Scott Bakula glad T’Pol/Archer romance never happened

Scott Bakula didn’t want a romance between the captain and T’Pol

At the beginning of Star Trek: Enterprise, there was speculation that the producers were moving Captain Archer and T’Pol (Scott Bakula and Jolene Blalock) toward a romance. That push continued into the second season with the episode “A Night in Sick Bay,” where Dr. Phlox encourages Archer to admit his attraction. A captain of a star ship and the first officer in a relationship is something that had never been done before in a Star Trek series, and not everyone was onboard with the idea…including Scott Bakula.

The subject came up in Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross’ book, The Fifty-Year Mission—The Next 25 Years (From The Next Generation to J.J. Abrams), and Bakula weighed in with his thoughts. He felt it wasn’t necessary for the commanding officer and his second in command to have a romance, and he wondered in what military environment that would have been right.

Bakula added that there were decorum and rules, and he didn’t feel it was right for Captain Archer to be flirting with his first officer. He felt that type of relationship (and the flirting) would have undermined the reality of the series.

Scott Bakula isn’t the only one glad the romance never happened

Though some fans took an interest in a relationship between Archer and T’Pol, there were many others who saw it as a train wreck waiting to happen. T’Pol was a strict rule-follower at first so it wouldn’t have made sense for her to cross a boundary. Besides that, she was a Vulcan so she didn’t have those romantic feelings (before trellium-d and the forced mind meld) so it wouldn’t have made sense for her to fall in love with Archer.

As for the captain, one good way for him to have had his authority undermined was getting intimate with his first officer. Would T’Pol have followed commands she didn’t agree with, or would they have battled it out? And, speaking of battles, one can only imagine those that could have taken place should they have become a couple then have gone through a break-up. Scott Bakula is definitely not the only one glad that relationship didn’t happen.