Star Trek: 20 Worst Episodes Ever

10. Unexpected (ENT)

CBS

"Just how I always wanted to get into the history books."

When it was first broadcast, Unexpected was widely derided by fans. The Enterprise episode - only the fourth broadcast of the prequel series, set a century before the original series - features the holodeck, a story-telling device that was already tired by the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and only got worse over the course of the next two spin-offs.

While the quick reappearance of this tired technology is annoying, it doesn't even begin to address what is truly awful about the episode. You see, the plot of Unexpected involves a first contact with an alien race (the Xyrillians, for those keeping score) that results in the Enterprise's intrepid (and male) chief engineer accidentally becoming pregnant.

The result is an episode which leans on a series of offensive pregnancy cliches that make the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Junior (1994) seem positively subtle in comparison. It doesn't help that Trip's pregnancy, which is played for (cheap) laughs, never involved his consent. While the episode might live up to its title, I certainly wouldn't recommend it.

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Michael is one of the founders of FACT TREK (www.facttrek.com), a project dedicated to untangling 50+ years of mythology about the original Star Trek and its place in TV history. He currently is the Director of Sales and Digital Commerce at Shout! Factory, where he has worked since 2014. From 2013-2018, he ran the popular Star Trek Fact Check blog (www.startrekfactcheck.blogspot.com).