‘Winding your way down on Carpenter Street
Phaser in your hand, you’re dead on your feet
you’ve been transported through time
to stop some xindi-guy
from killing the world today.’
It’s more time travel on the episode that originally aired on November 26, 2003 this is Carpenter Street.
The Episode:
Captain’s Starlog Date Undetermined.
After a Xindi goes back in time and starts kidnapping prostitutes to take their blood, Agent Daniels appears on Enterprise to inform Archer that the Xindi are trying to attack Earth from the past. Archer and T’Pol are soon swept back to Detroit in 2000 where they track down the Xindi doctor who is acting as if he is a Human Doctor attempting to make an unsanctioned vaccine. Archer and T’Pol soon catch the Xindi and discover that they are using the blood from humans of the past to make a virus in order to prevent humanity in the future from killing them all. Archer manages to take this doctor and his Xindi companions back to Enterprise via temporal tags and has Phlox begin analyzing the virus that had been developed.
Is this a ‘Good’ Episode:
So….let me get this straight. Xindi go back in time to take blood samples of humans when they could have just stopped by the old west planet and get all they wanted. Huh. Okay.
I swear, this whole Xindi/Suliban Temporal War thing just makes zero sense in any way form or fashion. They are afraid humans are going to destroy their home world, or that they did already destroy their home world and so they try to kill humanity in the ‘present’ but then go back in time to get blood samples in order to make a virus to kill humanity in the future. It’s not just the humanish looking Xindi either, it’s the reptile Xindi who show up so there is no chance of them hiding out, and the guy they use ultimately becomes the reason for the whole ‘reptile alien’ thing that abductees talk about. So, this episode is basically a way to explain why some people believe that Reptilian Aliens are trying to take over. whooo. okay. That’s a lot.
One thing I find hilarious about this episode is how Archer and T’Pol don’t seem all that concerned about polluting the timeline. In fact, the first thing they do is steal a truck. Now, that person who owns the truck will be late for whatever they need to do the next day and, from the looks of the truck, they are some kind of utility worker so they are probably going to get fired. I mean, imagine telling your boss that someone from the future stole your truck. haha! Then, Archer steals money from an ATM causing that ATM to have less funds than it did originally. Who knows what issues that will cause. The pollution of the timeline gets worse through the episode ending Loomis, with the human that the Xindi are using to kidnap people actually seeing the Xindi themselves. Of course no one believes him and thinks he’s insane but still, talk about some serious timeline issues.
Overall, while this is a fun, lets stop the Xindi from stealing blood from the past, story, it’s really pretty pointless and doesn’t make any sense seeing that there was really no need for them to go back in time to collect human blood types. Heck, if they can time travel how about just go back to the stone age and kill all of the proto-humans. Wham Bam, all the humans dead, never even born. yay. solved…..ugh. The only thing this episode does manage to do is convince T’Pol that time travel is real. So if that was the purpose of this episode then bravo, you did it…
Gleanings and Cool Bits:
- While you wouldn’t recognize him, the main Reptilian Xindi is played by Jeffery Dean Morgan, you know Neegan from Walking Dead and the Winchester’s father from Supernatural? That alone should have made this episode worth while but sadly, he didn’t get a chance to really shine as a proper villain. He was just kinda there. Man, they really should have used him in a beefier role.
- You might recognize Loomis, Leland Orser, from his past roles on DS9 and Voyager, not to mention a ton of other films and series. This dude plays crazy perfectly.
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: Chosen Realm
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 9/15/2021
Special Thanks to Memory Alpha as they are one of the best sources for details on Star Trek information available. Although I have a pretty deep knowledge on the subject, they have proven invaluable as a regular resource.
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