TREKCORE > ENTERPRISE > CAST AND CREW > Admiral Maxwell Forrest

Admiral Forrest had been a close friend of the Archer family well before Henry Archer died, (over 40 years ago) which means he was probably associated with Emery and Dannika Erickson on a personal level as well. He had also probably been dealing with Ambassador Soval most of his Career, so might be much older than he seems if people in the future do age more gracefully.

Admiral Forrest has been in charge of Jonathan Archer since before the shuttle testing of the NX Engine, which proved near fatal for Commander A. E Gardner, forcing Forrest to bow to the Vulcan insistence that humanity was not prepared for the stars. [Recall that Vulcans were fully secretly cognisant that Romulus, Andoria and Qo’Nos were all less than a weeks travel away from earth at Warp 5.]

Commander Archer, believing the human potential should not be hemmed in alien molly coddling, stole the remaining NX-Shuttle and field implemented some ideas from Lieutenant Tucker successfully propelled himself and Gardner ahead at Warp 2.5 with no sign of strain. Forrest did not drum Archer out of the service for being an idiot, perhaps because of the familial relationship, and later did not oppose Archer becoming the Captain of Enterprise. Forrest might have even put his name forward because he admired Archer's against the grain attitude.

About 7 years later, days before Enterprises shoved off, Forrest was supplicating to the Vulcan designs on what to do with Klang, a Klingon Warrior felled by Suliban trying to find a message he was carrying detailing alien treachery underpinning the coming civil war. The Vulcans had decided to allow Klang to die with honor in service of the empire rather than return and dishonour seven generations of Klangs children. [Dead or alive the message would have been delivered, and the Suliban might not have had the firepower or stealth to deal with a Vulcan ship. Considering how the Suliban still interrogated Klang, they might have been content thinking the message died with Klang not realizing he didn’t have to be alive to deliver it.] Bombastically Captain Jonathan Archer makes it known that he will take Klang home alive using Enterprise to do so. Forrest bows to his humanistic posturing and goes to bat against the Vulcans. Archer is given the go ahead - albeit allowing a Vulcan "spy"(who may or may not be a Romulan) on board as it’s Science Officer. After the some how successful completion of this mission Forrest congratulates Enterprise and tells them to continue their mission to explore deep space.

After Archer accidentally blows up a peaceful mining colony, at Vulcan insistence, Forrest mothballs the Warp 5 program and Archer is recalled. Defying Forrest's orders after receiving information from the future, Archer proves his innocence, gets off scot-free and Enterprise is again in service.

Over 4 months later Forrest puts Archer between the Andorian and Vulcan Military Industrial Super Complexes because the Vulcans told him the Andorians wanted Archer to act as a moderator between the two species.

Weeks later on the home world, Forrest tries to maintain a Borg outbreak from the left over remnants of the Borg Cube destroyed by Picard in STVIII: First Contact. These mechanical beings had been recently uncovered in the Arctic Circle. Forrest contacts Enterprise in real time and orders them to intercept the evolving Borg Shuttle-Craft, whose speed and armaments are quickly becoming more than a match for Enterprise. Forrest might have been left in command of the rest of the Borg reclamation project that would have been more careful to leave the technology frozen while it was being reverse engineered from the rest of the Borg Sphere rubble and the many other body parts and complete drones that were still buried in the ice. No word on such developments have come to light.

It is supposed that word of Archers trial on Nerandra III (Still just days travel from earth, and close to the Romulan Boarder too.) made it’s way across Forrest’s desk, since the day was so grim that even Tucker vested his interests in the Vulcan Diplomatic Corps to save the day.

A month later, the Xindi launched a probe that seared a trench down the Earth killing 8 million people. Forrest recalls Enterprise for one reason or another, either to stand guard against the return of the Xindi, or maybe Forrest or his superiors suspected that Archer pissed someone off and they took it out on Archers homeworld to rub Archers goat? Considering Archer was under fire from a Klingon ship and had to be rescued by the coast guard. With new information from the evil Future Guy who always has the Earths best interests in hand, Archer struts about like his enemies directives are gospel yelling at Forrest and yelling at the Vulcan’s until they allow him to become proactive and hunt down the Xindi to their home world in a distant wild section of space.

Forrest and Earth et all were out of contact with Enterprise completely for an entire year, which is clearly displayed as an inquiry into the happenings of the last year which Forrest was Chairing turned into Court Martial Kangaroo Court Lynching as the Vulcan Ambassador Soval accused Archer of enjoying his "killing" of the crew on the Vulcan ship Seleya some 8 months earlier. This was easily placated after Soval learned that Vulcan was also saved from certain doom by Archers experiments in immorality. Forrest had to clear the court because Archer's emotional outburst were far out of hand. Mere hours earlier they had all given heroic speeches to assembled thousands on the lawns to Star Fleet command.

The Vulcan High Command Killed Admiral Forrest among 41 others a month later when the Earth Embassy was bombed out as a red herring to incriminate an embarrassing religious party on Vulcan. With the NX-02 Columbia so close to completion, Forrest was on Vulcan trying to establish some quid pro quo between Star Fleet and the High Command that they undergo joint missions. Forrest is now dead and the newly developed government of Vulcan, thanks to Enterprise, has chosen to adopt a more hands off approach to fostering humanity. A hands off approach and earth being given room to grow as an individual is a philosophy at odds with the formation of the United Federation of Planets.
 

Vaughn Armstrong is a veteran Star Trek actor who is noted for portraying thirteen separate characters in twenty-eight episodes over four separate series. He is one of only five actors to play seven or more different characters in the Star Trek franchise, the others being Jeffrey Combs, Randy Oglesby, J. G. Hertzler, and Thomas Kopache. His characters include a Human, a mirror universe Human, a Romulan, a Borg, a Vidiian, a Kreetassan, a Hirogen, two Cardassians, and three Klingons. He is best known for his recurring character Maxwell Forrest. He appeared in the second episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and the penultimate one. He has the distinction of playing the first Klingon on Star Trek: The Next Generation, apart from Worf. He was one of many actors (including Jeffrey Combs and William O. Campbell) who auditioned for the role of Will Riker on that same series.

Armstrong's talents also extend into the musical arena. He has mastered the ukulele, using a "banjo"-style ukulele (commonly known as a banjolele) he made himself. With it he entertains audiences with Civil War-era songs and roots music, leading into the blues music he plays with others. His Trek-related blues songs are popular at convention appearances. His filk-song band, The Enterprise Blues Band, includes fellow Trek actors Richard Herd (Owen Paris), Steve Rankin (Colonel Green and other roles), and Casey Biggs (Damar). Armstrong does the lead vocals in the band and plays also harp (harmonica). He has joked on stage during conventions that he is the innovator of Klingon "gutbucket" music and Andorian blues.

Outside of Star Trek, he's appeared in two episodes of the third season of Babylon 5 as the leader of the "Night-watch" on the station, alongside Andreas Katsulas.