Enterprise Flashback: Unexpected

\Star Trek has a history of occasionally taking a silly premise and trying to build a "not entirely silly" episode around it -- turning crew members into children, shrinking them to microscopic size, and more. But Enterprise made the bold decision to try something like this in one of their earliest episodes, "Unexpected."

When Enterprise is plagued by a series of malfunctions, the crew traces the cause to an alien ship traveling in their wake as it conducts repairs. Trip boards the ship to help them, slowly adjusting to the strange environment and ultimately growing close to an alien woman. Closer than he realizes, in fact -- because after the two ships have parted ways, Trip discovers: he's pregnant!

A much shorter episode summary than the one I just gave would get right to the point: Trip discovers he's pregnant! But I feel that wouldn't capture the tonal whiplash of the episode overall. For almost half the runtime, "Unexpected" is a completely serious episode that actually explores how weird it might be to board an alien ship, in a way that Star Trek honestly never has before.

Trip has nerves about going, has to go through something like "decompression" to travel between ships, and still gets something like "the bends" when he arrives. The production pulls out all the stops to make the alien ship feel weird: running the film back slow and shooting in tight closeups to convey Trip's disorientation, showing odd food and different customs, and having the aliens express as much curiosity over humans as we feel toward them. It all feels a bit more realistic than the norm for Star Trek. It could even have been played for horror (or at least a sense of danger) had the episode not had another destination in mind.

Still, it's not like the episode telegraphs the hard turn into comedy that it's going to take. Or, should I say, "comedy." Because to me, none of it works. All the jokes feel like they're accompanied by an audible slide whistle trying to sell the laugh. First, there's all the tired TV tropes about pregnancy in general: shaming the pregnant person for their state, laughing at their emotional sensitivity, poking fun at their food cravings and anxieties. Then there's the weird alien details the writers seem to think are funny, but feel like the writers weirdly telling on themselves. Trip sprouts nipples on his wrists! None of his DNA is actually incorporated into the child (conveniently letting him off the parental hook).

Plus, 20+ years of evolution on gender norms (since the time the episode was made) makes some of the attempts at humor play in a mean-spirited way -- surely not intended at the time, but they clang extra hard now. Trip isn't going to be a "single parent," he's going to be a "working mother." He's going to have to feed the baby, isn't that hilarious?! And of course, the episode and its characters can't even conceive of a transgender pregnancy (though I personally would say that's much more a result of "trans-ignorance" than "transphobia").

Fortunately, things get a bit more serious again with the arrival of some Klingons in the final act, just in time to keep the episode from going completely off the rails. We get to see a Klingon battle cruiser of classic design, and get a rough interaction with them that begins to explain later Klingon/human animosity. And we do get one ridiculous joke that kind of does work. (When a Klingon notes of a holographic simulation: "I can see my house from here!")

Other observations:

• Enterprise continues to establish itself as the horniest Star Trek ever. A gratuitous teaser centers on Archer taking a shower (and gives us an eyeful of side butt). Trip spends a whole scene in a tank top and underwear, and the choice of camera placement is quite prurient.

• This is the first time I'm noticing how weirdly T'Pol sits in the captain's chair. She's perched on like the outermost two inches of it, as if she would get an electric shock if she sat back any farther.

• Now it's time for my lame joke: this makes two episodes in a row where Trip trips hard -- last time on planetary spores and this time on alien atmosphere.

• Of course Trip's attempt at repair doesn't work. Honestly, what's he going to know about fixing an alien starship engine?

I'm giving "Unexpected" a C+. That may seem a bit high, but I really do think there's a lot to like here about "meeting new aliens," before they get to the pregnancy reveal. By any measure, though, it's the weakest Enterprise episode so far.