Carbon Creek

Carbon Creek came so close to being a good, nay, a great episode. It came so very close. I weep thinking that this could have been that one episode of "Enterprise" toutable as triumph. 
Why does this one sink like all the rest of the series it belongs to? How does it fall short? 
Maybe it tried too hard. Maybe it was written like a stereotypical episode of television rather than as a piece of science fiction. Maybe the portrayal of ENT-era Vulcans is to blame. Maybe the Devil has been writing all the Star Trek scripts for the franchise since 1998. I'm not sure. But that guy who played Mestral? He was just great. I think he kicked ass so much as we can call his the finest performance on Enterprise's entire run. Granted, his competition is not really formidable.
Also, T'Pol done be hawt in the fifties. I don't know how though. Get our best scientists working on that.