Episode Review - Carpenter Street (Enterprise, Season 3)

For those who are new to my episode reviews, you can find the post where I establish my point criteria here

Overview – On Earth, Detroit, in the early 21^st Century, a man is kidnapping and bringing people to an abandoned building under the orders of a mysterious unseen person. It turns out that a trio of Reptilian Xindi have traveled to the past to gather information from humans of different blood types to create a biological weapon. In the 22^nd Century, Captain Archer is contacted by Daniels, who informs him of what the Xindi are up to. Archer and T’Pol travel back 150 years to find ans stop the Xindi team. As they race to stop the Xindi, they find themselves out of their element in our day.

Score: 9/10 – There have been many different Trek stories involving the characters going back to our time, and this was Enterprise’s turn. In the spirit of “Assignment: Earth”, “Future’s End”, and “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”, the crew go back in time to save humanity. It made sense that Daniels insisted that Archer only be accompanied by T’Pol, and it helped T’Pol come to grips with the fact that her traditional Vulcan beliefs about time travel were inaccurate. There is the standard “fish-out-of-water” moments. I liked how T’Pol uses her tricorder to get money from an ATM machine, and Archer takes some time getting used to driving a vehicle. The action and pacing of the episode are great and the concept of creating a bio weapon based on human blood types is a different approach. Aside from the captain and first officer, we only see Tucker and hear Reed over the comm system. Everyone else is absent from this episode. While that is a shame, it does allow the story to be streamlined to fit as much present day Earth stuff into it. Leland Orser makes his fourth (and to date, final) appearance in Star Trek, and his character of Loomis is the right mix of loser and sleazebag. A great episode overall.  

Relevance – 2 points. Daniels is back, and this carries forward the temporal cold war story along, as well as T’Pol finally receiving evidence that time travel is possible. The Reptilians found in 2004 are used by Archer to convince Degra that something is not right with the Xindi’s plan.

Continuity - 3 points. Everything checks out here. With only three of our characters being shown, and just two of them go back in time, we only have those two to really look at. Archer and T’Pol are right on cue for how I would have expected them to act. They did very little to upset the timeline (except for maybe Loomis), so story continuity checks out. And everything is fine in the Star Trek universe, so that gets a point here as well.

Character Development – 2 points. With only T’Pol and Archer getting any real attention, and most of the rest of them not being seen, it does allow us to have some growth here. While these two seasoned officers are in unfamiliar territory in 21^st Century Detroit, they are able to adapt much more quickly than others we have seen. As previously mentioned, T’Pol does get a chance to re-evaluate her views on time travel, which is big for her. Both of them are pushed to the limit, both in dealing with Loomis and the Xindi. This gives us a further glimpse into not only their psyche but in how the overarching crisis is affecting them.

Social Commentary – 2 points. The character of Loomis is very relatable, likely due to the episode being set in our own time. He is motivated by greed. He is willing to compromise his integrity to earn some good money. While he is not evil, per se, he is a bit of a jerk and clearly has no qualms about taking innocent people. His final fate is fitting as he gets carted off by the police. He represents a loser side of humanity. We all know someone like this, and sometimes we feel the temptation to be the same.

Cool Stuff – 1 point. A point for the idea of using human blood types as a basis for a bio weapon. I’m not sure if that has ever been done before (in fiction, of course). As good as this episode is, this is really the only cool thing to stand out.

Rank – Captain (19 points). This is a great episode for the third season. It is a rare episode of this season that can be enjoyed on its own without knowing much of what happened before. A good solid story that does a very good telling of the time-traveler “fish-out-of-water” scenario without getting too goofy or serious.

If you would like to check out my other episode reviews for Enterprise, simply click here.

If you would like to read an episode review from any of the Trek series, click the following link to get to the series catalog. If the episode you want reviewed has not been done yet, then feel free to request it in the comments and I will see what I can do.

Episode Review - Cold Front (Enterprise, Season 1)

For those who are new to my episode reviews, you can find the post where I establish my point criteria here

Overview – The Enterprise, on their way to a stellar nursery, picks up a group of Borothan pilgrims that have come to see the Great Plume of Agosoria. A plasma storm hits, and the Enterprise is nearly destroyed if it had not been for the actions of an unknown person who disconnected an antimatter conduit. This is when one of the Enterprise’s crewman, Daniels, reveals to Archer that he is a temporal agent sent from nine hundred years in the future to stop the Suliban Silik from meddling with history. Before long, Archer finds himself in the center of a struggle in the Temporal Cold War.

Score: 8/10 – Ah, Cold Front. Our second foray into the story arc that was the Temporal Cold War (or “TCW” as I will refer to it from here on in). I am not quite sure why the TCW didn’t click better with the fans, but this episode is quite good. They give us a fair amount of suspense and action. We finally get to learn the name of the Suliban leader from “BrokenBow” (Silik), and we are introduced to Daniels, who represents a “stabilizing” force in the TCW. We learn a few things outside of the TCW as well. Religion takes its place on the stage. It has long been debated by Trek fans what role Earth religions should have in Star Trek. Well, we learn that in the 22^nd Century religion is still being practiced on Earth. Phlox, who is intrigued by all forms of religion, tells us that he has attended a Catholic mass and visited a Buddhist monastery. Archer, when asked about his religious views, diplomatically stated that he likes to keep an open mind. I think this is the best and most balanced stand that Star Trek could have taken on Earth religions, while acknowledging that this likely would not have met Roddenberry’s approval. The character of Daniels is interesting, although I must admit that I would have liked it if we had seen him a bit more in earlier episodes. I think the idea of an unassuming crewman that we had seen for several episodes suddenly being a central figure in the CTW would have made the revelation even stronger. So while we did not get a lot of meat in this episode, it builds for future storylines and gives us an intriguing character.

Relevance - 3 points. Right in the introductory scene we score a point as Silik is having some of his enhancements removed for his previous failure. This takes us back to the pilot, “Broken Bow”. Another point is scored for the introduction of Daniels, who will appear in a total of 8 episodes that spans the entire 4 seasons. While Daniels may not be the best of recurring characters (that would be Shran), he is an interesting guy that may or may not be one of the good guys in the TCW and it builds for future glimpses into the TCW. A third point is scored for the debut of movie night, where the crew of the Enterprise gather to watch old Earth movies. They have 50,000 titles in their database. The classic they start with? Night of the Killer Androids. Ah. I personally would have suggested the 1977 classic Star Wars myself.

Continuity – 3 points. Some may argue that the inclusion of Earth religions still being practiced in the 22^nd century goes against the Universe continuity as that was a belief held by Gene Roddenberry. Let me point out that while this episode may have been the most explicit in detailing religious beliefs of the 22^nd century, it is not the first. Kirk’s Enterprise had a non-denominational chapel where weddings could have been held. So, while this may not have met with Gene’s approval, I feel that the universe continuity is still maintained here. Story wise, things go well, although with Daniels being “killed” and then showing up again later in the season finale there might be something to take a closer look at. All characters are acting the way we would imagine. I totally buy Phlox being a student of different religions. Archer especially jumps from diplomat to skeptic to hero quite well.

Character Development – 2 points. There is definitely an Archer focus in this episode. This continues Archer’s importance in the timeline and will be built upon throughout the series. While T’Pol and Tucker are also part of the inner circle who know what is going on, only T’Pol really benefits from any development. This is due to her stated skepticism of time travel which is common among Vulcans. This is not a major development for her at this point, and we see little else in the development of the other characters.

Social Commentary – 1 point. As much as I enjoyed this episode, I cannot find much about social commentary in it. There is something said about religion in this episode, and it seems that both following a particular religion and not are treated with respect. This is only a minor aspect of the overall story, so I cannot really it score it much more than a token point.

Cool Stuff – 2 points. I have to score a point for the technology that Daniels shows Archer and how it is used in the temporal timelines. I will give another point for the Great Plume of Agosoria.

Rank – Captain (19 points). A good to excellent episode (depending a personal preferences), but it is definitely one should watch when going through the series. It does a very good job at continuing the TCW story line and establishing a recurring character on Enterprise in a different way.

If you would like to check out my other episode reviews for Enterprise, simply click here.

If you would like to read an episode review from any of the Trek series, click the following link to get to the series catalog. If the episode you want reviewed has not been done yet, then feel free to request it in the comments and I will see what I can do.