Watching Star Trek in college, Scott Bakula never dreamed that he would one day take on the mantle of Starfleet captain.

"I wasn't thinking about being an actor professionally, so it never crossed my mind," the actor recalls. Now, he delights in being part of something that has such tradition attached to it. "I think just the notion of being in this franchise is funny," he says. "There's just something delightful about what we get to do — it's not an hour drama that's about being a legal aid in downtown LA or whatever. The whole thing, to me, is kind of a lark ... We [the cast] all feel lucky to be a part of this — we're at this great studio that is so supportive of this franchise, with good reason, that we get to do a lot of stuff. To this day, I'll walk in and I'll see a set and say, 'Holy cow!'"

Despite having an entire season as Captain Jonathan Archer on Enterprise under his belt, the veteran thespian (he is perhaps best known for playing the lead in sci-fi favorite Quantum Leap) doesn't feel that he's completely settled into the role yet. "I don't know everything about my character yet," he says. "I don't think you really feel like you've settled in until you're getting a script and saying, 'Oh, we did this already and I want to do something else' ... There are so many twists and quirks and areas that we're still exploring, and things that I really don't know the answers to at this point. We've talked about back story, but they haven't really been terribly forthcoming, and it's okay with me, in a lot of ways. I trust that Rick [Berman] and Brannon [Braga] have a great overview of the whole picture of this franchise."

In the beginning, at least, Archer was presented as something of a throwback to the classic days of Kirk, Spock and Bones. Bakula, however, feels that the character has evolved beyond that. "The idea going in was that I was going to be the new Kirk," he remembers. "That makes sense. I was going to be the new captain who was kind of out there having a good time, and enjoying the ladies, and carrying on in true original Star Trek fashion. [But] it just never really felt right ... [One thing] that was a surprise is that there's a different energy when you put a woman, and a Vulcan woman, in that threesome. It just changes that energy. And I think to the good. I think it makes the show not be as predictable as if it were three guys again. I think that that's worked out for us."

Speaking of T'Pol (Jolene Blalock), Bakula speaks enthusiastically of the developing relationship between the Vulcan science officer and Archer, which serves as a sort of microcosm of humanity's interactions with the ever-logical Vulcans. "The biggest challenge that I've had to keep going was my whole Vulcan relationship, my philosophy about who these people are and what they are," he says. "And I thought they did a great job last year of keeping all of us guessing about who the Vulcans really are and what their intentions are and taking them out of that 'goody goodies of the universe' [stereotype] ... I think keeping and watching the evolution of my relationship with Jolene, with T'Pol, finding the balance of that, and changing it, and carrying that into the new season has been interesting, and certainly kept me going. And then ? there's so much to learn about the other crew members."

Indeed, this year is going to see Archer share significant screen time with other members of Enterprise's crew, including Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley) and Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating). In the upcoming episode "Minefield," Reed and Archer spend some quality time together when Reed is pinned to the hull of the ship and Archer must save him. Bakula notes that this particular episode was quite challenging from a special effects standpoint. "We'll be on the hull, and behind us you'll see the nacelles and ? just things that they haven't visually done before," he says. "There's a moment when a ship materializes behind Dominic when he's on the hull — I think it's going to be stunning stuff. But it was a challenge."

Still, Bakula marvels at how far special effects have come since his days on Quantum Leap. "The whole CGI thing has changed so much, and is so much better than it used to be," he says. "When we did Quantum, when Dean [Stockwell] would beam in and beam out, pop in and pop out, we froze! The director would yell 'Freeze!' and then 'Unfreeze!' and then everybody would go back, and he would be there. And then it was 'Freeze!' and he would walk out, and say something funny on the way out, trying to get everybody to laugh, and then 'Unfreeze!' So the world has changed a lot. It's actually a lot easier to do things, and they do so much more now. A lot of the stuff that I was doing, late 80's, early 90's ... were not as complex and exciting, really, as what they can do now. All of the sudden, you'll walk in and the floor's green, the wall's green, the ceiling's green and ? they make everything else?. All you have to do is walk to one place, turn around and say a line and you're in wherever they want you to be and doing whatever they want you to do. So we were flying in space, Dominic and I, flying in space, shot it all against a green screen, and it'll be terrific."

In addition to his relationships with other humanoid characters on Enterprise, Archer has a special bond with his pet pooch Porthos, who is already a favorite among the fans. "The word came down last year: 'Don't make the dog do anything cute,'" Bakula says bemusedly. "What are we going to do? Do we put a bag over the dog's head? I mean, the dog is inherently cute."

One aspect of Trek-dom that Bakula hasn't taken part in just yet is the time-honored tradition of the convention. "I will [do some] at some point," he says. "You know, I have four kids, and the weekends are so precious to me ... I have so many weekends in the year, and I'm flying to New York on one weekend to do press and when I'm doing a fund raiser, or I'm doing a benefit, and you mix all that in, and then you start throwing in a convention or two, it becomes a challenge."

Still, that doesn't mean Bakula hasn't had his share of fan experiences. "The contact that I've had with fans has been really terrific," he says. "A cab driver passed me the other day on the road and honked his horn, and I looked over, and he just saluted me and drove on ... So it's been nice. I haven't sat down and had a lot of long, in depth conversations with fans, but people that I know, friends of mine, they'll tell me what their friends are saying, or I'll get feedback. 'I hate the dog!' and 'We want you to kick some ass,' and 'We want you to kick the Vulcans' ass.' People are always compelled to give you their opinion. So I get a lot of feedback, even though I haven't been out there in conventions."

All in all, Bakula is enjoying his time commanding the NX-01 — even though not everything's in proper working order. "We're all in agreement to try and keep for as long as we can this notion that everything is still new and exciting to this crew," he says. "Things still don't work well. I've said, 'Please, let's not fix the transporter for a while.' Because I love the shuttlepod. As painful and challenging as it is to shoot in, and uncomfortable, it's got its own vibe to it that keeps us away from the easy fix of beam in and beam out ... I'm sure there will come a time when all of the sudden we figure it out if we need it but ? I like that we're still figuring out as we go."

September, 2002