Archer 1999 is the continuation of Sterling Archers' gunshot-induced coma from season 7, and moves the setting from a hotel in the middle of the pacific ocean, to a scavenger spaceship; MV Seamus, in 1999. The scavenger crew; Sterling Archer - co-owner of the spaceship, Lana, Archer's ex-wife who also co-owns the spaceship, Cheryl Tunt, the Ax-Crazy fighter pilot whose fetish for death is often a problem for the crew. Malory, an energy being that is very motherly toward Sterling, and Ambiguous Gender rock monster Pam, the muscle and goofy member of the crew, all reside in the ship, and search the galaxy for ships to scavenge and sell on.
1999, like Season 9's Danger Island, once again re-imagines both the setting and the characters roles, creating distinct dream personas for each of the show's well-known characters, as well as replicating the emptiness of space and the ensuing fights with monsters and space cowboys that entails. Switching from Season 9's tropical adventure-theme, this season borrows heavily from the space films, in particular Alien and Star Wars.
''Archer: 1999 provides examples of:
- Adaptation Species Change: Pam is an alien instead of a human.
- Adventures in Comaland: As with Dreamland and Danger Island, Archer is still in a coma from season 7's gunshot wound. This season makes up the final adventure in his coma.
- Ambiguous Gender: Returning from Dreamland is the Running Gag of Pam's gender, with the crew noticing that Pam emits a smell when having a boner, but also having retractable breasts, and the show never gives a solid answer as to what gender Pam truly is.
- Ambiguous Time Period: The technology on display is clearly not from 1999, but the show never explicitly mentions what year it is. It's possible it's an Alternate Timeline of 1999, where space travel is standard.
- Artificial Gravity: The MV Seamus has this to keep everyone from floating around.
- Call-Back: Despite no continuity with previous seasons of Archer, it still manages this when someone refers to Carol/Cheryl as "Cristal", and Carol/Cheryl is legit surprised anyone remembered a name not used since Season 1.
- Demoted to Extra: Ray, again. He appears in every episode, but is a side-character more than anything, and is never the main focus of any of them.
- Evolving Credits: 1999 has its own space-themed credits, with different music and images.
- Shoutout:
- The crew that accompanies Barry-6 are called the Xenomorphs.
- Lighter and Softer: In direct contrast to Dreamland and Danger Island, which are far more brutal when it comes to depicting violence.
- New Season, New Name: The fourth season to get a subtitle (after Vice, Dreamland and Danger Island).
- Sanity Slippage: The last two episodes has Archer finally start to see the real-life versions of the crew members, which gets him locked up in the brig after assaulting Lana, and put on trial temporarily.
- Take That!: Carol/Cheryl lazily singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is either this or a Shout-Out to Dead Space.
- Theremin: Used in the title sequence for the show.
- Special Edition Title: The season has a retro-futuristic version of the standard intro sequence, and remixes the music to boot.
- Universal-Adaptor Cast: This is the line of thinking for this season: That you could throw the characters into anything and make them work.
- Wham Shot: Archer finally waking up, and we see every single disguise he's ever worn in the whole series up to that point.
- Zeerust: The MV Seamus is filled with old-style CRT monitors, as well as bright colors on the decor.
