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Re-cast Captain Jonathan Archer

eta: i do believe fixing archer falls not to the actor (scott is a fine actor), but to the writers (and to some degree, the directors-- what was with all that pacing?)

I agree with you 50/50 that it was the writing, but I do think a capable actor would have overcome this to some degree.
Scott demonstrated that he is a capable actor in QL. I think the problem was that Bermaga didn't seem to have a handle on where the show was going and so had no sense of direction for Archer's character either.

Personally I think Keith Carradine would have been superb and a far better captain.
Keith Carradine is a great actor but I wouldn't have cared for the character he played in First Flight. Hyper-confidant arrogant jerk only goes so far for me. Bleah.
 
eta: i do believe fixing archer falls not to the actor (scott is a fine actor), but to the writers (and to some degree, the directors-- what was with all that pacing?)

I agree with you 50/50 that it was the writing, but I do think a capable actor would have overcome this to some degree.
Scott demonstrated that he is a capable actor in QL. I think the problem was that Bermaga didn't seem to have a handle on where the show was going and so had no sense of direction for Archer's character either.

Personally I think Keith Carradine would have been superb and a far better captain.
Keith Carradine is a great actor but I wouldn't have cared for the character he played in First Flight. Hyper-confidant arrogant jerk only goes so far for me. Bleah.

He was a capable actor in QL, but that was years before Enterprise, and personally I don't think he was capable in that. Both Connor, John B and Jolene overcame shitty writing - too many times in my opinion, Scott came across as blank and wooden.

I thought Keith was great in First Flight and had all the charisma that I wanted in a Captain. I think the type of Captain he played was what Enterprise needed.
 
I don't think Archer needs a recasting, just a rewriting. Same for pretty much all the characters, though to varying degrees. The only character I'd say really needs recasting is Travis. I was fine with the rest of the actors.
 
Gary Cole
Gary Sinise
Gary Puckett and The Union Gap.

All right, not the last one. But the first two would've been good.
 
I was fine with Scott Bakula, but I Hated the way Jonathan Archer was written.
I often wished that Scott would have insisted that the scripts be adjusted to make his character less of a jerk. The man is supposed to be heroic not a prick. There were many times when Archer would say something rude to a member of his crew and I just wanted to punch him. By the time he received Surak's Fraking Katra, I was ready to kill him. It's never a good thing to want to write death fic for a Star Trek captain. It's even worse when you really enjoy writing it, because it's so cathartic.
 
Fraiser's actor would have made a fine Starfleet Captain, I've always thought. It's too bad that he was only used once in that episode with the death-fic time loop in it.

Christopher Eccelstein would make an interesting captain, too. But that might just be my missing him from my favorite show talking through me.
 
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