Bakula Happy To Play A Kirk-Like Captain

Scott Bakula says the vision of Jonathan Archer as a bold, brash, emotional captain in the Kirk mould helped to entice him to play the lead in Enterprise.

"I think we were all pretty much on the same page from the beginning - Rick [Berman], Brannon [Braga], myself and the studio, which is very important - we were all in sync on what kind of guy we wanted him [Archer] to be, and I liked the notion of him being more like Captain Kirk," Bakula said in a video interview at StarTrek.com.

Archer's qualities will make for a more interesting series in the long run, the actor said. "[He's] a more emotional guy, wears his heart on his sleeve, he's prone to acting before he thinks sometimes, he's going to make mistakes, he's going to get into trouble, he's going to cause problems. [These are] all things that I think are essential if you're going to be in a series that's going to run for a while, so that you have things to do with your character every week and you have some variety.

"If you were just this perfect wonderful captain who never made a mistake and was always doing the right thing it would be, I think, boring, not just for me, but for the audience. I think because we were all in the same place, we have a lot of ways to go."

Although Bakula acknowledged that his star power may initially attract people to the series, he hoped viewers would stick around because of the entire cast. "Certainly I think, having somewhat of a reputation before I got here helped get us off really quickly in the beginning. [...] Hopefully that's what people will respond to initially, and then they meet everyone else, this wonderful cast we have going here, and then we're all together."

To download further videos featuring Bakula and Connor Trinneer (Charles 'Trip' Tucker), head over to StarTrek.com.

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