Carpenter Street

Temporal Agent Daniels visits Captain Archer and tells him that three Xindi Reptilians have traveled to Earth in 2004 for unknown reasons, affecting the temporal line. Archer and T'Pol travel to Detroit and they discover that the employee of a blood bank Loomis is selling human beings with different type of blood to the aliens that are researching a biological weapon.

"Carpenter Street" follows the style of film-noir in spite of happening in 2004. The story is good, with Archer and T'Pol finding that the Xindi Reptilians expect to destroy the human race one hundred and fifty years before the present days. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Rua Carpenter" ("Carpenter Street")

Many feature movies do not deserve,do not justify their length.They make'em too long;so,there's a lot of junk inside.Such movies do not really need more than 45' to say all they are meant to say;the rest is simply junk,ugly stuff.(They do not rely on time,but on the viewer's docility.)It's vanity to try to give a 45' story as a 100' one.I like the long show that needs to be long;but I don't like being fooled by a jerk who does not need more than 45' to tell his story and takes 100' as if the public's time was his.

"Carpenter Street" works as I like it to work.It take just the time it needs:as much time as is needed.It is concise,supple,well-thought,lucid.

It's interesting to compare the time travel in "Carpenter Street",and those in "ST IV" and "ST VIII"."Carpenter Street" is grim,somehow sinister.In "ST IV" and "ST VIII",the sets were crowded;not so in the nocturnal,dark "Carpenter Street".

It is interesting to note that the episode Carpenter Street and the character,Dr. Loomis Strode, are associated with John Carpenter's Halloween movie ;-)(i.e.Laurie Strode and Detective Loomis) I looked to see if either writers or director had a notable connection in their bio, but found none. Still it is obvious that someone is a fan of John Carpenter and rightly so!

A remarkable episode, entertaining and very well shot.

I recognized several nods to both Terminator 1 & 2. Another reviewer points out John Carpenter and Halloween, hence the title.

It also feels like a X-Files episode with the way it's shot and its tale of alien abduction/conspiracy (certainly X-Files is felt in the overarching plot of the Enterprise series with a "black oil" like substance playing a role).

Generally, I want trek to be more like the 90s shows: to embrace the old television format of storytelling verses trying to be like Hollywood --- I want less mood lighting, less lens flare, less style and more substance --- but I super dig this episode.

Archer and T'Pol time travel back to Detroit in 2004 to intercept some time-travelling Xindi terrorists.

The story was well paced, but didn't grip me enough to think anything bad was ever in danger of happening. It has some decent moments, which come mainly from good acting by the cast and also T'Pol's interaction with a drive through fast food restaurant, but it doesn't work for me as a concept or in the way the story unfolds.

The idea of the Xindi collecting human blood is good, but the time travel element feels to me feels half-baked. If they have the means to time travel why choose this time and if things go wrong why not just time travel again? In fact why not just time travel back to the dawn of man and kill all humans before they even develop the wheel? Also, the Xindi looked menacing when they boarded the Enterprise and did so much damage in a previous episode, but in a warehouse and on a rooftop in Detroit they look as convincing as a man in a rubber suit from 50s or 60s sci-fi.

Archer goes full Jack Bauer in this one, even looking like him during his mild torture session with Leland Orser's character. I found this to be a bit of a distraction.

It does advance the overarching season plot, so it is worth watching for continuity and I did like the John Carpenter references.

It's a 5.5/10 for me but I round upwards.