Scott Bakula has starred as Dwayne Pride in the CBS crime drama NCIS: New Orleans for seven seasons. The series is based and filmed in New Orleans which meant Bakula stayed in the Big Easy for a good portion of the year. And while many fans would love to see him pop up on a Star Trek series since, his current location has always made a potential Star Trek series that included Captain Archer basically out of the question unless it was a cameo. But with word coming down that NCIS: New Orleans will end in May 2021, a world of possibilities has just opened.
Recently, a rumor began spreading that Bakula was returning to the Star Trek universe as Captain Jonathan Archer, reprising his role from the 2001 series, Star Trek: Enterprise. Though there has been no confirmation that the rumor is anything beyond just that, this change in Bakula’s career could mean we will see Captain Archer again, after all.
Many outlets have chosen to cover the rumor as well, with Inverse even providing speculation as to how Bakula could appear and which series would be the most likely to have a Captain Archer sighting. Still, Bakula (and the crew) are most likely still reeling from the unexpected cancellation of NCIS: New Orleans as it was the youngest of the NCIS spinoffs and has maintained a steady viewership over the course of its seven seasons. One might say that it’s being unceremoniously axed much like another series Bakula starred in from 2001-2005.
Seeing the success of Star Trek: Picard and the upcoming return of Captain Janeway on Star Trek: Prodigy, it makes sense that the powers-that-be would be considering scoping out another captain from the past to appear in one of the current series. And, again, while there has been no confirmation, the news regarding Bakula’s current show certainly provides an opportunity that will probably be too good to pass up.