Carpenter Street

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.

The greatest thing about this episode is that it features Leland Orser who is one of Hollywood's most underrated actors; as usual he gives a superb natural performance. We don't see enough of Leland Orser like others of his ilk, because they're too good; they act as though they aren't acting and so most of the audience are so convinced that they don't realise what an incredible job they're doing - especially with the kind of characters that Leland Orser plays. So if you want to see a master at work, then watch this episode.

Apart from that the story works really well and is shot in a grittier hand-held style that suits the dark atmosphere and it's a big departure from the tight gloss of the usual Enterprise episodes - it's all about the characters; no CGI or tech-speak. Perhaps you could compare it to an episode of the X Files; it looks kind of similar and the plot would work in that series.

In total it's very enjoyable from the first scene to the last; it keeps moving, every sequence adds to the storyline and it keeps you glued to the screen right the way through. Over all it's a triumph and an episode you could watch as a stand-alone and get what's going on in this series. It was also good to see Archer and T'Pol out of their normal context; though I'm glad it doesn't happen too often - this episode goes along with the long tradition of Trek crews finding themselves on Earth in the past, or in pseudo Earth societies on other worlds.

Once again, we need to take an episode like this with a grain of salt. Daniels returns and directs Archer and T'Pol to go to Detroit in 2004. Some Xindi are there and they are paying some low life guy to bring people of different blood types to them. He works at a blood bank and has records. Anyway, the Xindi are trying to create a bio-weapon. They would have no problem destroying the earth with it and then the future would be theirs. Of course, there are all sorts of implications involved with time travel. Nevertheless, it is always entertaining to see the natives reacting to the people from the future. The apprehension of the blood bank guy at the end is really funny.

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")

Carpenter Street is one of the most entertaining, well-performed and well-written episodes of Season 3. Archer and T'Pol are the featured characters and Leland Orser gives a memorable guest appearance.

Temporal Agent Daniels sends Archer and T'Pol from the Expanse back to 21st century earth on a search and destroy mission possibly related to the Xindi bio-weapon. Leland Orser plays a nurse who works in blood bank and, on the side, supplies the Xindi with victims for their experiments. The story is presented straightforwardly and achieves the feeling and atmosphere of a 1990s detective show.

Carpenter Street is uncharacteristically well-written, directed and edited. The script explores the differences between ST's vision of the future and the present as well or better than episodes of previous series in the franchise treating this same theme, but does not lose sight of the story in these ruminations. The story is also well-acted - Blalock and Orser stood out for me.

Finally - Carpenter Street stands out as one of the few Xindi/Daniels plots which could function as a stand-alone episode and does not require much previous exposure to Enterprise's time travel and Xindi arcs.

Recommended.