Michael Rostov Michael Rostov was a crewman second class who served as an engineer aboard the Earth starship . He was an assistant to Commander Tucker . Rostov was the head on an engineering team that included Crewman Jane Taylor ; he was always playing practical jokes on her . ( ) In January of 2152 , Rostov was linked to Captain Jonathan Archer , Commander Tucker , Crewman J . Kelly , and security officer Zabel when they were caught up in a strange , fibrous alien creature ' s tentacles . ( ) In February of that year , Rostov piloted several of the " Enterprise " command staff to and from their shore leave on Risa . ( ) Later that year , Rostov attempted to reinitialize the plasma flow , after the " Enterprise " had been taken hostage by the Wisp s ' ship , but was unable to because the power grid was not charging . When he reported this to Tucker , he noticed that Tucker was acting " wrong " , and reported to Captain Archer that Tucker seemed confused , and , in addition , seemed to think Rostov was his superior officer . Later , when Rostov was ordered to prime the deuterium pump s and fire up the warp injector s , his body was taken over by a " Wisp " . When Tucker confronted him and asked him if he had any luck priming the pumps , the Wisp / Rostov stated , " " I have no idea how to do that . This engine is very complex . " " He was later escorted to his quarters , where he remained locked until he was freed of the wisp . ( ) In February 2154 , when working on the port impulse manifold , Rostov was knocked unconscious by Lorian , who was stealing the ship ' s plasma injector s . ( ) Appendices . Background information . Rostov was played by actor Joseph Will . It is likely Rostov originally had the surname " White " . He was still referred to as that in a page of the final draft script of " Vox Sola " , when that script was first issued . In the same script , Rostov was described as " " A male crewman in his early thirties [ . . . ] He ' s an engineer with a mischievous streak and a dark sense of humor . " " Due to the gooey alien which Rostov becomes caught up in during the episode " Vox Sola " , Archer actor Scott Bakula coined and used the nickname " Goo Boy " for Joseph Will . After the character was introduced in " Vox Sola " , plans were made for Rostov to reappear . Will said , " " I remember bumping into Brannon Braga on set and him whispering to me that he couldn ’ t promise anything but they might bring Rostov back a few times if things worked out . " " ( " " ) In the final draft script of " Two Days and Two Nights " , Rostov was given a couple of lines of dialogue in the episode ' s penultimate scene , though he doesn ' t speak at all in the final version of that scene . He was scripted to relay news to Captain Archer that , following a rock climbing accident , Ensign Mayweather was going to be fine , with " just a broken leg , " and Rostov would have later apologized for missing the shore leave on Risa . In the final draft script of " The Crossing " , Rostov was initially referred to as " a young engineer , " with no clarification if this was supposed to be the same Rostov who had appeared earlier in the series . Contemplating why Rostov didn ' t appear after the second season of , Joseph Will stated , " " Unfortunately for me , they had so many series regulars on " Enterprise " that the producers couldn ’ t justify involving peripheral story lines about Rostov the engineer or they didn ’ t particularly like him . " " ( " " )