monkee reviews 'Carpenter Street'
First Impression: The premise AND the main guest actor were recycled, and this was a little bit duller than it should have been.
Xindi, Archer and T'Pol in 2004 Detroit, Michigan – wouldn't you think this episode would rock? Problem was – there wasn't a whole lot more to it than Xindi, Archer and T'Pol in 2004 Detroit, Michigan. It used to be fresh and fun when our futuristic Trek characters intermingled with people from our time. Kirk's crew standing around like a 'bunch of cadets' on the streets of San Francisco in 'The Voyage Home.' Kira and O'Brien looking for Sisko and finding hippies instead in 'Past Tense.' Janeway and Chakotay strolling on the boardwalk in 'Future's End.' Clearly, however, there's a limit to how often Trek can dip into this well. While it was moderately entertaining to watch Archer and T'Pol try to steal a car, or order food at a take-out window, the thrill is gone. I think if they're going to do this anymore, there has to be a pretty compelling story at the heart of it. That wasn't the case this time.
Huh? I'll be happy to eat my words at a later time if I turn out to be wrong, but it just didn't seem to me that a whole lot of thought was given to this episode, and where it was to fit in the grand scheme of things. Maybe they were too busy working on the other November sweeps episodes – something that would be understandable, given their quality. But there were several lines of dialog that jumped out at me and made me shake my head in confusion. One was Daniel's assertion that it 'takes a while for changes to ripple through the timeline.' The whole concept of time travel is slippery at best, so I'd buy that except that's not the way it's happened in previous Trek time travel episodes, where the changes appear to be instantaneous. But the thing that really killed me was that Daniels sent Archer and T'Pol back to the past because he couldn't get the necessary clearances to do it himself. CLEARANCES? Excuse me? It's okay for him to send two novice temporal travelers back with an advanced scanner and temporal tags, but he, a trained professional, can't do it himself because he doesn't have the clearance? Puh-lease!
Inconsistencies: There were inconsistencies with the logic of the very premise of the episode. Daniel's says that the Xindi have gone to the past on earth because they are hiding from someone and 'the past seems like a pretty good place to hide.' Later, T'Pol recommends that Archer destroy the Xindi's temporal beacon because it will leave them stranded in earth's past, and both T'Pol and Archer are focused on preventing the Xindi from taking the bioweapon back to the future. Huh? Wouldn't it make more sense that the Xindi have gone to earth's past to act THERE, and prevent the future from happening at all, like the Borg did in 'First Contact?' The bottom line, of course, is that Archer and T'Pol had to prevent the bioweapon from being deployed in both the past and the future, but the writing here just seemed sloppy to me. I'd like to believe that was intentional, and this is going to play out in later episodes. I hope that's the case, but I don't feel confident that that's what the writers had in mind.
Okay, so right off the bat, there are a number of things that didn't sit right with me, but I'll quite harping on them now. There was also a lot to like about this episode, so let's move on...
Loomis: Leland Orser played the psychotic hologram, Dejaren, in Voyager's 'Repulsion,' and I couldn't help but ponder what the anal-retentive Dejaren would have thought of Loomis' apartment. There must have been bits of skin and God knows what other kinds of organic detritus all OVER that scummy flat of his! As a huge Voyager aficionado, I found it a bit distracting, but not so much that I didn't notice what a terrific job Orser did with this role. He got an unusual amount of screen time for a guest star, and as a result, Loomis was a fully fleshed-out character – one that we were free to appreciate, or loathe! As T'Pol says, he embodies the very worst qualities of humans of 'this era,' including greed, violence and moral corruption, but you had to love his continued whining assertion that the people who hired him (the Xindi) didn't intend to harm the people he was abducting for them. He said it three or four times, and it's a cowardly justification, but part of him actually seems to want to believe it's true. He was a very interesting individual. As a character, I loved him – as a person, not so much.
Wacky 21st Century High Jinks: Like I said, this has all been done before, and done better, but it was still moderately amusing to watch Archer and T'Pol attempt to navigate both the streets and the customs of 2004 Detroit. Kirk and Spock had it easy stealing a car on Sigma Iotia II – they didn't have to deal with car alarms, tire boots and vicious dogs! And, oh, the horrors of the drive-thru window at your local burger joint, where the multiple permutations of combos and super-sized meals can make your head spin, even if you're a cool guy who can pilot a starship. T'Pol had some things to say about the illogic of depleting your planet's fuel supply (a problem that Archer says will be resolved in 2061, although he was, unfortunately, interrupted before he could say how). I'm surprised she had no comment on the obvious connection between the availability of super-sized combos, and the waistlines of Americans, a subject getting a lot of attention these days. I guess the look on her face when part of Loomis' nasty burger landed on her leg said it all, though. Poor T'Pol!
Archer and T'Pol were pretty lucky they didn't get caught stealing money from the bank machines, even if they did intend to 'return anything they didn't use.' And I kept expecting a police car to pull up behind them in their stolen car! Maybe Enterprise could have done more with this episode if they'd made it a two-parter.
Daniels: Like I said, I just wasn't buying some of his claims this week. Whether it was bad writing, or Daniels was being intentionally misleading remains to be seen. I hope it's the latter, though – otherwise, I'll be forced to conclude that he's even more bumbling and incompetent than Voyager's time-traveling starfleet guy, Braxton. Still, it was good to see him again, if only to confirm what we'd already figured out, which is that the Xindi arc is tied in, somehow, with the temporal arc. I loved Archer's initial reaction to his appearance, "It's about time you showed up!" Hee.
Porthos, the Fearless Space Pup: Once again, Porthos is used well. Daniels appears as Archer is tossing chunks of cheese at the pup. And speaking of that, when will the man learn? Porthos and cheese just don't get along! Phlox is going to have to smack him around some. (Actually, I find it endearing that Archer keeps giving Porthos cheese. Pet owners are funny that way. I mean, if a beloved pet REALLY loves something that's bad for them, it's awfully hard to deny them...just ask my cats, who both eat more whipped cream than they should...) My favorite Porthos scene this week, though, was the second one. I just LOVE how he marched in and made himself at home in T'Pol's quarters when Archer went to see her. The look on her face...Hee.
Tough T'Pol: In my 'North Star' review, I said, "One of these weeks, I'd like to see her put a serious hurt on some bad guy!" This week, she does. She has to neck pinch Loomis, and is a willing accomplice to Archer's strong-arm tactics with him. She also doesn't hesitate to shoot him when he attacks her, and she calmly switches the phaser to stun before she does it (which was big of her, I thought, all things considered). Granted, Loomis isn't much of a bad guy, but T'Pol's behavior this week was an improvement in this department.
Continuity: Again, there's a lot of terrific continuity on this show these days, and this episode is no exception. There's built-in continuity with both the temporal and Xindi arcs, and Rajiin is mentioned again, as well as the boarding party that came to retrieve her. And, of course, Porthos' love-hate relationship with cheese is mentioned...
Meanwhile, Back on Enterprise...absolutely nothing happens! Only a few seconds go by on Enterprise while Archer and T'Pol are in Detroit. The only crewmember we even see is Trip. I didn't mind, though. They'll all be back soon enough.
The Xindi: Were the Xindi really hiding in the past from someone, or was there more going on? If they were hiding, whom were they hiding from? Maybe they were hiding from Daniels there, since they knew he'd never get the CLEARANCE to go after them – hahaha! Hopefully, these questions will be answered at a later time. One thing I wasn't sure of – did the phasers set on kill actually kill them? We'll surely find that out, at least, since Archer and T'Pol tagged them along with all of their equipment, so there are either three unconscious Xindi or three Xindi corpses in the cargo bay.
You've got to admire their sheer determination to destroy humanity, though. I really want to know what the Xindi were told about Earth and it's people to make them so hostile. I really want this arc to play out well. I want answers to all these questions, and I want them to be good answers. Otherwise, they'll just be two-dimensional villains, evil for the sake of being evil. I want a better resolution than that.
An Image with Impact: In these post 9/11 times, Loomis' dawning realization that the people he's dealing with might be terrorists has more significance to us. And it was a chilling sight, the shot of the Xindi holding the devastating virus over that industrial fan on the roof.
::shudder::
Loony Loomis: That's what they're probably going to call the poor guy in prison. I loved the very fitting ending for this bumbling thug of a character. How appropriate that he'll be in prison now for all those abductions – going on about ray guns and lizard people to anyone who'll listen. Perfect!
'shipper Watch: Archer and T'Pol were all business as they cruised Detroit, and I could read nothing significant into Archer's late night visit to her quarters. That's all right, though – it would never work out, anyway. Clearly, T'Pol is just not a dog person.
Archer Watch: Well, aside from believing Daniel's very suspicious claims, he was fine this week. Proactive and competent, actually. He found himself plopped into 2004 Detroit, located the Xindi, foiled their evil plan and returned to his own time safely, and all in just a few hours. And come on – you HAD to be impressed by his ability to take a needle in the neck without even flinching!
And you've gotta at least like a man who's such a sucker around a dog like Porthos. Awww...
Mayweather Watch: Hahahahahahahahahaha! Oh dear. He didn't appear at all this week. Of course, neither did most of the crew, but still...
Best Lines:
"It's okay. They said they wouldn't hurt you." (Loomis, to unconscious hooker)
"Our mission's changed quite a bit since the last time I saw you, but I guess you're aware of that." (Archer, to Daniels)
"I don't believe you've activated your external lighting. Turn starboard on 24th Street." (T'Pol, to Archer. The Vulcan version of back-seat driving – hee!)
"Look, I don't know what you guys are up to, and I don't want to know. It's not my business. But the cops don't take kindly to people who help terrorists. I gotta be real careful." (Loomis, to the Xindi in the shadows)
"You can make that a double for just forty cents extra!" (Burgerland employee, to Archer)
"Relax, I'm just getting a smoke. I don't know about you, honey, but I'm a little tense – you know what I mean?" (Loomis, to T'Pol)
"NEVER call me honey." (T'Pol, to Loomis, when she shoots him a few minutes later. Okay, she didn't really say that, but I'll bet she was thinking it!)
"We won't allow you to destroy us. Your species is doomed." (Xindi, to Archer, making a lunge for the virus canister.)
"Those creatures – the lizard people – they're around here somewhere. You gotta find them! Be careful. Be careful. They got ray guns!" (Loomis, to the nice policeman)
"Ray guns. Got it. Watch your head." (the nice policeman, to Loomis, as he 'helps' him into the cruiser)
Rating: The things that bothered me really bothered me, but it was still kind of kooky and fun. Once again, writing the review has convinced me to give it a higher rating than I initially intended to. Some times, these episodes just grow on you! 8/10.
Next Week: No, next MONTH! No new episodes until mid-January. This will give a busy monkee time to deal with Christmas, but I'm going to miss the ol' Enterprise gang! Enjoy your holidays, whatever you celebrate, and I'll see you in six weeks!
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