Episode 48: Cogenitor

It's almost like someone finally sat Brannon Braga and Rick Berman down and said: "You're doing it all wrong -- you've got to do something about this crew and especially Commander Tucker."

B&B wrote this episode and, since I have been liberal in my criticism of them in the past, I should be liberal in my praise of them now. "Cogenitor" is an extremely difficult episode to watch (I turned it off three times in frustration) but, in the end, they finally have Archer take a stand.

While exploring a spectacular space phenomenon, Enterprise encounters the Vissians, a much more advanced race who are also on a mission of exploration. The Vissians are extremely welcoming and soon the crews begin to mix and exchange both culture and technology. Archer and the Vissian captain become fast friends and decide to take a three-day trip together in a special Vissian pod capable of penetrating a star, leaving T'Pol in charge of Enterprise.

Meanwhile, Tucker and Reid are at it again, in true B&B form: Tucker decides he has to interfere in the social structure of the Vissians by secretly reaching out to a member of the race's disempowered third sex (a cogenitor) while Reid becomes sexually involved with the Vissian tactical officer. These two plot lines are almost unbearably juvenile, with Reid checking out the ass of the Vissian officer in one scene and Tucker taking it upon himself to teach a Vissian cogenitor to read and then indoctrinating it in its basic human rights.

I honestly thought, considering the history of the show, that Tucker's efforts would be rewarded, even at the cost of good relations with the Vissians, but B&B surprised me.

As I said at the start, it's like someone told them they had to recognise that their earth-centric, juvenile approach to first contact and relations with other races was driving away viewers by the millions.

When Archer learns about Tucker's actions, he calls him to task and tears a strip off him.


“I did exactly what you’d do captain,” says Tucker in attempting to defend himself.

I nearly fell off my chair when Archer responds, in a rare moment of honesty and self-reflection: “If that’s true, then I’ve done a pretty lousy job setting an example around here," and further, “We’re out here to meet new species, not to tell them what to do.” 

“It’s time you learn to weigh the possible repercussions of your actions…” Archer adds later.

The fact that they later learn that, as a result of Tucker's interference, the cogenitor has committed suicide adds a fine point to the episode.

This is a very interesting look at inter-cultural relations and the concept of what's right. In the human context, Tucker is absolutely right. The cogenitors of the Vissian race are every bit as intelligent and capable as the race's other two sexes and their subjugation is unacceptable from a human stand point. And yes, perhaps Star Fleet and eventually the Federation should attempt to work with the Vissian leadership to emancipate the cogenitors and recognize their equal right to enjoy the benefit of their society.

But Tucker is absolutely wrong to interfere on a one-on-one level, creating expectations in a single cogenitor that are simply not possible in her current world. And Archer finally, actually, truly seems to understand tghat.