Mark Watches ‘Enterprise’: S02E17 – Canamar

In the seventeenth episode of the second season of Enterprise, Tucker and Archer are captured by a corrupt and unfair force, but then get wrapped up in a mutiny. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek. 

Well, this was pretty neat! At times, “Canamar” felt quite thrilling, but I do have an issue with it: it ends right as the story is about to get even more interesting. This is another one of those episodes that’s much more about the experience than the worldbuilding, which isn’t necessarily a problem. However, there’s enough information here to suggest a larger conflict: the Enolian’s trigger-happy, masochistic guards and the prison system that is full of possibly innocent people. There is a story that’s rich with drama and moral dilemmas!

But it’s only addressed in a brief manner at the end of the episode. For the most part, this episode is concerned with Kuroda’s mutiny, his murky backstory, and his eventual failure. Kuroda isn’t the most interesting character we’ve gotten on Enterprise, and it’s not exactly uncommon for Star Trek to give us a portrait of someone oppressed by a broken system who then becomes a villain. This episode has the unfortunate disadvantage of taking place rather soon after Nemesis, where a similar dynamic unfolded. Here, though, Kuroda was doomed to prison as a teenager, and then devoted a life to crime as… I don’t know. A sense of spite and resentment? Because he didn’t have much of a choice otherwise? That’s not exactly the most revolutionary tale ever, and the show handles it as a small aside rather than a deep exploration of why Kuroda turned out the way he did.

Plus, there’s just so much left unaddressed. Did the unnamed Nausican know exactly what Kuroda was planning? Is that why he was so uncaring about the other prisoners? It seems like such a waste to never explore why he was willing to be a part of this. What happened to Zoumas? Did he ever apologize to Tucker for being completely wrong about Kuroda? HAS THERE EVER BEEN A CHARACTER SO INTENSELY ANNOYING AS HIM? Oh god, how many of you have ever met someone who thinks a conversation is just them talking??? IT’S THE WORST. What about all those “criminals”??? What did Enterprise even do with them? Keep them? Return them to the Enolians? And if they did the latter, wouldn’t that have been kind of immoral??? I really want to know what happened with all these people!

I don’t want this to seem like I was bored by “Canamar,” as I did find it to be an exciting episode, but that entertainment came from my curiosity over how Archer and Tucker would get out of a fairly impossible situation. In the end, I wanted so much more from “Canamar,” but alas, that’s not where this story went. Not the worst by any means, but the loss potential is a mark against it.

The video for “Canamar” can be downloaded here for $0.99.

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About Mark Oshiro

Perpetually unprepared since '09.
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