Please list them in any order! 
Top Five Jonathan Archer Command Decisions
- Thread starter CaptainMatt
- Start date
Why don't you start us off by listing your five choices, CaptainMatt. 
That time he kept his big nose out of.... oh wait.
1. The Andorian Incident: Archer orders T'Pol to record the evidence that Vulcan was spying on Andoria. Shran: "Archer, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Shran's sense of honor and loyalty will come in very handy in the coming years -- particularly during the Xindi mission.
2. Stratagem: Archer seizes Degra's ship and tricks Degra into believing they have become friends since being imprisoned together. He learns things, including the location of Azati Prime where the weapon is being built. He also learns the names of Degra's children (most importantly, Trenia, the one who died) which will help him get Degra's attention at Azati Prime.
3. Azati Prime: Archer takes the suicide mission, compelling Daniels to intervene. Daniels gives him a Xindi medal from the future. Archer is able to convince Degra that humans and Xindi will one day be allies against the interspatial aliens. That alliance actually begins at Azati Prime.
4. United: Archer chooses to fight Shran in the Tellarite's place to keep the alliance intact. Fortunately his crew found a way out of having to actually kill Shran.
5. Observer Effect: Archer endangers his own life so Phlox can continue seeking a cure for the silicon-based virus before it can spread. His appeal to the Organians saves Hoshi and Trip.
2. Stratagem: Archer seizes Degra's ship and tricks Degra into believing they have become friends since being imprisoned together. He learns things, including the location of Azati Prime where the weapon is being built. He also learns the names of Degra's children (most importantly, Trenia, the one who died) which will help him get Degra's attention at Azati Prime.
3. Azati Prime: Archer takes the suicide mission, compelling Daniels to intervene. Daniels gives him a Xindi medal from the future. Archer is able to convince Degra that humans and Xindi will one day be allies against the interspatial aliens. That alliance actually begins at Azati Prime.
4. United: Archer chooses to fight Shran in the Tellarite's place to keep the alliance intact. Fortunately his crew found a way out of having to actually kill Shran.
5. Observer Effect: Archer endangers his own life so Phlox can continue seeking a cure for the silicon-based virus before it can spread. His appeal to the Organians saves Hoshi and Trip.
Uh...well, he told a Klingon to go to hell once. That was kind of awesome.
You weren't specific. Are you looking for Top 5 Best or Top 5 Worst command decisions?
Or maybe a combination such as...
Entering the Forge, good decision. Not dying there, bad decision. Wait, bad example. Intentionally cut off all communication with your ship before an investigation is complete so you can go play policeman wanting revenge? Yep, Archer was horrible.
Or maybe a combination such as...
Entering the Forge, good decision. Not dying there, bad decision. Wait, bad example. Intentionally cut off all communication with your ship before an investigation is complete so you can go play policeman wanting revenge? Yep, Archer was horrible.
Archer was a crazy dumpster hobo up until S3, then he became a Sisko/Kirk hybrid that used to be a crazy dumpster hobo.
Trufax, Reed was the only consistently competent character throughout S1.
1.) That time he violated the Prime Directive in order to arm the primitive inhabitants of a world with advanced weaponry just so the Klingons wouldn't have bragging rights. Oh, wait, that was Kirk.
2.) That time he sat back and watched a genocide take place literally right in front of his eyes. Oh, wait, that was Picard.
3.) That time he poisoned a planet. Oh, wait, that was Sisko.
4.) Those times where he.... i.) stranded his own crew far from home with no means of rescue for no apparent reason, ii.) allowed aliens whose sole purpose in life was to harvest people's organs against their will to go free, iii.) instructed his security officer to help the new hostile-to-Starfleet recruits acclimate by literally putting them through hell, iv.) refused to form alliances with aliens which were needed to safeguard the lives of his crew, instead sticking blindly to a demonstrably failed policy, v.) routinely put his own moral code above the lives and safety of his crew, vi.) personally killed a member of his crew, vii.) threatened to murder his Chief Medical Officer because he told him he might no longer be fit for command, viii.) completely shut himself off from his crew and made his subordinates do his job for him during a time when crew morale was very low because he was slightly depressed, ix.) tortured a man and never had any moral qualms about it, going so far as to say that his XO was wrong to stop the torture, x.) allowed his crew to create scores of sentient holograms which could threaten the ship, xi.) put more value on the lives of those holograms than on those of members of his crew, and xii.) tremendously altered the course of history by massively changing the past in order to save certain members of his crew he liked while letting others die. Oh, wait, that was all Janeway.
Who were we talking about again?
2.) That time he sat back and watched a genocide take place literally right in front of his eyes. Oh, wait, that was Picard.
3.) That time he poisoned a planet. Oh, wait, that was Sisko.
4.) Those times where he.... i.) stranded his own crew far from home with no means of rescue for no apparent reason, ii.) allowed aliens whose sole purpose in life was to harvest people's organs against their will to go free, iii.) instructed his security officer to help the new hostile-to-Starfleet recruits acclimate by literally putting them through hell, iv.) refused to form alliances with aliens which were needed to safeguard the lives of his crew, instead sticking blindly to a demonstrably failed policy, v.) routinely put his own moral code above the lives and safety of his crew, vi.) personally killed a member of his crew, vii.) threatened to murder his Chief Medical Officer because he told him he might no longer be fit for command, viii.) completely shut himself off from his crew and made his subordinates do his job for him during a time when crew morale was very low because he was slightly depressed, ix.) tortured a man and never had any moral qualms about it, going so far as to say that his XO was wrong to stop the torture, x.) allowed his crew to create scores of sentient holograms which could threaten the ship, xi.) put more value on the lives of those holograms than on those of members of his crew, and xii.) tremendously altered the course of history by massively changing the past in order to save certain members of his crew he liked while letting others die. Oh, wait, that was all Janeway.
Who were we talking about again?
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Way to go, Admiral!
I can't produce a definite top five right now, but I'd say one of his best command decisions was taking his ship into that expanse the Vulcans and Klingons were so squirmy about and going after the Xindi before they managed to complete their Earth-annihilating superweapon.
He was not a crazy dumpster hobo! He just needed some time to adjust, give him a break!
I can't produce a definite top five right now, but I'd say one of his best command decisions was taking his ship into that expanse the Vulcans and Klingons were so squirmy about and going after the Xindi before they managed to complete their Earth-annihilating superweapon.
Admiral Shran, it's a logical fallacy to defend Archer's actions merely by pointing out the questionable and morally reprehensible actions of other captains. 
I don't defend the actions in "A Private Little War" (though I think "the Apple" would have been a better example), "Homeward", "For the Uniform", or numerous examples in Voyager, but such decisions don't validate Archer's poor ethical conduct.
1. "Dear Doctor": Archer condones the genocide of an entire species, for no better reason that Phlox's horoscope told him that he was suppose to become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds. (Technically, he spouts a bunch of inaccurate, targ manure about evolution that would have Darwin spinning in his grave.) I realize Phlox is not human, but serving on an Earth ship he might have at least looked up the Hippocratic Oath. Archer has even less of an excuse. He even attempts to justify his stance in the "Observer Effect" when he finds himself on the receiving end of of a species casual indifference to death. Of course, Archer tries to argue that the situations are completely different, after all Archer condemned billions to a slow horrible death for something the species could not control, the Organians are merely watching three people die due to their own stupidity. On the bright side, had they died Archer and Co. could have had their stories told in the 22nd Century edition of the Darwin Awards.
2. "A Night in Sickbay": This episode is the culmination of over a season's worth of reckless behavior on Archer's part. By rights, half of his crew should probably be dead by now, but this is the first episode where there actually seem to be consequences, namely his dog gets sick. Aside from being the episode where the show officially jumped the shark, ANiS showcases Archer's inability to learn from past mistakes. Archer endangered his ship and crew by his reckless behavior. In "Strange New World" he ignored the advice of his first officer to scan the planet to make certain it is safe to disembark, and takes down an away team (including his dog). In "Breaking the Ice" he seems willing to let two of his crew die rather than ask the Vulcans for help. These are only three examples, but are hardly isolated incidents. Actually, I'd have to say they are more like par for the course. Archer naturally uses the fact that his dog is dying as opportunity to reflect on how his decisions to date have repeated endangered those he cares about... oh wait, that would be rational, and we can't have him stop acting like a teenager now. So, the man i supposedly a trained diplomat blames the locales and threatens to pee on their sacred tree.
3. "The Andorian Incident": Archer decides to go harass some Vulcan monks. I found it a bit ironic that JiNX-01 lists this as the #1 positive command decision. Archer turns over Vulcan military intelligence to the Andorians. The Vulcans are supposedly Earth's ally yet Archer doesn't think twice about betraying them to a species who had spent the episode beating him up, and threatening to rape his first officer (but she is a Vulcan after all, it's not as if she was human). Yes, the faithful Trekkie may know that Andorians will one day be members of the Federation, but all Archer is aware of is what happens in the episode, which I suppose includes the fact that the Andorians seem to hate the Vulcans almost as much as he does. Somehow I doubt fans would look as sympathetically on Archer if the antagonists in the episode had been the Klingons, Romulans or Cardassians...
4. Fortunate Son: Archer helps pirates against human civilians. These aren't the mostly harmless folks on the internet who steal intellectual property. These are the genuine rape, murder, and pillage type pirates. Pirates who have repeatedly attacked these human merchants. Perhaps Archer sympathizes with the pirates since, as Praetor_Shinzon points out, in "Damage" he engages in a little piracy of his own. So, apparently in Galactic Piracy versus Civilization, Archer is on the side of piracy!
5. "Broken Bow": Leaving Earth. I could go in to the prevalence of Ends Justify the Means philosophies, especially in season three, but the fact is most of this could have been prevented if the Terrans stuck to their solar system, or at least assigned a different captain to their ship. Archer seems to have been given the position purely out of nepotism. Personally, I don't find Archer's blatant racism (or specism?) to be at all endearing, especially in a series that is suppose to serve as an optimistic and hopeful view of humanity's future. Archer holds the Vulcans in contempt for holding humanity back, but if he is the best Earth has to offer and his actions are anything to go by, the Vulcans seem to be justified in their belief that humanity wasn't ready to swim and should have stuck to the kiddie pool.
I don't defend the actions in "A Private Little War" (though I think "the Apple" would have been a better example), "Homeward", "For the Uniform", or numerous examples in Voyager, but such decisions don't validate Archer's poor ethical conduct.
1. "Dear Doctor": Archer condones the genocide of an entire species, for no better reason that Phlox's horoscope told him that he was suppose to become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds. (Technically, he spouts a bunch of inaccurate, targ manure about evolution that would have Darwin spinning in his grave.) I realize Phlox is not human, but serving on an Earth ship he might have at least looked up the Hippocratic Oath. Archer has even less of an excuse. He even attempts to justify his stance in the "Observer Effect" when he finds himself on the receiving end of of a species casual indifference to death. Of course, Archer tries to argue that the situations are completely different, after all Archer condemned billions to a slow horrible death for something the species could not control, the Organians are merely watching three people die due to their own stupidity. On the bright side, had they died Archer and Co. could have had their stories told in the 22nd Century edition of the Darwin Awards.
2. "A Night in Sickbay": This episode is the culmination of over a season's worth of reckless behavior on Archer's part. By rights, half of his crew should probably be dead by now, but this is the first episode where there actually seem to be consequences, namely his dog gets sick. Aside from being the episode where the show officially jumped the shark, ANiS showcases Archer's inability to learn from past mistakes. Archer endangered his ship and crew by his reckless behavior. In "Strange New World" he ignored the advice of his first officer to scan the planet to make certain it is safe to disembark, and takes down an away team (including his dog). In "Breaking the Ice" he seems willing to let two of his crew die rather than ask the Vulcans for help. These are only three examples, but are hardly isolated incidents. Actually, I'd have to say they are more like par for the course. Archer naturally uses the fact that his dog is dying as opportunity to reflect on how his decisions to date have repeated endangered those he cares about... oh wait, that would be rational, and we can't have him stop acting like a teenager now. So, the man i supposedly a trained diplomat blames the locales and threatens to pee on their sacred tree.
3. "The Andorian Incident": Archer decides to go harass some Vulcan monks. I found it a bit ironic that JiNX-01 lists this as the #1 positive command decision. Archer turns over Vulcan military intelligence to the Andorians. The Vulcans are supposedly Earth's ally yet Archer doesn't think twice about betraying them to a species who had spent the episode beating him up, and threatening to rape his first officer (but she is a Vulcan after all, it's not as if she was human). Yes, the faithful Trekkie may know that Andorians will one day be members of the Federation, but all Archer is aware of is what happens in the episode, which I suppose includes the fact that the Andorians seem to hate the Vulcans almost as much as he does. Somehow I doubt fans would look as sympathetically on Archer if the antagonists in the episode had been the Klingons, Romulans or Cardassians...
4. Fortunate Son: Archer helps pirates against human civilians. These aren't the mostly harmless folks on the internet who steal intellectual property. These are the genuine rape, murder, and pillage type pirates. Pirates who have repeatedly attacked these human merchants. Perhaps Archer sympathizes with the pirates since, as Praetor_Shinzon points out, in "Damage" he engages in a little piracy of his own. So, apparently in Galactic Piracy versus Civilization, Archer is on the side of piracy!
5. "Broken Bow": Leaving Earth. I could go in to the prevalence of Ends Justify the Means philosophies, especially in season three, but the fact is most of this could have been prevented if the Terrans stuck to their solar system, or at least assigned a different captain to their ship. Archer seems to have been given the position purely out of nepotism. Personally, I don't find Archer's blatant racism (or specism?) to be at all endearing, especially in a series that is suppose to serve as an optimistic and hopeful view of humanity's future. Archer holds the Vulcans in contempt for holding humanity back, but if he is the best Earth has to offer and his actions are anything to go by, the Vulcans seem to be justified in their belief that humanity wasn't ready to swim and should have stuck to the kiddie pool.
^^ Interesting interpretation of "top five."
Ouch.
Had you paid more attention you might have noticed that I listed the episodes IN THE ORDER THEY WERE AIRED.
Admiral Shran, it's a logical fallacy to defend Archer's actions merely by pointing out the questionable and morally reprehensible actions of other captains.
I was just joking, you know. I don't deny that Archer made some questionable decisions, but my point is so did all the other captains. So, he's not the complete bottom of the barrel that many people make him out to be.
It's MY dog, he is very precious to me and he will PEE where he WISHES.
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