This episode is contradictory to what Star Trek is about and I am confused and disappointed by it. It almost seems like a cautionary tale to "stay in your lane" and not to challenge (even harmful) traditions and customs, but that wouldn't make any sense, this IS Star Trek... right?
The decision Archer takes to "not interfere" in a situation that was clearly potentially life threatening is so bizarre and out of character I got whiplash. Also, I get that the writers may not have understood the difference between gender and sex enough at the time to incorporate they/them/their pronouns into the story, but it was odd to hear "she and her" so often when the character in reference is a noted third gender, had told Trip that their name is Charles (since we're leaning into traditions here), and was initially introduced as "it". You'd think that 22nd century humans (and a Danobulan, and a Vulcan) would be less limited in their thinking. Clearly there was some disconnect between minds in the writers room resulting in this Twilight Zone, non Star Trek (or perhaps TOS antiquated perspective) episode.
I'm not entirely sure what point this episode is trying to make.
On the surface, it seems to be an obvious gender equality play, with clear parallels to the past (and continuing) struggle by women in all parts of real-life human society to be taken and treated as equal to men in all respects. There's even an entire story beat wherein the writers went to great lengths to have Phlox scientifically determine that the Cogenitor is equal in every way to the other Vissians.
Then there's the undercurrent of commentary on slavery. The Vissians do seem to treat the Cogenitors in their society as property of sorts, what with the male/female couple being "given" a Cogenitor. This line doesn't go very far, unfortunately. All we really have on it is that one scene around the conference table with the Vissian engineer's line asserting that Enterprise's stewards are forced to serve, and his following statement that it's easy to misunderstand another culture when you don't understand it. That's pretty much all of it. We don't know if Cogenitors are forced somehow into serving their role. Vissian culture remains pretty opaque.
The whole thing is overshadowed by the resolution, in which Trip is all but formally reprimanded for his methods, if not his intent. (Though it's pretty clear that Archer disapproves of both.) Keeping in mind that this is pretty much pre–Prime Directive, I suppose Archer's objections stem mainly from the obvious: Trip's actions resulted in a sentient being committing suicide. I'm just not sure how to square his apparent opposition to Trip's intent, which was to show one Cogenitor that the way they're treated isn't necessarily right. Potentially starting a social revolution would definitely violate the Prime Directive, but that doesn't exist yet.
Unless the subtext is that the Cogenitor was killed to prevent her inflammatory ideas from spreading. That would make the story marginally more interesting, maybe.
Yawn.... why can't we have an episode where a species is different, it is acknowledged, and the plot moves on. Instead, we get these conversations that bring the episode to a grinding halt for no purpose than to espouse some SJW idealism.
Trip just doesn't get it. Don't mess with a culture you don't understand.
Of course maybe that is the whole point. Stop messing with other people's culture. Things typically turn out badly.
Pretty much the only episode of the second season that I still mostly remembered, after all these years.
This should have been like the Vulcan episode where the stigma that came to those with the ability to mind meld. If anything Archer should have been able to suggest now that the cogenitor had this knowledge it might be best to take them as refugee to prevent disruption to society. Or something. A death is unnecessary.
oh no. this was heavy. i absolutely LOVED trip in this and his soft kindness and unwavering belief but by the end i was heartbroken.
i also enjoyed all of malcolm’s scenes. he got laid, good for him!
Okay so I'm confused. I need an explanation. Is Trip teaching the Cogenitor to read in English or Vissian? Trip would obviously be using the UT to speak to any of the Vissians. The text "it" reads from the book is not English so I guess it's Vissian, but Humans already got a complete database that plugged in to a learning program? So Trip's UT is translating the Vissian words from the PADD as the PADD reads them to "Charles". Or is the PADD teaching "it" English and the UT is translating it to "it"? But then she would only be able to read English text with Vissian dialogue. It's so confusing...
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2019-07-12T05:14:47Z
[4.1/10] I am the king of complaining about Star Trek episodes where some Federation ship barges in and just completely upends somebody else’s society. If I had a nickel for every time Captain Kirk strolled onto some alien planet and, over the advice of Spock, decided that their way of life was wrong and he knew better, I could afford to build my own stentorian-voiced authoritarian supercomputer. There’s a lack of nuance and practicality that always drove me nuts in that, and it’s a strain of arrogant righteousness that ran from the 1960s series to the latest one.
But holy hell, “Cogentior” ends with Archer chewing Trip out for teaching a slave to read and blaming him for the slave’s suicide. I just....I don’t know what to do with that.
Let’s go back to the basics of the situation. The Enterprise is studying some megastar and runs into a more advanced species. They have fancier ships and better equipment and, for once, they’re friendly rather than hostile! They too are explorers, hoping to meet new species and learn more about the galaxy. After so much rough and tumble diplomacy, Archer and company meet some aliens who are excited to see them, ready to teach them about their technology, and seem to share the same values.
That alone is kind of refreshing. Granted, friendly aliens don’t usually make for great drama, which is probably why Star Trek tends to go more for the aggressive/greedy/paranoid types, but still. There’s something kind of adorable about Archer and the alien captain trading quotes about Shakespeare (a Trek tradition), and having their little mutual admiration society.
The catch to all of this is that Trip discovers the species’ titular “cogenitor.” You see, the Vissians have a third gender, who expectant couples take with them when they decide they want to have a baby. The episode plays things a little coy when Trip finds the setup a bit weird and has a certain purtianical curiosity about the whole thing. At first, it feels like an extension of the subplot from “Stigma”, where he’s just a little uncomfortable, or even close-minded, about other species’ cultural practices.
But then the episode takes a startling right left turn, when Trip discovers that the Vissians’ cogenitors are basically chattel. He follows on his shock and curiosity and uncovers the fact that neurologically, the congenitors are exactly the same as the other Vissians, despite the fact that they’re treated like will-less property. He is aghast, and aims to teach the nameless congenitor on board how to read and instill in it the idea that it could have freedom and self-direction and the capabilities to be something more that need not be penned in by the restrictions of the Vissians’ society.
That actually sets up a really interesting dilemma and bit of social commentary. Here you have one of the most kind, altruistic, advanced, and seemingly enlightened species that humanity has ever met. They have a lot to teach Archer and his crew, and it seems like the beginning of a long, fruitful, mutually beneficial relationship between the two peoples. What happens when you realize that your new best friends are slavers? What do you do when the nicest people in the galaxy, who’ve been exploring the galaxy for 1,000 years, turn out to casually treat sentient beings like pieces of property?
There is a push and pull between notions of moral relativism and practicality versus the founding values of Starfleet and respect for sentient beings’ human rights that is a worthwhile and engaging topic to plumb the depths of. It’s the sort of conundrum we rarely see, and it’s especially salient at a time when the Federation doesn't even exist yet, and humanity is the new kid on the block that needs all the help it can get rather than the intergalactic equivalent of a global superpower.
But for some godforsaken reason, Enterprise elides all of that, and basically comes down almost wholesale on the side of “it’s their culture, and if they want to have slaves, it’s none of our business, and shame on you for interfering!”
It is mindboggling. After forty years, this is where Star Trek draws the line? This is where the franchise finally takes its whole “noninterference” thing seriously? After dozens, maybe hundreds of episodes where the crew of Federation ship decides that their morality and ethics supersedes those of the other cultures they encounter, the hill that Trek is willing to die on is “so what if this species has fully sentient, socially subjugated, baby-making slaves? It’s none of our business!” What the bloody hell!
It doesn't help that, like “Stigma”, this episode breaks up its “Very Special Episode” seriousness with broad, inessential subplot. Chief among these is Reed flirting with one of the Vissians. It’s a pointless but cute bit of cultural exchange, and in another episode, I think I’d like it. It’s the sort of slice of life bit of Trek that we don’t get enough of. But here, it just feels out of place.
The same goes for Archer and the Vissian captain’s adventure exploring the megastar. Being the most charitable, you could argue that these scenes are necessary to establish the bond that Archer is forming with the Vissians, which makes him loathe to let anything disrupt the relationship. But really, it feels like a chance for the show to show off some mid-2000s CGI firestorm effects, which are fine for their time, but pretty unavailing when you’re dealing with a choppily-edited story of Trip trying to free a slave in the main story of the episode.
Naturally, when Archer gets back from his sojourn and learns what Trip’s done from the Vissians, there’s hell to pay. The episode pays lip service to Archer seriously considering the Cogenitor’s seeking asylum, but devolves into even more stultifying Archer speeches and Vissian recriminations about not judging other cultures. So in the end, Archer agrees to return the congenitor back to the Vissians.
That alone would be a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion, albeit probably a realistic one. But what happens next takes the cake. The Enterprise gets word that the congenitor, having been consigned to a life of repression and servitude, takes its own life after having been shown the greater possibilities it will never experience by Trip. Archer reams out his chief engineer over this, laying the death at Trip’s feet and tearing him a new one for being reckless, without any consideration for the fact that, you know, this is a sentient being who was in bondage that Trip was trying to help.
What kills me is that you could keep the major beats of this story and still make it work. All it would take is Archer being genuinely conflicted, genuinely understanding of why Trip did what he did, for someone other than Trip to acknowledge the utter horribleness of what the Vissians are doing to these people, however nice they may seem otherwise.
If there were some bit of realpolitik going on, of Archer or T’Pol or somebody else saying, “You are right. This is terrible. But being absolute novices in deep space and humanity’s only representatives means that sometimes we have to make hard choices about what we tolerate in the name of not making enemies when we need friends,” then this would still be a hard episode to watch, but it would be bearable and even comprehensible.
Instead, the message of the episode seems to be “Trip was dead wrong for teaching that slave how to read and that it deserves freedom, and the congenitor’s blood is on his hand.” That is a lesson so far removed from the enlightened, compassionate ethos of Star Trek that it feels like an insult. At its best, the franchises explores the moral gray areas of where personal ethics meet cross-cultural exchange, and the fraught sore spots that arise when those two things clash. But an episode that aims to do the same, and yet lands on a message of “how dare you mess with those aliens’ practice of slavery!” is utterly antithetical to the nuance and the values that have sustained Star Trek for so many years.