Jonathan Archer is a fictional character in the Star Trek franchise. He is one of the protagonists of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise, where he was portrayed by Scott Bakula.

Archer was the commanding officer of the first starship Enterprise (NX-01) from 2151 to 2161. Archer also played a major role in the formation of Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets, and was later President of the United Federation of Planets from 2184 to 2192. According to a computer display in the episode "In a Mirror, Darkly", historian John Gill considered Archer "the greatest explorer of the 22nd century."

Biography

History

Archer, the son of famed warp engineer Henry Archer and his wife Sally, was born in 2112 on August 4 in Upstate New York, where he spent most of his formative years; he later claimed to have spent the majority of his life in San Francisco. The second-season episode "First Flight" depicts in flashback that he spent many years as a test pilot in the nascent Starfleet's NX program, based in San Francisco.  His dreams of exploring started as a boy. As a youth, Archer earned the Eagle Scout Award, along with 26 Merit Badges, from the Boy Scouts of America. (Mentioned in the episode "Rogue Planet".) He is an avid water polo fan, and often relaxes by watching water polo games.

Archer grew up with a distrust of Vulcans, perceiving them as having held back humanity's progress, particularly with regard to his father's warp five project. As a commander, Archer served as a test pilot in the NX warp trials with A.G. Robinson, Duvall and Gardner. (All mentioned in the episode "First Flight". It is assumed it is this Gardner who becomes Admiral when Maxwell Forrest dies in "The Forge".) Robinson pushed the limits of a test ship, the NX-Alpha, resulting in its destruction. The Vulcans recommended terminating the warp trials, which Starfleet agreed to, until Charles Tucker III (who would later serve as chief engineer under Archer) fixed the intermix ratios, and Archer and Robinson took the NX-Beta, the second test ship, without clearance to prove its readiness. The suspension of Archer did not completely stop the progress of the Enterprise's construction, as the program eventually resumed after a six-month halt.

Seasons 1 and 2 
As a man who loves to travel amongst the stars, Archer learns that being captain is a larger duty than manager and astronomer. He ran into species from all over the quadrant trying to kill him and his crew. Encounters with the Mazarites, Xindi, Tholians, Suliban and Klingons caused Archer to become more of a military commander.

In addition, Archer learns that the duties of captain include being a diplomat. During Seasons 1 and 2, he is somewhat uncomfortable with this role, especially in the episode "A Night in Sickbay" when his pet beagle, Porthos, contracts a deadly illness on an alien world.

While exploring, Archer becomes an enemy of the Klingons. In a dispute with the Klingon Empire in 2152, he is convicted and sentenced to exile on Rura Penthe, even though he is innocent of the charges and despite the Klingons having acknowledged his previous service to the Empire. With his escape, a bounty is put on Archer's head and tensions with the Klingon Empire increase.

Also during this period, Archer has the distinction of making Earth's official first contact with dozens of alien races, including the Andorians, Axanar, Suliban, Tandarans, Tellarites, Tholians, Xindi and Romulans.

Temporal Cold War
Although initially optimistic, Archer becomes involved in his first mission as captain of Enterprise in the middle of the Temporal Cold War. The Temporal Cold War begins at the beginning of the pilot episode, "Broken Bow". In that episode, the audience is introduced to the Suliban and a mysterious being from the future (informally referred to as "Future Guy") who is guiding them.

As the Temporal Cold War continues, Archer also meets Daniels, whose purpose seemingly is to safeguard Archer in particular and Enterprise in general. Daniels' comments are that Archer will be the man who helps form the United Federation of Planets, and it becomes apparent by the third season that Daniels is representing the Federation throughout the Temporal Cold War.

Season 3
In Season 3, he was the military commander in the Expanse. Following the Xindi attack on Earth in 2153, Archer becomes a changed man.No longer a congenial captain, he is now driven and determined to seek out and confront the perpetrators. Archer commits desperate, controversial acts of questionable morality to ensure a future for Earth, including torturing a prisoner, cloning Tucker to harvest body parts to save the chief engineer and thus killing the clone, and stealing a vital warp coil and leaving a ship of aliens stranded in space.

While on his mission to locate the Xindi, Archer is briefly transformed into a member of the extinct Loque'eque by a mutagenic virus. Later, he is infected by subspace parasites, creating an alternate timeline in which the Enterprise's mission fails and the Xindi succeed in destroying Earth (although the nature of these parasites mean that this timeline is erased when Phlox's cure for Archer erases the parasites themselves from history). With the help of Daniels, Archer, along with T'Pol, travels back in time to the year 2004 to prevent the release of a Xindi-Reptilian bio-weapon.

By the end of the season, Archer is presumed dead when the Xindi superweapon is destroyed, after having convinced three of the five Xindi races that reports of humanity's future conflict with them are wrong. However, in reality, he is transported back to the early 1940s during World War II, as is the Enterprise.

Season 4
After returning home in 2154, Archer helps a faction of Vulcans fight an oppressive government on their planet. During this incident, he is the recipient of the katra, or living spirit, of the great Vulcan philosopher Surak. The katra is later transferred to a Vulcan priest, and Archer is left unharmed. This leads to the reformation of Vulcan society, and explains why the Vulcans of Archer's time were so different from the Vulcans of Kirk's time. In the process, Archer becomes the first known Human participant in a Vulcan mind meld. Since that experience, he has used that knowledge at least once: To assist T'Pol with conducting her first mind meld to gain information about who kidnapped Dr. Phlox (the episode "Affliction").

Archer is also involved in one of the first, and possibly most significant, treaties yet, being asked to escort Gral, the Tellarite ambassador, to the Tellarite-Andorian negotiations. En route, he and his crew run into the Andorian Shran, a long-time friend/enemy/ally. During Shran's stay, Romulans attack and cause the fragile alliance to crash to a halt. In the mix-up, a Tellarite kills Shran's lover Talas, and Shran avenges her death by demanding the Tellarite who killed her to fight to the death. In an attempt to protect the fragile peace treaty, Archer takes the challenge instead and Shran is incapacitated. The alliance remains intact, and soon evolves into the United Federation of Planets. ("Babel One", "United", "The Aenar", "Demons", "Terra Prime", "These Are the Voyages...").

Place in history
The time traveler Daniels revealed that Archer would eventually have a major role in the founding of the United Federation of Planets in 2161. He briefly took Archer ahead in time to the point where Archer is about to sign the Federation accords on Earth, expanded further in the series finale.

Archer's fate is revealed in the episode "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II" when a computer information screen aboard the 23rd century Starfleet vessel USS Defiant is briefly visible. According to the computer profile, Archer was an Admiral and Chief of Staff at Starfleet Command at the time of his retirement. He later went on to serve as ambassador to Andoria from 2165 to 2175. From 2175 to 2183, Archer served as a member of the Federation Council, followed by eight years as Federation President (2184–2192). He was also an honorary member of the Andorian Imperial Guard. Historian John Gill considered Archer "the greatest explorer of the 22nd century." The same computer display states that Archer's Planet and Archer IV (mentioned in "Yesterday's Enterprise" and "Strange New World" respectively) were named after him.

Unused production artwork would have shown that Archer dies peacefully in his sleep at his home in Upstate New York in 2245, exactly one day after he attends the commissioning ceremony of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701). However, this biographical computer display contained a number of discrepancies, including listing 2160 as the year that Archer's captaincy of Enterprise came to an end. The series later established that Archer's command ended in 2161, as seen in the series finale, "These Are the Voyages...".

At least three starships were named for him: the Archer-class scout ship featured in the tie-in novel series Star Trek: Vanguard and its follow-up Star Trek: Seekers, an unspecified ship alluded to in Star Trek