Fridge / Star Trek Enterprise S 02 E 022 Cogenitor

• Fridge Brilliance: This episode may work better as a pre-Prime Directive episode than "Dear Doctor" did!
  • A particular point of contention in this episode is Archer letting Charles go back with their oppressors, leading to Charles' Despair Event Horizon. Why would Archer just let that happen? It's likely because he's spent enough time with the Vissian captain to understand how much more advanced the Vissians are in general, and knows full well that the NX-01 could never hope to compete with them if they decided to take Charles back by force (and who's to say they wouldn't?).
  • Evay of TripHammered posits that Trip's actions towards the cogenitor were influenced by his own experience with the Xyrillians — he was used as a means of procreation without his consent, so he sees the cogenitor as not so different from himself.
    "Here's a thought: Was Trip sympathizing with the cogenitor because of his experience from "Unexpected"?
    Think about it: He was made pregnant and had to carry the child without his knowledge or permission. He was used. His wishes were not taken into consideration. Being a decent person, he accepted the possibility that he was going to have to rear the child, and then it was taken from him completely. Trip literally was a cogenitor for Ah'len. That had to resonate when he saw Charly sitting at the table, mindless and trapped. And we know how Trip loves to explore, and experience new things. To see hir so oppressed, so hemmed in — for Trip it would be like seeing a kitten with a broken leg and leaving it on the side of the road to die. "Ah didn't have much of a choice," he tries to tell Archer. Against his own conscience, he really didn't."
  • As mentioned on the main page, it doesn't make much sense that cogenitors make up only 3% of the Vissian population. Such a species wouldn't be able to naturally evolve. But, evolution doesn't happen overnight. Perhaps as the Vissians evolved, the three genders were more or less equal. Then, as their society developed, the male and female genders became favored over the cogenitors through societal changes. By the 22nd Century, the cogentiors had had their numbers artificially reduced.
• Fridge Horror: So, how do Vissians react when they give birth to a cogenitor?