Timothy
Lynch's Enterprise Episode Review
WARNING: Don't release the shackles on these spoilers for ENT's
"Canamar" unless you're willing to face the consequences.
In brief: Oy.
======
"Canamar"
Enterprise Season 2, Episode 17
Written by John Shiban
Directed by Allan Kroeker
Brief summary: Archer and Trip, falsely accused of smuggling, find
themselves on an Enolian prison ship headed for the dreaded penal
colony of Canamar.
======
If you want to see Archer play out his fantasy of being on the
wrong
side of the law, this is the episode you've been waiting for.
Unfortunately for the rest of us, however, there's very little here in
the
way of surprises, characterization, or plot logic.
In fairness, "Canamar" starts off with a nice image in the teaser
--
Archer and Trip's shuttlepod is adrift in space with the gravity shot,
and we see items inside floating around aimlessly as Hoshi asks for a
report. It's a nicely eerie shot ... but it's mostly downhill from
there.
From a plot perspective, "Canamar" is awfully high on the list of
plots
that create conflict by creating a totally artificial situation. We're
told
that Archer and Trip were falsely arrested for smuggling after
visiting
Ketto Enol, and that they're now en route to Canamar. It's clear after
watching the episode, however, that the reasons for their arrest are
completely and utterly irrelevant from the show's point of view: they
might as well have been arrested for speeding. We're never shown
what alleged contraband was found, we're never told what they were
doing on Ketto Enol in the first place, we're never given much of a
peek into the Enolians' lives other than the fact that their officials
wear
a lot of black ... and so on. The core problem was resolved by the
Enterprise showing up and saying "you falsely arrested these men,"
and the ranking official saying, "gee, you're right." This is not
exactly
gripping drama.
The characters don't seem to find it gripping either: absolutely
everyone on board Enterprise was acting as if Chef had slipped a few
sedatives into that morning's breakfast. _Enterprise_ is a show given
to low-key performances at the best of times, but this didn't feel
low-
key so much as half-asleep. It would have helped, for instance, if
while Hoshi was calling the pod she actually showed, oh, some signs
of actual *worry*, or if T'Pol were to change the cadence of her voice
even once during the show to something other than "I'm trying to be
threatening and my brow is furrowed." (And it's not that Jolene
Blalock isn't capable -- whatever concerns I may have had about
"Stigma," it certainly showed that she's got more of a range than she
showed here.)
Things are somewhat more active on the prison transport. After some
obligatory scenes showing that the guards are Not Nice People, the
transport crew gets word that Archer's to be released. Before that
happens, however, one prisoner manages to slip his shackles and
stage a revolt. He and a Nausicaan ally overpower the guards and the
pilot, then take control of the ship, leaving Archer in a delicate
position.
At this point, however, we discover that not only was the setup for
the
drama fairly artificial, but that the plot only moves forward by
virtue
of everyone on board being a complete dolt at one moment or
another. For one, I have difficulty believing that this is the first
time a
revolt's ever happened, yet the guards appear to be utterly clueless:
opening doors, having to dig through cabinets for weapons, and so
forth (Actually, "utterly clueless" is perhaps unfair -- they act
*precisely* as cluelessly as they need to in order to get the show
moving.) The ringleader, Kuroda, tells Archer that he's thought
"every detail" of this plan through -- yet it's clear he's no idea how
to
even fly the ship he's stolen, and his only response to being pursued
is "we have weapons -- use them!" And, of course, Archer, for
whatever reason, seems to think that his best chance of survival is to
try masquerading as a master criminal himself, and ingratiates himself
with Kuroda as quickly as he can.
I'm not sure Archer's actions are all that bad in principle, really
-- if
the alternative is hoping that these two don't get far before
Enterprise
can shoot to disable the ship, running a bluff is at least a good way
to
keep the transport itself safe. On the other hand, though, wouldn't he
expect Kuroda to expect *him* to prove his loyalty in some vaguely
lethal way -- say, by shooting a prisoner who talks too much or firing
on a ship? I think Archer's actions are sort of two parts desperate,
one part naive -- which could be neat if anyone recognized it,
including Archer himself. Alas, so far as we can see this was pretty
much a day at the office -- hell, Archer barely breaks a sweat. Sigh.
(There's also no reason for him to spin a story this involved unless
he
just enjoys it -- and mentioning Earth specifically is *really* not
the
best way to represent Earth in a larger community, as he claimed to be
concerned about just a couple of episodes back. If it weren't for
Kuroda dying at the end of the episode, I'd be lobbying to have that
come back and bite Archer sometime.)
Kuroda had the potential to be a very interesting character. Mark
Rolston's is a face genre fans have seen before -- in TNG's "Eye of
the Beholder" as a killer and in B5's "The Quality of Mercy" as ...
hmm ... a killer -- and he's generally good at projecting someone
who's both menacing and a little bit unpredictable in the process.
Certainly Kuroda himself had some moments -- his continued refusal
to eat prison rations made me think that there was something more to
it than just his stated reasons, and his assurance that Archer would
definitely be intrigued by what Kuroda had in mind as a partner made
me wonder whether Kuroda's "friends" would be at all familiar to us.
In many ways, though, all of that hinting wound up being about not
much. Apparently Kuroda's story -- being falsely accused and
imprisoned as a youth, then "putting his skills to use" in real crime
afterwards -- really is all we're supposed to take from the guy.
There's something to be said for not making every character a
mystery wrapped in an enigma, but when someone's being
deliberately set up as more complex than your average guest prisoner,
it's a shame when it turns out not to be so.
One other tendency that's come up many, many times this season is
to
put Trip in situations where he can get comically frazzled. Granted,
Connor Trinneer does a more than decent job under those conditions,
and I'm all for playing to an actor's strengths -- but it's getting to
be
something of a cliche at this point. Trip's dealing with a woman
who's flirting with him? Look comically resigned and flustered.
Trip's fighting for his life on a planet with big temperature swings?
Look comically resigned and flustered. It's something being imposed
on the character as a default reaction, not something flowing
naturally.
This time, Trip's foil of the week is another prisoner named Zoumas
(Sean Whalen), who's the boyish, sympathetic, and slightly nerdy
prisoner one always sees in these sorts of stories. It's never clear
what Zoumas has been taken into custody for -- talking officials to
death, perhaps -- but as Trip's seatmate, he talks incessantly about
anything: food, plastic surgeons he'll see when he's free, the time he
spent with an Orion slave girl, you name it.
I imagine most of us know someone like Zoumas -- someone who
you want to be nice to, but is so desperately unable to pick up on
social cues that you're tempted to invest large sums of money in gags.
(Hell, some of us might *be* that person in some situations.)
Zoumas is a perfectly valid character -- but he was also so incredibly
annoying, even in small doses, that by the second scene where he's
going on about something I was reaching for the mute button. Sorry,
all, but I prefer to reserve my patience for real life: I should not
need
to be gritting my teeth and being that patient with a character I'm
presumably watching for entertainment.
The eventual problem, if a bit predictable, is fairly well carried
off.
Kuroda, assuming that people will be less likely to look for him if
he's presumed dead, tells Archer that once he and his people are on
board the shuttle that's coming for him, Archer should program the
transport into an orbit that'll burn them up in the atmosphere, thus
making it look as though everyone died attempting to land. Naturally,
that doesn't sit well with Archer, so he and Trip decide it's time to
make their move.
That "move" involves taking out the Nausicaan thanks to a well-
placed blow from behind, but unfortunately Zoumas warns Kuroda at
the wrong moment and things go sour quickly. The only reason
Archer and company are saved is that the Enterprise crew has
commandeered the shuttle once held by Kuroda's associates, and
manage to get the drop on the villains.
As I said -- predictable, but fairly well done. I'm not quite
certain how
Archer communicated any instructions to the Enterprise (as Reed
implies was done), but the sequence of events is once that's both
somewhat suspenseful at the time and sensible in retrospect.
I wish that we hadn't descended into one final cliche, however --
did
Kuroda really *have* to come to and go into the "enemies battle on
the cusp of imminent death" thing? For one thing, I've gotten more
than a bit tired of seeing Archer beaten up so often -- but much more
importantly, it's something that I think every viewer could pretty
much
call beat for beat once it starts. Kuroda will fight, Archer will win,
Kuroda will refuse help and stay on 'til the bitter end because he's
Just That Opposed to going back to prison. Nothing to see here,
folks, move it along. How much more interesting it might have been
to (a) have someone be intelligent and stun Kuroda *again* to make
sure he's out, or (b) better yet, have either Trip or Archer make a
conscious choice to leave Kuroda behind. That could've led to some
real character conflict -- but apparently, we'd all rather see Trip
yuk it
up with someone taking annoying lessons from Neelix instead. No,
thanks.
Just as the very first moments of the show were nice, however, so
were the last. As Archer and Trip return (with prisoners in tow), the
Enolian bureaucrat on board apologizes for the "inconvenience" of
their false arrest, then says his superiors will want a report. In
what's
probably the truest and rawest emotional moment of the episode,
Archer wheels around and gives him one: He all but spits out, "As
you're aware, my engineer and I were falsely arrested. We almost
wound up in Canamar -- makes me wonder how many others don't
belong there. You wanted a report, you've got one," and stalks off.
*That* felt like honest human emotion -- it's one I'd love to see more
of on occasion. Kudos.
Other thoughts:
-- Among the other moments of "idiot plotting," we also have Kuroda
saying that he escaped his shackles because of the "subdermal
implants" he received, implying that the guards wouldn't notice them.
Y'know, even here and now a prisoner of that notoriety would be
going through metal detectors. If the intent was to make us think the
prison system's run by dopes, fine, but if the idea was to impress us
all with Kuroda's cleverness I think I'll have to politely decline.
-- Idiot plot moment #26A: Archer's ploy of venting plasma and
igniting it shouldn't have worked if the pilots had any brains at all.
The moment that transport does anything it shouldn't, *open fire*.
Done deal. (The venting also happened so slowly that the ships
should have had plenty of time to move out of the way.)
-- I find it interesting that one ad which appeared twice during
"Canamar" (at least here in the U.S.) was for FHM magazine, and
specifically its "Baywatch Blowout!" issue. For those not familiar
with it, FHM is short for "For Him Magazine," and features lots of
women in skimpy clothing amidst articles about cars, beer, and babes
-- it's sort of a Playboy for those who don't want to be carded or
somehow looked down upon. Seems that Paramount has settled on
the demographic it thinks it's attracting. (Anybody know whether
there's a connection between Viacom and the publishers of FHM?)
-- For a hardened criminal, Kuroda seems awfully squeamish about
killing the guards, doesn't he?
-- One wonders why Travis was given a role in the final firefight.
Reed's got security teams, and you really should be keeping your best
pilot *on the shuttle itself* to make sure you can get away...
That should wrap it up. I'll confess to being a bit mystified by
the
choices this series is making: during February sweeps, one of your
most important rating periods, to include such well-worn stories as
"Canamar," which says very little about your basic premise other than
"damn the plot, boys, full testosterone ahead!" seems an ill-conceived
choice. Here's hoping for better.
So, to sum up:
Writing: A lot of predictability and a lot of forced plotting. Some
nice moments here and there, but that's all.
Directing: Could this have *been* much lower in terms of energy
for most of the show?
Acting: Decent performances from Connor Trinneer and Mark
Rolston, but I'm not in a hurry to rewatch most anyone else.
OVERALL: A 4.5, for the strength of various individual moments.
Not a real keeper, this one.
NEXT WEEK: Reruns.
Tim Lynch (Castilleja School, Science Department)
tlynch@alumni.caltech.edu <*>
"You wanted a report? You've got one."
-- Archer
--
Copyright 2003, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free
to ask...
This article is explicitly prohibited from being used in any off-net
compilation without due attribution and *express written consent of
the
author*. Walnut Creek and other CD-ROM distributors, take note.
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