Canamar

DVD, Enterprise S2 (Canamar)

You can tell a series hasn't developed its characters enough when the scenes on a rusty old prison transport with the Captain and Engineer are much more enjoyable than the title ship and her crew! Perhaps a negative way to begin a positive review, but it is true - Archer and Trip's adventure with the colourful characters (literally), of the prison ship was full of verve and drama, but whenever the action moved back to T'Pol and the crew's diplomatic efforts on board the NX-01, if it didn't drag, it at least heightened the anticipation of returning to the plight of the prisoners. Trip and Archer's friendship and partnership in dangerous times is a real draw for the series, and one of the best developed so far on the series - as in Season 1's 'Desert Crossing' it improves what is a fairly simple action story.

The motley collection of captured smugglers, bad guys and possible innocents made for fascinating scenes, and I especially enjoy any time the wider Trek universe is pillaged for ideas - the bad Nausicaan dude could have been any generic alien heavy, but it perpetuates the reputation his people have for violence, and he did look pretty cool. Another well-realised alien looked cool for a different reason, his nervous dangling facial appendages helping to sell his twittery, annoying character, providing a source of humour as he bores Trip to death with constant inane babble. At the same time he adds some colour to the mix of aliens, which I don't believe included any other known races, though one looked vaguely Klingon (but obviously wasn't, from his weak behaviour), and one like the alien that Trip fought in 'Dawn.'

The main memory I had of this one was the excellently choreographed fight between Archer and the convict Coroda, the one who'd implemented the takeover in the first place, as they battle on a sinking ship - the transport has been flown into a degrading orbit to destroy the evidence, but Coroda, in a mix of anger at Archer's 'betrayal' at saving everyone instead of letting them go down with the vessel, and misguided belief he can change his plan and fly the ship out of danger rather than trust Archer's people, takes it out on the Captain, who's only trying to save him. Because of that he goes down with the ship, his harsh life having led him to eschew trusting anyone rather than lose control. It made me wonder what connection he had with the Nausicaan, and whether they had pulled some jobs in the past, though we're given just enough backstory about his troubled life to care what happens to him.

The direction is excellent. Although the location is only a cramped main room and a cockpit, the way it's filmed gives it the impression of a feature film, helped by some strong music throughout and some strong images: the Enterprise as seen gliding over a planet, the transport listing over, the pursuit ships, the Enolians themselves with their slicked back spiky hair and extreme cheekbones were effectively shot with shadows, and the various aliens all contributed to a confident, assured production, and another example of a style I wish they could have sustained more often on the series. Maybe it helped seeing Archer and Trip, as well as the Nausicaan, in leather jackets, looking like casual Han Solo-type drifters, although I recognised some of the wardrobe in the episode: the black, pipe-ribbed standard baddie uniforms of the guards had, I'm sure, been used on 'Voyager' (such as in 'Warlord'), while Coroda's attire looked very much like the Miradorn's clothing from 'DS9.' It didn't matter because they suited the parts, and I think this may have been the best surly, burly Nausicaan featured for a long time!

Mark Rolston was a familiar name, he'd been in at least one other Trek - 'TNG' ('Eye of The Beholder'), and made the most of a basic thug role. Among the many references are an Orion Slave Girl which Zumas the gabby alien had mentioned, Archer mentions Coridan (later to be a member of the Federation), and Coroda was imprisoned on suspicion of stealing a 'brace' of Latinum, possibly the first mention of the valuable substance on this series, and a new denomination. In what was a brilliantly executed surprise, when Reed, Travis and security storm out of the airlock (for once Reed's expertise is fully apparent!), it looked like Mayweather might have been holding a phaser rifle, but it flashed by so quick I couldn't be sure.

What stopped the episode from rising up to classic status, while still being another of the best episodes of the season, were that it wasn't really original - it made me think of 'The Chute' on 'Voyager' which had a more personal angle on two Starfleet officers being confined in an alien prison. Unoriginality doesn't matter too much because it was done well, but I would have liked to have seen the transport burn up either from inside or out, which was a strange omission after so many great CGI ship shots in the episode. I also wanted to see Trip pitted against the Nausicaan, which never happened (and I thought the brute repaid the surprise beating Trip gave him, but it didn't happen). The teaser was a little redundant since we're shown the empty shuttlepod before the Enterprise knows it's empty which dampens the 'cliffhanger' of T'Pol asking for biosigns aboard and there not being any. The only other moment that left me wondering was after the escape back to Enterprise - some of the captives were innocent, but what about the ones that were legitimate criminals? The Enolian representative came across as rather apologetic, when most races they've encountered have been only too happy to exploit or impose on the Enterprise without qualms. Were the prisoners handed over to him or allowed to go free?

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