"Cogenitor"

Written by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga
Directed by LeVar Burton


In which Trip takes matters into his own hands during a First Contact situation, and the consequences spiral out of control when his activities are discovered...

Synopsis - Analysis - Memorable Quotes - Observations


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Synopsis

As the episode begins, Enterprise approaches a hyper-giant star. As the ship reaches its closest possible position from the star, they detect another ship much closer. Archer contacts the alien vessel, and learns that they are from a planet called Vissia. When the aliens offer to help Enterprise study the star more closely, Archer is surprised to find that the Vissians want to meet them. For once, it appears that a First Contact situation might go smoothly.

Archer meets with the Vissian captain, who tells him about their stratopod, which allows them to travel into the stratosphere of stars for study. When Archer expresses interest, the Vissian captain invites Archer to join him on a short tour of the hyper-giant.

Meanwhile, members of the Vissian crew mingle with the crew of Enterprise in the mess. Trip arranges for Reed to speak with a couple of very attractive single Vissian women, and then meets with the Vissian head engineerl, his wife, and their cogenitor. Trip is startled by the concept of a tri-gendered species.

While being prepared for a visit to the Vissian engine room, Trip asks Phlox about multi-gendered reproduction. While Phlox is more than happy to show Trip the salient diagrams on the subject, Trip doesn’t want to know the details. Still, Phlox advises Trip to keep an open mind when dealing with the cultural mores of an alien people.

During the tour of the hyper-giant, Archer is amazed to find how much of Earth literature the Vissian captain has absorbed in such a short time. On the Vissian ship, Trip is equally amazed by the advanced technology, but he is more interested in knowing how the three genders work together in the Vissian society. The Vissian engineer explains that the cogenitor lives with him and his wife until conception, after which the cogenitor is assigned to another married couple. Since the cogenitors make up only 3% of the Vissian population, the cogenitor assigned to their ship is the only one.

Trip wonders what the cogenitor does when it’s not involved in the reproductive act. According to the Vissian engineer, “it” simply eats, sleeps, and awaits the time when it is required for its purpose. The cogenitors, because of their unique role in the Vissian society, are not educated. The cogenitors don’t even have names.

Back on Enterprise, Archer prepares to take a three-day trip with the Vissian captain on the stratopod, where they can study the star together while learning about each other’s cultures. T’Pol is worried that Archer might be getting in over his head, but Archer is sure that this is the perfect opportunity.

T’Pol meets with Trip to discuss the ongoing cultural exchange with the Vissians. Trip discusses his concerns about how the cogenitors are treated in Vissian society. T’Pol makes it clear that Trip’s concerns come from a specifically human point of view, and the reproductive traditions of the Vissian people are not his to judge.

Still, Trip goes to Phlox to discuss his worries, and T’Pol’s apparent dismissal of them. Phlox, however, agrees with T’Pol. He warns Trip that the sexual politics of a species are not often an open matter of debate by outsiders. Trip wonders if Phlox gave any of the Vissians neural scans. When it’s clear that Phlox did no such thing, Trip asks if it’s something he could do on his own.

Meanwhile, Reed meets with one of the Vissian women, and they share a few intimate moments over a selection of fragrant cheeses. It’s clear that the Vissian woman is interested in exploring the sensual side of the human species. Even better, the woman is the Vissian tactical officer!

Back on the Vissian ship, Trip meets with the engineer again, under the pretense of learning more about the engine technology. But in reality, he conspires to get invited to the engineer’s quarters to meet with the cogenitor. The Vissian engineer invites Trip to dinner, unaware of Trip’s hidden agenda. Shortly, Trip is back on Enterprise, speaking with Phlox about the results of the neural scans. According to the results, Phlox determines that all three of the Vissian genders are equally capable and intelligent.

Trip returns to the Vissian ship, and convinces the engineer that he wants to go to the Vissian mess hall for something to eat. Instead, he visits the cogenitor, and offers it information that will teach it how to read. At first, the cogenitor doesn’t understand why Trip wants it to learn how to read, since it is forbidden. It’s clear that the cogenitor doesn’t believe that it has the same rights as the male and females of her people. Trip insists that it does have those rights, repeating that fact until he persuades the cogenitor to use the reading primer.

While taking a tour of the Enterprise armory, the Vissian woman tells Reed about photonic weapons and trades more than a few innuendoes with him along the way. Meanwhile, Archer gets his chance to show off his piloting skills to the Vissian captain.

Before long, the cogenitor is reading Vissian books without any difficulty. Trip tells the cogenitor that it could study whatever it wanted, and if the rest of Vissian society won’t allow that, then it simply has to make them see what the cogenitors are capable of. Trip leaves the cogenitor with all kinds of new concepts...including the idea of having a name.

Sometime later, Trip brings the cogenitor to Enterprise, even though he knows that it would be punished for leaving the Vissian engineer’s quarters. Trip shows the cogenitor everything he can think of: transporters, the engine room, even several movies. It even defeats Trip at its first game of Go. After Trip returns the cogenitor to the Vissian ship, it doesn’t take long for consequences to come crashing down.

T’Pol informs Trip that he is no longer welcome on the Vissian ship, based on his dishonesty. T’Pol is disturbed by Trip’s decision to interfere in the Vissian culture, especially since Archer clearly considers this First Contact to be important. T’Pol is worried that Trip might have damaged the relationship with the Vissians irreparably. In fact, not long afterward, the cogenitor sneaks aboard Enterprise, seeking asylum.

As Archer and the Vissian captain return, T’Pol advises Archer to return to Enterprise immediately. Archer confronts Trip without delay, wanting to know where the cogenitor is being hidden. When Trip doesn’t seem to understand the gravity of the situation, Archer deals with him properly. Archer feels that Trip ought to have learned from Archer’s previous mistakes, never mind simple common sense.

Archer speaks with the cogenitor, and explains that it needs to return to the Vissian ship until the situation is resolved. When Archer discusses the situation with the Vissian captain, he tries to explain that Human culture requires that sanctuary be given to someone who claims to be treated unfairly. Despite the honest anger of the Vissian engineer and his wife, the Vissian captain calmly extends to Archer whatever time is necessary to consider the situation objectively.

It doesn’t take long. Despite his misgivings, Archer recognizes that the cogenitor must return to the Vissians, regardless of whatever damage Trip might have done to its quality of life. Archer is pleased when the situation over the cogenitor appears to have had no effect on his relations with the Vissian captain.

However, soon after, Archer receives a call from the Vissian captain. Archer calls Trip to his ready room, and explains that the cogenitor committed suicide. Apparently it couldn’t live with the knowledge of what it would never accomplish. Archer wants to make sure that Trip understands that he is directly responsible for the death of the cogenitor, as well as the loss of the Vissian engineer’s ability to bear a child. Archer hopes that the incident will teach Trip a lesson, but it’s also clear that Archer questions his own part and the example he has been providing. Archer dismisses Trip without punishment, which in the end, is even worse than anything Trip might have feared.


Analysis

Without a doubt, the majority of the substandard episodes this season have been the uninspired offerings by the “writing team” of Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. It’s quite a pleasant surprise, then, to see an episode that actually captures the spirit of what “Enterprise” should have always been.

By taking on the classic example of science fiction, the clash between human concepts of morality and sexual mores versus the ways of an alien species, this episode roots itself strongly in the Star Trek tradition. But more importantly, the character of Charles “Trip” Tucker finally gets something close to development within a situation that highlights both his impulsive nature and the poor example that Archer has provided.

On a single viewing, there are aspects of the characterization of both Trip and Archer that don’t seem to fit what has been written in the past. However, watching the episode more than once allows for a more generous perspective. For once, there appears to be an honest attempt to portray Archer as a leader coming into awareness of his own shortcomings.

As much as this episode is about Trip’s decision to take matters of selectively applied human rights into his own hands, this episode is really about Archer discovering the consequences of his own mistakes. Ever since his apparent victory in “Shockwave” over his critics, Archer has been just a bit too cocky and arrogant. “A Night in Sickbay” is just the most glaring example of this trend, and even when he is eventually proven to be correct in his theories, he has shown a little too much pride in his recklessness.

All of that comes home to roost in this episode, and in a way that is admirably consistent with the way these weaknesses are typically evidenced in the real world. Archer doesn’t see his faults when confronted with direct evidence of his own behavior, but the problem becomes undeniable when those under his command make the same kind of decisions. Archer is learning something that he ought to have recognized by now: the actions of those under his command are his responsibility.

This is where the intelligence of the script comes into focus. Archer’s three-day trip with the Vissian captain is a nice bit of Trek-style science fiction on its own, showing the possibilities of shared experience and appreciation of diverse cultures. But at the exact same time, it highlights Archer’s command style and somewhat capricious nature. T’Pol is completely correct to point out that such a decision could have had unintended and deadly serious consequences. Archer did as he desired anyway, and had nothing else gone wrong in his absence, he would have continued to consider such choices as appropriate.

But in the end, Archer’s choice is exactly the same as Trip’s choice. Archer puts his own desire to explore and experience above the best interests of the First Contact situation, just as Trip puts his sense of enlightened morality above the larger concern. T’Pol is depicted perfectly as the advisor and conscience, never overstepping her bounds while doing her best to show both humans the error of their ways.

Perhaps the situation encountered in this episode is so intriguing because it could have happened at any time to any of the captains of any ship of the line, and it would have been equally difficult to handle. But Trip’s response was unique to his character, and consistent with the level of impulsiveness that he has demonstrated in the past.

It cannot be said that Trip was wrong to consider the treatment of the cogenitor as inhumane. It’s not as simple as saying that an alien culture shouldn’t be judged by human standards. Even taking that level of self-awareness into account, one of the issues of diplomacy (and later, inclusion into the Federation) is an awareness and assessment of “human rights” in other cultures. Both of the alien representatives on the crew try to explain this principle to Trip: the ways of an alien species should not be held to human standards during First Contact.

That’s the fine line that is being recognized in this episode. It’s not about whether or not the cogenitors should be treated as objects. Even T’Pol and Phlox realize that Trip has a point. But they also recognize that there are dangers to acting to change something that is only partially understood, and attempting to make that change on First Contact. They know that addressing such situations can only come after a very long and stable relationship has been built between two species, if even then. It’s simply not the sort of thing that should be done.

T’Pol has tried to communication this to Archer in the past, when his decisions have been “right”, and yet have carried unimagined consequences. Many of the episodes in the first season pressed this point, and Archer’s apparent inability to learn that lesson has led to Trip’s sense of entitlement. Because Archer has seen fit to make arbitrary judgments on alien cultures, Trip sees that as something that the crew of Enterprise is supposed to do.

One of the themes that hasn’t been explored nearly enough is the idea that the humans on Enterprise have been blinded by their own sense of entitlement to space exploration. This was touched upon in the first season, but like so many other higher concepts that were working, it was dropped this season. In too many situations, Archer and the others do things and make decisions almost as though they are trying to prove a point, just to show they can.

The fact that Archer is being forced to recognize the example he has been providing would be a worthy bit of character development, if this were any other series. But part of the frustration with “Enterprise” is the lack of consistent character growth. Archer’s self-realization and Trip’s guilt are unlikely to ever be mentioned again, and for that matter, Archer could once again be jumping to conclusions with both feet in the near future.

Knowing that inevitability, it’s hard for the audience to retain a desire to follow these characters through their journey. What’s the point, if there’s little or no evidence that the journey impacted them in a meaningful way? Lessons are learned as needed, and then discarded when they are inconvenient. It doesn’t count if the heroes suddenly understand how things ought to be in the final episode, if the audience doesn’t get to see a logical progression to that realization.

So for all the great character work in this episode, and the wonderful nods to the sense of wonder and exploration that this series should be depicting, there’s still a lingering sense of emptiness. This is the material that “Enterprise” should consistently be exploring, but more importantly, with ongoing consequences from episode to episode.

Berman and Braga might consider that to be too much serialization. Certainly there is a tradition within the franchise to avoid that kind of storytelling. But the lesson of “DS9” is that the audience enjoys some level of continuous character growth, and that maintaining a narrative thread over the course of a season doesn’t mean abandoning the format of telling one complete story in every episode. In these post-“Babylon 5”, post-“Farscape” days, that is the level of storytelling that the science fiction audience expects.


Memorable Quotes

PHLOX: “Oh! Well...I have pictures!”

ARCHER: “You’re in charge!”
T’POL: “Of the ship, or the movies?”

REED: “There’s an old Earth expression: I’ll show you mine, if you...show me yours...”


Observations

- So we’re back to jokes about Vulcan longevity?

- This episode is directed by LeVar Burton, who of course played Geordi LeForge on “Next Generation”, and has directed episodes for many of the series thereafter.

- The Vissian captain is played by the great Andreas Katsulas, who is perhaps best known in the franchise as the Romulan Commander Tomalok on “Next Generation”. He was far more memorable as the multi-layered Narn Ambassador G’Kar on the series “Babylon 5”!

- While Traistana is obviously meant to be a little eye-candy, it’s nice to see a more restrained brand of sexuality at play...

- I love how Trip, an engineer, immediately dubs 200 natural elements as “impossible”, even when the evidence is right in front of his face!

- While it had very little to do with the plot, I found the aspects of the Vissian cuisine to be an interesting additional level of detail...

- Wouldn’t the information that Trip provided only teach the cogenitor how to read in English? It’s doubtful that a full Vissian/English dictionary would have been produced in that short a time!

- I love Reed’s reaction to a woman being so straightforward...

- Trip should have realized he was in trouble as soon as the cogenitor decided to name itself after him!

- Of course a good American boy like Archer would know a few surfing skills...

- For the second episode, the alien ship looks vaguely like a ship on “Babylon 5”. In this case, the Vissian ship looks from some angles like a Vorlon transport!

Overall, this episode was a vast improvement over the recent stretch of episodes, harkening back to the best elements of the first season. However, some of the enjoyment of the episode is lost when one realizes that none of the concepts and issues raised in this episode are likely to ever be mentioned again.

I give it an 8/10.


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