Third Season Rewarding for Bakula

Scott Bakula told fans that Star Trek: Enterprise's third season is "probably the hardest season in terms of production and schedules and difficulty in terms of getting the episodes onto the screen", but said that it's also the most rewarding and the response from fans has been overwhelmingly positive.

Speaking in a chat at StarTrek.com, the actor who plays Captain Archer called "Similitude" a "great, great episode" and laughed that this week he broke show business taboos against working with children and dogs.

"It takes a Star Trek look at cloning and the ethics of cloning. It creates a lot of conflict and drama between myself and Dr. Phlox, as well," he said.

Bakula could not recall the origin of the title "North Star", though he praised the director, David Straiton, for the atmosphere created in that installment: "All of the wardrobe and stylistic filming techniques just made it more fun for me." He also said that it was the most fun to shoot this season.

He named "Twilight" his favorite of the episodes that he has seen so far, saying that he chose not to show Archer as overly aged. "I felt that obviously not captaining the ship anymore, my stress level had dropped to zero and I'd obviously been eating, sleeping and resting well for many years. I figured T'Pol had me doing Vulcan Yoga poses and hiking, and drinking broth, so I chose to age very little."

However, Bakula said that he and Jolene Blalock did not make up any dialogue for the episode. "There is no ad-libbing in deep space," he joked. As for whether he thought Archer and T'Pol had become intimate, he jested that he couldn't remember.

As for what the crew watches on movie night, he teased, "We decided that we only get to watch films from Paramount's library, because I think it's free, or we get a deal."

In the upcoming episode "Chosen Realm", Bakula said, the crew would deal with what it presumes to be religious fanaticism, only to learn that something else entirely is going on. "There are many twists and turns coming for the rest of the season," promised the actor. "Many that I'm not aware of yet. But I will guarantee that there are some strange and bizarre happenings on the way in the Expanse."

The full chat transcript is here.

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