My Review-‘Unexpected’
AFTER READING THE SPOILERS YOU MAY FIND SOMETHING 'UNEXPECTED'.
A long time ago (well 10 years ago) in a Galaxy far far away, (well the UK) there was a show called Red Dwarf and all laughed at the hilarity of this universe of fart jokes gone mad. One of my personal favourite Red Dwarf episodes is the episode where Dave Lister got pregnant. Unfortunately Red Dwarf's format of silliness suited it far more than Trek's ever would. So I was hardly expecting to see it on Enterprise. As you can expect I cringed when I heard about this. Trek has not had the best track record with comedy episodes. There's been the odd serious episode with a funny bit from Garak, Dukat, Data, Worf et al but comedy episodes usually fall a bit flat. Each series has tried it, TNG had the often horrific Lwaxana Troi episodes, DS9 had the truly-cringe worthy Ferengi arc but Voyager's attempts were usually a whole lot better. Particularly as they rarely featured around Neelix, the show's 'wacky alien'. Only one Trek comedy episode has actually made me laugh out loud before and that would be the brilliant 'Trials and Tribble-lations' of DS9 fame. Now on with the storyline:
STORYLINE
Uck. This story is full of annoying stereo-types, which many pregnant women (and doctors I suspect) would object to. And they're not even done that well. Trip's fretting over 'little people' in the engine room was horrifyingly unfunny. However Trip's scenes on the ship and before we met the ship, and the scenes with the Klingons, were watchable. Although the scene where Trip was staggering around in a post-decompression stupor, I found myself thinking "I bet this was Braga's idea". An episode is supposed to pull you in not make you think about who's idea it was to do a certain scene.
THE SHIP
Not much to say here (again) except I did enjoy the fact that T'Pol mentioned the Klingon Battlecruiser could of destroyed them almost immediately.
I understand the Battlecruiser in question is not a D7 (as it looks like) but a D6, that sorta makes sense.
THE
CHARACTERS
Congratulations to Connor Trinnear. I was a little uneasy about his performance last week, but his portrayal of Trip in awe of the situation on the ship was brilliant. Suggesting his talents dont lend themselves well to emotional outbursts.
STAR
TREK NOTES.
If the 'foetus' has none of Trip's DNA doesnt that make it more a parasite than a 'pregnancy'. But then parasite wouldnt be as 'cute'.
Apparently the producers of ENT believe it cant survive without periodic Klingon visitations.
Some people might object to the Klingons getting holographic technology here but as we never saw them successfully install it, you could assume it didn't work if you like.
The gravity going offline in the teaser is very stunning visually and actually funny but why is it that as soon as it goes offline everything (Archer, water etc.) floats UPWARDS, a certain Mr. Isaac Newton might have something to say about that.
SUMMARY:
Rating (out of 10): 3. Not as bad as I was expecting but still pretty dire. Enterprise's first real dud. Congratulations to 'Strange New World' by the way. After 1 week you've been replaced in the 'worst episode' stakes.
