Review Text
In brief: An excellent lesson in how to spin your wheels.
"Canamar" is a handsomely produced, slickly directed, watchable example of what is wrong with Enterprise. For 60 minutes my attention is held enough such that I do not feel a need to walk away from my TV, but once it's over I realize that I've essentially wasted my time. It's formulaic action fluff and that's all. It doesn't even try to be anything more.
Look, I'm not asking that every hour I spend in front of a TV lend me some great insight to the human condition. I'm not asking Star Trek to reinvent the wheel every week (I concede that is impossible) or shock us with some sort of unanticipated notion or character revelation. What I am asking is that the creators make an effort — or at least pretend — that their stories say something, mean something, or get to the heart of something. Anything — whether it's our characters, the guest characters, a message, or any story point worth thinking about. ("Future Tense" was not particularly meaty or conclusive, either, but at least it was adequate Trek with some good dialog and an entertaining plot.)
"Canamar" is your garden-variety prison-break concept, a plot about stopping a criminal who has taken over a prisoner transport vessel. That's it. It is nothing more. It offers no compelling characters, no interesting insights, no messages worth considering, and no hint that it wants to be anything but a mechanical manipulation of action plot pieces. Its redeeming quality is that it competently assembles all its pieces into something that moves us from Point A to Point B and makes logical sense. Beyond that, our hands are clutching empty air.
Let's start with the premise: a tried-and-true and rehashed concept if there ever was one. It's about prisons and convicts (not to mention the Trek cliché of our characters being wrongfully railroaded by an unjust alien system), as Archer and Tucker find themselves presumed guilty and aboard an Enolian prisoner transport ship headed for a penal colony.
I can think of any number of storylines about prisons and/or convicts. Some of them are very good. One of my favorite movies of all time is The Shawshank Redemption, which uses the prison system as a patiently unfolding canvas to show us how spirits are crushed and how hope can be the path to redemption. Among the Trek prison-drama examples are shows like DS9's "Hard Time" and Voyager's "The Chute," both which were effective in depicting the horrific psychological effects of extended incarceration. Now we get Enterprise's "Canamar," which really has nothing to do with the penal colony of Canamar. We don't even get to the penal colony because the ship (and the story) are hijacked by a run-of-the-mill criminal who must then be stopped. That's what the show is about. It's about stopping the bad guy.
His name is Kuroda (Mark Rolston). Early in the episode, Kuroda and his Nausicaan partner in crime (Michael McGrady) break free of their restraints and take control of the prison ship. The guards are restrained, but the pilot is injured, leaving Kuroda with the problem of having no one to fly the ship. His solution: Jonathan Archer, who is quick to volunteer his help. This puts Archer in the pilot's seat, and also in the position where he may be able to influence the outcome of a situation likely headed for disaster.
On the other end of the plot is the Enterprise's search for Archer and Tucker after they discover their empty shuttlepod. (One thinks the Enolian authorities might've impounded a shuttlepod involved in alleged smuggling activity, but never mind, as that would prevent the Enterprise crew from finding it.) The crew contacts an Enolian authority (Holmes Osborne) about their missing captain and engineer, and in what is the show's biggest, most welcome and refreshing surprise, the Enolian authorities are actually cooperative (!) people who admit the error and promise the immediate release of Archer and Tucker. (Par for this course would've had the annoying bureaucrats inform T'Pol that Archer and Tucker were in fact guilty, period, followed by an order to leave their space, a terse threat, and switching off the viewscreen. Thank heavens we didn't have to sit through that sequence again.)
Back aboard the prison ship begins a series of trust games, as Archer tries to keep a lid on an escalating situation while Kuroda plots his escape, violently if necessary. Kuroda, a repeat offender, has already spent many years at Canamar and has no plans to go back. He intends to rendezvous with another ship of criminals in the orbit of a planet, get off the prison ship, and let the prison ship crash into the planet, killing all the other prisoners and guards. He sees this as a simple matter of pragmatism: The Enolian officials will assume all the prisoners died in the crash and will not have any witnesses to say otherwise. (I'm not so sure my investigation would end there if I were the Enolians, but I suppose Kuroda is free to make his own assumptions.) Obviously, Archer can't let this happen, so he plots a last-minute attempt to take control of the ship from Kuroda, and manages to convince Kuroda to release Tucker.
This leads to the extended action sequence of the last act, which is a compromise between the effective and the frustrating. There's a lot going on here, with the docking of the other ship and a series of changes in the upper hand. At a certain mechanical level, the action at the end of "Canamar" works. It is effectively staged and directed — better than some. The increasing noise and camera-shaking lends a certain amount of intensity as the prison ship enters the atmosphere, and it goes on for so long that we begin to sense the ship is seconds away from breaking apart. The action score, by (I think) new-to-Trek composer Brian Tyler, is effective.
At the same time, the inability to contain Kuroda borders on the frustratingly contrived. There's a point where he's shot and rendered unconscious, but then left to wake up and cause more trouble (and, hence, more action). Archer and Kuroda end up going mano a mano, which is well-choreographed in terms of technical action (and by now we're annoyed enough with Kuroda's lack of reason that we're hoping Archer will kick his ass and be done with it), but it had me questioning the logic of events: Surely the security team could've focused its efforts on restraining Kuroda rather than permitting him to get away again and again. Kuroda essentially writes his own death sentence by staying aboard the ship ("I won't go back!" he states adamantly) as it plunges into the atmosphere — a visual which we are spared, quite possibly to avoid unpleasant reminders of the Columbia tragedy.
In the end, the problem with "Canamar" is not in what is here but in what is missing. This story finds no point and relies on little in terms of ideas or attitudes. It is a prison-based setup that arrives only at the most simplistic of action payoffs. Kuroda and indeed none of the prisoners emerge to reveal personalities or perspectives or interesting dialog. The people are there to service the action and little else.
There's a last-minute bit where Archer, who is not very happy with the Enolians, bluntly confronts their official over the possibility of other innocents who have likely been condemned in their screwed-up justice system. Archer's aggressive tone is both warranted and believable (and well delivered by Scott Bakula) given the ordeal he's just been through, but it's all too brief and the message feels perfunctory. The episode is content only to make the briefest and most obvious point about an apparently deeply flawed justice system. It doesn't look the slightest bit deeper, because the show is not about any of that. It's about Archer stopping Kuroda from killing everyone.
And that's what's presently wrong with Enterprise. It is content to go the obvious plot-only route rather than asking provocative questions or digging any deeper into its characters' personalities or thoughts. It is dangerously close to turning into a mechanical process. And that's both a shame and a waste.
Next week: A month of reruns begins with "The Communicator."
Previous episode: Future Tense
Next episode: The Crossing
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36 comments on this post
NoPoet
I didn't like this episode when I first watched it, thinking it was yet another filler episode where Archer is taken prisoner yet again. Having just watched it again I found myself enjoying it a lot more the second time around.
The special effects were excellent, the music was good, the acting was much better than the usual staid performances we see in many episodes of Trek (not just Enterprise). I enjoyed Archer's fight at the end. I just liked it all round.
Dipads
It seems that Enterprise acquired all the scripts that were shelved from TNG, Voyager, @ DS9. No wonder it lasted just 4 seasons.
RockRedGenesis
So, this is Star Trek's version of Con Air, and unfortunately not a good one.
Carbetarian
The only thing I really enjoyed in this episode was Trip's annoyance with the guy sitting next to him. That worked for me in exactly the way it was supposed to.
Now let's discuss something that didn't work. Oh my God, that ending sequence! It was just ridiculous. The bad guy came back so many times, it was almost laughable. I found myself actually saying "Archer, you idiot! Just let him die already!" out loud several times during that end sequence. I get that Archer is on a "mission of peace" and all that crap he repeats ad naseum every week... But, seriously, the whole thing was way too over the top. Why would he want the two bad guys on that shuttle? Does his "mission of peace" out weigh everyone else's right to safety on the shuttle craft?
Ugh, I keep praying that this show will get better. Right now it's almost like a poorly done parody of Star Trek. What a joke.
Darren
A Star Trek clip show with ConAir thrown into the mix (although the SFX of the conjoined ships entering the atmosphere were cool).
The ultimate mission of the starship Enterprise was to see how many times members of its crew could get abducted before it got canceled.
When Enterprise was on-air, I bailed on it mid-way through the first season. Now watching it straight through on Netflix. My friend keeps telling me Season 4 is really good, and I kind of want to see where the Trip/T'Pol thing goes. But good God, episodes like this make it difficult to stick it out.
Nathan
Alt-tab is key for getting through episodes like this.
Cloudane
Can't argue with any of the review really. It wasn't a waste of time or anything, but like most of the latter Trek days, nothing special. It was a Voyager episode set on Enterprise.
Yay for the pleasant but chatty prisoner with leaves growing out of his face. Poor guy, he only wanted to be nice but came off as quite irritating :P
The fist fight went on far too long. I got bored.
Captain Jim
I guess I'm just weird. When I've been well entertained for an hour, with good acting, special effects, etc., I'm not likely to say I wasted my time.
I'll agree that it was an average episode, and nothing really special, but is that really so terrible? Do they all have to be classics?
duhknees
Let me get this straight: Good music, good direction, good action, good special effects, good dialogue equals two stars? All because you weren't, what? The lack of movement on the story or character arc maybe takes one star, but that equals three for me. The chatty guy was a cute addition. My only complaint is Travis ... Can't a brother get a line or two?
Elphaba
It only gets two stars because it was a bland boring rehash of done to death action cliches. We've all seen this episode or this movie before. It's boring. And it's exactly why Enterprise was canceled after only four seasons.
And it's not Star Trek. The Star Trek most of us know and love wouldn't have to rely on special effects and action to hold an audience's interest for an hour. There's nothing wrong with special effects and action, certainly. But there has to be a point to it, a goal and a story being told with the help of that special effects and action. It needs to be a means to tell the story, an aid to telling the story. If the writers rely on it to carry the hour of television, they're not doing their jobs correctly.
Action, if used, needs to be a means to an end rather than an end in and of itself. Action gets outdated. Look at the sixties Star Trek action scenes or even the early Next Gen action scenes. But a good story lasts so much longer. The Visitor, In the Pale Moonlight, Far Beyond the Stars, Yesterday's Enterprise, The Inner Light are all episodes that have hardly any action scenes but are some of the most beloved stories in all of Trek history. Best of Both Worlds is an excellent example of using action as an aid to telling the story. The action aids the story, not puts it on the back burner. The action of Best of Both Worlds is outdated, but we all remember the story and the psychological effects it has on the characters.
CeeBee
It seems if you become a space faring race, you revert to a justice system we abolished centuries ago. It's a fair warning that the future holds species that most of the time are belligerent, inhospitable, in rags (in their space ships) slave drivers (see the Orions and their ilk) and neolithic in their justice system. Let's stick to Earth.
And what the hell is a canamar? We didn't see one canamar all episode long. It's like calling your episode "London" and having Blake's Seven running around the other side of the galaxy.
Chris
Funny you should directly mention Shawshank in your review of this. The actor playing the villain appeared in that flick..."Boggs". Perhaps you subconsciously recognized him? ;)
As for myself, I thought it was a nice little bit of "turn-the-brain-off" fare. Not even close to quality Trek, but not terrible for what it was either. Liked it far better than Con-Air. It was shorter and no Nick Cage.
Deborah
Man, I'm going to have to disagree with Jammer and those who want more social commentary. I don't mind a little commentary, but I get my dose of seriousness listening to the news. I want my Star Trek fun, action, great effects, good acting, good chemistry, and asking myself "how are they going to get out of *this*". Overall I'm very pleased with Enterprise, and I liked this episode. I liked the fight scene, the camaraderie among the prisoners, and, for that "bit of social commentary," that the episode explored the idea of a "continuum of evil" with Kuroda worse than the guards. I watched TOS all the way through recently, and I found it quite repetitive. It's also hard for me to get past the dated sets, the short skirts, and the half-naked women. As for later shows, Darmok - boring. The Inner Light - depressing.
eastwest101
Will go with the crowd and Jammers comments here - a derivative undistinguished well executed average episode that was just a bit too predictable for my tastes.
william
Just watched this episode today and I agree it wasn't the best but I did love the alien with seaweed on his face irrational Trip.
Hillarious.
SecMan
Eh...pretty dull. I couldn't agree more with Elphaba. To me, quality entertainment has to have a point i.e. interesting plot. I don't care how well produced something is - see the Transformers movies - if it doesn't have a compelling plot, I'm bored with it very quickly. I don't *need* social commentary because quite frankly I usually disagree with the point of view of the writers OR I find the commentary so heavy handed as to be irritating. But at least have some interesting plot twists. I always wished ST hadn't gotten away from accepting "original" scripts from outsiders. I suppose that's just how business in Hollywood is done now...if the writer isn't part of the guild, then their script can't/won't get used. It's a shame IMO since many of TOS' best scripts came from outsiders. Most people only have so many good ideas in their heads. To expect them to come up with a great new idea 22x per year (or more if they work on multiple shows) isn't realistic, so why do they try? If they are going to spend so much money producing these episodes, can't they find a method to generate better writing? More writers, original scripts, etc? Almost all of these shows have the "story" by Braga and Berman. Then they hand the plot outline to someone else who writes the screenplay. Having all "creativity" coming out of these two was a very poor idea. Have you watched any of the extras on the Blu Ray discs? One is an interview with these two, and if there are two more sarcastic, less defensive, less likable people I haven't seen them.
I'm watching Enterprise all the way through again, and with many episodes I'm seeing them for the first or second time. Many are rather good; others are just decent. Still others are terrible. I't put this outing in the "decent" category. Definitely a rehashed, cliched plot derivative of previously-done Trek. I won't go as far as to say "wasted hour" because with toddler twins I only get 45 mins of TV a day. But it's certainly a worse-than-average Trek outing.
mallory r
Archer gets arrested again?! I'm waiting for him to wear his uniform below his bum.
John G
I would have given it 3 stars but I deducted a star for Archer risking his own life and the lives of everyone on the shuttle to try to save a mass murder, who would rather die than be taken alive.
Enterprise seems like the A Team of the Trek universe with lots of fire fights but very few deaths.
It is OK to kill the bad guys. In fact it is more realistic and more entertaining when this happens.
MPS
I guess Jammer missed the part where Kuroda talked about how he entered the prison system as a child for a crime he didn't commit? It was short, but it went a long way for me in developing the character. I thought this was a decent "corrupt-justice-system" story, nearly as good as Detained (and with better acting and a much more satisfying ending).
Diamond Dave
Another perfectly serviceable hour that absolutely breaks no new ground or offers any new insight but does what it does. As ever, it looks a million dollars with some nice VFX, and the action is fine (although the ending fist fight is pretty ridiculous). It's just a perfect example of a middle-of-the-road OK episode. 2.5 stars.
Bryan
I laughed when Archer practically needs to be dragged back to Enterprise as he's about to run after Kuroda at the end. Archer is still so concerned with Kuroda's health even though they've already fought three times and the ship is blowing up all around them.
Yanks
Jammer: "Look, I'm not asking that every hour I spend in front of a TV lend me some great insight to the human condition. I'm not asking Star Trek to reinvent the wheel every week (I concede that is impossible) or shock us with some sort of unanticipated notion or character revelation. What I am asking is that the creators make an effort — or at least pretend — that their stories say something, mean something, or get to the heart of something. Anything"
So you say you realize it can't be done and then ding this episode for not doing it?
I will say this isn't anything really special, but it in no way is bad trek at all. Do to miss-justice Trip and Archer are heading to prison. So what trek does this copy?
This was pretty good. The "seaweed face" alien was pretty funny.
It wasn't all action, Archer and Kuroda talk for a bit and we find out some insight into this fella. He was falsely arrested as a kid and imprisoned for 5 years! Archer has it all figured out until Kuroda reveals that part of his plan is to kill all the remaining prisoners. This of course changes things and they have to figure out a way to stop them.
The fight did last too long.
But I loved it at the end where Archer let's this dude have it. That quite possibly could have been Scott's best acting in the series yet!
I never skip it. I'll go 2.5 stars here.
Harald
I always saw the title "Canamar" as a blatant word play on "Con Air". Luckily, Archer does not adopt a bad southern accent for this one. Maybe Trip should have been there.
Harald
*maybe Trip should have been there as Archer instead.
Skrindo
A good episode. No overarching message or 'insight into the human condition', but so what? It's fun and entertaining. Not everything has to have some morality lesson crammed down your throat for it to be good.
3 stars
Rahul
Season 2 of Enterprise does plenty of "gun" fights, prison escapes, encounters with criminals and "Canamar" isn't bad for its action scenes, fights -- reasonable stuff between Archer and Kuroda, the main antagonist. Nothing profound here, however. Archer wants to help Kuroda and almost pays a severe price in the ending fight scene, when he could have just escaped and said "to hell with Kuroda."
Maybe the point of the episode is Archer, trying to save his bacon, gets too entangled in Kuroda's plan but draws the line when the criminal wants to crash the prison transport killing all the remaining passengers. Then Archer is forced to think fast. But this is mostly a by-the-numbers episode, which isn't a bad hour of somewhat shallow entertainment.
Was fun to see a Nausicaan again - they are the all-around generic tough guys of the Trek universe -- no purpose other than just bullying others. And then you have the talkative alien (nice prosthetics) who gets under Trip's skin.
In the very short teaser, it begins with Hoshi trying to hail Archer in Shuttlepod 1 - she tries repeatedly and then T'Pol asks Reed if there any life signs aboard to which he confirms there aren't. Shouldn't the crew first check if there are life signs aboard before they begin hailing? Just a minor nitpick that would bug me if I didn't mention it.
Barely 2.5 stars for "Canamar" -- you get the feeling the season lacks direction overall and is relying on action scenes, interesting direction to come up with episodes, creating tried-and-true situations with some new irrelevant races. But ultimately, the writing is weak and that affects the character development. I don't think anybody will remember or care for this episode shortly after watching it. But on its own, without consideration for the big picture, it isn't bad.
Startrekwatcher
2 stars. The writers must be applauded for crafting THE most Perfect bland script
Jasper
Good review. Empty action. The final fight sequence was terribly contrived. You can see the writers struggling... "How many more minutes do we need? Well, than he wakes up and they fight some more. Next episode!" Filler within filler. Good grief.
NoPoet
Cliches in this episode:
* Archer gets kidnapped. I can hear Chris Tucker shrieking "Who you think he is, Chelsea Clinton?!"
* Characters are falsely accused of a crime they couldn't possibly commit. They were smuggling in an empty shuttlecraft that isn't warp capable?
* Stubborn, uncooperative alien authorities who "aren't quite sure" where Archer is.
* Guards are overcome with ridiculous ease.
One hundred years ago in our world, young men were fighting for freedom. Today young men and women alike are offended by the word "human"; this is an hour of television designed for them. It's basically Con Air for Millennials: soft, polite, taking the easy route at every turn, ruthlessly scrubbed of anything edgy or dangerous. The acting is just so bland and inoffensive. The script is without imagination.
It's not a terrible episode at all. Yet this is episode 17 of the second season. Again I must ask: how does any of this lead to the Federation? How do humans reach faster warp speeds, when is it going to be acknowledged that Vulcans are pricks, why are we recycling yet more Voyager tropes? Where are the episodes about researching and discovering new technologies? Why is it Trip and Archer AGAIN instead of, say, Reed and Mayweather, just to spice things up?
It leads me to something that I've been asking impatiently throughout the entire season: is it the Borg episode yet?
Seriously, I think Regeneration, Minefield and the season finale are the only ones worth looking forward to. Several other episodes are good but not classics. Most are decent but just... bland, like a petrolhead being offered a Rover 600 instead of a modern Civic Type R. Who the hell would care about the Rover at a car meet?
Rover went bust, to the despairing words of its CEO: "If everyone who wanted to "Save Rover" went out and bought a Rover, it wouldn't need saving." People had reasons for not buying Rover. Those reasons were either not addressed or addressed too late.
Sound familiar?
spinalatte
Not a terrible episode, but the ending was a little drawn out and predictable. The fight was a little long, and he needed to let the prisoner die in the ship. Risking his life to save the other at this point was silly, but risking his ship is not something a captain would do. 2.5 stars IMO
Austin
I’m with Carbetarian, the best part of the episode is the annoying alien and Trip’s building frustration. There’s a part where the alien gets nervous and starts stroking his weird gill things that I feel was probably an actor choice and not scripted. Unfortunately, the overall plot was pretty contrived and was probably 20 minutes of good stuff they had to stretch out to fill the whole hour. 1.5 stars from me.
Sean J Hagins
This was a good one. I thought at first it would rehash the "crewman are in prison and Enterprise must bail them out/rescue them" theme, but no, the alien government realised their mistake right away, but the prison ship gets hijacked by the prisoners! And what evil creatures most of them turned out to be! It was neat how Archer was able to fool the main baddie and stay ahead of him. A shame he died in the crashing prison craft.
It also did show Trip's compassion. His benchmate was talkative and annoying, but after Trip snapped at him, he did regret it. Shows that he isn't a completely hopeless case
DonMel
I enjoyed this one I would have to give it 3 stars. Not every episode has to have some deep social commentary to be good. It was fun, entertaining to watch and didn't involve Archer playing space cop which for me is a nice change.
Also, I genuinely don't mind rehashed or cliche plots as long as they make sense and at least tries to be original. I just look at it like 'hey I haven't seen these specific people in this situation before let's see how they handle it.' *shrugs*
Archer's bad boy criminal act leaves much to be desired. He maneuver effectively though gaining the trust of Kuroda, who I think is an interesting villain. Even though Archer is good at deceiving him he does pose as a real threat. As the story goes on you can see why he is persistent on not going back to Canamar.
The Enolians surprisingly admitted to the wrongful arrests without much of a hassle and proceeded to help, although you can pretty much tell what kind of people they are when one of them orders their patrol ships to destroy the prison vessel killing everybody when finding out Kuroda is aboard. Harsh.
Of course Archer has to do something stupid before it's all said and done or it wouldn't be right. Risking not just his life but everyone on the shuttle to save Kuroda who cleary doesn't want to go. This guy here man.. *shakes head*
Scott
Oddly enough this felt more like a Star Wars story instead. All those Star Wars stories the heroes are captured by the Empire or Imperials and have to escape, etc.
Mike
Awesome episode! Con-Air in the Alpha Quadrant!
Bad-ass performance by Bakula - great fight scene!
The annoying prisoner looked like he got his make-up done at Bass Pro Shops, though.
Other than that, top notch!
P'kard
Now I see what you meant. "Archer in prison" is totally the "shuttlecraft armada" of VOY lol
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