Bakula Highlights Social Commentary In 'Detained'

See Also: 'Detained' Episode Guide

Enterprise star Scott Bakula ( Jonathan Archer) recently spoke about how the upcoming episode 'Detained' will address changing social attitudes in the wake of September 11.

"[When] Archer and Mayweather find themselves in what is in effect a space version of an internment camp surrounded by Suliban they are forced to confront their prejudicial feelings," Bakula told Project Quantum Leap. "Obviously this mirrors some of the experiences we've been reading about with regards to encountering Arab-Americans since September 11th."

'Detained' will follow in the footsteps of the Original Series, which was famous for dealing with contemporary issues such as racism and the Vietnam War. Bakula said he holds these allegorical stories in very high regard.

"Certainly the events of September 11th have and will continue to affect the writers and producers of Enterprise and any opportunity to expand upon our emotional and spiritual landscape is time well spent."

With Enterprise's freshman season now drawing to a close, Bakula expressed his pleasure with his character's development over the past year. "I like where Archer is going and because we were guaranteed at least two years of the show, they have been able to play out all our characters slowly - a luxury you don't usually get on network television.

"I think the writers have kept Archer interesting, somewhat mysterious, and emotional which again allows us a lot of different directions to go. I don't imagine there will be much more of Archer's backstory revealed this year, but I'm not positive. I think it is a good thing that we don't know everything about him from A to Z at this point."

But the actor couldn't have gotten from here to there without the support of the viewers. "Fan feedback has been tremendous; everyone is very supportive of not just me, but the whole show," Bakula said. "Life outside the studio hasn't changed too much except that my notoriety is way up; but fans continue to treat my family and me with a lot of respect, which I appreciate very much. My only real fan experience was in New York at the book signing where many fans waited for hours in the cold, but despite the conditions all seemed genuinely excited about seeing me and about the show."

The full interview with Bakula, in which he also talked about his Enterprise action figure and the possibility of a Quantum Leap TV movie, can be found here at Project Quantum Leap. Thanks to Miri for this!

Discuss this news item at Trek BBS!
 Add TrekToday RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fan? Then visit CSIFiles.com!