Star Trek Communicator | #135 ::.::.:..

This Archer is no straight arrow

by Larry Nemecek

 

What better person to captain the Enterprise than a self-admitted, dyed-in-the wool fan of the original Star-Trek series. And a great leading man to boot.

When Dr. Sam Beckett was trapped "leaping" from person to pivotal person at different points in recent history - the basic premise, of course, of TV's Quantum Leap - he was limited to the years within his own lifetime. Thus, he - and Scott Bakula, the actor necessarily along for the ride - never had a chance to visit the future ...say, 2001. Or even 2151.

But that's all, er, history. As of May 14, 2001, Bakula has inhabited the person of Star Trek's latest - and earliest - captain, Jonathan Archer of Enterprise. But no temporary leap, this: the Golden Globe winner, with years of TV, film, and musical theatre behind him as well as that show the "Leapers" love, has his sights on a seven-year Starfleet TV mission.

What's more, for the first time ever, the lead actor of a Trek series freely admits to being a dyed-in-the-wool fan of the original Star Trek from youth.

"I loved the relationship that those folks had - especially the three lead guys," he says, describing like so many others what drew him to Gene Roddenberry's baby. " I thought there was a lot of humor. We all smiled at the effects back then: somebody just the other day asked me about a Gorn , I hadn't thought about him in a long time, but oh, my gosh, it was just so terrible. But they had treated it so seriously that it was so [believable]- I love that. "

"Quantum Leap was creating something - out of nothing," he adds, comparing that fan favorite to Trek, "and this is taking something, that is kind of indescribable - there's nothing else like it - and perpetuating it in a new way. We want the new show to be great - not just because it's been done several times here, but because it's a huge franchise for the studio and you certainly would not want to be the captain of the ship that went down!"

It would seem he has little to fear: Enterprise is hardly the Titanic, except the anticipation factor - by cast and crew as well as the audience. News of his casting earned the show an instant "good buzz among" the fans and TV critics alike. So, how did co-creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga hook him?

They just talked about going back to a feeling of more the Kirk/Spock/Bones relationship onboard," he says."More about the relationship between the crew - the captain and his officers - as opposed to a relationship with the universe. And that, right away, was much more appealing to me - it was much more of a human approach in terms of emotional side, the volatile relationships and things going on aboard the ship that he's not always happy about. And then, being the first one to go out [into deep space]. All of these things were very appealing to me - being an avid fan, certainly, of the original Star Trek series. And to get an opportunity to go before it (in time) - it was a good carrot to put out in front of me"

Still, fan or no fan, the actor says he had to assure himself that this series would have something to offer in all respects.

"My biggest fear coming here was that the stage crew that's been here forever, and had just rolled over the last huge Voyager episode and had a week off and were back shooting the pilot, would be, like, 'Yeah, just get in the chair, whatever, and we'll shoot you.' But they are so jazzed and excited...it's been great so far."

And, in turn, the work of Herman Zimmerman's vaunted art department has made its mark on him - as has Bob Blackman's costumes, Michael Westmore's makeup, Marvin Rush's photography ...

"I'm still in awe of the sets, period," he says getting wound up. "l just can't believe anybody can build sets like this....and then they explained to me: 'Well we get to depreciate them for six years,' 'Ohhh I see, I get it now.' So the set is still more than I ever thought it would be.  It feels cozy but there's plenty of room to move around.
It's closer and more connected - two steps from the chair and [Travis] is there, [Hoshi] is right there."

Bakula, too knows about those fans fearful that Trek continuity maybe sacrificed in the new show, but he says - they like the crew at times - may be forgetting one point.

"The mantra [on stage] has become, 'We've never done this before.'" he smiles. "It may come up: ' This is how such-and-such works.' 'How do you know that?' 'Well, because we did -' 'Oh, no no no... we didn't do this before, it's never been done before.' The biggest arguments are about, "Well, which button do you push now to make this open and this close? " and "Which opens the com?" That kind of stuff.  "Well on Voyager-"

"Nope, don't tell me what you did Voyager.  Cause we're buttons and switches - the ship's hands-on now. Things slide and pull and push, We're not talking to the turbolift."

And it's that very proximity to our time 2001 - the closest for a Trek series ever that Bakula sees as key to the fun of story telling.

"The thread right now is figuring out what works, how to approach other ships, how to make first contact - 'Whoops, they're shooting at us - that wasn't the way to do it!' Or 'I know how to get out this one.... oh, that doesn't work.' And each of the seven members of the crew are having their own experiences with being out out in space all of a sudden, .and coming up against aliens and different things.

LeVar "Geordi" Burton, the series' first actor-director (on "Terra Nova"), won Bakula's praise for not falling into that trap after his TNG days, and offering instead his unique empathy. "He's certainly familiar with what it's like to start up, and what that energy's like in creating the relationships. More than any- thing in terms of guidance, when you start a show, it's how you find those little places and let everyone have their own voice."

Despite that boyhood yen for the original series, Bakula admits that he's not kept up with its successors. No wonder: he's had a life, thank you. As his own large fan club is well aware, the 46-year-old St. Louis native with Tony and multiple Emmy nominations has been mixing it up of late, including a turn in Oscar-winning American Beauty. But in the end it was Paramount TV head Kerry McClug gage, his old friend from Quantum days, who suggested to Berman that Bakula would be perfect for this Enterprise.
"Over the long haul -when you're faced with a series that's going to be around a long while, hopefully- [you hope] that you're not stuck in a corner somewhere with [a character that] you're trying to invent fun things for him to do. But what's great about this character is, he has a place to go."

And where he's going has a lot of direction already. "There's no Federation, no rules- and that's what was exciting about it," Bakula points out. "It's the Wild West, and there's nobody out there to complain to. My character and the ship are taking Earth out into the universe. How we do that and how we present ourselves, the mistakes that we're gonna make, with a very fallible captain - that makes it exciting,"

"And the casualness," he enthuses. 'And different clothes. And we get dirty, and bleed!"

Oh, yes, those "clothes" - the handsome post-NASA cotton jumpsuits, much closer to our styles today than those sleek designs of Kirk and later- have already drawn comments from some quarters. "We're not in any Spandex!" Bakula laughs, gratefully. "They're not at all like the later ones -we have pockets! [Jonathan] Frakes showed up and he said, 'Y'know, we would have killed for a suit like this ...you've got a zipper and a pocket!' Sorry, Jonathan! 'And we had to be strapped in and everything!"' But Bakula has no sympathy, and just chuckles again.

But he who laughs last better watch out. If Archer is to be the closest thing to the bare- knuckled Kirk since James T. himself, that equals a lot of what Hollyood calls "running and jumping." "I just heard that I get my ass kicked in the next episode, actually!" Bakula laughs (in "The Andorian lncident"). "It's pretty, physical. And they're enjoying writing to that ... the pilot was very physical. But it's a very physical cast; everyone's very able to get up and go. There's an open opportunity to do a lot of things."

Which must also mean romance for the captain -albeit the short-lived variety, as already seen in the pilot "Broken Bow." "I think it's going to be a pretty sexy show," Bakula predicts, staying mum for the most part. "There's some interesting stuff in the first four to six hours. Definitely some sexuality."

If anything, Bakula says the series has surprised him in at least one way.

"Just how hard the language was, and so precise," he reveals. "It's not technobabble, but they are very concerned that what they put on the page gets played back, and that's always, an adjustment to make. I've done a lot of work where it's not as precise as that. " Almost as unexpected, he adds, was how much fun he and his cohorts had right off the bat.

"Leadership roles to me are the most fun" he says of his captaincy, "because the reason I got into this business in the beginning was that I liked the interaction with the other actors, that kind of camaraderie."  An avid youth athlete, he enjoyed team sports best for the same reason.

"I'm corny that way, I guess, but it's nice to see if you can create that group dynamic," he continues. "And that's very special- you see it in all the successful shows, like West Wing or Law and Order - the shows where you have the sense of a group of people with one goal and they're all working together. ...If I weren't an actor, I would probably be somebody who worked in some kind of a team. And as an actor that's what we do - you're with a crew of 40 or 50 people and you have a common goal every day. That's the joy of doing this kind of work, for me: can we create this? Can we make this magic with everybody together?"

Long-time fans know that Bakula has already scratched that creative itch by directing on Quantum Leap and elsewhere, but don't look for it anytime soon on this mission.

"I just want to focus on the show and my work in it and the relationships,' he explains. "But again, Rick and Brannon are great about letting their actors direct at times. I'll see how I feel at the end of the season."

Chances are Bakula by then will still be walking - another big difference between Enterprise and his first hit series.

"Quantum was me and Dean (co-star Stockwell) and that was it; this is having six other cast regulars. I've had more days off already than I had the entire four and a half years of Quantum Leap!" he laughs, still savoring the realization. "It allows me to have more of a life away from the set."

And, for him, that means his second mate Chelsea and kids aged 2, 5, 10 and 17 - "and that probably says it all," he laughs as he tics off the ages. "I have my family, so I spend most of my downtime with them. I used to like to go to the movies but don't seem to get there very often anymore.  I love to go to the beach and still play a lot of sports, love to run and work out."

Talk of family reminds the actor that, outside the Leapers, few really know much about him. With 10 years studying and performing in New York and national tours - musical theatre is "my first love," he reveals - he first arrived in Los Angeles in a musical in 1986. In quick succession he guested on the pilot of Designing Women with four follow-up shots, had two sold but short-lived sitcoms - Gung Ho on ABC and Eisenhower & Lutz for CBS - and then sat out the 1988 writer's strike with a Broadway show back in New York, Romance Romance, which netted him a Tony nomination as Best Actor. It was the next gig back in L.A. that landed him numerous Emmy, Golden Globe and Hollywood Radio & TV nominations, not to mention several wins as Actor of the Year by the Viewers for Quality Television. In 1994 VQT also kicked in an award for best Specialty Player honoring his recurring Peter Hunt on Murphy Brown.

"For the people who don't know me," he adds, "I would just say that I'm a stage actor who's tried my whole career ...to do as many different kinds of roles as I possible can, and try not to be limited in terms of one specific type. It's just the nature of where I come from in stage to never try and be pigeon-holed. That's worked to my advantage at times and to my disadvantage at times. "

Last May, Bakula hit the ground running on a Monday, having signed off his contract just the Thursday before in time for fittings and the first all-cast table reading. The Hollywood trade papers reported then that the actor had been seeking greater creative input into his captain than past Trek leads, but today he waves that off as untrue.

"The only creative stake I have in it is I want it to be as good as it can be,' he emphasizes. "Rick and Brannon and I talk about character and plot and all that stuff, but not in any kind of a 'veto power' way."

"Rick and Brannon are incredibly available," he adds, "which is really nice. To pick up the phone and call and say, 'It's a great script, I have two issues I don't understand; I don't get this' or 'I don't think that I would do this' - I'm at a point where I can say that. Or 'It doesn't seem to me that this is where we want the captain's character to go yet.' And they are fantastic."

Despite that, there's still plenty of between-the-lines invention for Bakula to make the character his own, as any actor would. He's still waiting to see a particular phrase or gesture catch on as a trademark, on the order of "Engage" or "Make it so" or "Do it"

"Not yet-the best handle I've had so far is 'Let's go!'," he laughs. "I've been down this road enough times. Obviously the chore is to not make it appear studied or forced... I know from doing Quantum that your moves and your process are often times poured over, so you want to make sure you don't get yourself into any corners you can't get out of...  At the same time, I love the game, the creative give- and-take with the fans, because I like giving little pieces and little stuff - 'Why did he do that? What is that all about?' - if I know what's down the road, what's coming.

In this kind of a series you get to enjoy that."

For one story thread, however, the actor sees a great benefit to staying in the dark.

" I don't know what that overall arc plan [for the renegade Suliban], but I know there is a definite overall future you wonder about early on," he admits. "I don't know when we get back to that but I know we are going back and there's a bigger plan out there than our guys on our little ship know about. ... Which is actually kinda neat - I'm learning as the character goes along what's out there. ...So I can just play it as real as I can, and go with it.

With Star Trek and science fiction, though, "real" can be a stretch - with aging, youthening, gender swapping, species converting, and mind - and body-hijacking all a part of the bag of tricks used by villainous aliens and ruthless diseases. The conceit is no stranger to Bakula - after memorable turns on Quantum Leap as a black man in the segregated South, a pregnant woman, and even a lab chimp - but he's pushing to keep such "wacky plots" at bay on Enterprise for now.

"I hope that's a ways away," he says. "We really are so early into it, and there's so much fun to be had with that ... You don't want to get into the really tricky, fancy stuff. To me, that's your Year 3, Year 4 kinda shows, where we're looking for something to keep everyone excited. We have plenty of stuff right now."

And if fans don't see him in person or online right away, this assured veteran of the Leapers' conventions asks for their patience. "I have no plans right now," he smiles. "My goal right now is to give everything I can to each episode and really get the show off to a great start, promote that, and let everybody get their feet underneath them. Then we'll see where everything else takes us. I want to deliver a great show and hopefully a great captain and continue the tradition."

Speaking of tradition, the question is almost inevitable: might we see old Quantum Leap co-star Dean Stockwell - the largely unaffected holo-observer Al to Sam's often messy adventurer -in a guest turn on Enterprise?

"Wouldn't that be great?" Bakula smiles. "It has to be; we gotta do it. But put him in a mask So he can be miserable for once".