Episode Review - Unexpected
Reviewed by Andy Taylor

Synopsis
Many oddities are occurring aboard Enterprise – Archer is having a shower when he finds himself floating around when the artificial gravity fails, and suddenly crashing to the floor once it is restored. Trip finds that the ship’s plasma exhaust flow is being affected for some reason, leading to Archer ordering the ignition of Enterprise’s plasma exhaust, and then to the discovery of a ship with some form of cloak between the ship’s warp nacelles. Archer contacts the hikers, and after a small period of difficult communications, the crew finds that the ship's engines are not working properly, and the crew are therefore using Enterprise’s plasma exhaust to replenish power. Archer offers aid to the crew of the other ship, so Trip prepares for a three-day away mission on the ship, whilst also having to confront his feelings about a three-hour decontamination period both ways.

Trip experiences a very difficult acclimation period once he has completed the decontamination – he finds the aliens’ (Xyrillians) ship highly disorientating, and soon finds himself unable to work, or even concentrate – all he appears to see are glowing walls and the Xyrillians glisten brightly with moisture. Despite his reservations, Trip is first advised and then ordered by Archer to trust him and take a nap in order to revitalise himself, after which he finds himself better – he develops a very flirtatious friendship with Ah’len, a female engineering officer who helps him to recover his strength with as a close a recreation of water as the aliens could create. Whilst she feeds him the ice-cube-like objects, he finds her touch on his face very sensual. After completing some work in engineering Ah’len takes Trip to a holographic chamber that recreates her homeworld accurately, impressing him.

As the two sit down in a holographic recreation of a boat in an ocean, Ah’len shows Trip one of her species’ games. The two place their hands into a box of some sort of granules that begin to glow immediately. This then allows the two to read each other’s minds easily. Ah’len then ends the recreation when they have to get back to work. Once he helps the Xyrillians get the teraphasic coils, Trip returns to the Enterprise and the two ships go their separate ways. However, when Trip is relaying his experiences onboard the alien ship with Reed, he finds a growth on his arm resembling a nipple that alarms him. When Dr. Phlox confirms that is in fact a nipple, and also that he has an embryo growing in his ribs, it becomes apparent that Trip has fallen pregnant.

T’Pol comes across as appalled at the idea of Trip’s first contact with the species involving sex, alongside Archer and Phlox’ amusement, but Trip remains adamant that during the entire mission he remained completely diplomatic. However, his description of the ‘game’ he played with Ah’len leads the group to believe that was how Trip became pregnant, as he inadvertently served as a host for the transfer of genetic material from Ah’len. When he hears that he is only the child’s host, Trip hopes that the embryo can be removed. However, due to his lack of knowledge about the species Phlox is unable to initiate this particular procedure. Archer says that they can track down the Xyrillians in the hope that they will able to help, as Trip remains hostile over anyone else onboard Enterprise knowing about his condition.

As days go by while the crew search, Trip’s bulge grows as he experiences morning sickness, strong mood swings and an incredible appetite, which confuses the crew yet amuses those ‘in the know.’ After more time, it becomes apparent to Trip that he may have to deliver the baby and care for it. T’Pol also mentions that he is probably making history by being the first human male who became pregnant, much to his shock and disbelief.

Trip is relieved when the Xyrillian’s warp signature is found, but when Enterprise approaches it, they come into contact with a Klingon battle cruiser. It appears that the Xyrillian ship has malfunctioned again, and is also probably causing the same annoyances of the Klingons as they were originally with the Enterprise crew. Archer hails the Klingons in order to inform them of this, but this angers the Klingon captain who first believes that the Enterprise has been secretly spying on them, and is then determined to destroy the Xyrillian ship. Archer tries desperately to change their minds, but the only way they do is when Trip informs them of the Xyrillians’ holo-technology, and suggests that they would be happy to share their technology in order to be freed. However, the Klingons refuse to allow Trip to accompany them on their mission, until he reveals his ‘condition,’ which causes great amusement for the Klingons.

As Archer, Trip and a couple of Klingons board the Xyrillian ship, Archer talks Trena’l, the Xyrillian leader into accepting the Klingons’ terms. Trena’l then inputs a topographical survey of the capital city of Qo’Nos into their holographic chamber, allowing the Klingons to experience a simulation of their homeworld, which impresses them as it did Trip, who meanwhile is conversing about his condition with Ah’len. She is shocked that another species could become pregnant after their earlier ‘game,’ and finds that the embryo is early enough in its development phase to be transferred into another host, whilst revealing that the child is a girl.

The Klingon captain tells Archer that the Xyrillians will be free to go soon, but when Archer tries to convey friendly feelings towards them, the captain issues a stern warning if they were to ever meet again, he would regret it. Despite this, however, Trip now has the ‘honour’ of going down in history – even is it was not in the way he originally intended, but for being the first pregnant human male on record.

Summary
Well, that was (and sorry about the terrible pun) unexpected. Really. Well, I suppose three out of four episodes being good is a strong average for Enterprise to enjoy so far early on in its run – TNG had a very rough start to its series, as well as, I suppose, DS9 and Voyager did. Although one positive point that can be said about Enterprise is that character development and interaction is already going very well – its almost like we’ve known the crew for years. But why the disappointment, I hear you say (although many of you will probably already know why…)

First of all, it is nice to see a bit of light relief after the first three episodes of this new series almost made the audience’s heads explode simultaneously. However, I’m not sure if a male pregnancy was the way to go with comedy. The concept itself sounds absurd, but the fact is that so many other issues could have been explored here – Trip had practically been raped by Ah’len (OK, not in a disturbingly graphical way, but technically) and had been left as a possible single parent. It would have been interesting to see the implications of poor Trip having to bring up a child, as well as having to cope with the ‘rape,’ and also the amusement found among his crewmates generated by his condition. Although I can easily accept that I am going too deep into this, and that this is only a first season episode (the fourth episode at that! ) and it really was only meant as a bit of comic relief.

However, the pacing of the episode seemed wrong. I read an introductory synopsis on the episode and heard Trip was getting pregnant, yet it took over half of the episode to establish this. It wasn’t necessary to see Archer in the shower at the start of the episode. And it sure as hell wasn’t necessary to use the Klingons as an enemy in all of this. Well, I was happy that they were more of a threatening enemy this time round, rather than the probably incorrect ‘Broken Bow’ (see that review for my comments then) but then I don’t think they were needed here. Despite all the controversy over the upcoming Ferengi episode, they would have been a better enemy to use here! And seeing the holo-technology also seemed to be a cop-out of Enterprise’s premise, although it was good to see Trip confused yet amazed at the technology. Just one question now though – why don’t the Klingons have advanced holodecks and such by TOS? Never mind, maybe the temporal cold war will eliminate something from the equation…

Nevertheless, this episode was a fairly strong one, though another Trip-centred one seemed a bit too much after last week’s paranoia epic. He is easily the most interesting character at the moment though (or is that Porthos?) and it could only have been Trip that got pregnant. It just suited his character – Reed would probably have a heart-attack, Mayweather would probably recede even further into the background and Archer would probably welcome it…

And it’s not like there weren’t funny moments in it. The alien space ship was, well, weird. The Klingon’s, “I can see my house from here,” was a line I’ve been waiting to hear in Star Trek for ages, though I always imagined it coming from space (looking down onto Earth or something – OK, I’ll shut it.)

T’Pol’s character took an interesting turn. She seemed awfully full of herself, very sarcastic and trying to be witty. I’m not sure if I liked it, perhaps I’ve warmed to her character even more as she seemed closer with the senior staff this week than before, but she just seemed a little un-Vulcan-like. Or something… Well, it was development, nonetheless, and I suppose it wasn’t that bad.

Overall though, the episode just seemed a bit, well, icky.

Final Opinion
Enterprise stumbles as it tries to be funny with someone they’re using too much.

Rating: 6/10