Playing Pretend

So, here's something I love about Jonathan Archer: Dude LOVES to play pretend. I mean, I also love his sense of exploration, his loyalty, his sense of duty, his chronic shirtlessness etc. But, this guy, I mean, seriously. Give this guy half a chance to pretend to be some other guy and he'll be out the door with a wig and some face paint in five minutes flat.

He pretended to be from "uh... pretty far away from here..." to cozy up to a brilliant alchemist in Civilization. He pretended to be a total jerk who was willing to sell off Tucker's "wife" to some Ferengis in Acquisition. In The Communicator, he pretends to be a genetically enhanced enemy spy. He pretends to be a smuggler when arrested and then gets caught up in a hijacking in Canamar. And he gets really into all these mini-roles. You can tell Archer enjoys this stuff tremendously too.

You'd think all this pretending would come to an end in the Delphic Expanse but no. He actually gets to live out every kid's dream and play cowboy in a real life cowboy town in North Star.

One of his best performances comes in Stratagem when he puts on his trusty wig and hangs out for like a week with Degra in a shuttle--all the while convincing him that they've been BFF prison mates for the last three years and Degra just can't remember because of some super gross blood worms.

Basically, I think every time the NX-01 comes up on some aliens, Jonathan's already stroking his epic chin and dreaming up his backstory thinking, "What beard should I play it in?" But, I supposed if I'd stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator--and vanished only to awaken to find myself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not my own, and being driven by an unknown force to change history for the better--I wouldn't want to give that up either.

Can I just leap backward and watch this show over and over?
Yes.
Thank you, Netflix.