Jonathan Archer

File:Jonathan Archer.jpg
Caption:	Captain Jonathan Archer in 2151
Gender:	Male
Species:	Human
Father:	Henry Archer
Mother:	Sally Archer
Serial Number:	SA-022-9237-CY
Actor:	Scott Bakula
File:JonathanArcher2154.jpg
Caption:	Capt. Archer in 2154
File:Archer-2161.jpg
Caption:	Archer in 2161

Jonathan Archer (played by Scott Bakula) was Captain of the first full-fledged Starfleet starship, Enterprise. In that role, he was responsible for greatly expanding Earth's presence in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants and making first contact with more than a dozen species, among them the Klingons, Andorians, and the Xindi.

Childhood

File:Young Archer.jpg

Archer as child.

Jonathan was born in 2112 to Henry Archer, the renowned warp scientist, and his wife Sally. Despite being born in upstate New York, Archer spent his entire life in San Francisco. From an early age he wanted to join Starfleet; as a child he often built model spaceships with his father. (ENT: "Broken Bow", "North Star")

As a child, Archer achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. (ENT: "Rogue Planet") He was called to the principal's office only once, for passing notes to Katy Bentley. (ENT: "The Council")

Henry Archer died from Clarke's Disease when Jonathan was only twelve, leaving his mother to raise him. (ENT: "Cold Station 12")

A few years before Starfleet was chartered Archer gave serious thought to serving on a cargo ship, but decided against it. ("Horizon")

Early years in Starfleet

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Jonathan Archer in 2143, while observing Starfleet's first warp 2 flight.

When he was 24 and in flight school in San Francisco, Archer met Margaret Mullin, with whom he became romantically involved. The night before he graduated, he asked her to marry him. She turned him down, as she did not want to become a "Starfleet widow." ("Twilight")

As a commander, Archer was one of four test pilots in the NX Program in the 2140s. In 2143, he achieved warp 2.5 with the NX-Beta together with A.G. Robinson. That same year, Archer also befriended Charles Tucker. ("First Flight")

Later in the 2140s, Archer was on Titan as part of the Omega training mission together with Tucker. As a malfunction with Tucker's environmental suit occurs, Archer saves his life by preventing him from taking off his helmet on Titan's surface. ("Strange New World")

Around that same time, Archer also had been romantically involved with Erika Hernandez, who would later become commanding officer of Columbia. However, Jonathan discontinued the relationship, since he became her superior officer. In 2154, after Erika advanced to the rank of captain herself, both would revive their relationship. ("Home")

In 2150, he was ultimately selected as the captain of Enterprise. ("First Flight")

Commanding Enterprise

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Enterprise (NX-01) in 2151.

Archer's early missions as captain of the Enterprise included the return of stranded Klingon officer Klaang to the Klingon homeworld after he was attacked by the Suliban.

In 2151 Archer and the Enterprise made first contact with the Andorians at the Vulcan monastery at P'Jem. Though initiatlly suspicious of humans due to their alliance with the Vulcans, the Andorians gained some measure of trust, particularly in Archer, when he assisted them in exposing the Vulcan sensor post hidden on P'Jem. Though the decision resulted in the destruction of the ancient monastery it helped forge a close relationship with the Andorians, in particular General Shran, which would later prove invaluable when the Andorians came to the assistance of the Enterprise during the Xindi mission in the Delphic Expanse.

In March 2152, after it appeared his ship's mission was over because of the destruction of the mining colony on Paraagan II, Archer was transported to April 9, 2151 by Crewman Daniels, who revealed the Suliban were responsible for what had happened. Returning to 2152, Archer used knowledge given to him by Daniels to board a Suliban stealth-cruiser and prove what they had done. As a result, Silik demanded Archer, and to save him Daniels transported him to the 31st Century, causing a major disruption in the timeline that apparently destroyed Earth. Archer and Daniels were able to repair the timeline, but Archer managed to learn that he was vital to the creation of a "United Federation of Planets" in the future. ("Shockwave, parts I and II")

Soon afterwards, Archer would make a regrettable first contact with the Romulan Star Empire ("Minefield").

In late 2152, Archer was captured by the Klingons after assisting Rha'daran rebels. Put on trial on Narendra III, he was sentenced to labor in the dilithium mines on Rura Penthe, but managed to escape. He was hunted by the Klingons for this offense, at first through bounty hunters like the Tellarite Skalaar (resulting indirectly in Archer making human first contact with the Tellarites) and then directly by Duras. ("Judgment", "Bounty", "The Expanse")

The Delphic Expanse

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The Xindi superweapon in 2154.

After the Xindi probe attack on Earth in 2152, Archer was given a new mission: The search for the Xindi superweapon, which required entering a dangerous region of space known as the Delphic Expanse, in order to find the ones responsible for the attack, and prevent them from launching their superweapon to destroy Earth. It would take nearly six weeks before Enterprise would come into contact with an actual Xindi, and even then, he proved to be of little help, directing Archer to coordinates that contained nothing but a field of debris which used to be a planet.

In September 2153 Archer was transformed into a Loque'eque. Even after being cured by Phlox, Archer continued to suffer from a residual infection and strange dreams of the Loque'eque city. ("Extinction")

Archer suffered a mild concussion from an encounter with a spatial anomaly in October 2153. ("Twilight")

In an alternate timeline, the anomaly infected Archer's hippocampus with interspatial parasites, causing anterograde amnesia by impairing the synaptic pathways that allowed him to form new long-term memories. Though the crew tried to keep Archer up to date so he could function as captain, the Starfleet Command Council eventually relieved him of command; he spent most of his time in his quarters. Earth was destroyed in 2154, but he remained there until 2156 when Enterprise reached Ceti Alpha V. T'Pol took care of him for nine years, when Phlox arrived from Denobula with a cure. Destroying one of the clusters of parasites, Phlox and T'Pol discovered that destroying them now destroyed them in the past. As Enterprise was boarded by Xindi forces, Archer initiated a subspace implosion, eradicating the remaining parasites and thus preventing himself from ever having been infected in 2153.

During his time in the Delphic Expanse, Archer was constantly forced to bend the morals he once adhered to. Though he told T'Pol he could not save humanity if he lost what made him human, Archer committed several "gray" acts, including the torture of an Osaarian pirate, creating a clone of Charles Tucker named Sim, and killing three Xindi on a listening post. At that point he declared he was not going to order any more deaths, instead choosing to personally destroy the superweapon, despite attempts by T'Pol and Daniels to talk him out of it. However, the Xindi intercepted and captured him, though they released him after a lengthy interrogation. ("Azati Prime", "Damage")

In another alternate timeline, Enterprise was flung to the year 2037 while en route to the Xindi Council planet. Archer decided that the ship would become a generation ship, and that the crew's descendants would be the ones to complete the ship's mission and stop the Xindi superweapon. Archer eventually married an Ikaaran woman named Esilia. One of his descendants was Karyn Archer. ("E²")

In February 2154, Archer went before the Xindi Council to convince them to not launch the Xindi superweapon at Earth. He had a hard time, but quickly made an ally of Degra. The other Xindi-Primate councilor, Jannar, and Kiaphet Amman'sor soon came around to Archer's side as well, but Commander Dolim betrayed the Council and stole the weapon. ("The Council")

Archer was believed to have been killed having been aboard the Xindi superweapon as it exploded while approaching Earth. ("Zero Hour")

Homecoming

Archer, after defeating the Na'kuhl and ending the Temporal Cold War, would return to Earth with Enterprise. He would then be sent on a mission to stop a group of rogue Augments, relics of the Eugenics Wars thawed out by Arik Soong. Following the defeat of the Augments and the recapture of Soong, Earth's embassy on planet Vulcan was bombed, resulting in the death of Archer's friend Admiral Forrest. Although a Vulcan splinter group, the Syrrannites were blamed, Soval urged Archer to travel to their hideout in Vulcan's Forge and find the truth. Accompanied by T'Pol, Archer would meet their leader Syran there. Syran was secretly carrying the katra of Surak, and as he was dying of wounds from a desert storm he transferred Surak's katra to Archer. ("Storm Front, Part II", "Borderland", "The Forge", "Awakening", "Kir'Shara")

His actions guided by the katra of Surak, Archer would meet with the remaining Syrannites led by Syran's lieutenant T'Pau, and then find the long lost Kir'Shara, the original teachings of Surak, and avert a war betwen Andoria and Vulcan. This also resulted in the dissolution of the Vulcan High Command. No longer would the Vulcans hold back humanity's advancement into space; for Archer it was a lifelong dream fulfilled. The event was mutually beneficial: Vulcan society now reverted to the more altruistic and logical path Surak had originally intended, and Archer gained a greater insight into Vulcans than ever before as a result of having carried the katra of Surak himself.

Archer would later become embroiled in high-level galactic intrigue when he rescued Commander Shran from the destruction of the Kumari, which Shran blamed on the Tellarites. However, Archer discovered that it was truly the Romulan Star Empire that was trying to destabalize the entire region by manipulating other galactic powers into fighting one another using a Romulan drone-ship. Discovering the ruse, Archer organized a landmark combined fleet effort of Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites to search for the Romulan vessel. Archer began the first steps in uniting these disparate races against a common enemy.

Later Career

Archer's command of Enterprise ended in 2161, after which he signed the charter ratifying the Coalition of Planets which would ultimately lead to the formation of the United Federation of Planets.

Counselor Deanna Troi's line in "These Are the Voyages...," in which she states "this alliance will lead to the founding of the Federation," suggests that the charter which Archer was to sign at that point in 2161 was not the Federation Charter, but rather the charter of the Coalition that lead to the Federation's incorporation. Since the Federation has already been cofirmed to have been incorporated in 2161, this would seem to indicate that the Coalition gave way to the UFP within the same year. It's also possible that the Coalition of Planets was simply renamed the United Federation of Planets later in the year, in which case, the charter which Archer is about to sign in this episode may be considered the Federation Charter.

After the founding of the Federation, Archer went on to serve in the Federation Starfleet. At his retirement from Starfleet, Archer was Chief of Staff at Starfleet Command, with rank of Admiral. Archer became an honorary member of the Andorian Imperial Guard in 2164, Federation Ambassador to Andoria in 2169, a representative on the Federation Council in 2175, and ultimately President of the United Federation of Planets in 2184, where he served for eight years. ("In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II")

For the biographical display seen in "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II", writer Mike Sussman wrote a final section of text that didn't end up being visible on screen, stating that Archer "...died at his home in upstate New York in the year 2245, exactly one day after attending the christening ceremony of the first Federation Starship Enterprise, NCC-1701." Note: Mike Sussman himself has said this information might not be canon.

Place in history

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Starfleet biography of Archer, circa 2268.

Archer was considered by John Gill as being "the greatest explorer of the 22nd century", and was an integral part of the formation of the United Federation of Planets.

The Federation named several planets after him, in honor of his contributions: Archer's Planet in the Gamma Trianguli sector, and all the planets of the Archer system, which includes Archer IV, the first M-class planet explored by Enterprise.

Also, the biography's given dates of 2150 as the start of Archer's command of the Enterprise and 2160 as the end of his tenure are, of course, incorrect. In the series finale, it was specifically stated that the ship had been out in space for ten years, and it is known from the start of the series that the ship was launched in 2151. The reason for the mistake is that the writers did not realize the dates would be legible on certain television screens.

Archer was originally supposed to be named Jackson, but eventually the name 'Jackson' was switched to 'Jonathan'. The script of Broken Bow establishes that Archer is nine years old in the very first scene of Enterprise and 39 in 2151.

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