False arrests and a run from the law. Originally broadcast on February 26, 2003 this is Canamar.
The Episode:
After finding a shuttle adrift that originally had Archer and Tucker aboard, Enterprise goes on a search for their missing crewmembers which lead them to Keto-Enol. What they don’t know is that Archer and Tucker have been captured and are being taken to the prison colony of Canamar for their alleged crimes.
T’Pol soon learns that Archer and Tucker have been charged with smuggling and, after talking to the Enolian officials, get them to agree to free their crewmembers. However, when the guards go to free Archer and Tucker, a riot breaks out causing them all to go on the run. Soon Archer, Tucker and the criminals are hunted down and, when Enterprise pursues them, they end up saving their crew and returning the criminals, save one, to the Enolians. The Enolians apologize to Archer for the misunderstanding wondering how many others were falsely arrested and never given a chance to prove their innocence.
Is this a ‘Good’ Episode:
Remember when Archer and Mayweather were imprisoned by those people who hated the Suliban? Yeah, this is pretty much the same story but with the mistaken identity angle instead. I mean, you would think by this point they wouldn’t even consider letting Archer go on any missions with only one other person. For one, he is the Captain of a starship and, its never a good idea to put the highest ranking member of a crew in constant danger. Sure, this is essentially the wild west in space but, at least send a larger away team and not so far from Enterprise next time? Honestly this probably could have all been avoided if they had not gone off on their own.
The story itself is okay. It’s pretty much ConAir in space where the prisoners take over a plane, or in this case a warp ship, and there happens to be some undercover agents on board who are trying to keep the peace and survive. All that it is lacking is Steve Buscemi but we do have a guy with fishing lures hanging out if his chin so I guess that counts.
Overall, this is the perfect example of a filler episode that really doesnt do anything to drive character development or story forward. In fact it really feels more like a season one episode than one this far into the series. It’s not bad, just not very good.
Gleanings and Cool Bits:
- We meet the Nausicaans for the first time on the series, yeah they were jerks from the start.
Thanks for reading the Retro TV Review, I look forward to discussing the rest of the series with you, one episode at a time every Monday, Wednesday and Friday! Next Review: The Crossing
more reviews I have a weekly series called Key Movies Of My Life that comes out every Thursday and for more retro TV goodness check out the rest of the Retro TV Reviews here.
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Late To The Game 7/30/2021
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