I disagree the characters needed to be recast. It all boils down to writing.
What they did with Archer worked for ENT as it was, because it shows growth for him. But if they wanted Bakula to be Sam Beckett, with several doctorates under his belt, but out of his depth compared to the rest of the crew because of their experiences in deep space that bred cynicism in them (ex. like Jack Bauer or characters out of The Shield,), they would have done that. That might have worked if that version of Archer is the archetype for every Starfleet captain afterwards.
Blalock wanted T’Pol to wear gloves or use a napkin when eating something like popcorn, to make her character more authentically Vulcan. And was refused. Considering Berman’s idea of the 25th century was “tighter catsuits and smaller tricorders”, she was fighting an uphill battle with them just trying to make her depiction of Vulcans consistent with TOS. I know it’s been pitched for her to be half-Romulan to help explain expression of her emotions. But then they may as well have established her to be an embedded Romulan spy altogether, who took the place of the real T’Pol, considering the period the show is set in. If T’Pol was established to be a v’tosh katur Vulcan from the beginning, that might have solved a lot of problems with the character.
Montgomery does wisecracking, determination, loss, and wonder well. He’s weak with anger. And untested with blasé. He did not get enough episodes that played to his strengths.
Park can act. Even in the weakest episodes of the second season, Park was always a highlight. The problem is that Star Trek has never written the position of comms officer well. Even in the past decade run with DIS, PIC, and SNW, it’s a position overlooked. Sure, SNW’s writing for Uhura is going gangbusters, but the position itself (and the other crewmembers staffed there) doesn’t really matter. They don’t know what to do with it. If Hoshi was written as a science officer, instead of a comms officer, Park would have been given more to do.
