Skalaar was a Tellarite captain turned bounty hunter who operated in the 2150s. He owned and commanded a ship, the Tezra, where his brother Gaavrin worked as the chief engineer.
He and his brother used the ship to work for the Tellarite Mining Consortium. Skalaar retrofitted the ship's engines himself. The Tezra was seized by the Klingon Empire after Skalaar crossed into Klingon territory while hauling firesalt.
He became a bounty hunter to pay the impound fee; however, the ship had been cannibalized by the Klingons several years earlier. During his time as a bounty hunter, he became enemies with another bounty hunter named Kago.
In 2153, he captured the Human Jonathan Archer, who had been the only person to ever escape Rura Penthe, and on whom the Klingons had put a high price. Skalaar met Archer and his ship, the Enterprise, in orbit of a Class M planet, where he tricked him into going to the airlock, where Skalaar kidnapped him after a small struggle. He brought him aboard his ship and headed to a Tellarite space station where his brother worked. He later headed towards Klingon space. He gave Archer to Klingon Captain Goroth, but he gave Archer a lock pick after he learned about the scrapping of the Tezra and that Goroth would not pay the full price of Archer's bounty. (ENT: "Bounty")
Background information[]
Skalaar was played by actor Jordan Lund whose costume was later sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay. [1](X)
This character was originally not intended to be Tellarite. "[He] was originally a non-descript alien," offered Michael Sussman, "but making him a familiar species helped jump-start the episode." (Star Trek Monthly issue 108, p. 48) Star Trek: Enterprise. Executive Producer Brannon Braga recalled, "When we sat down to develop the episode, we thought, why not make it a Tellarite bounty hunter?" (Star Trek: Communicator issue 145, p. 31)
In the final draft script of "Bounty", Skalaar was referred to as "slightly rotund". The next sentence stated, "His attitude is a little brusque." Also, the character's name was once misspelled "Sklaar" in the script.
Skalaar was fairly successful with the ENT production staff. Brannon Braga remarked, "We really liked the way Skalaar turned out." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 145, pp. 31-32)