Unexpected

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Enterprise: Season 1, Episode 4: "Unexpected".

A TV review by Gary M. Torborg.

In brief: as soon as I finished laughing, I got down to serious business looking at this episode, and it didn't come off quite as well.

I should point out, however, that the episode got off to such a good start that I was sure I was looking at another new #1 episode. If that had been the case, it would have been a record for any season of any televised Star Trek that I have actually ranked so far (to have 4 consecutive episodes outrank its immediate predecessor).

It is due mainly to some early very-well-done scenes and concepts that this episode does not descend to the bottom of the list, but instead slips in just above the series premiere. That still means this is a pretty good piece of television, as was "Broken Bow."

But though the flaws in this episode are decidedly different this time around, they're still there and they mar an episode that looked as though it had great potential.

The episode began with Enterprise's shortest teaser segment so far, a humorous segment of Captain Archer in the shower (obviously the sonic shower had not yet appeared) when the gravity controls go goofy.

The special effects were nice and Archer's reaction was priceless. I was concerned that we were going to get a gratuitous piece of nudity here, especially when the gravity came back on, but the editors were apparently pretty careful (note: Bakula was actually shown nude for a very brief time - so brief that it was less than one full "scan frame".).

All humour aside, it was a good start to the episode, and the first full act continued that.

If the entire show had written as well as the first act, "Unexpected" would definitely be ranked at #1 so far. Everything just seemed to click as the Enterprise crew dealt with the ship's assorted malfunctions, and T'Pol discovered the anomaly that was, in fact, the alien ship hiding in the Enterprise's exhaust wake.

The only part of the first act that *didn't*, quite frankly, ring true, was T'Pol's scene with Dr. Phlox discussing Human food vs. Vulcan food. T'Pol appeared to show quite a bit of emotion (mostly disgust) in speaking of her attempts at Human food, and it didn't fit the character at all.

This has been, to date, one of Enterprise's overall greatest weaknesses - Vulcans are simply not being treated here with the kind of dignity that they enjoy in the other (admittedly later) Treks.

This may be deliberate on the writers' parts, in order to show some early tension between the races and to show how Human-Vulcan relations improved over the years, but I still think they're overdoing it if that's the case.

The first act worked very well mostly because it had what appeared to be the right mix of humour and serious business. The acting (which remained good throughout) was also a factor. The pacing was just right as they moved from mess hall to engine room to bridge, and also by topic from Human food to ship's malfunctions to the anomaly that was causing them.

The technobabble bordered on being too much as they explained the discovery of the alien ship in the exhaust wake, but it wasn't too bad yet. I like the fact that the Universal Translator is, at this point in time, only partially functional but not fully or magically so. It made the scene where they begin to establish contact quite realistic though still quite futuristic.

Right up to the scene where Tucker prepares to board the alien vessel, things were looking quite good. After the discussion about decompression, however, I was wondering a little bit about Trip's lack of a spacesuit.

But then I thought it must simply be a case of a difference in air pressure though the atmosphere was still composed of the correct gasses for humans. Then he enters the ship and has to deal with a mist or gas that makes him sick. He's told to "breathe normally" in perfect English (where are the translators now?) on the alien ship's intercom system. By now, I've got alarm bells going off in the back of my head.

This is most definitely not what I thought was going to happen. The questions that began rolling through my mind went like this: if Tucker has to get acclimated to the alien atmosphere by breathing special nauseating gasses, why did they refer to the process as decompression?

If the atmospheres of the aliens and humans were really that much different, wouldn't Tucker have worn a spacesuit? And if Tucker wore a spacesuit, wouldn't that have made any such "decompression" procedure completely unnecessary anyway?

With act I ending on the "cliffhanger" of Trip beginning to choke on the mist, I honestly thought that we were in for some kind of plot along the lines of TNG's "Samaritan Snare". You know the episode: Geordi volunteers to go over to an alien vessel to do similar engine repair, only to get ambushed by the (apparently) dim-witted aliens and held for ransom.

I am glad that "Unexpected" didn't go with that kind of plot, but I was still perplexed as to what was going on with Trip's 3-hour "decompression" (which really wasn't decompression but acclimation). The science was wrong, and we got no real warning that there was anything sinister about it.

With our minds put at ease (sort of) about whether this was going to be some kind of "kidnapping" episode, Trip emerges from the decompression chamber still sick, but also still insisting on beginning his work immediately.

He meets briefly with the alien crew and commences, but perceptual difficulties prevent him from getting anything meaningful done, so he finally takes the advice of the aliens to rest. This suggestion is still resisted until Archer orders him to "take a nap."

The nap helps immensely. Trip wakes up tired and dehydrated but no longer nauseated. So just as things look like they're going to get back on track, another Wonky Science Moment [tm] (sorry, Tim Lynch) rears its ugly head when Trip is offered these gel things as a substitute for water. Why couldn't they just give him some water?

If the alien's body chemistry was that different from humans that water wasn't even used as their universal solvent, wouldn't the atmosphere of the ship been impossible to breathe (even with acclimation?) as well? And what kind of alchemy were they trying in order to "synthesize" some water for him?

Having water in a gel form isn't the issue so much as having to synthesize it in the first place - I mean, Hydrogen and Oxygen ought to be plentiful to obtain and easy to combine! Going off the deep end to make the aliens seem more, well, *alien* was unnecessary with regards to the water, and scene is ruined (as far as I'm concerned).

It did establish, however, that the female alien Ah'len (pronounced almost like the word "alien") was getting increasingly friendly with Trip. That, combined with what we already knew from the previews, led to the inescapable conclusion that Ah'len was going to be the mate for Trip that results in his pregnancy (assuming the aliens practice some form of sexual reproduction).

So with the repairs complete, Trip takes a tour of the alien vessel, led (or course) by Ah'Len. The introduction of a "holographic projection system" here was a wee bit obvious as an introduction to the holodeck as a technology. We now know that it didn't *originate* with Humans.

I do have to really question the "bending" of "history" we get later, though, when it is shown that it is the Klingons who obtain this technology first, and furthermore do so long before the Kirk/Spock era.

That aside, the alien holodeck produces scenes from their home planet (which include liquid water, I might add) and a "boat ride" in which Ah'Len and Trip play the telepathic hand-game that, apparently, was actually a sexual encounter.

Certainly it was meant as a romantic encounter, but the lack of physical contact other than having their hands in the tub of crystals makes me wonder exactly how the genetic information was passed from Ah'Len to Trip to make him become pregnant. We didn't know that this was the moment anyway until after Trip had returned to Enterprise and began showing the symptoms.

Here, despite being acted well, was another of "Unexpected's" more poorly written scenes. Using every possible cliché and stereotype, Trip is seen overacting and overreacting to everything as, apparently, his hormones rage out of control. The sickness he feels is exaggerated, and the whole scene is frankly an insult to all women of childbearing age.

The only part of that scene or the following scene that wasn't insulting was Dr. Phlox's diagnosis of the condition.

Very matter-of-factly (which he does irritatingly well) Dr. Phlox tells trip "you're pregnant."

Male pregnancy is not new in sci-fi. The most notable example prior to this is Alien Nation, where the alien males carry the young until it is time for them to be born. More than a simple reversal of sexual roles, Alien Nation treated this xeno-sexuality with a surprising amount of dignity, and made it look interesting and even plausible.

"Unexpected" did not do that. Confronted with the situation/problem, it appeared to be all Archer could do to not begin laughing uncontrollably. The use of the term "knocked up" made it obvious that our Enterprise writers weren't going to treat this with any level of maturity.

Instead, sexuality and sexual issues - including pregnancy - get the same immature treatment that made episode's like DS9's "Let He Who Is Without Sin" and "Looking For Par'Mach In All The Wrong Places" so utterly horrible.

T'Pol's choice in eyebrow-raising humour helped only a little bit, but at the same time added to my own discomfort with the whole thing because of humour’s need to make use of emotion. This makes T'Pol's humour, like Spock's from the original series, nearly always out of character.

When the characters got serious again, they decided to track down our intrepid aliens only to find them in the exhaust wake (again) of another ship - this time a Klingon battle cruiser. Sheesh - can't they keep those ships going for any length of time? Anyway, they manage (with some interesting words from T'Pol) to talk the Klingons out of destroying them and the aliens, but not without having to resort to humiliating Trip.

In the scene where Trip finally has to reveal his pregnancy to not only the Klingons but also the rest of the Enterprise crew, an interesting thought dawned on me: why would this situation be called a pregnancy where the symbiotic relationship between Cmdr. Riker and the Trill in TNG's "The Host" was not?

You can't simply argue that Trip's physiological changes were conducive to eventual childbirth, because Riker likewise underwent physiological changes. At the same time, Trip's condition was far more than just an alien parasitic invasion. This leaves it all confused and confusing.

By letting the Klingons try out the new Holodeck technology, Trip is able to get back on board the alien ship and reunite with Ah'Len, who quite simply gives the world's lamest excuses for Trip's accidental pregnancy.

Think "I didn't know you'd get pregnant the first time" with the roles reversed, the races changed, and a reset button ending to it all so everything was wrapped up oh so nicely in the end. No muss, no fuss, and no long-term consequences. Also, apparently, no ongoing relationship with an interesting new alien race, when this is supposed to be an expedition of exploration. Hmmm.

Despite all the negative comments, there were individual moments in the show that were actually done quite well. The episode's high point, however, is a little hard to pick out. My candidate overall for high point is the scene quite early in the show where the alien ship is first detected (or at least suspected) to be found in the exhaust wake of the Enterprise.

The dialog was crisp and the adventure of discovering the hitchhiking aliens was neatly suspenseful. I also particularly liked the overall treatment of the Klingons (except for the rather stupid "I can see my house from here" shtick) as belligerent and aggressive warriors who would love nothing better than to blow a few ships out of the sky.

However, there was no single scene there that I can pin down as being the episode's high point.

So the episode certainly isn't all bad, but it isn't really that good either. It's important not to confuse my enjoyment of the episode (which I did enjoy) with the episode's real worth.

The truth is that this episode barely comes off as mediocre in the balance when taking the escapist element of enjoyment out and looking at how well the underlying story was actually written.

This is a classic example of where my objectivity (which some have criticized) needs to take over.

If left to pure subjective enjoyment of the episode, I'd probably set this episode at the top of the list. As it is, I rank it only slightly better than "Broken Bow," though that episode's present position at the bottom of the list is for an entirely different set of reasons.

And you know what? It really wouldn't have taken that much to improve this episode quite a lot. Another case of reasonable story concept marred by poor execution.

Let's hope for better next week.

Gary M. Torborg

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