63 – Carpenter Street

Grade: D-

Summary

Archer and T’Pol have to go back to the year 2004 to stop a Xindi plan to create a biological weapon.

Commentary

Well, I think we’re officially out of ideas. Now we’re going back in time yet again to the 21st Century, and this time, it’s to stop a Xindi plot.

It’s amazing how quickly Archer learns to drive a truck, and wouldn’t you know it – nobody ever misses the truck enough to call the cops and report a stolen vehicle, or report stolen funds from the ATM. And how did Archer know the ATM was where he could find money?

Sometimes, I think the only reason that Star Trek episodes go back to the past is so we can all laugh about how much trouble the characters have fitting into the past. But this one didn’t really have much humor to it. And it certainly had a lot of social commentary that was unnecessary and uninteresting.

I guess it was too much to ask to just have the Xindi bio-weapon being created in the present time instead of in the 21st Century. I guess it was also too much to ask to know why the Xindi had to pick this particular time in history to create this weapon. I mean, if the weapon couldn’t be created in the present time, why did it have to be created in the early 2000s?

All things considered, this was a real ho-hum episode, and too much like the zillions of other time travel plots we’ve already seen. I’m losing patience for this series.

Of Note

Only Archer, T’Pol and Tucker appear on screen in this episode. All the rest of the characters are played by guest actors. I think that’s one reason this episode rates so low in my book – I don’t care to watch scenes of Detroit in 2004. I’d like to see more Star Trek please.