Day 296: Enterprise, Carbon Creek

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S2EP2, “Carbon Creek”

Note: Surprisingly, it appears that this episode was filmed before “Shockwave, Part 2”, which is really weird considering you’d think that wrapping up the two parter would be the higher priority. I’ll be really interested to see if there’s an explanation on Memory Alpha for this.

 Summary: During a dinner at the Captain’s table to celebrate T’Pol’s one year anniversary of being part of the Enterprise crew, Archer comments that he found an odd detail in her file; she took a brief leave from the Vulcan embassy on Earth to visit a little town called Carbon Creek. T’Pol explains that she was visiting the site of the real first contact between Vulcans and Humans, and tells Archer and Tucker the story. Shortly after Sputnik was launched, a Vulcan ship was studying Earth from space to monitor their technological progress when it malfunctioned and crashed in the woods near Carbon Creek. The three survivors, Mestral (J. Paul Boehmer), Stron (Michael Krawic), and T’Mir (also played by Jolene Blalock and justified by T’Pol explaining that T’Mir is her great-grandmother), eventually ventured into the town itself when they’d run out of food. Despite T’Mir’s insistence that they get involved with the Humans as little as possible, they eventually became a part of the town’s life. Oddly enough, the “will they be revealed” element isn’t as pronounced as you might think.

Standalone Thoughts: On the one hand, this episode follows the classic Star Trek tradition of going back to the past and mixing future tech with period piece settings. On the other hand, the framing device surrounding this is particularly odd by Trek standards. There’s no time travel (which might have made sense, given the whole Temporal Cold War thing) and none of the main characters are directly involved in the past material. In fact, only Archer, T’Pol, and Tucker show up in this episode; you don’t even hear anyone else’s voice over the comm system. Furthermore, this is the second episode of the season, right after some fairly dramatic events. A little more of a followup than “Happy one year anniversary of putting up with us, T’Pol” would have been the wiser move.

Looking at the episode in a vacuum, though, I’d say it’s on par with what we’ve seen of Enterprise to date, in that it’s fairly entertaining but ultimately not very memorable. Those hoping for some fish-out-of-water/culture clash shenanigans will probably be disappointed, but the period trappings are believable and the interactions the Vulcans have with the Humans are pleasant. The episode does leave a few loose threads (one element in particular was crying out for the “these actions lead to a significant thing in Star Trek lore” reveal, but the plot just kind of fizzles out), and I think Mestral’s interest in Humans feels distinctly un-Vulcan like, but I’d describe the story on the whole as a nice if predicable tale, right down to the ending. I don’t mind having seen it and wouldn’t mind watching it again, but it’s not my go-to pick for an Enterprise episode, and it’s a story that might have been better served in the middle of the season, when there would have been less of a push to keep the show’s momentum going. As it is, having this episode as the second one of the season may have contributed to the show’s declining ratings, aided and abetted by the contents of the fifth episode of the season. But we’ll get to that one soon enough…

How it Relates to the Whole: This has no connection to the rest of the show, except to remind us that T’Pol has managed to work with and become more friendly with Humans than most of her counterparts. Though based on the rumors I’ve heard about what the show planned to do with T’Pol had the show continued, it would have been interesting to see if this had come up again in the context of those revelations. Sadly, all we’ll ever have is speculation.

Other: *The only thing of note today is the observation that often pops up in stories involving time travel or aliens hiding on earth; why did nobody apparently notice that T’Mir and Mestral had stolen clothes off a washing line? Surely at least the owner would have kicked up a fuss, especially given that this is a relatively small town (about 600 if the sign we catch a glimpse of is any indication). But this is probably one of those things we’re not supposed to think about too much.

Badass Malcolm Moment: You would think an episode where Malcolm makes no appearance whatsoever would be disqualified from this entry, but I like a challenge. In this case, I took a leaf out of this fanfiction and assume that Malcolm’s the one who’s running the ship while all his superior officers are having dinner. While I won’t go as far as the fanfiction did and say that he’s taking advantage of the opportunity to fix all their mistakes, we can definitely infer that he’s keeping things running smoothly. Yes, this is really stretching it, but it’s the best I can do in these circumstances.

After The Fact Update: The episode swap is mentioned on Memory Alpha, but there’s no explanation as to why it happened, or why most of the cast isn’t present in this episode. One more reason I deeply regret the lack of an Enterprise Companion.