Star Trek: Enterprise
"Carbon Creek"
Air date: 9/25/2002
Teleplay by Chris Black
Story by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga & Dan O'Shannon
Directed by James Contner
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
"I've been filling out your annual crew evaluation. Just a formality."
"I understand. The High Command has requested my evaluation of you. Just a formality."— Archer and T'Pol
Note: This episode was rerated from 2 to 1.5 stars when the season recap was written.
In brief: An acting-dependent outing that simply doesn't have the acting it needs.
"Carbon Creek" is one of the quietest episodes in a very long time, which makes for a good change of pace after the action-laden "Shockwave, Part II." It's unfortunate, then, that the episode is such a quietly unfolding road to nowhere. Here's an episode so muted it seems dead.
Episodes like this should be affecting. This one feels more like a meditation upon episodes that are affecting. It's a pretender, an imitation — good intentions not supported by adequate content or performances. The problem is not that it's bad. The problem is that it doesn't have enough in it that's actually good.
The episode is perhaps the series' biggest test yet for Jolene Blalock, and I'm sorry to say that it fully reveals her limitations. She is simply not engaging here — as either of the two characters she plays — and the episode suffers as a result. My most fundamental reaction to "Carbon Creek" is to wonder why Blalock constantly comes across as a bland vessel of robotic Vulcan dialog. There's something wrong when you want to reach into the TV, shake the actress, and shout, "Just speak UP, for crying out loud!" If Blalock spoke any softer, and with any less variation in expression, her dialog would be completely inaudible.
The writers on Voyager would avoid putting Tuvok and Seven of Nine in dialog scenes together because, the writers said, their similar dispassionate style of speech made scenes stall dramatically. There were so few Tuvok/Seven scenes that I would say this was a theory (albeit a rational one) more than an actual fact supported by evidence. Imagine that theory as a truth here, with many scenes comprised solely of two, and sometimes three, Vulcan characters locked in dialog scenes, betraying as close to no emotion as possible. Just cool detachment and prefab opinions. My own theory is that you can watch only so much cool detachment before you start squirming with impatience — and beating yourself over the skull with frying pans to be sure you are still alive — but that's just me.
Blalock plays her part so relentlessly one-note that I longed for anything that would break through the cool detachment. I don't have a problem with Vulcan dispassion per se (though I still maintain that complete dispassion in performance is an unnecessary approach to Vulcans); what I have a problem with is dispassion portrayed in a way that allows for no audience reaction.
Underneath the performances is a story whose main goal is to be a lightweight, pleasant diversion about events long since passed into the realm of legend. The story concept reminded me a lot of Voyager's "11:59," in which Janeway told her crew a story about the turning point for one of her ancestors in the final days of the year 2000. In the case of "Carbon Creek," T'Pol tells Archer and Trip a story about the "real" unintended first contact between the Vulcans and humanity, in 1957 in the Podunk mining town of Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania.
T'Pol's great-grandmother T'Mir (Blalock) was part of a crew of four on a small ship observing the launch of Soviet satellite Sputnik. There was an accident, and the ship crashed in the woods a few kilometers from Carbon Creek. The captain was killed, leaving T'Mir in command of crewmates Mestral (J. Paul Boehmer, who was very good as the title character in Voyager's "Drone") and Stron (Michael Krawic). The story says these characters are forced to go to Carbon Creek so they don't starve to death, but the actors don't play it as if they're the least bit affected by having gone days without food. There's also not an iota of concern that some human out hiking or hunting might happen to come across, say, a crashed alien spaceship in the woods. (Was the ship salvaged at the end of the episode? Destroyed? The story is unconcerned.)
T'Mir is a T'Pol clone that for all purposes might as well be T'Pol, which perhaps hints at Blalock's limits; in Voyager's "Life Line" Robert Picardo played two distinct roles that were believable as two different characters, despite their similarities.
The show is slow to move ahead and instead opts for the slice-of-life approach, including a scene where the script apparently said, "Vulcan plays a game of pool," and was intent on actually seeing this scene drawn out into a highlight montage, as if we cared who won the game. If I wanted to see billiards, I'd watch Jeanette Lee compete on ESPN2. Jeanette Lee is a billiards player of extreme, impressive skill. Plus, she's freaking hot.
Anyway. The problem here is that the episode does nothing at all new or fascinating and is content to fall back on cliche, most especially with the whole "Vulcans are fish out of water trying to blend in" (a scene where T'Mir puts a dress on backwards is just plain dumb) and the "Vulcans among humans begin to learn what humans are about." The latter theme — admittedly palatable despite the lack of depth — is largely filtered through Mestral, who finds he really wants to learn about human society, although I might point out that Podunk Creek, Pennsylvania, is probably not representative of the world.
There's a subplot involving a single mom (Ann Cusack) and her son (Hank Harris), who is smart but might not have enough money to go to college. There are even hints of romance between Mom and Mestral. But this subplot is half-baked at best and we really don't get a feel for these characters as individuals. They're more like obvious local flavor based on archetypes.
There's a big decision the Vulcans must make when there's a cave-in down at the mine. Several local miners will perish if a way can't be found to move tons of rock. Mestral wants to use a phaser to vaporize the rock, but T'Pol — I'm sorry — T'Mir recognizes that as blatantly interfering in human society. And what happens if the humans see the technology and the Vulcans are discovered? It's a legitimate dilemma but, let's face it, hardly given any weight. The story's point is ultimately about Mestral and his obsession to study humanity to the point of wanting to live among us. He even stays behind when the Vulcan rescue ship arrives, leaving his fate up to us to ponder. Vulcans Among Us is, no doubt, how special TV programs like Alien Autopsy became possible in the mid-1990s on the Fox network.
The episode contains a line of dialog that made me laugh out loud ("It might be tolerable if her son didn't insist on calling me 'Moe.'"). It also contains an awful line that made me cringe ("I need to go now; I Love Lucy is on tonight."). The story's big quirky comic notion is that the Vulcans helped us invent ... Velcro. How cute. (Note: "How cute" should be read with the inflection of mildly snide venom along with the image of rolling eyes, and concurrent commentary consisting of "Oh, geez.") The Velcro thing comes across exactly as one of those Bright Ideas that the writers were certainly convinced would be Fun. It seems just a little too calculated to me.
I also wonder — just a little bit — if this all tracks with what we know of T'Pol. One would think that if T'Pol had this great-grandmother who passed down this tale of contact with humans, T'Pol might've been more interested in human culture from the outset. Come to think of it, maybe this does track with T'Pol's recent support for Archer and the Enterprise's mission, but it's an odd detail that seems like it would be more defining for the character than it actually is.
But I'm rambling. "Carbon Creek" is the sort of lightweight story that wouldn't be "riveting" even in the best-case scenario. It could've come across as quietly engaging, however, had it contained engaging performances. Unfortunately, it does not, so it's a bit of a bore and I find myself reduced to taking potshots at it for entertainment value. I didn't find this episode the least bit offensive, but when I spend an hour watching Trek and the only emotion I feel is indifference (is indifference an emotion, and perhaps the only emotion Vulcans express?), that's not what I call an episode getting the job done.
Next week: The Enterprise gets blowed up real good!
Previous episode: Shockwave, Part II
Next episode: Minefield
105 comments on this review
Sat, Jul 18, 2009, 12:11am (UTC -6)
Tue, Aug 25, 2009, 10:36am (UTC -6)
I liked this episode too. It's memorable, and develops the character of the Vulcans. It was 3 stars IMO. I thought the "I Love Lucy" line was well done and appropriate.
I generally agree with your reviews though.
Wed, Jan 20, 2010, 9:28pm (UTC -6)
Jolene Blalock could be said to be performing excellently, if you assume that she is actually portraying a Vulcan. Why would T'Mir have to speak up if at that point the Vulcans have had little contact with other species, and even under extreme pressure, they would still speak calmly and rationally?
I am however biased to the calm episodes of Star Trek, where it is a normal day, filled with the utopian ideals of mutual cooperation and understanding. The explosions and violence are to me an ancillary part of the Star Trek experience. I can see how this episode may seem boring and pointless to an audience that may prefer things to be faster and louder.
As for the hook and loop 'invention', I enjoyed the character transformation, showing how Vulcans do not always follow the 'greater good'.
As an aside, when do humans stop being morons in the Star Trek universe? I'm sure Commander Charles Tucker XII, or however many unimaginative families he is down the line, has a jug in his quarters with three crosses printed on it.
Thu, Jun 17, 2010, 12:15am (UTC -6)
The Velcro thing though - everyone knows Velcro was invented by George de Mestral after seeing the burrs on his dog after a hike. That part was pretty lame.
Wed, Sep 1, 2010, 4:36am (UTC -6)
The vulcans were nicely differentiated - Mestral was keen to interact with the locals, perhaps more than was wise, T'Mir was initially cautious but eventually came round to the idea of helping them, and Stron wanted nothing more than to leave throughout.
The only discordant note for me was that Mestral did not appear to find the smell of humans disgusting, as Vulcans are supposed to. Perhaps he had a bad cold.
Wed, Oct 13, 2010, 9:49am (UTC -6)
You know, this is easily one of the best episodes of Enterprise. It seems to me, by reading the review, that it appears that you are just looking for something to tear it down. ANd since you said that yourself... ;-)
In the end, T'Pol says: "You asked me to tell a story." That's what this story was, and brilliantly told.
Mon, Nov 8, 2010, 4:46am (UTC -6)
It linked vulcans, humans, and the audience. We all know what I Love Lucy was. To me this episode echoed the TOS 'City on the Edge of Forever.'
Star trek was never about the future. It is about our present, how we got here, and where we could potentially go.
Thu, Nov 18, 2010, 4:05am (UTC -6)
I never actually thought to put the blame on the concurrent presence of three Vulcans on screen, but I admit your comparison to Voyager's Tuvok/Seven of Nine scenes rings true. The problem isn't that the Vulcan-Vulcan interactions are bland (they are), but rather that there's nothing interesting happening to these characters.
• "The problem is not that it's bad. The problem is that it doesn't have enough in it that's actually good."
• "half-baked"
• "quietly unfolding road to nowhere"
A lot of comments which could easily be applied to the entire ST Enterprise series. "I Love Lucy"? Ugh.
Fri, Dec 10, 2010, 4:56pm (UTC -6)
If 11:59 (which was much more bland than this in my opinion) got three stars, this deserves four stars.
Tue, Feb 1, 2011, 9:19pm (UTC -6)
Mon, Mar 14, 2011, 3:05am (UTC -6)
However, I found Jolene Blalock's acting to nicely portray "Vulcan compassion", kind of like what T'pol's own current personality is like. Furthermore, I really liked the idea of 3 vulcans adapting to the 1950s.
Fri, Jul 1, 2011, 5:45pm (UTC -6)
And thank goodness it was, otherwise it was all sorts of weird and really quite an annoying shake-up of our history.
Obviously it does have that moment right at the end, but I don't really read much into it... there could be any reason she has the handbag thing.
Far from exciting, and not quite what I had in mind with T'Pol's apparent development of humour and emotion, but entertaining enough. 2 stars works for me, 1.5 is maybe a little harsh but not by much!
Could've sworn I'd seen that Mestral before in roles other than the ones listed on Memory Alpha... obviously not... I'm not sure who, maybe he reminded me of that engineer off Voyager.
Wed, Aug 17, 2011, 12:18am (UTC -6)
Really? This episode?
"Half-baked" sums it up well. In fact, it's like an episode of Mork & Mindy heavily diluted by an episode of The Waltons. It takes a stab at every joke you'd find on the former, but quickly snuffs out any maniacal joy that might result by wrapping the jokes in quilted layers of folksy nostalgia from the latter.
This story never follows through with anything. It dabbles in everything while committing to nothing.
I felt like I was watching a summarized version of a story I was expected to know already, a kind of recap. "Then the Vulcan falls for the human and yadda yadda... then the bookish lad discovers the Vulcans have surprising knowledge of math and astronomy and yadda yadda... then the Vulcan engineer with advanced skills in space-flight technology gets a job as a plumber and yadda yadda... then the intellectual Vulcan becomes obsessed with TV pablum and yadda yadda..."
It was like I was supposed to fill in most of the story myself. Which I'm thinking suggests it wasn't all that original a story.
Tue, Aug 23, 2011, 8:13am (UTC -6)
Thu, Oct 13, 2011, 1:49pm (UTC -6)
Sun, Oct 16, 2011, 12:24pm (UTC -6)
Mon, Nov 7, 2011, 4:06am (UTC -6)
low-key use of technology in their Earth jobs and when Mestral said he was going back to the ship to get a waveform discriminator to enhance the reception of I love Lucy, it got a huge laugh from me.
Wed, Feb 8, 2012, 12:52am (UTC -6)
Thu, Jul 26, 2012, 9:44pm (UTC -6)
Wed, Aug 1, 2012, 11:30pm (UTC -6)
Quite a few things I would like to comment on have already been commented on by others so I will just say three stars from me.
Wed, Aug 15, 2012, 3:20am (UTC -6)
Wed, Aug 15, 2012, 3:25am (UTC -6)
Sat, Sep 1, 2012, 4:20pm (UTC -6)
I can't agree with this more so I'll simply go with "I agree 100%":
Jammer said:
"... I'm sorry to say that it fully reveals [Jolene Blalock's] limitations. She is simply not engaging here — as either of the two characters she plays — and the episode suffers as a result."
"... Blalock constantly comes across as a bland vessel of robotic Vulcan dialog. There's something wrong when you want to reach into the TV, shake the actress, and shout, "Just speak UP, for crying out loud!" If Blalock spoke any softer, and with any less variation in expression, her dialog would be completely inaudible."
"Blalock plays her part so relentlessly one-note that I longed for anything that would break through the cool detachment."
For me, this perfectly describes the issue with Blalock as T'Pol. Maybe it's the writing, maybe the director is constantly saying "more wooden, speak quieter, make your face more emotionless!" I don't know.
But what I see on the screen is a manikin (at best) mouthing lines. Spock (TOS and 2009) and Tuvok brought character to their supposedly emotionless roles unlike Blalock's T'Pol. The same can be said for the many guest star Vulcans. But she comes across so wooden and monotonic it makes me think she's a robot. Actually Data was a robot and he had way more color than T'Pol even without the emotion chip. I wonder if B&B casting an attractive actress with more acting range would have energized not just the T'Pol character but the Archer-Trip-T'Pol "big three" trio that the show features. Kirk/Spock/McCoy and Picard/Riker/Data were strong big threes - they blew it with ENT and Blalock.
So in summary, I barely watched any of this episode but as a review of T'Pol I completely agree with Jammer's comments.
Tue, Sep 4, 2012, 11:22am (UTC -6)
Besides being a harmless joke in an episode that's meant to be fun, the "Lucy" reference was a nod to Lucille Ball's critical role, as chief executive of Desilu Studios, in approving and supporting the original Star Trek.
Sat, Sep 15, 2012, 1:41pm (UTC -6)
Sun, Sep 30, 2012, 6:11pm (UTC -6)
Thu, Oct 18, 2012, 7:53pm (UTC -6)
So many discrepancies in this series.
Mon, Oct 22, 2012, 4:40pm (UTC -6)
Sat, Nov 10, 2012, 5:44pm (UTC -6)
I say Enterprise Vulcans are not Vulcans. Any episode featuring this strange fascimile of Vulcans is an automatic flop from me.
Wed, Dec 5, 2012, 11:25am (UTC -6)
The first Velcro was completely made from cotton when Georges de Mestral, a Swiss engineer, patented the zipperless zipper 1955. The problem was the cotton hooks quickly stopped doing what Velcro does as they quickly wore out. It wasn't until shortly after Velcro was patented de Mestral discovered that nylon worked much better than cotton (circa 1958) because it didn't wear out nearly as fast with use.
What was presented in Carbon Creek was perfect because Earth science already had nylon (invented in 1935). All T'Mir possibly did was present an improvement on Velcro using that nylon which would have been very valuable. Because of the timing, T'Mir would have made only the smallest influence on Earth science/progress.
A friend of mine did this research, so there should be no more heartache with regard to Menstral and velcro in Carbon Creek.
If more folks educated themselves as opposed to just spewing self promoting vitriol, there would be lots less hatred towards episodes like Carbon Creek and Enterprise in general.
Wed, Dec 5, 2012, 12:16pm (UTC -6)
I watched WNMHGB at the age of 11 when it first aired and have watched every first run Trek episode since. No 'ears', but I am somewhat of a Trek buff.
Jolene Blalock was one of, if not the best actor of the series. I was often impressed by her subtlety of expression as she played the Vulcan persona. Her glance would speak volumes. Her timing of a slightly raised eyebrow, when used, was inspired. Her capture of the character was apparent from her first scene in "Broken Bow" - not even taking the three or four years Nimoy took to establish Spock. Could be Nimoy's 'Spock' was her inspiration.
T'Pol's interest in human culture should not be in question with someone who had a clue about the character, especially her emotional response to jazz.
At the conclusion of "Carbon Creek" I 'shouted,' "Now THAT'S Trek!" The handbag was an emotional touch of pure Trek gold. This Trek fan was most pleased. The episode is easily in my top ten from all of Trek productions.
As my friend alluded, the reviewer appeared to be going for self aggrandizement rather than showing an understanding of what most fans express as important to a good Trek story. There was, indeed, a total failure with the Velcro remarks.
Wed, Dec 5, 2012, 12:23pm (UTC -6)
My first Trek episode was, as aired, "The Man Trap." Excuse my error.
Sun, Dec 9, 2012, 9:39am (UTC -6)
Although I personally felt the Vulcans were far too emotional for what their species is meant to be. Still, I take your point about having too many monotonous drones on screen at one time - hence they tried to spice it up by making 2 of them passive-aggressive and impatient and 1 of them compassionate.
Note: Can someone please explain why Vulcans openly lie on Enterprise? (Unless this is explained later in the series)
Sun, Feb 3, 2013, 12:25am (UTC -6)
My biggest beef with "Enterprise" to date is that so many of the crew are actually kind of stupid and/or are placed in stupid situations by the writers. This was the first episode where no one was downright idiotic. It was incredibly refreshing that people were just being normal to one another, trying their best to be helpful, and not going out of their way to antagonize someone just for the sake of plot machinations.
No other episode has engaged me as much as this one because for the first time, I didn't have to do a mental eye-roll at something on the screen (well, maybe with the exception of the handbag reveal at the end for being such a blunt instrument, but I was so surprisingly pleased already that I forgave that). For me, this was a lovely little story with likable characters and reasonable acting.
Tue, Feb 12, 2013, 10:22am (UTC -6)
(Although I am also a bit torn on Blalock's acting choices. Leonard Nimoy proved that it's possible for Vulcans to be more than automatons and Blalock doesn't quite seem to have found her stride yet. I don't think her performances are anywhere near as limited as you seem to think though. Her T'pol is just rather ascetic.)
Thu, Apr 4, 2013, 1:56pm (UTC -6)
Thu, May 9, 2013, 11:15am (UTC -6)
This is a wonderful, heartwarming story. At this point in the series, T'Pol continually takes abuse for being 'Vulcan' even though she has time and time again proved unwavering loyalty to her Captain, the mission and the crew of Enterprise. So why does she put up with this? Until this episode we really had no idea and didn't know much about her background at all.
While she doesn't reveal the 'truth' to Archer and Trip over dinner, she does indicate to us by revealing her "mother's mother's mother's" purse that the story she has told us is true. One can only imagine the impact her grandmother had on a young T'Pol, telling stories of her experiences with humans, etc. Now we can surmise why she volunteered to serve on Enterprise and moreover why she decided to remain aboard when she has had the opportunity to leave. T'Mir was an explorer that ended up gaining firsthand experience with humans while being stranded on Earth in 1957. Humans intrigued her and she passed that curiosity and interest on to her granddaughter.
We see how important education is to T'Mir and we see how she just can't fathom that a brilliant kid wouldn't be afforded an opportunity to receive a higher education. T'Mir's introduction of Velcro technology fit nicely into history as we know it. The first Velcro was completely made from cotton when Georges de Mestral, a Swiss engineer, patented the zipperless zipper 1955. The problem was the cotton hooks quickly stopped doing what Velcro does as they quickly wore out. Nylon had been around since 1935. It wasn't until shortly after Velcro was patented that Mestral discovered that nylon worked much better than cotton (circa 1958) because it didn't wear out nearly as fast with use. Seeing Maggie's expression as she found the money in the tip jar realizing her son could go to college was priceless.
Listening to baseball on the radio, bus rides, 'I Love Lucy', 'Moe', old vehicles, frozen fish sticks, family owned restaurants, the small coal-town atmosphere all added to the realness of this episode. The lighter tone during the encounters between humans and our Vulcans was fun.
It would have been nice for the series to revisit Mestral, but they did not. We can only assume he melded in nicely and contributed to human advancement where he could.
So this episode links Star Trek's future with humanities past and provides back-story for a main character that gives some justification for her continued interest in serving with humans on a star ship. All done with humor and knowledge of our real past that makes this occurrence as plausible as they come in trek.
Well done, Rick Berman & Brannon Braga & Dan O'Shannon, well done. So the next time to see T'Pol unveil her Grandmother's purse, I hope you give this review a thought and I hope you might appreciate it a little more.
Sat, May 18, 2013, 1:25pm (UTC -6)
@Joe I: I believe most of the dislike of Enterprise comes from jadedness and unrealistic expectation. None of the ST productions have been perfect, yet most Trek fans generally rate the original episodes much higher than the rest of the series. I don't think this has anything to do with the original episodes being of any better quality. (All but a very few are really just about godawful.) For example, this review dings Blalock for not being dynamic enough, but nowhere in any of Jammer's reviews does he ding Nimoy for being too emotional when he shouldn't be. (Watch the Uhura singing scene in Charlie X to see Nimoy showing plenty of emotion, which bugs me every time I see it.) In my opinion, he is harder on Enterprise than he is on the original series, and I don't know why this is. The fact is that most Trek fans are biased toward the series they first watched and nothing else can possibly compare. Is Enterprise perfect? By no means. But it is still good Trek as far as I am concerned.
Aside: I have noticed a lot of complaint about this series from what I consider to be the extreme nerd end of the fan spectrum that there are terrible problems of continuity with the other series. Some people have claimed that this problem caused them to stop watching the show. Of course, people are free to dislike what they want to dislike, but I think that to not watch the show for this reason is silly. There have to be continuity problems! In the original series, Kirk wrote with a PEN for gods' sakes! This show would totally suck in a major way if Archer had to use pre-60s technology all the time. There is no way a Trek show made in the 2000s could possibly be successful if it truly tried to be a real prequel. It's too bad that people can't just enjoy the show for what it is - a loose interpretation of the earlier timeline. In this respect, I really like it. It's fun. To nitpick continuity seems really - Vulcan.
Fri, May 31, 2013, 12:09pm (UTC -6)
However, in all fairness I am biased: I'm from Pennsylvania. So to see an episode set in a coal mining town from the 50's appealed to me greatly. There is no Carbon Creek, Pa, however at one point one of the Vulcans mentions going to Doylestown to see a baseball game. There is a Doylestown in Pennsylvania, but you couldn't really drive from a coal mining town in the Poconos and back in an afternoon to watch a ball game there.
Mon, Jun 10, 2013, 1:03pm (UTC -6)
Glad you enjoy Enterprise and agree with your "nerd" comment. I believe over time the series will "get its due".
As for Jolene's intial interpretation of T'Pol. All the Star Trek actors in all the series had to grow into their parts. Jolene is definitly not alone in that department.
Fri, Jul 12, 2013, 3:04am (UTC -6)
Plus the I Love Lucy comment could be seen as a direct nod to Desilu studios who made that show and TOS. And the Velcro bit seems to me to be a big reminder of the good Mr Bakula's wonderful last ever episode of Quantum Leap, where he tells those 50s bar people about his newly invented Velcro wallet.
I wonder if the two of the above were deliberate.
Wed, Jul 17, 2013, 3:21am (UTC -6)
It is shocking how little they sometimes achieve despite such an apparently big budget at that time.
Wed, Jul 17, 2013, 3:23am (UTC -6)
Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 1:49am (UTC -6)
Wed, Aug 7, 2013, 11:05am (UTC -6)
Read my posts above concerning Velcro.
Thu, Aug 15, 2013, 10:31am (UTC -6)
Redeems the Vulcans somewhat and gives an interesting outsider's perspective on the fifties, and at least wasn't the usual trip back to the nineties!
Mon, Sep 9, 2013, 10:17pm (UTC -6)
Sun, Nov 24, 2013, 12:24pm (UTC -6)
Tue, Jan 14, 2014, 6:37pm (UTC -6)
All in all, I enjoyed watching it and left me wanting just a bit more.
Sat, Apr 26, 2014, 11:09am (UTC -6)
Sun, Jun 8, 2014, 11:38am (UTC -6)
Thu, Oct 2, 2014, 1:28pm (UTC -6)
Thu, Oct 2, 2014, 1:50pm (UTC -6)
Tue, Oct 7, 2014, 11:39am (UTC -6)
Average lifespan for male/female in 1950:
1950 65.6/71.1
[ttp://demog.berkeley.edu/~andrew/1918/figure2.html]
Fri, Oct 31, 2014, 4:05pm (UTC -6)
It's too bad Jammer didn't like the show, but he's entitled to hiw own opinion. I do disagree though with his appraisal of Blalock's acting range. I also think this character was clearly a different character than T'Pol. She was much more "Vulcan" in this episode; she was more emotionally restrained in her reactions and more oriented towards tradition than T'Pol typically is.
Tue, Nov 4, 2014, 1:19am (UTC -6)
Fri, Dec 26, 2014, 10:32am (UTC -6)
Fri, Jan 9, 2015, 3:26pm (UTC -6)
1) T'Pol's great grandmother was T'Mir so logically, it appears that her grandmother's name would have started as T'N and her mother would have started as T'O, thus resulting in T'Pol being her name. To me, that had to be intended by the writers.
2) I was left wondering if the boy did anything of significant since he was able to go to college?
3) This was brought up by Trip, how was Menstral able to stay under the radar for 150 years? He would have had to reinvent his identify every 5 to 10 years and move at that time. When he passed away, it would already have been past 2063 so humans already knew about Vulcans at that point.
4) T'Mir lied to the captain at the end, wasn't Vulcans incapable of a complete lie? (except only with interest of the mission aka Tuvok when he was undercover with the Maquis)
Sun, Mar 15, 2015, 7:50pm (UTC -6)
Vulcans are quite capable of lying, though they find it distasteful so they rarely do so unless necessary.
I was surprised to see this rated so low, I believe it is probably my favorite episode of Enterprise. I found it very enjoyable, much more so than the usual drek this series served up about evil time traveling frogs.
The only thing that really bothered me was that they never mentioned what happened to the ship, or that in all the time they were there no one happened to find it. This was Pennsylvania after all, not the Alaskan wilderness.
Fri, Mar 27, 2015, 5:15am (UTC -6)
I recall one scene involving Seven of Nine & Tuvok.
the two-part episode Year of Hell. They showed more chemistry and spark in that one scene than anyone in this entire episode.
Mon, Apr 6, 2015, 3:16pm (UTC -6)
Wed, Jul 8, 2015, 9:28pm (UTC -6)
Thu, Jul 9, 2015, 9:20pm (UTC -6)
Would you mind explaining?
Mon, Jul 20, 2015, 10:46pm (UTC -6)
As for Vulcans not being able to lie, that was a myth. Spock lied and Tuvok infiltrated the Maquis by lying continually.
As for the complaint that this totally invalidated "First Contact", I disagree. The limited, accidental contact with a primitive, pre-warp Earth was as T'Pol put it merely a "footnote" in history. The "real" First Contact with Zefram Cochrane was still the one that radically altered history and began the relationship between Vulcan and Earth.
Mon, Aug 3, 2015, 10:51pm (UTC -6)
Several moments of humor here when one of the Vulcans remarks that a child keeps calling him Moe.(As in Moe of the three stooges.) There is also a nod to Lucile Ball and as most fans might recall she was the one that ok'd the money to make Star Trek:TOS Remember the first season was shot at Desilu.
After interacting with a young man that is obviously intelligent but without the means to go to college TPol somewhat modifies her opinion of humanity and provides the money for him to attend.
The episode ends with the Vulcans being contacted for pickup and one of the Vulcans deciding to stay on Earth due to his facination with humanity. Best episode of the second season and one of the best of the series.
Wed, Nov 4, 2015, 4:30pm (UTC -6)
Thu, Nov 19, 2015, 1:54pm (UTC -6)
Thu, Jan 7, 2016, 10:54pm (UTC -6)
Exactly, so a better line would have been "typically these humans live to be 60 or 70", not "at best..."
Fri, Jan 29, 2016, 8:03pm (UTC -6)
Thu, Feb 18, 2016, 5:36pm (UTC -6)
Sun, Apr 10, 2016, 8:09am (UTC -6)
Overturning the point of First Contact however, made me a little uncomfortable, which was why the penultimate scene delighted me - and why the last scene didn't. Leaving it as 'just a story' would have been the perfect whimsical end - putting a full stop to it went just a little too far for my taste. 2.5 stars.
Wed, May 25, 2016, 11:37am (UTC -6)
Regardless, love the site and thanks for all the work you put into it.
Sun, May 29, 2016, 2:44am (UTC -6)
Because that's all I see in this review. Hating because the acting is not dramatic enough.
Or maybe someone is just anti-Vulcan and can't see the obvious humor in an all-Vulcan episode, with all their coldly emotional behavior.
Tue, Jun 21, 2016, 12:05pm (UTC -6)
Wed, Jul 20, 2016, 7:43pm (UTC -6)
My review says it all, this is a 4 star episode IMO.
Top 10 trek episode for me.
Thu, Aug 11, 2016, 1:50am (UTC -6)
Sat, Sep 17, 2016, 8:40pm (UTC -6)
Yet another example or the weird American provincialism constantly on display in Enterprise, from the airbrushing out of Yuri Gagarin in the opening credits sequence to every first alien contact taking place in the USA, even when the aliens crash while monitoring a Soviet satellite launch.
Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 11:48am (UTC -6)
Well, anyway. Can't disagree more on this review as well... It was one of the best of Enterprise
Sat, Dec 17, 2016, 2:03pm (UTC -6)
Con: It's hard to imagine the crash and crash site wouldn't be discovered and they made no attempt to cover those tracks. Not very logical.
I thought it was entertaining and deserved a higher rating.
Tue, Dec 27, 2016, 12:16pm (UTC -6)
First, T'Pol/T'Mir is pretty good in her Vulcan portrayal. It must be tough for any actor to show a lot with expression and limit any emotional display. It was something Nimoy absolutely excelled at, and I'm sure it must be difficult. She mostly does it, especially when her skin-tight leotard instead of a Starfleet uniform doesn't distray this viewer's focus.
I also liked the little reference to I Love Lucy, which I immediately recognized as a nod to Desilu, the studio that developed TOS. The naming of one character Mestral after the actual inventor of Velcro was also pretty clever.
The 1950s small-town setting reminded me of stories such as The Iron Giant and October Sky, and I appreciate being reminded of films like those.
All in all, this was an enjoyable episode, especially as a one-off not related to the ongoing storyline.
Sun, Jan 1, 2017, 11:01am (UTC -6)
Sun, Jan 1, 2017, 4:34pm (UTC -6)
Sat, Jan 7, 2017, 4:05pm (UTC -6)
Another good review.
Sat, Feb 25, 2017, 2:08pm (UTC -6)
Tue, Apr 11, 2017, 8:32pm (UTC -6)
Since T’Pol was repeating a story she’d heard presumably before she had interactions with humans, I’m thinking some of the details of the story she may have originally misunderstood and others, she may have simply been “telling a story”, perhaps knowing some details were inaccurate or unlikely. Then again any inconsistencies were probably just the usual ST plot holes.
One might suspect that the young man who T’Mir helped to go to college may have altered the course of history more than the Velcro contribution. Maybe that’s why he wasn’t identified ;)
Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 3:07pm (UTC -6)
One question is left unanswered: what about the language barrier? Did the Vulcans already have universal translators back then? And if so, how could it have included Earth English when they just showed up in orbit because of Sputnik?
Mon, Apr 17, 2017, 5:34pm (UTC -6)
It is a charming story and I don't think T'Mir/T'Pol's acting is an issue. I also don't have an issue with the 3 Vulcans interacting and despite being almost emotionless, it is clear that they all have distinct personalities, which is refreshing.
There are a number of very compassionate scenes, which the cynical will criticize, but most folks will appreciate. It's a nice change of pace for the show coming after "Shockwave".
I really liked the "I Love Lucy" line, but I too am baffled by how the Vulcans lie in letting Mestral stay behind. Perhaps between ENT and TOS they evolve to not lie although Spock got away with a few.
Of course, with almost every Star Trek show, there are a few holes. The biggest in this case is what happened to the remains of the crashed Vulcan ship which was only a handful of kms away from Carbon Creek.
But overall, an interesting hour of ENT which does have some of the charm of arguably the best Star Trek episode ever "The City on the Edge of Forever". For me, I'd rate it 3/4 stars and can see why some people absolutely love it.
Mon, May 8, 2017, 8:02pm (UTC -6)
This episode is about nostalgy, so forget plotholes and whatever people disliked about "Carbon Creek". Enjoy the jokes. (4*/4*)
Wed, Jul 19, 2017, 10:37pm (UTC -6)
I enjoyed this one. It gave me the warm fuzzies with its quiet comfortable sweet little story
Tue, Sep 5, 2017, 2:00am (UTC -6)
I've been rewatching key ENT episodes in anticipation of DISCOVERY. Blalock is one of Trek's more underrated actors. Her performance is much more subtle than Tim Russ', and it's up there with Nimoy and Lenard. In fact, in terms of expressing Vulcan kinethestics, I think she tops them.
Tue, Sep 5, 2017, 2:01am (UTC -6)
Tue, Sep 5, 2017, 8:46am (UTC -6)
... and I agree about Jolene's performance as T'pol. She did a wonderful job.
Mon, Sep 18, 2017, 11:35am (UTC -6)
But as you said, the performances and emotional beats fell short all over the place. The only actor who I felt really lived up to the character they were asked to portray was the guy who played the most open of the Vulcans, Mestral. The other non-T'Pol Vulcan was ok, considering he WAS playing a Vulcan, and his part wasn't too big. But Blalock, the bar owner, and her son were not satisfying. Blalock is just unfortunately still terrible at playing a Vulcan. Not that I can picture the actress as being good in any role, from what I've seen. She equates emotionless with quiet and unassuming, but still with some detectable traces of random emotion in her voice. Vulcans should be calm, but still very self-assured. Someone needed to buy her the Voyager box set and tell her to try to study and imitate Tuvok or Seven. I think Tim Russ is the best Vulcan ever. He does allow a bit of emotion into his voice from time to time, sometimes a bit of condescension or amusement when speaking with Neelix or Paris, sometimes a real feeling of friendship when he speaks to Janeway or Kess. It's subtle, but adds to his presence on the screen. The one thing he always does is sound confident. Jeri Ryan, even though she is technically playing a human, also does a much more believable "Vulcan" than Blalock. By the way, I loved every single time that Tuvok and Seven shared the screen. They were pretty damn funny together, dispassionately remarking on the rest of the crew's antics.
The bar owner and son, on the other hand, aren't necessarily bad actors. But they certainly should have been directed to seem a little MORE interesting and emotional. And speaking of injecting emotions into the episode, the entire mine collapse situation could have been made more interesting if we had had more interactions with and affection for the men who were trapped in there.
In terms of plot, this one is more interesting than 11:59. But 11:59 was a more affecting episode, based on performances. The character Mulgrew plays feels like a similar personality, but still a noticeably different person than Captain Jainway. The man and son she meets both have more memorable personalites than the woman and son in this episode. Just wanted to point out, that one wasn't actually a "story" told by Janeway. It was a true flashback/exact portrayal of events. The story Janeway knew about her ancestor, which had been passed down to her through her family, turned out to be a complete exaggeration. Throughout the course of the episode, Janeway learns some of the truth through her historical investigations. But we, the audience know the whole story, whereas it's unlikely that her research would have revealed the level of detail which we learned.
I liked this episode of Enterprise. I would rate it more than 1.5 stars. But I did come away from less moved than I ought to have been, considering how much I normally enjoy this type of episode. I blame mostly Jolene Blalock, and somewhat the writers (who should have added a bit more to get us to care about the characters in Carbon Creek) and somewhat the guest actors/director, whoever could have given those characters a bit more umph.
Sun, Sep 24, 2017, 6:47pm (UTC -6)
Mon, Oct 16, 2017, 6:33pm (UTC -6)
Tue, Oct 24, 2017, 9:35am (UTC -6)
2,5 stars for me.
Btw, if Vulcan lifespan is 200 years, and the Vulcan remaining on Earth looked not old (rather in the middle of his life), he might well live a few years after the First Contact, and therefore his ears wouldn't be so amazing to anyone after death.
(Or he might just self-inflict damage at the top of his ears and get rid of hats, that's another option, a wound is not so difficult to explain)
Fri, Dec 22, 2017, 5:20pm (UTC -6)
Tue, Feb 27, 2018, 6:31pm (UTC -6)
The point wasnt to tell the story itself (though knowing the Vulcans landed earlier is nice), it was to deep dive into T'Pols psyche and her developing relationship with her team.
Mon, Mar 5, 2018, 3:15am (UTC -6)
Mon, Mar 12, 2018, 3:50am (UTC -6)
Sun, May 20, 2018, 11:50am (UTC -6)
At first, I thought that kid was going to stumble upon their ship and find out they were aliens. And with his love of space I swear I thought they were going to reveal the kid’s name was Gene Roddenberry and I was getting ready to destroy my television. I missed when they said what year it took place though, and luckily they revealed the kid’s name quickly haha.
Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 4:09pm (UTC -6)
Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 8:39pm (UTC -6)
It's hard to believe that it would not have been discovered in the time they were there or that no one in that entire town saw the ball of fire shooting across the sky or the sound of the crash. How did they retrieve it when they were rescued, beam it up? Surely they couldn't have left it there. The velcro thing was pretty silly too, I thought she was looking through the ship for some precious metals to sell or something, like Alf's gold plumbing he used to by Lynn a Ferrari.
Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 11:52am (UTC -6)
Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 4:09pm (UTC -5)
"Just one question: Why would T'Pol's age be classified?"
It's not.... it's Archer humor. Officially I'm sure it's privileged or "CO's eyes only".
Sat, Sep 8, 2018, 5:04pm (UTC -6)
Loved all of it (except for the velcro part).
Solid 3 stars!
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