Trip is sent to fix the engines of an alien vessel which has been hiding in Enterprise's slipstream and draining its power. However, his dealings with one of the aliens he meets somehow leave him pregnant.

Evidently a ludicrous premise, this is the kind of story that it's very difficult to make work well. Thankfully, while treating what's happened to Tucker with as much comedy as possible it makes it more palatable to we viewers, as the crew isn't taking things any more seriously than we are.

Once again we get the whole 'first time out' idea going on as Archer makes first contact with another race and Trip is forced to undergo decompression to visit an alien vessel with an atmosphere vastly different to what he's used to. This could get a little tedious after a while if it happens repeatedly, but it does keep up the more realistic aspects of this series and all the things this crew would have to go through to deal well with anything they encounter. It's even good to hear the Universal Translator slowing working at a language in order to decode it.

The aliens themselves could have been better developed; we learn little about them in the end except how they siphon off power from other vessels, that they have what amounts to holodeck technology (which thankfully the Enterprise crew don't acquire years ahead of its time) and their men carry the children. It's not really clear exactly how Trip gets pregnant, the alien seeming just as surprised as he is, but who knows when we may run across these people again. The addition of the Klingons into the mix works well, it not only being great to see an old-style battlecruiser again but also good to have them as the grumpy and irritable style early Klingons, superior in technology to the Enterprise and treating the tiny ship with contempt as they can easily blow it out of the sky. This is something that may have to be addressed, as there's only so many fights Enterprise can pick without getting blasted to smithereens. Maybe they need to find someone with proper shielding technology and make friends with them but I expect this, along with everything else, will come in time.

At the end of the day, this is still an interesting look at first contact with a new species and a few idea that's played just right for what it is rather than taking it way too seriously, as Voyager was prone to do. Berman and Braga's desire to inject some 'natural' humour into the show from the outset looks to be working like a charm.

****

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