Enterprise 11-26-03 *SPOILERS!*

[Mark]

I'm not so sure if that's a gaping hole or merely a writing necessity. They have to make sure there's a certain level of tension and drama involved. I think in the past they chalk this up to having to choose the right time to incur that causes the least temporal problems. I can live with that.

When I say gaping holes I mean along the lines of landing the ship in Times Square without ever being part of history or, perhaps on a less gaping note, inventing Velcro...

 

[Orius]

Enterprise - "Carpenter Street"

Archer and T'Pol travel to the 21st century to stop the Xindi from destroying Earth with a biological weapon.

Perhaps they can warn us about the whale problem while they're here...

Nope; even worse Archer said that mankind won't solve it's energy problems for another 58 years. I thought Star Trek was supposed to give us an optimistic view of the future... [smirk]

Not a bad episode, that Xindi agent was a chump though. Only 40 grand for kidnapping 8 people? That's chump change for like 40 years or more of prison. What a loser.

T'Pol: Turn-offs include smokers.

I found it interesting that Daniels

Spoiler

transported the 4 Xindi and their equipment to Enterprise and not into the future. This gives Archer and the Enterprise crew some valuable resources to combat the Xindi threat. I see B&B are covering their butts by saying this Xindi conflict isn't even supposed to happen. And it would seem there are some different factions on the Xindi side here; it was implied the reptilians went into the past to hide from someone, and presumably that someone would be other Xindi. So we've got at least two different factions here.

 

[John Crichton]

I, too, enjoyed the TNG Data's Head time travel eps. It only 1/2 counts but the best Trek time travel ep (post- City on the Edge of Forever) was the TNG finale.

This was an above average episode but I can't help but compare it to the Farscape time travel eps in season 4. My main gripe with this episdoe was said here.

The big news?
There is none, and that’s a problem. Fans are likely to react to “Carpenter Street” with a collective shrug, disappointed that nothing of consequence is changed, learned or advanced. A rare time-hopping mission engineered by Daniels might have presented an opportunity to further our understanding of the Xindi’s role in the temporal cold war – or something. Instead, our big thrill is watching T’Pol roughing up some Hummer-era lowlife.

To sum up - not alot happened. Yes, some things did happen that will affect future episodes a great deal but I feel like this was just a filler episode.

But for all the negative, I did like this hour of Trek. Some really cool scenes like the fast food stop, the interogation and the opening scene (which really got my interest). I thought last week's ep was great and this was just a notch or two below it.

 

[Mark]

I like the part where Archer tells T'Pol to untie the guy so he can hit him, has him tied up again, then when the guy still claims to know nothing Archer threatens to untie him once more. They were also using that "quick pan" style that gets used in cop shows during that scene.

 

[Gab]

I found it interesting that Daniels

Spoiler

transported the 4 Xindi and their equipment to Enterprise and not into the future.

Who says Daniels didn't do both: transport the stuff to the 30th (or 31st?) century, analyse and whatever, then transport it back to Enterprise in the 22nd century. The Enterprise crew would never have known.

 

[DMScott]

I, too, enjoyed the TNG Data's Head time travel eps. It only 1/2 counts but the best Trek time travel ep (post- City on the Edge of Forever) was the TNG finale.

Hmm, I'd say Yesterday's Enterprise was the best of the TNG time travel episodes. Like CotEoF, it built a tension between making things better right now and making things turn out the "right" way. That sort of tension is rare in modern Star Trek time travel episodes, and completely absent in "Carpenter Street". Star Trek writers mostly treat time travel as just another away mission, and this episode was no exception.

Yes, some things did happen that will affect future episodes a great deal but I feel like this was just a filler episode.

Not just a filler episode, but about the fourth or fifth filler episode in a row. The writers can produce amusing dialogue and the occasionally interesting scene, but they don't seem to have any sense of a larger plot, or any idea how to move the big season storyline along.

 

[Orius]

I like the part where Archer tells T'Pol to untie the guy so he can hit him, has him tied up again, then when the guy still claims to know nothing Archer threatens to untie him once more.

Yeah, that was of the high points of the episode.

I also liked when he got arrested at the end. He's talking about ray guns and lizard people, but the cops assume he's high, so there's no problems with "cultural contamination".

 

[Mark]

Nice to see a Vulcan NOT have to wear a hat to blend in with the culture, too!

 

[Tallok]

Yeah, I realy liked the way that T'pol responded to 21st century american culture, I thought that they did that part very well, and yes, I really liked this, and I'd like to argue that this isn't a filler, but a way to reintroduce Daniels, and set up something with the xindi

 

[Mark]

Yup. Can't really call it filler. If the conflict with the Xindi all boiled down to one weapon, one encounter, etc. I'd be highly disappointed. I need to see some ongoing struggle. Some steps forward for each side, and some setbacks. Little skirmishes (liek this one) and big battles. The idea of the lone human ship pressing relentlessly forward, the Xindi racing against their arrival while trying to finalize a single plan to wipe out humanity, just doesn't make for a good, long term arc, IMO. Heck, they may have only sent those three back in time to purposefully draw Daniels (or someone like him) out for all we know at this point.