Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Jonathan Archer

As inspirations for a character go, there's little more eclectic than a mash-up between the first person to break the sound barrier and a rebel with a heart from another galaxy. That was the Chuck Yeager/Han Solo mix imagined for Captain Archer by producers Brannon Braga and Rick Berman in the early stages of development for Enterprise.

Since the series was going back to the beginnings of Starfleet, the first foray into deep space with the warp five engine, a different kind of captain was required — less polished, more down-to-earth, and accessible with his sense of excitement and awe still intact. This was the "Han Solo quality," or a younger Harrison Ford, they were after, as Berman described it in the DVD audio commentary for Broken Bow.

As for the real-world other half of the equation, in the season one DVD extra Creating Enterprise, Rick Berman asked:

Where was The Right Stuff of Starfleet? Where were the Chuck Yeagers of Starfleet? Where were the people who truly made the first flights out into space?

If Yeager had humble beginnings and went on to do exceptional things, Captain Archer was arguably a little more elitist in the first place, especially in his pick of favourite sport — university water polo. The sport did feel closer to home than your Anbo-jyutsus, parrises squares, or even baseball in the holodeck ever could, but it certainly wasn't 'down-to-earth,' if such a thing is possible for someone who travels to the stars. One of Rick Berman's sons played water polo, however, so choices were made. Scott Bakula had also dabbled in it growing up.