Star Trek: Enterprise season 2, episode 2, "Carbon Creek," took a break from Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and the NX-01 Enterprise exploring the galaxy. Instead, over dinner, Subcommander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) told Archer and Commander Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer) the story of how her great-grandmother, T'Mir, and other Vulcans made the true, heretofore unknown First Contact with humans in 1957 at Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania.
Earth's history doesn't record this event, but it's known to Vulcans. It also means Star Trek: First Contact's climactic moment isn't quite as historic as previously believed.
Enterprise’s “Carbon Creek” Broke Star Trek: First Contact’s Canon, But Who Cares?
Technically, Humans Never Knew Vulcans Were On Earth In 1957
First Contact Day is widely known in the Star Trek universe: Dr. Zephram Cochrane's (James Cromwell) first warp flight on April 5, 2063, led to Vulcans coming to Earth and landing in Bozeman, Montana to meet Cochrane. Star Trek: Enterprise's "Carbon Creek" establishes that Vulcans crash-landed in Pennsylvania 106 before First Contact Day, and that Vulcans lived clandestinely among humans for months. One of the Vulcans, Mestral (J. Paul Boehmer) chose to remain and explore Earth after his fellow Vulcans were rescued.
Since the Vulcans successfully maintained their secret in 1957, human history never recorded their presence. The official date of First Contact remains April 5, 2063. Amazingly, the Vulcans knew their people came to Earth a century earlier but didn't inform their human friends, perhaps because the date they believed was First Contact Day was of such crucial importance to United Earth. While "Carbon Creek" may appear to undermine the importance of Star Trek: First Contact, T'Pol left Archer and Trip in doubt that her story was true - but it is.
“Carbon Creek” Is A Great Star Trek: Enterprise Episode
Enterprise Was Wise To Give Jolene Blalock Center Stage
Star Trek: Enterprise's "Carbon Creek" retconning Star Trek: First Contact 6 years after director Jonathan Frakes' movie became a box office smash would have been a violation if it was a bad episode. Happily, "Carbon Creek" became an instant classic episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. Star Trek typically excels at fish-out-of-water time travel tales, and "Carbon Creek" was a welcome glimpse of 'secret Star Trek history' that evoked 1999's The Iron Giant and other alien invasion tales from the 1950s.
Jolene Blalock was already a standout as T'Pol, and she rose to the challenge of leading "Carbon Creek" as a new character and largely without her main Star Trek: Enterprise co-stars. As T'Mir, Blalock portrayed another fascinating Vulcan to complement T'Pol. "Carbon Creek's" retro location setting was also a breath of fresh air for Enterprise, which was mainly shot on sound stages. Ultimately, Star Trek: Enterprise's revelation that Vulcans lived on Earth in 1957 shows that humanity wasn't truly ready for First Contact until it finally happened a century later.
