Star Trek: Enterprise Episode Review
Season 2, Episode 2
T'Pol recounts the story of her great grandmother, whose ship crash landed in Pennsylvania in the 1950s.
All of the spectacle and fight scenes in "Shockwave, Part II" just can't measure up to a simple, well-written Trek story. "Carbon Creek" dwarfs the season premiere in quality. Despite being a quiet, slow-paced episode, this has all the hallmarks of a Star Trek great, and per my rating system is Enterprise's best episode so far. A thoughtful script and a nuanced portrayal of Enterprise's key alien race starts the season off on a strong note.
Core to Star Trek's unique appeal is its optimistic humanism, which is given voice here through the character of Mestral. The story of an immigrant who finds a welcoming home in small-town America is a lovely aspirational tale on a smaller scale than the franchise usually goes for. I found it quite a pleasant 45-minute antidote to these cynical times in which immigrants are routinely dehumanized and quite literally labeled "alien enemies." This is a universal story, and its simple but heartwarming nature lends the episode a timeless quality. It can be quite saccharine, but it's earnest in its portrayal of the inherent goodness of individual people. Setting these small uplifting events against the background of the Cold War only makes this point stand out more.
What makes "Carbon Creek" unique within Star Trek is its focus on everyday, normal, working class people. Trek's characters are typically paragons of virtue, the best of the best, but "Carbon Creek" slows down and extends that optimism to the common man as well. One of the biggest story beats of the episode is a boy applying for a scholarship. It may seem quaint next to the sci-fi action of "Shockwave, Part II," but it also makes for a much more emotional story.
Part of what allows this episode to get away with such sentimentality is just the right amount of self-awareness. Writer Chris Black knows this is a bit cheesy and stretches credulity, so he winks at the audience. This comes primarily in the form of the framing device indicating that this may be an embellished or even fabricated story of T'Pol's, but also in some cheeky light-hearted moments, such as Mestral not wanting to miss I Love Lucy. The comedic but sincere tone is no doubt indebted to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Mestral, the Vulcan castaway who ends up immigrating to Earth after becoming fascinated with humanity, is at the heart of why this episode works. Guest star J. Paul Boehmer drives the episode with a great performance. He is a reliable Trek veteran who was also the key to the success of Voyager's "Drone." In Mestral, we see an open-minded Vulcan with an eye for exploration. This character serves as a reminder that not all of Enterprise's Vulcans are prideful, snobbish bureaucrats. As Spock and Tuvok showed us, a philosophy of logic does not mean the exclusion of loyalty, compassion, or curiosity. Through Jolene Blalock's soft performance as T'Mir and the subtext of T'Pol's storytelling, we can see that she has developed some measure of Mestral's fondness for humanity as well.
Because Enterprise is Enterprise, even the best episode yet can't go by without needless sexualization, inviting the audience to be voyeurs as T'Mir changes clothes. At some point, I suppose, I'm going to have to just accept this about Enterprise and stop complaining in these reviews. I'll just say that I can't imagine anyone was tuning into Star Trek for this.
