Star Trek Enterprise Lamentations S1E05: Unexpected

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[@kylecaffyn-parsons8163]

When you see it's longer than the episode itself with 'Lamentation' in the title; You know it's going to be good.

[@Norvo82]

:-) Lore calling Archer 'Janeway' at the 23 minute mark really proves just how much Enterprise was like Voyager but with slightly edited scripts.

[@JessieGender1]

There are only a few Star Trek episodes that actively offend me. This is one.

[@AunCollective]

It's an interesting concept until the writers decided to treat the pregnancy as a source for really lousy comedy writing. I'm curious who finds the mocking Trip for getting pregnant scenes hilarious? It made me cringe and I almost stopped watching ENT.

[@subraxas]

Why? It's a fun episode with interesting sci-fi concepts.

[@redpillfreedom6692]

@@AunCollective Not just getting pregnant, they're laughing at the fact he was violated.

[@ELEKTROSKANSEN]

​​@@redpillfreedom6692 I don't recall them making fun at Tucker being "violated" at any point. Probably because just like Tucker, they didn't see touching a bowl of crystals as "violation". Tucker wasn't thinking of himself as a "rape victim" or anything like that, he was only bothered by the pregnancy and possibility of taking care of an alien baby. And that portion was really funny, him growing nipples on his arms and all that.

[@EnvisionerWill]

You don't waste our time, @Lorerunner; you give us something enjoyable to do with it!

[@vesuvanprincess]

"Then the episode doesn't even have the decency to be over." Perfect summation.

[@quicksilvertongue3248]

When I rewatched this episode, we got to the scene where Tucker walks past a Xyrillian aquarium on the wall, and I swear that my literal first thought was "holy crap, their hovercraft really IS full of eels!" :rofl:

[@normanbuchwald]

I know it's months since you recorded this, but after seeing your well conveyed and deserved anger over this episode, you'd probably get a couple chuckles if not a big laugh by seeing SF Debris' take on this episode (you need to blow off some steam, I'd say after watching this lamentation :) ). (This SF Debris one on this episode-- it's one of those that truly has resonated with me :) ). I stuck with Enterprise into the second season although by the middle I became an infrequent watcher and then in the third season the few choice episodes I saw were all the wrong ones (or I tuned in at the wrong time) that I didn't truly see most of this series until it was on Netflix myself. I hear you. And even though it got much better toward the end of season three, and definitely in Season Four, this series still ranks lower for me than Discovery which I know is the series that's fashionable to bash (and don't get me wrong-- there's a whole slew of other problems in Discovery, but it's never gotten quite as bad as this formulaic and weird humor and sexploitation nature of Enterprise. I HATE the decontamination chamber. It makes all Risa episodes come across as tasteful by comparison :P . . . and introducing the Holodeck on top of Tucker getting pregnant-- absolutely awful. And it was this episode that made me finally to this day have a hard time taking Archer seriously as a captain-- even after all his painstaking hard decisions (Damage) and to where by the final episode Archer is supposed to have the credentials of a historical figure. Even then-- it was hard to forget how he handled the Klingons in this episode-- although part of that may be my disappointment that I was still waiting for the story Picard revealed in the TNG episode "First Contact" how their first encounter with the Klingons was supposed to have turned into a major disaster. Which I guess the Temporal Cold War erased that. Whatever ).

[@shawngillogly6873]

Don't get me started on the Temporal Cold War.

[@normanbuchwald]

On a second listen, for the record-- the first pregnant man was Billy Crystal (Rabbit Test), not Arnold Schwarzenegger. :P

[@Radintoriov]

I can't help but find amusing how you associate the "That's an order" so much with Janeway that her name slipped in instead of Archer's

[@totemictoad4691]

i mean voyager did push the 'captain is god and never wrong FOLLOW ORDERS' thing much more than prior trek

[@AdamCollings]

I think he did that on purpose.

[@zuzoscorner]

Harry potty wand waving "that's an order' zap !

[@redpillfreedom6692]

"When some guy outranks you And tells you what to do That's an order"-Charles Sonnenberg

[@Infernal460]

*"This is a game we play".* And at that point I left the series. I came back for season 2. The worse thing is, this is not the worst Enterprise episode.

[@XalenMaru]

Welp... that didn't take long. Wonder how many Lamentations there will be over the course of this series.

[@supernoob17]

Yeah I mentioned in the comments of your intro that I didn't remember how long my family made it into enterprise but I knew it was less than ten episodes and this was the episode for us too

[@kingloucifur8086]

I was very surprised to see this as a lamentation. For the most part, I have agreed, without bias, with most of your analyses of episodes from TOS, TAS and where I am in TNG. I'm now going backwards to watch Enterprise alongside TNG and it's honestly been growing on me. This episode in particular I can see rewatching from time to time, along with Strange New World. Tucker has quickly become a favourite character for me given the actor's performance in this episode and the last and I felt real chemistry between the Xyrillian woman and Tucker in this episode. While the concept of the episode itself is a bit on the nose and B-movieish, I like how it was handled for the most part and the effects of Tucker entering the Xyrillian ship felt accurate to real-life experiences nausea and sickness. I haven't actually watched this lamentation yet as of commenting, so I'll see what points you make that made you feel it is worthy of lamentation, but personally I can see this on my rewatch list for the future.

[@MagnenoAlexWilkins]

agreed

[@JessieWard33]

Whew it's our 1st lamentation of the tos enterprise era

[@justintoner9817]

Yup, but sadly it will not be the last. There are more to come between TOS and Enterprise

[@subraxas]

Third season of TOS should be a Hellfest of Lamentations.

[@Saundersj1701]

Ah when I saw this was the next episode of Enterprise I thought this was a guaranteed lamentation

[@LostMercenary99]

"They just destroy ships because of their own bungling ineptitude and rape people." Bloody hell it's like the Xenomorph's got a makeover.

[@RockinRhinox]

This was the first episode of Enterprise I actually watched when it aired, it was also the last episode of Enterprise I watched when it aired.

[@SchneeflockeMonsoon]

Anytime I see that candle, I wonder: what aspect of Nemesis did this episode borrow for the day to kill Lore with? Was the ship Bad? Was Troi assaulted? And then I remembered: Hull Plating. Trip on a Boat. Yeeeeeeeep.

[@voyg2]

Oh boy are first lamentation the first of many I'm sure. We got a long road ahead before we get to season 3

[@stuartwald2395]

To be precise (and pedantic, I admit!), the D7 was the Klingon cruiser which appeared in TOS, and the K'tinga upgrade first appeared in STTMP as the trio of cruisers (under Mark Lenard) which attacked V'ger. My favorite Beta Canon information on early Klingon ships is in the novel "The Final Reflection", which covers the D4 and its D5 upgrade.

[@radeadcool]

I still love threshold. :P

[@jacksonbiscuit]

I think the best sentence to sum up this lamentation would be at 49:00: "and then the episode doesn't even have the decency to be over". Always enjoy watching your negative and positive thoughts about the episodes.

[@KneelB4Bacon]

9:44 _" . . . and then we watched the episode to its conclusion. And then I didn't watch Enterprise for several years."_ lol.

[@shawngillogly6873]

I have to admit, this episode was when I dumped Enterprise too.

[@primaldnb]

I forced myself through a lot of Enterprise just for completionism and to appease a nagging friend. If I guess correctly, you might find a lot more lamentations down the road. Though I was rubbing my palms together when I saw the thumbnail this morning anticipating the entertainment factor of a lamentation, I don't think these will be as fun as previous works to tear apart. I think we are going to have a lot of sighs all round of poor quality writing, that takes 2-3 seasons to better itself to mediocre quality. It's also less fun to see because we've had decades of learning what works and doesn't in previous star trek shows, to the point where they should be standing on the shoulders of giants.

[@captmoroni]

Side Note: like the 30s intro clip. The NX-01 looks so small, vulnerable, and alone. As for episode: first saw it in undergrad. Enjoyed it then. The low tech cloak reveal, the first contact, the Klingons, Archer sticking up for Trip then trusting the other captain, T'pol's exaggeration, all "good stuff." Didn't pay much attention to the pregnancy besides "it's a gag." Re-watched it days ago "with analysis mode on" and saw how disturbing that "gag" is. "It's a game they play." No Trip, it's grooming.

[@jankostrhun8725]

Oh boy, can't wait for to Night at Sickbay.

[@Paceytron]

I’m almost fairly sure there was a cut sequence in the dinner scene between Archer, Tucker and Phlox. In the very last shot with Tucker, just after Archer says it’s the first interspecies pregnancy involving a human, Tucker looks up and you can very clearly see he’s showing signs of having cried. Makes me wonder if this was meant to be portrayed differently at some point.

[@mikecimerian6913]

I see "Lamentation", I just have to listen. I think you are mostly generous and fair handed so for an episode to qualify as such we can expect a full range of expertly delivered epithets. Nice setting. When suspension of disbelief becomes tied to the gravity well. :) Humor finds us while we have to seek the meaning of a sonnet. Humor is spiritual and poetic so watching humor fall flat is alike to sacrilege. You are not nitpicky about science, Amanda Tapping was on track on the science of Stargate. She even had an equation corrected in a script.

[@jamespepper8671]

The show showed an excellent example of going into an alien habitat. I stopped when she mentioned this is the closet thing to water, when she pulled out the Tide Pod.

[@lightsabermetrics]

Re: The other two S! TNG Lamentations We know that Justice is one of them. Lore mentioned that in one of his last TNG reviews (I think it was during the Ruminations on Bloodlines). As for the other one, I'm going with The Naked Now.

[@videogenics86]

No, Angel One

[@craigreiter9859]

"Dunna light tha candle!"

[@lightsabermetrics]

Also, what is it with early S1 episodes of nearly every Trek series having at least one Lamentation? TNG had Code of Honor. The Naked Now and Justice should count as well. DS9 had Move Along Home. VOY somehow dodged this trend, though S1 was hardly that good. And now we have Unexpected. It's like the production team just doesn't know what to do with the show right out of the gate.

[@Jokie155]

Voyager S1 was also much shorter than the rest. Syndication moved four episodes to Season 2, putting S1 at just sixteen. Less rolls of the 'will this be awful?' dice.

[@DrLynch2009]

5 episodes in and we are getting or first lamentation. Must be a new record.

[@lightsabermetrics]

Code of Honor was a Lamentation (and with good reason). I strongly suspect The Naked Now is also a Lamentation in retrospect for Lore. Thus, TNG still has ENT beat.

[@Tim85-y2q]

Nah, Code of Honor was TNG's first lamentation and it was 3 episodes in.

[@MissTea_Trekkie]

Whew... I feel like it is time to increase the lamentation based on severity (add a candle, capitalize all the letters, something else). I definitely agree with you that the laughing would not work if Riker was laughing at Troi. That would be awful! But a couple of things I disagree with: 1. The start of the episode, Travis wouldn't work. He was born and raised on a cargo ship and in a later episode he hung out in an area of Enterprise that has low gravity AND I think he discussed low gravity in that episode. We need to remember that he actually has more time in space than everyone (he was born in space). I think Reed or Hoshi would drive home the random out of place comedic point. 2. For the "sex" thing, we know that sex has (or should have) an emotional component. Plus, folks don't get pregnant every time there is a sexual encounter. SO I believe her when she said that she didn't know it could happen. The beads were also for the emotional connections, and reading thoughts - the primary objective may not be creating new life. Overall, I think you were maybe a little hard on this episode.

[@George_M_]

The opening theme had me ready to go and this episode was the tipping point for quitting for me too.

[@IvyLeather13]

Yep. I knew this was a Lamentation as soon as I saw the title. Didn't even notice the inverted colors. I didn't need to.

[@sciverzero8197]

While I do feel like the holodeck in this show was a bad move, I also always found it absolutely incomprehensible that the level of tech was so strangely consistent throughout the galaxy in Star Trek in general, especially when it comes to the complete lack of high and low tech mingling within a single society... If you look at reality, most of our problems are solved by implements that are either a blade, or a lever, and most of the time they don't even need to be _automated_ to work. The same household that contains a smart phone, may also contain a hammer. All of our technology that isn't electrical (and about 90% of it that is) still relies on this simple low tech approach somewhere, if not literally every component thereof. A car is literally just a bunch of levers and hinges with an explosive inside it, and that hasn't changed since we invented them, 150 years ago. Before that we used boiling water to create pressure to do exactly the same thing the explosive mechanism does... and the electric motors used in some vehicles now, still rely on basically unchanged technology from a hundred or more years ago... What we can do with what we have has changed... but what we have... really hasn't. We haven't invented anything truly NEW in a long time, we've just been finding new applications for hundred year old observations. We've improved manufacture and precision... but not the technological mechanism itself. TOS seemed to _occasionally_ realize this, and have extremely advanced civilizations be using advanced tech that's made of rudimentary components... but usually not... and almost always, if a civ was advanced, it meant they didn't need to use physical force to solve their purely physical force problems, like driving nails, because they had some kind of magic nail translocating lasers. I can't help but wonder if this episode was simultaneously on to something important about reality, while also being a very bad choice for such an early point in a series meant to be the earliest point in a greater franchise of series...

[@jaspervlogt3843]

hello I agree with you. When i was in my coutnries equivalent of high school I was sexually assaulted by a classmate. It traumatized me. In teh next class when i tried to tell teh teacher what happened, as everyone was noticing me acting odd. When i told him,. my class laughed at me. It was hoprrible. This lead me to bottle it up for many years. To me the behaviour oft he crew of the Enterprise is not ok in any way. I never made the conencting before due it being so deeply buried, but now, this episode enters my skip list. Yes i am in therapy for many years now and i am in a supportive environment. Thank you Lore Greetings from Austria Jasper

[@AdamCollings]

I was ready to defend the first half of this episode (up until they arrive at the holodeck) because I remember quite liking how alien their ship's environment was, but having watched your lamentation, I agree the only good things here are the decon chamber concept and that one moment where Trip says he wouldn't risk his career for a few moments of hanky panky. The holodeck itself never bothered me, because it was on an alien ship. Another species invented holodecks a few centuries before we did. Ok. I'm fine with that. But once they offered it to the Klingons it became very stupid.

[@scottkrametbauer90]

Actually lore TNG's lamentation was episode 4, so technically they are equidistant. Considering if Enterprise used the same episode numbering scheme as TNG this would be episode 4 as well.

[@Tim85-y2q]

Technically, it was 3 as the 2 parts of encounter at farpoint share a single production code.

[@scottkrametbauer90]

@@Tim85-y2q You are correct, so TNG was sooner than Enterprise

[@wangbot47]

This episode damn near made me drop the show too, when I tried to watch it for the first time in 2016. But I had promised someone that I would give it a fair shake now that I was more mature and didn't immediatwly cringe myself into a neutron star when they polarized the hull plating

[@Yura-Sensei]

i really enjoyed the alien ship aesthetics and vibe

[@timstatler7714]

If the Artificial Gravity failed, Archer should have been plastered against the back wall of the shower if the ship was under thrust.

[@subraxas]

You're utterly wrong! Artificial gravity has nothing to do with inertial dampeners.

[@jannegrey]

I'm not exactly surprised. Pregnant episodes of Star Trek are usually........ not great.

[@rmsgrey]

Random thoughts: Yeah, the cold open in this one was the biggest moment in the series where I almost forgot I wasn't watching Quantum Leap - and it would have been a below par cold open for that show too. I can't help but feel that the episode's creators are fans of that scene in Back to the Future where Marty's on the skateboard and stealing a tow from passing vehicles. Except instead of being in the center of town, they're out in the middle of nowhere, and there aren't any roads - people just drive across the fields - and there are only a couple of hundred cars in all of the US... And even then Marty would have it easier. Space is big and entire planets are small enough that you can be in the same system as one and lose track of it if you glance away for a moment, let alone starships... In general, I actually like the idea of a particular species having a very different mix of technologies than the standard issue Federation tech levels. The idea that everyone discovers the same technologies in the same order seems like lazy writing to me. On the other hand, developing technology that lets you track warp signatures with enough lead time to get picked up by their warp bubble when you only have sub-light engines without being able to develop full warp technology seems a bit of a stretch. Personally, I'd have written them with a very limited warp capability, so they can travel at warp for a few minutes at a time before overheating their engines (or whatever) so they can catch passing ships, but not make sustained flights themselves. If warp drives actually used anything like fuel, I'd have them have a very limited fuel supply and be hitching lifts as a way to extend their range to something practical. I'm not touching the interspecies sex thing.

[@TheXeldrak]

A lamentation already? We are in for a ride!

[@normanbuchwald]

TNG quickly had one with Code of Honor actually, so TNG has the record swiftest for a lamentation. :)

[@corssecurity]

To my knowledge this concept of perception differences was used twice in Beta Cannon. TNG and Voyager. The TNG humans couldn't survive the alien ship it was too different. Data goes over and shuts down. Reboots with his normal sensors deactivated and his brain adapted to function. Something to do with the Medusians I think. The Voy book was insecticoids. Non Euclidean geometry. No right angles. Passage ways that got bigger and smaller and twisted Also dim cave like, glowing crystals for lights. Everyone was nauseous and dizzy

[@Warsage29]

Really a lamentation already....oh wait I remember this episode never mind.

[@Spartanj42]

When the Rumination is better than the episode, RIP Lore, I hope you had a nice nap after this one.

[@quasimodojdls]

WOW! Two Lamentations in one week for me. First we had the abysmal TOS: "Mudd's Women" and now the equally abysmal ENT: "Unexpected". That has to be a record of some kind. Why do Trek writers honestly think that rape is okay.... as long as it's a man being raped? Seriously, I'd like an answer. They did it TWICE to Riker on TNG (in "First Contact" and "The Host") and now they do it to Trip. It's even worse here because both times with Riker an argument could be made that the writers just didn't realize what they were doing, but here they are openly playing up the fact that Trip was violated for comedic purposes. Let's just look at two dialogue exchanges to make my point.... AH'LEN: No. This is a game we play. Watch. Go ahead. TUCKER: Are there any rules to this game? AH'LEN: It takes four hands to work. Replace AH'LEN with PRIEST and replace TUCKER with BOY and you'll have an idea about what I'm getting at. TUCKER: Postnatal responsibilities? PHLOX: You may very well be putting those nipples to work before you know it. Now replace TUCKER with HOSHI and ask yourself if you would find that even remotely funny. Add to the mix the use of a holodeck, the "I can see my house from here" stupidity, the ridiculousness of Xyrillian reproduction (seriously, I'm no biologist but even I know that if they only use genetic material from the mother that that completely negates the need for sexual reproduction!), and the utterly indefensible humiliation of a freaking rape-victim at the end of the episode and you not only have ENT's first below-average episode but it's first Lamentation. 0/10

[@LMoftheCoast]

5 episodes in, and a Lamentation already... Oh boy...

[@joluoto]

We got the first lamentation of Enterprise. The first of many, the first of many.

[@thehelixgroup]

It surprised me that this video has not yet had a comment on it so... let me be the first to dub it and this might be my only comment since I don't tend to comment on KZbin as much I used to. I've been watching you for a while now and I enjoy your ruminations whether I agree or disagree with you or have found you to be wrong on certain cases. It doesn't matter people make mistakes and I am reasonably certain by the way you portray yourself you are as honest as you can be which I hope I am right about but, since you are just an internet persona to me it's difficult to really ascertain that mark and I want to be clear that isn't a dig at you it's just the nature of distance between me the viewer and you the creator as I am sure you are aware. I listen to a lot of your videos actually before I go to sleep because it helps me sleep as I am one of those people that struggles to sleep without noise and particularly since I've been very stressed in my own personal life about my own future and if there is even a future at all (Rather not get into details but, I am fine for the most part I don't want this to be a pity piece just a note in to punctuate my next sentence). I appreciate what you do and I am glad that I can come back to any of your ruminations and just listen to them and be engaged because even if I walk away disagreeing with your view you at least got me to think and I thank you for that. (Hopefully someday if there ever is a moment it would be nice to pick your brain but, for now keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing more from you)

[@JosephAland]

I liked the opening. I took it as another indication that UESPA is still working out the kinks of space travel. And it fit thematically with the episode. If we aren't sure of our own technology, we should be careful of the technology of other species. Tucker didn't and suffered a consequence. (I don't agree with that reading of what happened to Tucker, but I can see that's what the writers could have been going for.)

[@quicksilvertongue3248]

It really bothers me that they call the telepathy box a "game". It's the equivalent of Ouija. It could be a toy, but it's definitely not a game by any reasonable definition. Even Truth or Dare has rules.

[@aurorauplinks]

I just rewatched balance of terror, its surprisingly... interesting.... i just wanted to reexamine the early romulan episodes and was looking for one with them... it looks pretty good on amazon prime

[@brianstraight9308]

You know, I agree with everything you said here. I don't quite think this episode is "that" terrible, but I try and find things to like in every episode but, at the same time the right little thing can piss me off. One thing thst pissed me off in tbis episode? The aliens couldn't make water. WATER. Stuff that is made by burning the most common element in the universe in an Oxygen-rich environment and that is necessary for all forms of carbon-based life we know of. They couldn't make it. The "closest" they could come was a gelatinous cube which would require proteins, starches, and other things other than just two of the most common elements. They've had contact with other species but never had to make water. It was it this point I fully realized B&B didn't care about Any kind of "science" in the show (but really much of Voyager taught me that given how hard it was for them to find deuterium like it was some rate fuel.) They couldn't. Make. WATER!

[@matthewparker7172]

Damn lamentation already? Ouch. It's deserved though.

[@GregorySnipe]

Lamentation. Only five episodes in. Enterprise is going to be a long haul.

[@RoyalFusilier]

It's been a long road, getting from there to here...

[@morlath4767]

7:57 pretty much sums me up when it comes to what a lot of my circle enjoys. They love certain kinds of comedy, and I end up sitting there alternating between cringing, being annoyed, and being bored. I don't blame them for laughing, but I really don't like getting stuck with watching something like that and expect to enjoy it. This cold open is exactly what'll turn me off an entire episode/movie. Yeah..."we're in a spaceship where everything keeps messing up" is NOT a joke. It's a bloody horror film in the making! And the cloak/holodeck introduction is the exact reason why prequels in a series are usually a bad idea - Because writers end up becoming lazy and ultimately break continuity just so they can (re)introduce something as a way of making the script work/doing something flashy/any other excuse that fails at the first inspection. It's the same problem with comic characters who get taken out of their relationships, so the writers can "write interesting stories about X with a new partner" when it's more that they can't think up ways of making the current relationship work. Because that requires working within a constraint they don't want to deal with. Tone - This episode takes the concept of tone and rips it up and craps all over the pieces.

[@saxbend]

I found this a silly episode, never expected it to be a Lamentation (got Cogenitor to look forward to for that), but you make your case very well.

[@subraxas]

Cogenitor is a great episode. One of the highlights of Season 2.

[@thesilentslig]

God the hull plating thing is annoying. Hull plating just stands for some kind of physical material you would use to coat the outer hull. It wouldn't be a stand in for shields.

[@thepenskyfile]

C'mon, it's one of the best S1 episodes of ENT!

[@redpillfreedom6692]

An episode where rape is played for laughs because the victim is male?

[@RyanWieber]

"miniaturization" (19:42) and "denegration" (48:42) 😁👍

[@stevemanart]

Oh dear me, a lamentation already?! Wait.. **checks the episode title** Oh. Yeah. Okay that makes perfect sense. Carry on Lore. Rip it a new one at your leisure.

[@RealLordFuture]

The first lamentation. Well that didn't take long did it!

[@Crazael]

On the wrist-nipples: Biology be weird, yo! On the mysteriously vanishing Klingon holodecks: Klingons have no interest in such frivolities and have abandoned such technologies!

[@Tim85-y2q]

Is it ever explicitly established that they don't have them, or is it just that we never see them?

[@wolfsruhm]

yeah this is one of thoese episodes where i just was shaking my head whole through it. Especially when she were making fun of Tuckers ABSOLUTELY LEGITIMATE security concerns. Granted he probably never thought of this stuff before, but his concerns are right. PS: WINDOWS????? HONESTLY. For frikkin windo0ws they used the K'Tinga, which is movie era Trek, so 200 years 'younger' then this series ... I could strangle Berman and whoever else was responsible for this decision. Also the D4 was from another Guy, Bruchanda, or something like that

[@DanielleWhite]

Regarding your in-screen comment. Unfortunately I can only even see that as negative given how much they figured out how to do truck better across three separate series since that point in TNG. I watch ed this one last night with my wife, who has never seen Enterprise. I didn't remember from the cold opening which episode it was but I'm pretty sure I did around the time he boards the other ship, At which point I remarked, "oh god, is that episode." I figured this was going to be a lamentation. My wife did ask if this is where the federation got holograph technology which actually would have made more sense than the idea of the Klingons getting it.

[@TMaekler]

You really said "Janeway" at 23:09 :-)

[@SchneeflockeMonsoon]

If this episode was to be included in your rewrites (which it won’t, thank god) I would have made them packleds.

[@normanbuchwald]

Which? The new aliens or the Klingons? :P

[@namelessbaron1289]

I'll be honest Lore. The NX-01 looks good in Negative values.

[@chrissguitarshow206]

I never understood why the federation refused to use cloaking technology

[@HawkTheRed]

I will say that personally, this and the next 2 episodes are I considered the perfect showing for the worst, average, and best episode of season 1.

[@alano1724]

It's odd. This is the first episode of Enterprise I've enjoyed. This is my 2nd attempt at the series, the first time, I ejected half way through the 1st episode. This was just silly, so I guess it got round the layer of hate the last few episodes have built up.

[@joluoto]

Anyone read Avengers # 200, this episode is Avengers # 200.

[@ELEKTROSKANSEN]

I'm excited because I really liked it when I started my ENT run, can't wait to hear what pissed you off here xD

[@KnightRaymund]

Space rape?

[@justintoner9817]

At first I too was like, a Lamentation for Enterprise this early? Then I realized it was Unexpected "Oh god, the one were Trip gets pregnant via alien crap". Yeah this one deserves Lamentation status and you did a great job going over all the reasons why it's BAD. The Holodeck thing made me go WTF back in the day along with the Klingon ship design too. I don't blame you or LoreMom for walking away from Enterprise for awhile after this one, its garbage. Sadly, there are later episodes of Enterprise worse than this one. For those not familiar with that, brace yourselves.

[@DerBeppone]

What is really worse here, is that they still aren't finished to crap on Tucker, because of this situation... I get it, alien females can be sexy and stuff, but I honestly think that Tucker is the, watch but don't touch kind of guy. I must admitt, though. The comedic takes in this show are falling extremly flat on their nose for the most part... I like my comedy and slices of life in Trek. But, could it actually have the decency not to crap on characters for a quick "Schadenfreude" moment, when it is actually harmfull?

[@chrissguitarshow206]

Everyone has different opinions. It was interesting episode to me

[@athrunzala6919]

I thought it was dumb they had such advanced holograms and cloaking I thought it was funny that a man was pregnant, enjoyed Flox And I could only imagine how going though pressurization with Klingons at the end.

[@tonyutter]

I feel your pain with this episode. I tried to get through it but couldn't. I don't know who, in their right mind, thought this would be a good episode, but damn! This episode SUCKED!

[@jeffphillips1832]

Rape is never funny. Abuse is never funny. Serious injuries are never funny. Except when it happens to a man. Then it's hilarious.

[@Tim85-y2q]

Just my opinion, but I don't think this should be a lamentation. It's not good by any means, but Enterprise has several episodes (off the top of my head) that are substantially worse. Like so much else with this series, I think the concept has genuine potential and only really fails in the execution. As you say, I think if they had played this plot more seriously, it could have really said something about the pitfalls of interacting with aliens, who even if not outrightly hostile, might well have different biology, value systems etc. I also think the cold open does accomplish a couple things beyond slapstick. It again underscores the lower tech setting and also emphasizes this crew is less seasoned in the ways of space travel than we're used to from the franchise.

[@misterformerlyknownascolad2859]

Yeah, For a show that claims to be so progressive, Trek has done that a lot and they didn't think about how stuff like that looks. There was this episode, insane. TNG "First Contact" with the woman and Riker, I don't see that happening to Troi. TNG "Cost of Living," would the mud bath take place if Alexander was Alexandria? In DS9 they had Jake (who was a minor) dating an adult woman. Yeah, "Unexpected" was very problematic.

[@redpillfreedom6692]

It seems liberals have as hard of a time as tradcons to wrap their heads around the notion that males can be sexually assaulted.

[@wcoleman99]

of course the klingons didn't have holodecks in the modern day as they didn't have Morn to spar with. When it comes to the sex stuff in Star Trek, Raj from Big Bang theory is right you never hear anyone saying hey you're sticking it in my nose

[@bbbbKeJodddd]

A lamentation already? Fascinating.

[@breezy1370]

The topics in this episode like the pebbles should've not been touched. Hahahaaaaa.... anyways sorry my bad. Tho one thing i did like about this episode was the alien ship felt very alien and interesting. I would have like if this was more about first contact with a new species

[@eddstarr2185]

I honestly try to understand what fans of Enterprise see that I don't. When I watch a sci-fi series placed in the future I expect to see characters more advanced than Jed Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies. So far, the Enterprise episode, "Unexpected', plays about as well as "Fred Flintstone in Outer Space". Between Archer and Tucker it's like stupid, in stereo.

[@MagnenoAlexWilkins]

the whole point is that they are closer to us.

[@johnashley327]

I was cringing the whole episode.

[@tbk2010]

I re-watched the episode after seeing the lamentation thumbnail, but before the video itself. Not remembering the plot the beginning seemed fine, interesting even. It was only when Tucker and the female alien got more firendly with each other that it dawned on me what episode this is and why it has lamentation status. And it was worse than I remembered. Back then I didn't even see the parallels to real-life r*pe scenarios, just failed attempts at comedy. I really want to like Enterprise, considering it's that real Star Trek show in my personal canon. But it's making it damned hard.

[@subraxas]

" Back then I didn't even see the parallels to real-life r*pe scenarios " . . . . . well, every person sees there what they personally want to see. Virtually everyone in here seems to forget that she was of a completely different species with a completely different culture and set of customs. Therefore, why would you, guys, compare it so staunchly to 'our-real-world' scenarios? It was a simple inter-cultural misunderstanding. P.S. - Now try and imagine a Human, someone from your real life, to genuinely behave like a Klingon while having their stereotypical rationale and set of habits! What a brutish, abusive, bad-tempered, repulsive pig they would be, right? (sarcasm) So I guess that now we can all proceed to make a Lamentation out of every single Star Trek episode featuring stereotypically behaving Klingons.

[@redpillfreedom6692]

@@subraxas Would you be making the same excises if it were a male alien impregnating Hoshi or T'Pol in the same manner?

[@broodwars64]

Yep, knew THIS one would be a Lamentation. I'll defend S1 & 2 Enterprise, but I've always hated this episode. Between the pre-TOS holodeck, the weird pacing, and the....other thing...just WTF?

[@MercuryKnight5]

I'm one of those who never liked the portrayal of the Klingons post-TOS. I know this puts me in a tiny minority. I've never liked the "fake honor" concept, and it never made sense to me that any polity so divided against itself could've made it to space, much less created an empire.

[@raulmount3087]

From a continuity/canon/historical POV, the entire series deserves a Lamentation. Of course, Roddenberry never sat down, like JMS for B5, and worked out a detailed and commonsensical history of the Federation and everything else. To be fair, very few filmmakers or showrunners do that for their work, so I am not condemning Roddenberry. Anyway, this episode? Good grief. The science behind two separate species mating and producing offspring is bonkers. As I grow older, I get more and more cranky about bad science. LOL, middle-age brings many wonderful things, annoyance is one of them.

[@DZMaven]

It was a dumb episode overall, but weirdly enough there were some parts I enjoyed (provided I turned my critical thinking brain off). I didn't have any issue that the aliens had a holodeck. I mean, why are we assuming that the Federation was the only civilization to ever come up with holodecks? I think the issue is... They gave the tech to the Klingons... and they didn't seem to do anything with it? I'll admit it was cool to see a D7 turn on a dime, but now you brought up the whole D4 thing (and went and looked it up), I have to agree. It would have been better to use that D4 model and it would have had the same impact... so, yeah continuity issue. I don't know what to say about the Tucker being pregnant thing. It was silly and dumb. The crew's reaction was mostly unprofessional. Congrats Tucker, you're the first human to be raped by an alien. The lift scene.... felt out of place. Like I didn't understand what that was about at first. Like did no realize before this that you could severely injure yourself on that handrail and nothing was ever done about it? Lastly, this is something that has occurred to me before with Trek, but this episode brought it up again. Maybe someone with a more well-versed knowledge of Trek knows, but has there ever been an in-canon explanation as to why human-alien copulation and hybrids are a thing that even happens? I'm thinking of this from a genetic compatibility perspective and how inter-species hybridization is such an incredibly tricky and rare thing in real life. Between very similar species, it is possible, but in Trek... ALIEN species from completely different worlds with, what I assume, is very different DNA, somehow still can copulate with humans? The aliens in this episode clearly appeared to be reptilian based... but somehow still copulated with a mammal (human)? I don't even know if there is an answer to this. (Yeah, I know the reason is just writers for the shows making stuff up)

[@charliedontsurf334]

Honestly I think Threshold is a better episode than this one. Threshold was ridiculous but it wasn't making light of rape. On the good side, I did find this episode funny, but not because anything in it was funny. I laughed at how freaking tone deaf the writers are on this. Maybe Berman and Braga were drunk? Yeah I got nothing.

[@VSG1798]

Lore, you got this one nailed to the point. As some others already pointed out, you really have a tendendy to be at your best when you analyse a bad episode. Dont get me wrong, we all love your ruminations, but you seem to be most sharp when you look at this and we all realize that anyone could have done a better Episode out of this, with a little effort. And at that, the show leaves me speachless. Meaning, they should have been more eager to put in effort. Or is this crap the result of someone in the higher ranks of the industry saying, voyager was too dark, we need more laughs in the New Show?? I mean that would explain a lot. But then again it doesnt explain the rather good effort of Tucker in this. He really feels like a beaten horse. And like you, lore, i dont get the laughs eighter. There is simply Nothing funny going on here. Can we think of a new level below lamentation status? Something like "hell nooo, get it off my screen" status? If we could, this Episode would be it.

[@Planetdune]

I didn't think this episode was THAT bad.. sure it has issues, and it isn't a classic but still... maybe that Klingon ship flew into an asteroid two hours later and the holodeck tech was lost... anyway, seen worse.

[@RealLordFuture]

Hey Lore, how would you rewrite this episode so it wouldn't be a lamentation?

[@Tim85-y2q]

Can't speak for Lore, but I think the concept of the episode could have worked if it were played more seriously. Have it be a story about the pitfalls of interacting with aliens who may have different biology, social structures, value systems etc. Trip could explore what such a thing would actually feel like to go through (instead of being an object of fun) and it would give us a chance to see an alien race that acted well...alien. (for instance, perhaps they don't see procreation as in any way an intimate act and so are incapable of truly understanding how what happened to Trip is violating to humans.) Along the way, the crew learns a valuable lesson about just of strange some of the new worlds and experiences in the broader galaxy can be.

[@AunCollective]

If the "comedy" dialogue regarding Trip's pregnancy were taken out, it might be enough to push this above lamentation. Also might need to add some sort of medical explanation for how Trip is growing parts to accommodate a baby.