Adding a warm and touching background to the mutual history of Terra and Vulcan, "Enterprise" scores a home-run with a strong story recounting the second contact of which something is known (given Spock's first, serving coffee some twenty years previously). The story, dressed in the garb of an comforting costume piece, is told inside an NX-01 frame involving Archer's evaluation of T'Pol anniversary of service (and vice versa).

Inquiring about her earlier visit to a Pennsylvanian mining town, she delivers a centuries-old story featuring her "second foremother" T'Mir (delicately avoiding any rewrite to "First Contact"). Suffering an emergency landing during an orbital photo-op of Sputnik, the crash survivors carefully integrate themselves ("we had a vehicle accident") over the course of months into the tiny town. Jolene Blalock and Star Trek veterans J. Paul Boehmer (Mestral) and Michael Krawic (Stron the "stooge") each deserve special credit for their superior performances.

Inexplicably hiding their ship and, with an impressive throw to the demographic, stealing clothes that no one notices, they quickly shark some money off a pool table. (Shame on Kirk for not thinking of that! Spock could have wiped up the tables to pay for his platinum.) Confronted with miners trapped after a cave-in (more caves - so soon?), the party splits in their choice of compassion (intervene with technology to rescue) or non-contamination (let 'em suffocate). Here we see another, more palatable side to the emotional conflict shown in "Fusion." By the end T'Mir makes a minor tweak to human history to favor the future of a fellow astronomer. (The rest of the story - human history records a Swiss engineer named Mestral invented Velcro in 1957!)

When another awesome Vulcan rescue ship arrives to take them away, having received the distress signal second hand through a Tellarite (!) freighter, Mestral remains behind to study our emerging species. (For all the respect shown their temporary hosts, the Vulcans depicted here are quick to lie to each other - perhaps the interrupted meditation.) I enjoyed all the thoughtful spin on the cultural encounter - T'Mir hacks on television as an "idiotic device" despite Mestral's excuse of "doing research." (His interest in "I Love Lucy" given the redhead's impetus to spawning TOS is, to use a word, "fascinating.")

This gem from great grandma's purse gets a perfect score, docked a point only for not working more of the cast into the entertainment. Yet I predict after a successful run for the series, "Carbon Creek" could easily land on the list of all time fan favorites.