Star Trek: Enterprise was toplined by Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and here are his 10 best episodes. Designed as a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, Enterprise was about the voyages of Captain Archer and the NX-01 Enterprise, Earth’s first warp 5-capable starship allowing for deep space exploration. But Captain Archer’s journey from warp engine test pilot to President of the United Federation of Planets wasn’t an easy one.
With the intrepid yet very much inexperienced Jonathan Archer in the Captain’s chair, the Enterprise NX-01 faces numerous challenges, tests, and threats over its various missions and exploits. Pursued by Klingons, Orions, Suliban, and Xindi factions, and with a bounty on his head, Captain Archer is instrumental in mediating tensions between species and extending friendships between worlds, ultimately playing a significant role in the development and formation of the United Federation of Planets. From his greatest speeches to his biggest learning curves and most important personal moments, here are Captain Archer’s ten best Enterprise episodes.
10 Star Trek: Enterprise Season 2, Episode 22 – “First Flight”
Directed by Star Trek: The Next Generation actor LeVar Burton, “First Flight” introduces Archer’s history as a warp-speed test pilot. While the Enterprise investigates a dark matter nebula, Archer receives news of the death of a former colleague and, in mourning, recounts their work on breaking the warp 2.5 barrier. The experience is a test of loyalty for Archer, and he swings from defending his father’s warp engine’s groundbreaking but ultimately flawed design to breaking protocols and official orders to implement and test modifications to save Starfleet’s warp program. From this learning curve, Archer demonstrates that even at a personal cost, he can and is willing to do what is necessary to accomplish a worthy goal.
9 Star Trek: Enterprise Season 3, Episode 8 – “Twilight”
After Archer is infected with subspace parasites during a rescue of Vulcan Subcommander T’Pol (Jolene Blalock) and subsequently suffers from anterograde amnesia, he is left unable to form any new long-term memories and is relieved of his command. The many ramifications of his condition are emotionally and mentally challenging for Archer (and the Enterprise crew), having to confront significant losses personally and on a grander scale repeatedly. Facing a diminished quality of life, with ongoing supervision and a permanent reliance on others, Archer is forced to confront his new reality in a test of self and trust and forge a new place and role with no newly made memories of who he is or what he has done.
8 Star Trek: Enterprise Season 4, Episode 3 – “Home”
When the Enterprise returns to Earth in “Home,” a culmination of the season 3 Xindi story arc, Archer uses some well-earned shore leave to escape the celebrations and the pressures of captaincy. He’s at odds with the fanfare, bowing under the weight of responsibility and loss. It’s a significant moment where he begins to reflect on and deal with the reality of his actions over the previous year – stealing a warp coil from a vessel he leaves stranded lightyears from home, torturing an enemy for information – things he would never have previously contemplated. As he slowly struggles between degrees of blame and grief, duty and accountability, he realizes he’s no longer the same person he used to be.
7 Star Trek: Enterprise Season 2, Episode 19 – “Judgment”
Accused of conspiring against the Klingon Empire, Captain Archer is put on trial and faces the death penalty. Exploring on a surface level the repercussions of conflicting ethics in different cultures, “Judgment” pits the harsh prospect of an unpleasant fate against Archer’s innate, if slightly naive, altruism, humanity, and respect for others. When he responds to a distress call and chooses to assist 27 refugees, Archer earns the Klingon Empire’s ire and becomes entangled in political factionalism. Separated from his ship and caught between the court’s agenda and the apparent disinterest of his appointed advocate, Archer must rely on himself to employ resiliency and adaptability alongside communication and diplomacy skills to survive.
6 Star Trek: Enterprise Season 3, Episode 10 – “Similitude”
“Similitude” serves as an invitation to a conversation about ethics. When a vital crewmember is injured, Archer and others decide on a morally questionable course of action to save his life. Besides the ethical dilemma, “Similitude” provides an insight into the internal conflicts and struggles that Archer faces throughout his captaincy – particularly during Star Trek: Enterprise‘s Xindi storyline, where Earth’s survival is consistently at stake. Archer must face, question, and ultimately cross his moral lines to achieve the greater good or most significant advantage. The inward turmoil and subsequent effect of these impossible choices are substantial, with Archer both physically and mentally growing darker and increasingly lost as the mounting costs of his decisions begin to take their toll.
5 Star Trek: Enterprise Season 3, Episode 2 – “Anomaly”
In another instance of an ethical violation committed for the greater good, this episode contains one of the darkest Star Trek moments and poses, ‘Do the ends justify the means?’. When Enterprise encounters pirates, and with time running out to save Earth, Archer takes drastic – and desperate – action to learn everything he can about the Xindi. In this episode, Star Trek: Enterprise’s Captain Archer tortures a prisoner. It’s a difficult moment for multiple reasons – morally wrong, counter to the ideals of his rank and uniform, and providing irrefutable evidence that Archer has been dramatically, perhaps irredeemably, affected by the mission’s requirements. To see the Captain brought so low is a significant moment in Star Trek: Enterprise.
4 Star Trek: Enterprise Season 3, Episode 19 – “Damage”
The Enterprise is left non-operational and without a warp coil after a devastating attack, rendering its mission to save Earth a lost cause and all of their actions to date invalidated. When Enterprise encounters an Illyrian space vessel, Archer attempts to make a trade but ultimately faces another ethical dilemma. He attacks the Illyrian ship and steals its warp coil to return power to the Enterprise’s engines, arguing that this action was necessary to prevent Earth’s destruction and save billions of lives. It’s another critical episode for Archer and his morality, confronting him with great responsibility, inevitable failure, and devastating loss, finally forcing him to make an impossible selection between two evils and to shoulder the burdens of his choice.
3 Star Trek: Enterprise Season 4, Episode 11 – “Observer Effect”
Captain Archer must work against time when two Enterprise crew members contract a fatal silicon-based virus. With two undetected non-corporeal beings interfering in the virus’ progression and observing the crew’s behavioral responses, Archer risks his own life to treat the infected and prevent exposure to the ship’s doctor. When the treatment fails, Archer – now infected and reeling from emotional loss – is confined to the same space as his dead and dying crew members. Archer’s self-sacrifice, depth of duty to his friends, and willingness to take action at his own expense surprises the alien observers. Becoming aware of their presence, exhausted and grieving, he successfully berates and reasons with them, provoking significant change in their experiments.
2 Star Trek: Enterprise Season 4, Episode 21 – “Terra Prime”
“Terra Prime” delivers one of Captain Archer’s most vital speeches of Star Trek: Enterprise, alluding to the significant leading role he will later play in the formation and as President of the United Federation of Planets. It’s a decisive moment, showcasing Archer’s ability to inspire – efficiently bringing people together through shared ideals, principles, and understandings. The speech is even more poignant following an attack from xenophobic hate group Terra Prime. The episode briefly revisits Archer’s pre-Starfleet outlook, balancing it against his firmly cemented moralistic idealism and professionalism as an experienced Captain to effectively reveal how many challenges he faced over the four seasons and how far he has come as both a Starfleet officer and a person.
1 Star Trek: Enterprise Season 3, Episode 18 – “Azati Prime”
Captain Archer embarks on a suicide mission when he pilots a shuttle on a one-way course into Xindi territory. Refusing anyone else the task in his stead, Archer navigates sense from chaos as he is pulled simultaneously in multiple directions by opposing forces. Resolute yet humbled, he later demonstrates provocative zeal during a grueling interrogation when his mission fails. His balance of emotion, physical skills, and intellect – clearly shown in this episode – reveal much about his character. Archer’s greatest strengths and flaws are evident here: courage, curiosity, intuition, and impatience. From using humor to taunt his captors to initiating unlikely alliances and negotiating with agents from Star Trek: Enterprise‘s Temporal War, Archer’s increasingly complex character is remarkable, sacrificing, and occasionally reckless.
Captain Archer’s character develops significantly over four seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise as he faces challenges, rivals, and missions he could not have imagined before launch. Though far from an easy journey, Archer’s adventures aboard the Enterprise forged a boy who dreamed of the stars into a well-traveled, seasoned, interstellar President of an organization that would unite worlds.
