Archer played porlly by Bakula ?

[Shakabutt]

Hey guys ,i just rewatched some season 3 episodes and i found something weird ,there are times in wich Scott does some really bad acting ,the lines come to forced and not naturally ,i mean i know he is a good actor ,but why the poor performance on ENT ? and i'm not saying this in comparison to Connor or Jolene ,but it seems to me that Dominic Keating's acting for example comes very natural ,without the voice pauses ,i don't mean to be to critical but its so obvious ,it took me out of the hole story and left me wincing some times .... what do you guys think ?

[justTripn]

I didn't consider it bad acting, just weird mannerisms. Kind of like William Shatner's odd phrasing! That kind of stands out to me, as I rewatch OS episodes now--not that we'd ever want to change Shatner's performance! Archer is a littly goofy-looking/sounding, but I prefer that to too polished/generic. I like him (Archer).

[Rigil Kent]

The problem, IMO, is two-fold. First, the character was not as well thought out as he should have been by the creators of the show. It's obvious that they had a beginning point and an ending point in mind with him, but really didn't know how to get there. Throw in the element that they didn't seem to know exactly what Archer was supposed to be (super explorer ala Kirk, or super diplomat ala Picard, or super soldier ala Sisko), and you have the almost schizophrenic personality that we saw on the small screen where he's basically a different person from episode to episode.

Second, they did not tailor the character to Bakula's strong points as an actor. Frankly, he doesn't do loud, obnoxious anger very well, so the instances where he displays these qualities come across as forced and faked. To me, Bakula rarely seemed completely comfortable in Archer's skin as opposed to Sam Beckett.

But, that's just my opinion, and worth exactly nothing.

[enterprikayak]

In a way, *I* think Scott B played Archer too well. Like, they wrote him super-erratically, acting one way this week, another way the next week, and inexplicably flinging and eating his own feces the next. And Bakula acted the heck out of each script as it landed in his lap. So if it called for him to be all pissy and act crappy and mad, he did it, and did it well. And we we're all, "Wtf? Why's the captain such a random, inexplicable pissant?"

He was written that way. And whether he meant to or not, or whether he liked it or not, or whether he had a choice or not, Scott Bakula just aced however the script called it that week. And so, since so many of the writers seem to come from T'Poptarts cage (see alcohol post 6/22/07) (ie they are monkeys bashing at a typewriter) Archer was a fundamental tool in many episodes.

I feel the fault was in the scriptwriting.

[Shakabutt]

I sometimes wonder if the writing staff really sat down and had a long chat about Archer : "Hey guys what do we want this guy to be like ?" ,especially Sussman ,in the episodes writen by him Archer magicaly developts super skills ,and in the next he is your average Joe in space captain ,in Anomally he has super commando skills taking the job away from Hayes or Malcolm on the preparation for boarding scene ,i mean he was suposed to be the explorer no ? In Twilight the universe falls apart without him ,another wild fantasy of Sussman's , in this episodes Archer practically is the ship ,all the other crewmen are like decor ,except for T'Pol who is there to take his flak and be the weak carachter to bring out the SUPER in Archer.

Among the number of things that hurt Archer's carachter ,Sussman's writing is one ,yeah i have no problem with him being important and heroic ,but the key to the universe ? please....

[Rigil Kent]

Which is, as ekayak pointed out, a weakness in the script, not the actor. One cannot polish a turd, after all.

And you can't blame any one single writer either; Coto was just as bad with the Super nonsense as Sussman. Who was it that wrote that Super!Archer & Sidekick!T'Pol Amazing Desert Adventure arc?

[enterprikayak]

One cannot polish a turd, after all.

Some people would beg to differ:


I, however, would not be one of these people.

[Rigil Kent]

Okay ... maybe I should have said that, even if you polish a turd, it's still a turd.

[Shakabutt]

And you can't blame any one single writer either; Coto was just as bad with the Super nonsense as Sussman. Who was it that wrote that Super!Archer & Sidekick!T'Pol Amazing Desert Adventure arc?

The Forge - Written By: Judith Reeves-Stevens & Garfield Reeves-Stevens

Awakening - Written By: Andre Bormanis

Kirshara - Written By: Michael Sussman

[Rigil Kent]

The Shipment, written by Chris Black & Brent V. Friedman
Desert Crossing, Story By Rick Berman & Brannon Braga & Andre Bormanis
The Seventh, written by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga

See? You can't blame all of the "Super" episodes on Sussman.

[Shakabutt]

I didn't say that i didn't want a Captain important for the future Rigil ,and heroic ,i just don't aprove of Sussman's vision of Archer , not relying on his crew ,a one man ship with T'Pol at his side .

In The Shipment he relied on the Macos and Malcom ,he just made friends with the monkey man .They worked together ,and i don't remember any of the carachters becoming victims of his skills and actions .

In Desert Crossing .....Trip didn't like desserts ,he couldn't just let him die ,i mean he didn't walk along the dessert with his chin up singing and draging Trip by the collar .


The Seventh ,they were trying to develop trust and loyalty between T'Pol and Archer ,but yeah it came of lame .

In most of Sussman's episodes Trip and the rest of the crew has little importance to the story ,they are just there coz you can't write them of .

[Rigil Kent]

I didn't say that i didn't want a Captain important for the future Rigil ,and heroic ,i just don't aprove of Sussman's vision of Archer , not relying on his crew ,a one man ship with T'Pol at his side .

I would argue that Berman and Braga were more guilty of that than he was since they were, after all, in charge of the show.

In The Shipment he relied on the Macos and Malcom ,

He did? I specifically remember him outshooting the MACOs and the senior tactical officer. He didn't need them with him because they were so incompetent.

In Desert Crossing .....Trip didn't like desserts ,he couldn't just let him die ,i mean he didn't walk along the dessert with his chin up singing and draging Trip by the collar.

So the younger, in better shape character is suddenly weakened by simple proximity to Super!Archer.

And how as Super!Archer any better in Awakening (written by Bormanis) where he doing extensive physical exertion on Vulcan with absolutely no discernible difficulty. Again, it's not just Sussman whose guilty of this...

In most of Sussman's episodes Trip and the rest of the crew has little importance to the story ,they are just there coz you can't write them of .

I think you're exaggerating and picking the worst of the worst to make your point. Look at the following list of episodes that Sussman wrote:

• "Strange New World" with Phyllis Strong (Excellent non-Super!Archer)
• "Civilization" with Phyllis Strong (I don't recall seeing Super!Archer in this one...)
• "Shadows of P'Jem" with Phyllis Strong
• "Fusion" with Phyllis Strong (Total crap episode where Archer & T'Pol are stupid - no Super!Archer here 'cause he got his ass kicked by The Rapist)
• "Detained" with Phyllis Strong
• "Dead Stop" with Phyllis Strong (Excellent non-Super!Archer)
• "The Catwalk" with Phyllis Strong (Non-Super!Archer)
• "Future Tense" with Phyllis Strong
• "Regeneration" with Phyllis Strong
• "Bounty" with Phyllis Strong
• "Anomaly"
• "Twilight" (Worst case scenario of Super!Archer)
• "Stratagem" (Excellent non-Super!Archer)
• "Hatchery" (Excellent non-Super!Archer)
• "E²" (Excellent non-Super!Archer)
• "Home" (Excellent non-Super!Archer)
• "The Augments"
• "Kir'Shara (episode)" (Worst case scenario of Super!Archer)
• "Affliction"
• "Babel One"
• "In a Mirror, Darkly"
• "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II"

[Shakabutt]

I think you're exaggerating and picking the worst of the worst to make your point. Look at the following list of episodes that Sussman wrote:

Yeah ,i guess your right ,i haven't seen ENT episodes for a long time,but today i saw Anomaly ,E2 ,and Twilight ,and it left me with the impression that everything revolved around him .Sorry .

But i still think he was an overrated writer with an agenda .

[Rigil Kent]

Well, IMO, the blame for any poor writing/episodes ultimately falls upon the shoulders of the executives in charge of the show (Berman & Braga) because they have final approval/veto power. Like most other things in life, the credit for good stuff goes to the guys at the "bottom" (in this case, the screenwriters) while the blame falls on the people in charge for letting the crap seep through. Whether or not Sussman was an AinTer or not is totally irrelevant IMO and clouds the subject as to whether Archer was played poorly by Bakula or not.

It all comes down to what the actors have to work with...

[enterprikayak]

Kir'Shara (episode)" (Worst case scenario of Super!Archer)

Though I generally agree with the observation that ¡Stupidly!Super¡Archer! occurs with frighteningly stupid frequency on the show, one of the few episodes in which I think he SHOULD be ¡Super! is Kir'Shara.

He has Sarek's katra in him and thus should be a lot superer than normal.

Unfortunately, this particular ¡Superness! tends to blend in unfairly with the rest of the ¡Stupid!Superness! (especially happening at the end of the series like it does, after years of ¡Stupidly!Super¡Archer!Scripting) and thus the superifying effects of Sarek are lost to us, and we chalk it up to another case of !bad¡Super!Script!Writing!.

(Which it may also be to some, but I'm just saying, there is some excuse for supericity here, and in fact, a pretty good reason for it).