Henry Archer
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.
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| Gender: | Male |
| Species: | Human |
| Occupation: | engineer |
| Status: | Deceased (Clarke's Disease) |
| Died: | 2124 |
| Martial Status: | Married |
| Spouse(s): | Sally Archer |
| Children: | One son, Jonathan Archer |
| Played by: | Mark Moses |
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Henry Archer was the primary developer of the first warp engine capable of reaching warp five and one of the principal designers of the Enterprise NX-01. He was the father of Jonathan Archer, and a good friend of Emory Erickson, the inventor of the transporter on Earth. (ENT: "Broken Bow", "Daedalus")
Henry Archer worked closely with Doctor Zefram Cochrane to develop the warp five engine at the Warp Five Complex in Bozeman, Montana as part of the NX program (ENT: "Broken Bow"). Prior to Cochrane's disappearance in 2119 (TOS: "Metamorphosis"), Archer took his son on a tour of the Warp Five Complex and introduced the boy to Cochrane, Tasaki, and other scientists working at the facility. Jonathan Archer later revealed he did not know the significance of his father's work at the time. (ENT: "Singularity")
In 2121, Archer helped his son build and fly a remote-controlled starship. During this time, the elder Archer admonished his son's disrespect for the Vulcans, who Jonathan believed were responsible for holding back Humanity's advancement into space. Although Henry Archer insisted that Vulcan Ambassador Soval (whom Jonathan referred to as "Ambassador Pointy") had been very helpful, he also expressed confusion and disappointment at the Vulcans' refusal to share their technology, lamenting "they have their reasons. God knows what they are."
Archer assisted Jonathan in flying his model starship on a beach, but the youth found keeping the craft in the air to be difficult. When the toy crashed, Archer advised Jonathan that he "can't be afraid of the wind. Learn to trust it." The younger Archer would take this advise to heart 30 years later when he made the decision to abandon his prejudices against Vulcans and to start trusting Subcommander T'Pol. (ENT: "Broken Bow")
On the day before he entered flight training, Jonathan Archer asked his father what would happen if he failed. The elder Archer's response was, "Don't fail." (ENT: "Daedalus")
Henry spent the last two years of his life experiencing frequent pain and hallucinations, talking to people who weren't there, and often not even recognizing his son or wife due to advanced Clarke's Disease. He died in 2124 before his warp five engine could be constructed, since the Vulcans had held back the engine's development program. As a result, Jonathan Archer's resentment towards Vulcans grew into a grudge which held until the 2150s. (ENT: "Broken Bow", "Cold Station 12")
In 2152, a biography on the life of Henry Archer was in the works. Jonathan Archer was asked to write a one-page preface for his father's biography, a task he put off for weeks as he found it difficult to sum up his father's life in one page. He ultimately completed it with assistance from T'Pol. (ENT: "Singularity")
Background information
Henry Archer was played by actor Mark Moses. It is unknown what became of Henry Archer's biography, though it was presumably published shortly after the events of "Singularity."
There appears to be some contradiction as to when Henry Archer died. Although "Cold Station 12" stated he passed away when Jonathan Archer was only twelve years old, dialog in "Daedalus" suggests that he was still alive when the younger Archer entered flight training.
In a deleted scene from ENT: "Home", Jonathan Archer visited his father's grave on Earth. According to Archer's grave marker, he was born in 2077 and died in 2133. This would have further contradicted Jonathan's claims that his father died when he was only twelve, in 2124.
