Not to say you're wrong, after all it's all subjective, but I couldn't disagree more.... I find Bakula's Archer is probably the most consistently 'human' of all the Trek captains and the very beating heart of the show.
As I say, by no means am I picking a fight, but it's interesting how polarising this show can still be twenty years down the line...
No worries. I didn't take it as you trying to pick a fight. I'm glad his performance works for you.
This is just to illustrate some of the frustrations I have with Bakula's acting choices, not to pick a fight, but I found myself comparing his acting choices to those of Joel Kinnaman playing the character of Ed Baldwin on
For All Mankind. Baldwin and Archer are similar characters in some ways -- both have a background as experimental pilots, both spacefaring pioneers, and both can be hotheads sometimes. Bakula plays Archer's anger in these really large, telegraphed, playing-to-the-cheap-seats ways; you can do that sort of thing in acting for the camera, but it usually needs to be done in a way that's stylized, that somehow suggests a level of irony or self-awareness -- intentional camp. Bakula makes these choices that are just a bit too big for the camera IMO, but it does it without any irony or camp. The effect is that it comes across as
uncontrolled anger -- he just seems like an immature person who can't regulate his own emotions.
Kinnaman, on the other hand, plays Baldwin's anger as something that simmers under the surface. When Ed Baldwin is angry, it has to build first before it explodes; he doesn't just go from zero to shouting in two seconds. There's also a level of steely resolve that Bakula can never quite muster in my eyes. To me, Bakula never really seems like a
leader -- there's always this undercurrent of insecurity and indecisiveness to his performance, even though the text never
acknowledges that insecurity or indecisiveness.
Finally... Bakula just does not have the vibe of a man who's been in a fight. He just does not come across as a tough guy. When he shouts at T'Pol, "You have no idea how much I'm restraining myself from knocking you on your ass" in "Broken Bow," it doesn't come across as a credible threat (unless Archer is in the habit of beating people who seem physically weaker than him). It comes across as petulance from someone who has never actually been in a fight with someone who can challenge him. I find myself not really believing that he's an experienced pilot; he just does not have the vibe or swagger of one. Kinnaman, by contrast, very much has the vibe of someone who's been in a fight and can hold his own.
Basically, in a lot of ways, Ed Baldwin on
For All Mankind is the character Jonathan Archer should have been, and Kinnaman is giving the performance Bakula should have given.
