Summary
- Scott Bakula was the first and only choice to lead Star Trek: Enterprise, according to director James L. Conway.
- Casting T’Pol and Captain Jonathan Archer was challenging, but there was no backup option if Bakula didn’t sign on.
- The series premiered in 2001 as a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, featuring an all-new cast and the first Starship Enterprise.
Scott Bakula was the first and only choice to be the series lead of Star Trek: Enterprise, confirms director James L. Conway. Enterprise premiered in the fall of 2001 as a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, charting the adventures of Captain Jonathan Archer (Bakula) and the NX-01, the first Starship Enterprise. Conway directed Enterprise‘s series premiere, “Broken Bow,” and several other popular episodes, with Bakula leading an all-new cast including Jolene Blalock as Vulcan Science Officer T’Pol and Connor Trinneer as Chief Engineer Commander Trip Tucker.
In a wide-ranging conversation on The Shuttlepod Show with Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating about their time working together on Star Trek: Enterprise, James L. Conway was asked about the process of casting the series. Conway verified that T’Pol and Captain Jonathan Archer were the hardest characters to cast and that there was “no backup” if Scott Bakula didn’t sign on to star in Enterprise. Read their quotes and watch The Shuttlepod Show video below.
James L. Conway: The hardest ones to cast were T’Pol, and then we didn’t know about Scott until the weekend before we started shooting. And they hadn’t closed his deal. Everyone was sort of sure it was gonna close but not 100% sure.
Dominic Keating: Did they have a backup?
James L. Conway: No. There is no backup.
Connor Trinneer: Really? It was him or no one.
James L. Conway: Him or no one.
Star Trek: Enterprise Cast & Character Guide
Star Trek: Enterprise introduced new faces to the prequel series set a century before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series.
Scott Bakula’s Star Trek Legacy as Enterprise’s Captain Jonathan Archer
Bakula remains revered by his Enterprise co-stars.
It’s shocking that there was no Plan B if Scott Bakula didn’t sign on to play Captain Archer in Star Trek: Enterprise, but James L. Conway noted that the head of United Paramount Network, Kerry McCluggage, was friends with Bakula from when Scott starred in Quantum Leap on NBC, and they were confident that Bakula’s deal would be made. Elsewhere on The Shuttlepod Show, Conway told the story of how McCluggage hated Captain Archer’s hair when he saw footage of Enterprise‘s pilot, and the production had to redo days of work after Bakula’s haircut had been adjusted to McCluggage’s satisfaction.
James L. Conway told The Shuttlepod Show that Jolene Blalock initially didn’t want to sign on to play T’Pol, but she eventually did don the Vulcan ears. It’s now unimaginable that any other actress could be T’Pol.
As any listener of The Shuttlepod Show knows, Scott Bakula’s former Star Trek: Enterprise cast mates have nothing but glowing things to say about their show’s leading man. Bakula is revered for being a gracious and generous series lead who treats everyone on set with respect. Bakula only occasionally makes appearances relating to Star Trek, such as when he participated in William Shatner’s 2011 documentary, The Captains, and he doesn’t often appear at Star Trek conventions. The Shuttlepod Show awaits Scott Bakula joining them as a guest, and Star Trek: Enterprise fans hope Bakula might one day play Captain Jonathan Archer again on Star Trek on Paramount+.
