Carpenter Street (episode)

Real World article
(written from a Production point of view)

Archer and T'Pol travel back in time to stop the Xindi-Reptilians in 21st century Detroit.

Summary

Teaser

A Human in Detroit, in 2004, returns home at the end of the day and starts to relax when he receives a phone call. Nervous, he answers and hears someone asking if he's made "his selection," yet. The man confirms and asks if his payment is ready, which is confirmed. The man is warned to be careful with the sedative, since he almost killed his last "selection." The person on the other end of the phone is a Xindi-Reptilian.

Act One

Later, the man, Loomis, follows through with his plan. He picks up a prostitute and, under the pretense of wanting her services, picks her up. She recognizes him as a worker at a blood bank, and he also reveals he remembers her name and blood type. Soon, he stops at the side of the road and sedates her. He brings her into an abandoned factory on Carpenter Street where several other sedated people are lying, apparently kidnapped earlier. He picks up his payment and leaves.

In 2153, it's the middle of the night on the Enterprise NX-01 as Captain Jonathan Archer goes into the galley to eat. There, Temporal agent Daniels appears. Given the Enterprise's mission, Archer confronts him immediately on being absent. He responds that there is no record in the 31st century of a conflict between Humans and Xindi, so everything that is happening is the result of temporal incursions. Archer also notes that the Suliban controller from the future had told Archer about the Xindi weapon, to which Daniels says there's no reason to disbelieve it.

As for the current conflict, Daniels says it will take time before his people can detect what new events are unfolding in Archer's time. He is therefore here for another reason: three Xindi Reptilians from Archer's century have been detected on 21st century Earth, and Daniels needs Archer's help. He gives Archer a communicator and "temporal tags" he can use to mark anything from their time for Daniels to bring back. He is allowed to bring one person with him, and he chooses T'Pol, who is still skeptical that time travel is possible. Archer tells Trip Tucker where they're going and leaves him in charge of Enterprise.

The captain and T'Pol walk through the corridors and are instantly transported back in time to Detroit.

Act Two

Archer and T'Pol start their mission, which requires a bit of knowledge about 21st century technology and customs. Fortunately, they have a device that can interact with various electronics of the time. They then "borrow" a Dodge Ram truck by unlocking it with the device to begin searching to find the Xindi hideout. Later, they "borrow" some money from an ATM using the device in order to re-fuel the truck. They eventually find the factory by the three Xindi biosigns inside. Archer tells T'Pol to set her phase-pistol on kill since stun hasn't seemed to affect the Reptilians much.

Meanwhile, Loomis has found another "selection" and goes to the person's apartment with a story of how he was sent to bring the man back to the clinic. The man agrees, and Loomis sedates him and drives him to the factory. While observed discretely by Archer and T'Pol, Loomis enters the factory. Inside, Loomis has no trouble bringing the man to the bed, but sees his payment is missing. His contact, the Xindi, is partially obscured by shadow when he informs Loomis he'll be paid the last payment when he brings the last two blood types by the next day. Loomis wants to wait because there are news reports about people going missing and he is worried about being caught since they can all be connected to the blood bank where he works. The Xindi instead offers him a double reward, and he agrees.

Loomis goes back to his apartment to contemplate his increasingly harder task. Archer and T'Pol follow him and, when Archer knocks on the door, Loomis fears the worst and bolts out the window and down the fire escape. Archer pursues, but T'Pol is ready on the ground and uses her Vulcan nerve pinch to subdue him.

Act Three

Archer interrogates Loomis in his apartment, tied to a chair. Loomis initially denies everything, except making a few extra dollars on stolen drugs from the clinic, and asks for a lawyer. Archer then lets him know he's serious by punching him, and that gets him talking. Loomis thinks the Xindi is a doctor working on an experimental vaccine that he doesn't have approval for. He believes the doctor won't hurt anyone, and, indeed, insists that he just saw the whole group and they're fine. The "doctor" wanted eight people, one of each blood type, and is still missing AB-positive and B-negative. He always stays in the shadows, so Loomis never saw he was an alien. Archer informs him he'll make one last delivery – Archer himself, who has B-negative blood.

On the way, Loomis seems very nonchalant about the whole thing, suggesting they stop to get some fast food. Loomis and Archer get hamburgers while T'Pol looks on in disgust. At the warehouse, T'Pol waits in the car while Loomis brings Archer in. Archer pretends to be unconscious as Loomis sets him up and informs him of the Xindi's schedule during the day. Loomis leaves to re-join T'Pol. After she fires her "raygun" into the car door to prove it is real, Loomis then agrees to drive to the next location. Loomis is worried that the doctor will come after him if Archer is caught. He lights a cigarette to calm himself, but, alarmed, she tells him to put it out. Unfortunately, Loomis has a plan, as when T'Pol leaves the car, he reaches for a switchblade knife which was hidden in the seat, keeping it in his pocket.

Archer lies still long enough to allow his blood to be taken, then gets up and searches the area. He finds the Xindi around a bio-reactor, which fits the information Rajiin gave them. To prevent spreading whatever the Xindi are making across the city, T'Pol suggests finding the temporal tag, preventing them from going back to the future, rather than destroy the reactor. Archer, from a hiding spot, finds the device on one of them and fires, stunning him. The other two fire back, take a component with the virus from the reactor, and flee.

Act Four

Archer pursues the two remaining Xindi down an alley. He gives T'Pol their location and she then orders Loomis to drive there. Loomis, however, interprets her orders as their plan failing and, afraid of the consequences he'll find if they fail, Loomis beeps the horn to warn his associates and tries to stab T'Pol. As they struggle inside the car, the Xindi pause and Archer stuns another one of them. T'Pol catches Loomis' arm and stuns him, then joins Archer in the pursuit.

The last Xindi finds a ventilation fan on the top of a nearby building and prepares to release the toxin, still able to do a lot of damage even though he can't return to the 22nd century. Archer and T'Pol arrive soon and engage him in a firefight. T'Pol covers Archer as he sneaks up on the Xindi from the other side. He catches the Xindi and asks why they need a second weapon, to which the Xindi says directly they will not allow Humans to destroy them. He turns to make a final lunge toward the container and, despite Archer firing on him, tips it over toward the fan, but Archer catches it.

Archer and T'Pol bring the three Xindi and their equipment back to the Enterprise's command center using the temporal tags given to them by Daniels. They arrive just at the point of when they left, so they catch Tucker just as he had left them. Leaving Tucker confused, Archer orders Malcolm Reed to store the equipment in Cargo Bay 2 and takes the virus sample for Phlox to examine.

Back in 2004, Loomis is arrested by police officers from the Detroit Police Department for abducting the six people. He starts babbling about lizard people and ray guns and they assume he is on drugs.

Memorable quotes

"We just traveled ninety light years back to Earth?"
"And 150 years into the past."
"Forgive me if I'm not entirely convinced."
"You will be."

- T'Pol and Archer, after stepping through the command center door into 21st century Detroit

"Have you ever operated a vehicle from this period?"
"I can pilot a starship!"

- T'Pol and Archer, just before departing in their stolen Dodge Ram

"People used to go to jail for this."
"We'll return what we don't use."

- Archer and T'Pol, after Archer uses 22nd century technology to take money from an ATM

"This gonna take long? I don't wanna miss Conan."

- Lawrence Strode, to Loomis

"You're a veggie. I forgot. Why don't you take a fry? They're probably okay."

(T'Pol looks at Loomis' french fries in disgust, then at him)

"Have it your way!"

- Loomis, to T'Pol

"Why would anyone on the street be interested in acquiring Mexhohexital?"

- T'Pol, to Loomis, after scanning the drugs and discovering they were sedatives and not recreational drugs

"What are you doing?"
"I don't know about you honey but I'm a little tense, you know what I mean?"
"Extinguish that now!"

- T'Pol reacts to Loomis lighting up a cigarette

"You two better keep your word."
"You've been abducting people for money and you're questioning our honesty?"

- Loomis and T'Pol

"Those creatures – the lizard people – they're around here somewhere. You gotta find 'em!"
"No problem. We'll get right on that."
"Be careful. Be careful. They got ray guns."
"Yeah, ray guns. Got it."

- Loomis and his arresting officer

Background information

Much consideration went into deciding when this episode would be set. "We talked about a lot of different time periods and felt that contemporary times would be cool" recalled Star Trek: Enterprise co-creator and Executive Producer Brannon Braga. The writers made their choice of selecting a modern setting because it allowed them to create the character of Loomis as a more relatable character. (Star Trek: Communicator issue 151, p. 31)
The final draft of this episode's script was issued on 7 October 2003.
The final scene of this episode was scripted to be set during night. However, the setting for the scene is clearly depicted as early morning.
John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox), Anthony Montgomery (Ensign Travis Mayweather), and Linda Park (Ensign Hoshi Sato) do not appear in this episode. Dominic Keating (Lieutenant Malcolm Reed) does not appear on screen, but has several voiceover lines at the end of the episode.
This episode does not feature any scenes shot on the bridge, in sickbay, or in engineering.
Leland Orser previously played Gai, (DS9: "Sanctuary") Lovok, (DS9: "The Die is Cast") and Dejaren. (VOY: "Revulsion")
This was the first episode of any Star Trek series to be rated TV-14 in the United States, due to a small part of the plot involving drugs and prostitution.
The idea of characters coming back to the same time period as the real-life filming is similar to TOS: "Assignment: Earth", Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and VOY: "Future's End". In this instance, "Carpenter Street" was filmed and aired in 2003 and Archer and T'Pol travel back to the then-future year of 2004.
According to background production art, this episode takes place mostly in October, 2004. [1] [2] [3] The final draft script simply referred to the 21st century events of the installment as occurring in the Fall of that year.
The civilian costume worn by Jolene Blalock was auctioned off in the It's A Wrap! sale and auction. [4]
The truck "borrowed" by Archer and T'Pol happens to be the same color and type as the one used by Tom Paris and Tuvok in the episode VOY: "Future's End".
Although this episode takes place in Detroit, in reality, most scenes were filmed on the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Notably, the final shot with the police cruisers features hills in the distance; Detroit has no such hills. [5]^(X) There is also no Carpenter Street in Detroit (only a Carpenter Avenue).
There are many references to the 1978 horror film Halloween. The title, and street name, is a reference to Director John Carpenter. Loomis is a reference to Dr. Sam Loomis, played by Donald Pleasence. Lawrence Strode is a reference to Laurie Strode, played by Jamie Lee Curtis. Loomis talks about a "Mr. Myers," a reference to the infamous killer Michael Myers. Loomis drives an old station wagon, much like one Myers drives in the film Halloween.
T'Pol asking Archer if he is familiar with driving a truck recalls a similar line in "North Star", where T'Pol asks Tucker if he knows how to ride a horse. In both instances, the officer doesn't, but assumes that their past experience will be sufficient.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who played Damron in this episode, stated in 2012 to Entertainment Weekly that he only took the role because he needed some money to pay his bills. He recalled the experience of playing a Xindi-Reptilian was not pleasant for him at all, remembering that he had to stick straws in his nose to breathe, was claustrophobic the entire time and that he couldn't eat. He remembered going to his home in tears and claimed he nearly quit acting because of his experience on Enterprise. (Entertainment Weekly, issue #1201, p. 65)
In some scenes between Archer and T'Pol which take place in the stolen truck, the rear-view mirror is noticeably missing. This is a common technique when filming television episodes or movies, so the camera and filming crew do not show up in the mirror.
After T'Pol refuses to have a french fry from the burger restaurant, Loomis says, "Have it your way," a slogan used in Burger King advertising.
Brannon Braga was pleased with the way this installment turned out. "It was certainly fun," he said, "to get out off the ship and see reptiles creeping around modern-day Detroit." Braga also found it "fascinating" that the episode's main antagonist, at least in his opinion, is not the Reptilians but the Human Loomis. (Star Trek: Communicator issue 151, p. 31)
When Loomis shows up at Strode's apartment to pick him up, Strode's apartment number is 602. The 602 is the name of the club in Mill Valley talked about in "Shuttlepod One" and "Countdown", and seen on screen in the flashbacks of "First Flight".
The final scene of Loomis babbling about lizard people resembles modern conspiracy theories of alien lizard people taking over Earth.

Links and references

Starring

Scott Bakula as Jonathan Archer
John Billingsley as Phlox
Jolene Blalock as T'Pol
Dominic Keating as Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery as Travis Mayweather
Linda Park as Hoshi Sato
Connor Trinneer as Charles "Trip" Tucker III

Guest Stars

Co-Stars

External links

"Carpenter Street" at StarTrek.com, the official Star Trek website
"Carpenter Street" at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
"Carpenter Street" at Wikipedia

Previous episode:
"Similitude"

Star Trek: Enterprise
Season 3

Next episode:
"Chosen Realm"