in Voyager, and after being chosen for the part of Travis Mayweather, he elected to take the part instead of a role in a low-budget movie he had been offered. The longest casting process was that of Bakula as Archer, due to the extended contract negotiations that took place, which added to a delay in production. He had been sought for the part by the executive producers, and although Bakula wanted to do the show, he "wanted to feel that [he] was making a good deal and that everyone was going to work together to make this a good experience." He had signed up for a pilot for CBS called Late Bloomers before agreeing to appear on Enterprise. One of the reasons he agreed to join the cast of Enterprise was that he had previously worked with Kerry McCluggage, one of the co-founders of UPN, on Quantum Leap. Berman later admitted that they did not have an alternative in mind if Bakula decided to turn down the role. Braga explained that the most difficult casting was that for T'Pol, as they were seeking a Kim Cattrall type. Blalock and Marjorie Monaghan were among the final three to be considered for the part, with Blalock gaining the role, despite her agents rejecting requests for her to attend auditions early in the casting process. By the time that Blalock auditioned in the final group, the crew had seen hundreds of actresses, according to Berman. His main issue at the time was to find a "beautiful woman who can act and doesn't want to go right into feature films". Blalock was excited about the casting as she had been a lifelong Star Trek fan, with her favourite character being Spock. Bakula's casting as Archer was announced via press release on May 10, 2001. However, some of the British media mistook the announcement for Bakula taking over from Patrick Stewart. Details of the rest of the main cast were released on May 15, with the rest of the character details publicised the following day. Some recurring characters were played by actors who had previously appeared in Star Trek productions, with Jeffrey Combs portraying the Andorian Shran, making his first appearance in the season one episode "The Andorian Incident". He had previously portrayed the Vorta Weyoun as well as the Ferengi Brunt on Deep Space Nine. Vaughn Armstrong, who played Admiral Maxwell Forrest, had previously