What Happened To Scott Bakula's Captain Jonathan Archer On Star Trek?
"Star Trek: Enterprise" Captain Jonathan Archer (played by Scott Bakula) might not have been as refined and diplomatic as Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) of the Starship Enterprise or as cool under pressure as Deep Space Nine's Commanding Officer Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks). But as a pioneer of Terran interstellar exploration, Archer proves himself to be one of the most influential figures in the "Star Trek" universe. The son of warp five engineer Henry Archer (Mark Moses), Jonathan grows up to be a vocal advocate for Earth's journey into space while captaining a ship his father helped to design.
Despite the Vulcan Council's efforts to delay Earth's entry into the world of space exploration, a diplomatic near-crisis involving the Klingons gave Archer the opportunity he'd been waiting for, forcing Starfleet to launch the Enterprise much earlier than planned. With a crew Archer put together in a matter of days, the captain would lead Starfleet's first warp-powered interstellar space exploration mission. With his trusty dog Porthos by his side and one of the spiciest crews in "Star Trek," Archer would face off with Klingons, get caught up in a temporal cold war, and form one of the hottest bromances this side of the Alpha Quadrant. Even after his return home, Archer wasn't through carving his name into Starfleet history. After signing the charter that would lead to the eventual creation of the United Federation of Planets, Archer is made admiral, embarks on a long political career, and eventually helps christen James T. Kirk's Enterprise.
How Archer helped build the Federation
As recounted aboard the holodeck by Riker (Jonathan Frakes) in the "Enterprise" series finale, "These are the Voyages...," Archer retires in 2161 before signing the Federation charter. Although "Enterprise" ends with Archer's retirement, the two-parter "In a Mirror, Darkly" gives some pretty big spoilers, as revealed when mirror universe Hoshi (Linda Park) reads through Starfleet records while aboard the prime universe ship the Defiant. Since the Tholians brought the ship over from 100 years in the prime universe future, alt-Hoshi, and alt-Archer are able to read a complete history of their prime universe counterparts. According to those records, prime Archer "earned an impressive list of commendations during his career," with historians declaring him "the greatest explorer of the 22nd century." Starfleet records also reveal that Archer has two planets named after him.
Although alternate Archer cuts her off, eagle-eyed viewers who screencap the computer screen Hoshi is reading from can get a complete history of Archer's post-Enterprise days. After his time aboard the Enterprise, he earns the rank of Admiral and becomes Chief of Staff at Starfleet Command before his retirement. He also serves as a prominent ambassador for several years and works as a Federation Councilman before getting elected to the United Federation of Planets presidency in 2184.
In 2245, he attends the NCC-1701's christening, before peacefully dying the following day. With so many productive post-spacefaring years during the foundational years of the Federation, a growing contingent of fans have said they would like to see Paramount create a "Star Trek" series that follows Archer through his political career. Such a series could focus on the growing pains of humanity's evolution to the more enlightened post-scarcity world we see in "Star Trek: The Original Series."