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Highlights
- Captain Jonathan Archer was instrumental in the formation of the Federation and had a lasting impact on Star Trek lore.
- His legacy continued beyond his command of the Enterprise NX-01 as he achieved the rank of Admiral and later served as President of the United Federation of Planets.
- Archer was considered the greatest human explorer of the 22nd century, and references in subsequent future iterations of Star Trek demonstrate his enduring influence.
Star Trek fans didn’t meet Captain Jonathan Archer until Star Trek: Enterprise was first broadcast in 2001. The show proved controversial with fans as it set the background for the classic series they loved and suffered the franchise’s customary slow start. But by the end of the show’s four seasons, there was no doubt they’d been watching one of the most important figures in Star Trek history.
The commander of the first NX ship launched by the United Earth Starfleet, Archer could travel further than any human captain thanks to its warp-five engine. He helped create a revolution in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, making first contact with many alien species and helping to found the United Federation of Planets. Not only that, he was also the first captain to bring his pet beagle, Porthos, on away missions. But what happened to him after his time aboard the first ship dubbed the USS Enterprise was over?
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Where Was Jonathan Archer At The End Of Star Trek: Enterprise?
Star Trek: Enterprise | |
|---|---|
Created By | Rick Berman & Brannon Braga |
Aired | 2001-2005 |
Starring | Scott Bakula, John Billingsley, Jolene Blalock, Connor Trinneer, Dominic Keating, Anthony Montgomery |
Enterprise’s ending after four short years was controversial as it relied on an intervention from The Next Generation for its big send-off. As the first live-action Star Trek series not to earn seven seasons since the Original Series, the show occupies a lower place in the franchise rankings than it should. But over those four years, the show packed in an incredible legacy for Captain Archer and his crew, creating franchise history up to the formation of the Federation.
In Enterprise’s first season, Archer made a not overly successful first contact with the Klingon Empire, as he was drawn into a confusing temporal war that would last for three years of his command. During his second year, that temporal cold war developed as the Enterprise was unlucky enough to come into contact with species fans knew far better than the crew, like the Romulans and Borg.
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Archer’s second year in command ended with disaster, but a renewed direction, as Earth suffered a devastating attack from an alien probe. A season-long arc through the show’s third year saw Archer and crew travel to the Xindi homeworld to destroy a super weapon that could eradicate Earth. Having convinced the Xindi that humanity wouldn’t pose an existential threat to the Xindi homeworld 400 years in the future, the Temporal War was soon, apparently, resolved. That left the fourth year to examine the crew’s influence on Star Trek as the show took a more confident approach to craft and confirm Star Trek lore rather than trying to work around it.
In year four, the Enterprise tackled augmented humans and helped the Klingons overcome the resulting augment virus that radically changed the warrior race’s appearance to the one seen in the Original Series. There was time to subvert the Orion Slave Girl stereotype that had long been a joke at the franchise’s expense, and even introduced fans to how the captain and his crew fared in the Mirror universe with a story that was both a prequel and sequel to Kirk’s adventures.
Perhaps Archer’s most significant on-screen achievement was foiling the machinations of the Romulans to create an alliance with the Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites. That would be cemented when he played a major role in signing the United Federation of Planets Charter.
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What Happened To Jonathan Archer?
The last time fans saw Captain Archer was just before making a speech at the signing of the Federation Charter, or an immediate precursor to it, in 2161. Strangely, what happened to the captain is mainly recorded not in expanded or continuing fiction or subsequent series but in Enterprise’s final two-parter, ‘In A Mirror Darkly.’ The fan-pleasing trip to the Mirror universe was a prequel to ‘Mirror, Mirror,’ and a sequel to ‘The Tholian Web,’ but mostly a great bit of publicity for the Prime universe Archer.
In ‘In A Mirror Darkly,’ fans discovered what happened to the USS Defiant when it phased from the Prime universe during ‘The Tholian Web’ — it arrived in the Mirror universe, almost 100 years in the future. Naturally, when Mirror Archer’s renegade crew hijacks the Defiant to seize control of the Terran Empire, they can’t help but look at the ship’s records.
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A handy screenshot from the ship’s database revealed that Prime Archer commanded the Enterprise for 10 years between 2040 and 2050. We know that after the Federation Charter was signed, he became ambassador to Andoria in 2069 for six years (five years after becoming an honorary member of the Andorian Imperial Guard). Archer then took up a position on the Federation Council until 2183, and between 2184 and 2192, he was the President of the United Federation of Planets.
At retirement, Archer was listed as Chief of Staff at Starfleet Command with the rank of Admiral. ‘In A Mirror Darkly’ teleplay writer Michael Sussman has confirmed further details to the biography seen in the episode. The screen also recorded that Archer lived to about 133 years and died near where he was born in Upstate New York in 2245. Sussman’s neat intention was to confirm that Archer died one day after the christening of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701.
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Jonathan Archer’s Star Trek Legacy
As Mirror Sato explains in ‘A Mirror Darkly,’ Jonathan Archer’s name is “among the most recognized in the Federation.” The Mirror version of Archer is enraged by his counterpart's success, arguing that, “Great men are not peacemakers; great men are conquerors.” The successful, lauded, and praised counterpart with two planets named after him in the Prime universe haunts and taunts the Mirror incarnation as his paranoia grows and he heads to a typically unsavory end.
According to his profile, historians called Prime Archer the "greatest explorer of the 22nd century,” and subsequent iterations of Star Trek have enjoyed name-checking him. Perhaps the strangest reference comes from the Kelvin Timeline. During 2009’s Star Trek, Kirk encounters Montgomery Scott on the cold and remote research outpost of Delta Vega in 2258. The engineer blames his predicament on demonstrating his transwarp theories by beaming a longer-lived Admiral Archer's prized beagle to who knows where.
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In the Prime universe, Discovery’s first season listed Archer as one of Starfleet's most decorated captains as of 2256, alongside Matt Decker, Philippa Georgiou, and two other captains of the Enterprise, Robert April and Christopher Pike. In Strange New Worlds, Captain Pike references Archer when encountering star fleet personnel from the future in ‘Those Old Scientists.’
Time may have become a far more serious factor had Enterprise received a fifth season. In 2012, co-creator Brannon Braga confirmed that the mysterious ‘Future Guy’ who had helped and hindered the Enterprise during the series would have been confirmed as Captain Archer himself, attempting to correct history from the future.
While from a fan’s perspective, Archer sits in the lineage of iconic Starfleet captains like Janeway, Sisko, Picard, and Kirk, his placement in the timeline means he has to embody Star Trek at the dawn of Starfleet. Thanks to his time and technology limits, Archer was probably the most morally challenged captain fans have seen. He was prompted to make judgment calls that Star Trek had never imposed on other captains, which is saying something considering the extreme circumstances of captains Janeway and Sisko.
As a linking figure between the viewers and the more enlightened crews of the 23rd and 24th centuries, there’s no doubt he was a success despite the tricky assignment. Despite seeing too few of his years aboard the USS Enterprise, the franchise committed to giving him an impressive legacy, and it's likely fans will hear his name again.
Star Trek: Enterprise
- Release Date
- September 26, 2001
- Seasons
- 4
- Creator
- Rick Berman, Brannon Braga
- Number of Episodes
- 98
- Network
- UPN
