand in terms of creativity; Paramount was waiting to see how the script would come out.

"I think I fit the character description pretty well - they didn't re-tailor the part to me. Garry Hart told me when he read the script he immediately thought of me. We'd been looking for a series to do together for a while, but I never dreamed it would be this one."

Scott wasn't convinced from day one that he wanted to sign for the role. "Before I saw the script I was pretty sure it was a long shot," he says. "But after I got the script, liked the character, and met with Rick and Brannon, the only question remaining was, oddly enough, the long-term commitment. It was the old good news, bad news - good news: you've got a job that has a better chance of going six years than any other job in TV! Bad news: you've got a job that has a better chance of going six years than any other job in TV! So I spent a lot of time talking with my family and we all decided to make the commitment together and to do what it takes to get through the long hours and the time apart."

Brotherly relationships
Scott was a big fan of the original STAR TREK series. Asked about his own favorite characters, he says: "That's a tough one. I loved Kirk, Spock, Bones and Scotty together as a group; their relationship, like brothers, was tremendous. They fought together, fought each other, and laughed a lot. You knew they would die for one another." And on the alien side, two characters spring to mind. "Frank Gorshin [Bele, 'Let That Be Your Last Battlefield'] was way out there, as was Ricardo Montalban [Khan]: both brilliant, huge performances."

ENTERPRISE looks like having some spectacular adversaries of its own, as well as familiar faces such as the Klingons and the Andorians; and we have a crew that is very much finding its own way in the Galaxy. Scott is enjoying captaining this untried team and their ship, and has strong views on the way the character and the series should go. He says, "I hope to continually push for humanity: not get lost in the technical aspects of the show," he says. "Make him as physical as possible, and hopefully a romantic hero. I also really want to find a camaraderie level that is our own, but is still reminiscent of the original series." That camaraderie will take a while to develop with T'Pol, as the producers have indicated, but there is already a bond between Archer and his chief engineer. "My sense is that the relationship between Archer and Trip is the most evolved," Scott says. "They have the most history together, and share similar hopes and expectations for exploration and adventure. But there will be plenty of room for all the characters to discover and develop relationships which will all work for us as the show goes on. The less you know about the other characters in a long-running series, the more fun you can have discovering - along with the audience - and growing into the show."

Likeable character
Does Scott find Archer an easy character to play? "I do. I'm finding out all kinds of things about him, but I like him; I like that he's not perfect, but hopefully he has "something" that makes people want to follow him into battle! It's fun to watch him work the crew and their inner relationships to his advantage and try to get the most out of them. I think we see in the pilot his relationship as a child with his father and their mutual love and devotion towards flying and space. We see that transferred to his adulthood in his steadfast desire for an opportunity to achieve his dream, his lifelong goal, of space travel at warp speed. He is a man made for command, combining intelligence, strength, moral fiber, and gut instinct with an almost boyish tenacity for adventure."



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Biography

Scott Bakula's starring role as Dr. Sam Beckett in Quantum leap brought him huge popularity with sci-fi audiences. The show ran for five seasons, and his performance earned him a Golden Globe award, four Emmy Award nominations, and three further Golden Globe nominations; he was also honoured five times by the Viewers for Quality Television.

Acclaimed roles
Scott was born and raised in St. Louis, and moved to New York in 1976 to start his threatical career. A whole host of theatre roles followed; his Broadway debut came as Joe DiMaggio in "Marilyn: an American Fable" and other critically acclaimed theatre roles were the Broadway and LA productions of "Three Guys Naked from the Waist Down" and the LA and Boston productions of "Nite Club Confidential".

He received a Tony nomination in 1988 for his lead role in the musical "Romance, Romance" and he performed at Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl, and in a range of musical theatre roles. He also created the voice for "Danny the Cat" in the Warner Bros. musical "Cats Don't Dance" this along with music and songs from "Quantum Leap" and some of his other musical works has been released on disc.

Scott is also an established movie actor.  His debut was in 1990 in the comedy "Sibling Rivalry" opposite Kirstie Alley; other films include the supernatural thriller "Lord of Illusions", "Major League: Back to the Minors", "Color of Night" opposite Bruce Willis, and the psychological thriller "A Passion to Kill".  He guested in the Oscar-winning "American Beauty" in 1999, and recently appeared in "Life as a House" for New Line Cinema. On TV, his credit include the CBS comedies "Designing Women" and "Murphy Brown", the ABC miniseries "Tom Clancy's Netforce" and the Showtime TV movie "Mean Streak". He also appeared in CBS's "Bachelor's Baby" which he executive produced via his company BPI Productions, based on the Paramount Lot. A more recent production by the company in which he starred was "Papa's Angels", also for CBS.

Latest Productions
Scott's company also recently produced a Showtime TV movie, "What Girls Learn", in conjunction with Paramount Network Television. The film, in which he starred, aired in< October. Another recent project has been the independent film "Ghost of a Chance"

Scott, who has four children aged from 17 to 2,lives in California.