"Enterprise" Cogenitor (2003)

Director:

LeVar Burton

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry (creator "Star Trek")
Rick Berman (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Enterprise" (2001)

Original Air Date:

30 April 2003 (Season 2, Episode 22)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Enterprise encounters a hyper-giant, the first to be studied by humans. While there, they make first contact with the Vissians...

Plot Keywords:

One Word Title | Reference To Hamlet | Captain | Space | Prequel

Cast

Scott Bakula	...	Captain Jonathan Archer
John Billingsley	...	Dr. Phlox
Jolene Blalock	...	Sub-Commander T'Pol
Dominic Keating	...	Lieutenant Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery	...	Ensign Travis Mayweather
Linda Park	...	Ensign Hoshi Sato
Connor Trinneer	...	Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker III
Andreas Katsulas	...	Vissian Captain Drennik
F.J. Rio	...	Vissian Chief Engineer
Becky Wahlstrom	...	Vissian Cogenitor
Laura Stepp	...	Veylo, Vissian Tactical Officer (as Laura Interval)
Larissa Laskin	...	Calla, Vissian Engineer's Wife
Stacie Lynn Renna	...	Traistana (as Stacie Renna)

Trivia:

The list of movies that Trip pulls up contains the title "Bride of Chaotica". This is the (fictional) science fiction B-movie that Tom Paris often re-enacts on the holodeck in "Star Trek: Voyager (1995)".

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): After placing her last stone in the go-game, the cogenitor proposes that she has won. Although she does have a comfortable lead, as seen in the long shot, the game is clearly far from over yet and could still change considerably.

Quotes:

Vissian Chief Engineer: It's easy to misunderstand someone, when you know nothing about their culture.

Movie Connections:

References Casablanca (1942)

Intensely Dramatic - Possibly the best of Season 2

LeVar Burton's directing and J. P Farrell's writing help to give this excellent example of Enterprise an edge which was lacking in most of the series' episodes. The Enterprise is involved in a first contact with some kindred spirits - explorers whose technology is about a thousand years ahead of Star Fleet's. Everything is going along fine as earth culture and Vissian culture begin to interact. The Vissian's share technology and more with the Enterprise crew.

This episode's theme is, once again, the prime directive. Since Star Fleet's prime directive did not exist in Archer and company's time, we are seeing one of what must have been dozens of first contact incidents which went wrong. I was only a little annoyed by the Vissians' willingness to share their advanced warp drive technology but rather strident insistence that earthlings not be permitted to interfere with their culture.

Eventually, it is revealed that the Vissians have three sexes - male female and cogenitor. All three are required for sexual reproduction, and the cogenitor sex is very rare and - therefore somewhat oppressed, valuable and treated as a commodity. Unfortunately, the writers use the word "gender" to describe this, as opposed to sex. Since gender is a social construct and social/sexual identity, connected to, but not defined by sexual reproductive organs, this is a systematic error.

Trip befriends the cogenitor and decides to clandestinely educate it in order to help it liberate itself from its bondage. This backfires when the cogenitor asks for asylum on the Enterprise. To this point, only the directing and the originality of the alien species set this episode apart from the typical Enterprise episode, however, the drama steadily mounts toward the end as the series does something with this conclusion which it had never attempted before.