Crewman Daniels

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Daniels
Daniels
Species:	"Human, more or less"
Gender:	Male
Eye color:	Brown
Home planet:	Earth
Affiliation:	United Federation of Planets
Position:	Temporal Agent
Portrayed by:	Matt Winston

Crewman Daniels is a fictional character in the science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise who is encountered in several episodes. He is portrayed by Matt Winston.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Daniels is an operative in the cross-history conflict called the Temporal Cold War. Daniels is from the 31st century, c. 3064 CE. He was first seen in "Cold Front" as a member of Archer's crew. Soon after, he is apparently killed during a Suliban incursion aboard Enterprise. His quarters, which contain several time travel-related devices, was locked down and banned to all crew members, except in cases of emergency involving the Temporal Cold War.

Daniels explained little of the nature of his organization, preferring to keep the group's nature, organization and abilities mostly unknown, in order to keep Captain Archer from learning too much about the future. His method of transporting others through time was unusually subtle, lacking any obvious visual effects or disorientation. Typically, Archer would walk through a door on the Enterprise and suddenly find himself in an unfamiliar location and time period; Daniels would then appear to talk to him. Daniels pulled a similar feat on a much larger scale in the episode "Storm Front": When the Enterprise returned to Earth after the battle with the Xindi, the crew discovered that they had arrived during World War II.

How Daniels survived being vaporized in "Cold Front" was never explained. However, Daniels continued to make occasional appearances in the series. In the first season finale, "Shockwave", Daniels transports Archer to an altered version of the 31st Century in which the United Federation of Planets had never existed. Daniels, apparently the only other person besides Archer left on Earth who knew about the main timeline, helps the captain restore the original timeline. In the third season episode "Carpenter Street", in which he sent Archer and T'Pol back to the year 2004 to investigate why some Xindi Reptilians were on Earth in that time period. He was also seen in the episode "Azati Prime", in which he transported Archer into the future - placing him aboard a future starship called the Enterprise-J, to inform him about the Sphere Builders and their relationship to the Xindi. He later transported Archer to the year 2161, giving him a glimpse of the inauguration ceremony for the United Federation of Planets (which occurred in a later episode, in "These Are the Voyages..."), warning Archer that allowing the Xindi to change history would result in the destruction of the UFP before it even existed. In his final appearance in the fourth season premiere, "Storm Front", he was apparently extremely ill: parts of him were more than a hundred years old while other parts were almost at a fetal stage. He used his last remaining strength to transport Archer and the Enterprise to Earth in the year 1944 to stop an alien race from changing history and allowing the Nazis to win World War II. After warning Archer that the Temporal Cold War had exploded into a full-fledged conflict, Daniels apparently died, but with the collapse of the Temporal War, Daniels reappeared and returned Archer to his original timeline.

At this point, Archer told Daniels in no uncertain terms he never wanted to see him again — a reflection of the unpopularity of the Temporal Cold War storyline among fans. The subsequent cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise seems to eliminate the possibility of Daniels returning again to "Star Trek" continuity. The Temporal Cold War nonetheless remains part of the Star Trek canon.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Lieutenant Daniels

There is a Starfleet officer, Lieutenant Daniels (played by Michael Horton), who is the tactical officer on the USS Enterprise-E during the events of Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection. The name appears to be a coincidence, since this Daniels has never been shown to be related to Crewman Daniels.