The Enterprise is studying a star, when it notices an alien ship and makes first contact with the species, the Vissians. The captain, Drennik, affably offers an upgrade in exchange for a stay on the ship. He and Archer talk over dinner, where it's revealed the Vissians have technology that enables them to go inside stars. Meanwhile in the mess hall, Malcolm and Trip meet some Vissians, including one, who one of them, Calla, explains is their "cogenitor", who has no name and is helping her and her husband (the chief engineer) conceive. While getting an inoculation in sickbay, Trip asks Phlox what a "cogenitor" is, and Phlox explains that it's a third gender.
While Archer and Drennik explore inside the star, Trip works in engineering and asks the engineer about the cogenitor. He explains that they make up about 3% of the population and are "assigned" to straight couples in order to conceive. Eventually, Trip learns that the cogenitors are only allowed to help couples procreate and that they're denied education, which alarms him.
Archer and T'Pol consider giving the Vissians some stories, while Trip confronts T'Pol about the cogenitors' unfair treatment. She thinks that it's bad to interfere, so Trip goes to Phlox and tells him to scan the cogenitor to see if they are as smart as the men and the women. Meanwhile, Malcolm and a Vissian woman named Veylo start expressing interest in each other while eating cheese together.
Archer and Drennik explore inside the star again, and Archer gets to pilot the ship, while Trip has dinner with the Vissians including the cogenitor. During dinner, he scans the cogenitor and presents the scans to Phlox, who determines that the cogenitor is just as smart as the men and the women. Upon learning this, Trip goes into the cogenitor's room and teaches them how to read. They pick it up very quickly and decide to name themselves "Charles".
Archer and Drennik have more fun piloting the ship, while Malcolm gives Veylo a tour of the armory and she offers to sleep with him. Trip shows "Charles" around Enterprise and they watch a movie, talk about history, and play Go. However, everyone soon finds out about "Charles" and Trip is banned from visiting the Vissian ship. "Charles" then sneaks aboard Enterprise, wanting to stay, since Calla and her husband won't help them learn.
Archer and Drennik get back to their ships, and Archer tells Trip off for his cultural contamination, then "Charles" asks for asylum. Archer asks Drennik if he can offer asylum, but after some thought, he decides he can't. Unfortunately, when the two ships leave, it's subsequently revealed that "Charles" killed themselves.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Actor Allusion: This isn't the first time Andreas Katsulas played a member of an alien race with three sexes.
- Artistic License – Biology: A ratio of only three percent of the population being congenitors is ludicrously small to the point that it is pretty amazing their species even got off the ground. To put it into human terms, imagine if 97% of our population was female and ask yourself just how far the remaining 3% could have stretched back in the days when the foot was still our only means of travel. Having your third sex be less than 1 in 10 of the population would also mean that you really would not have to lose too many through sickness, disease and injury before the future of your entire settlement is put at risk - and even then that is assuming that the remaining congenitors are not too young or too old to plug the gap left behind.
- Bizarre Alien Sexes: The Vissians have three genders, though the cogenitors make up roughly three percent of the population.
- Blatant Lies: Trip's only going to the Vissians' mess hall, he says. He's actually sneaking off to teach the cogenitor to read. He does this enough that T'Pol calls him out on it.
- Boldly Coming: Reed's subplot leads to this. You go, Malcolm.Veylo: Maybe we should sleep together.Reed: [bangs head on pipe]
- Bookworm: Drennik reads several of Shakespeare's works in one night.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Trip finds the treatment of "Charles" and others like them dehumanizing, knowing the cogenitors are capable of so much more. Archer and T'Pol don't believe it's really their place to try and change the entire direction of a society, especially considering the instability that would undoubtedly result.
- Contemplative Boss: Archer is sadly looking out the window when he calls Trip in to tell him that the cogenitor died.
- Death Glare: Archer is not happy about Trip's meddling, and greets him with one of these after he's aware of what happened.
- Double Entendre: While romancing Veylo, the Vissian tactical officer, Malcolm is asked to show his armory to her. He replies "There's a saying on Earth: 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours.'"
- Downer Ending: One of the darkest in the series, possibly the whole franchise, and it borders on Cruel Twist Ending. Archer declines the cogenitor's plea for asylum, and soon after the cogenitor commits suicide.
- Driven to Suicide: Charles refuses to return to their people and considers it a Fate Worse than Death.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The list of movies Trip shows the Cogenitor. It includes such classics as "Attack of the Martians", "The Bride of Chaotica", "Dixon Hill and the Black Orchid", "It Came From Beneath The Refrigerator" and the musical "Love's Lovely Love".
- Food Porn: Malcolm treats Veylo to a tasty-looking cheese plate.
- Foreshadowing: The events in this episode are intended to serve as an example of why the Prime Directive exists. Or one day, in-universe, will exist.
- Get Out!: The episode ends with this non-answer from Archer that, quite frankly, says it all.Archer: I guess I haven't been very successful at getting through to you. If I had, you would have thought a lot harder before doing what you did.Trip: (meekly) You're not responsible.Archer: (silence, before looking away from Trip) ...dismissed.Trip: ...Cap'n?
- I Die Free: Charles chooses to kill themselves versus return to their people.
- Idiot Ball:
- The Vissian couple never give a reason for why they took the cogenitor aboard Enterprise, considering they treat the cogenitor as little more than an object, thereby kicking off the plot.
- For that matter, the entire Vissian species for treating the cogenitors as second class citizens, when they're vital to keeping the species from dying out. Although it is also true that few real life cultures have ever had any reasonable excuse for sexism either.
- Klingons Love Shakespeare: Drennik turns out to be a big fan of Shakespeare, reading his plays in about a day and quoting them soon after. He also gets through the plays of Sophocles pretty quick.
- Mood Whiplash: The goofy b-plot, with Malcolm being awkward with the Vissian tactical officer, just trails off halfway through, and the episode rapidly gets darker from there as we delve into the rights of the Vissian cogenitor (to say nothing about their fate).
- My God, What Have I Done?: When the cogenitor's fate is revealed, we have this reaction from Trip, who honestly thought he was doing the right thing, and Archer, whose faith in his own leadership and crew are shaken to their core.Archer: I was just told that the Vissian cogenitor died.
Trip: What? How?
Archer: Suicide, Trip. She killed herself.
Trip: That can't be. Why...It's my fault. I'm responsible.
Archer: You're damn right you are. And it's not just her. There's a child who won't be conceived because of this, at least not for a long while. It's time you learned to weigh the possible repercussions of your actions. You've always been impulsive. Maybe this will teach you a lesson.
Trip: I understand.
Archer: Do you? I'm not so sure you do. You knew you had no business interfering with those people, but you just couldn't let it alone. You thought you were doing the right thing. I might agree if this was Florida, or Singapore...but it's not, is it? We're in deep space and a person is dead. A person who'd still be alive if we hadn't made First Contact. I guess I haven't been very successful at getting through to you. If I had, you would have thought a lot harder before doing what you did. - Mythology Gag: The list of movies that Trip shows the cogenitor includes The Bride of Chaotica and Dixon Hill and the Black Orchid.
- Never Trust a Trailer: Much like "A Night In Sickbay," the trailer
portrayed this as a light-hearted (and highly sexual) episode, which it was anything but. - Non-Human Non-Binary: Vissians are a race of three genders, with the third gender (called a "cogenitor") making up a small percentage of the population and being treated as little more than breeding slaves.
- Not Quite the Right Thing: Trip thinks that teaching the cogenitor to read and want to learn and explore is the right thing to do, until he learns that the cogenitor committed suicide.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Trip claims that his actions towards the cogenitor are no different than Archer's towards the Vissians. Archer doesn't buy it.Trip: Teaching her to read is no different than you giving them books or movies.
Archer: Giving them books is a lot different than suggesting they defy their culture. And they asked me for the books. Did she ask you to teach her how to read?
Trip: No, sir. - Plain Palate: The Vissians tend to have quite bland-tasting food, prioritising the smell of their food a lot more than the taste.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: Somehow, Defied Trope doesn't quite say it. More like "crumbled up and thrown at Trip's feet."
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Deliberate Values Dissonance aside, Drennik is genuinely a Nice Guy and wants to resolve the conflict over the cogenitor as amicably as possible.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Trip teaching the cogenitor how to read and become more independent. It backfires horribly.
- Seen It All: While a tri-gendered species is new and exciting to most of the crew, it's no big thing to Phlox, who knows it's more common than humans realize (up till this point).Phlox: Not all species are limited to two sexes. In fact, I have it on good authority that the Rigellians have four. Or was it five?
- Shout-Out:
- Trip shows "Charles" a movie that exists in real life; The Day the Earth Stood Still.
- One of the horror films in the database is The Strange Case of Mr. Cigars, which was the title of a screenplay that would ultimately become The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.
- Shrinking Violet: "Charles," the cogenitor, is very timid and quiet, until they start to come out of their shell a bit through spending time with Trip.
- Too Much Information: Trip really doesn't want to hear Phlox explain how a tri-gendered species mates. Or see his Porn Stash on the subject.Phlox: Well, hmm hmm, I have pictures!
- Unexpectedly Dark Episode: Downplayed. Most of the episode is pretty standard, but the Downer Ending is a lot darker than most Star Trek episode endings.
- Weird World, Weird Food: Vissians believe that scent is much more important to a meal than taste.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Malcolm's subplot ostensibly leads to him Boldly Coming with a Vissian, but after the scene where he bangs his head on a pipe, this subplot is put aside to deal with the drama of the main plot.
- What the Hell, Hero?: T'Pol, upon finding out what Trip's been doing with the cogenitor, makes it very clear she disapproves. That's nothing compared to Archer, though, who gives Trip a furious smackdown twice - once after he finds out what happens, and then an even more embittered one at the end, as his actions not only led to a suicide but also kept a baby from being born any time soon.
- What Would X Do?: Trip's excuse for his actions is that he was just doing what Archer would do. That just makes Archer even more upset, and he replies with this (very telling) rant:Archer: I might have expected something like this from a first-year recruit. But not you. You did exactly what I'd do? If that's true, then I've done a pretty lousy job setting an example around here. You're a senior officer on this ship. You're privy to the moral challenges I've had to face. You know I've wrestled with the fine line between doing what I think is right and interfering with other species. So don't tell me you know what I would have done when I don't even know what I would have done!
- Your Normal Is Our Taboo: Trip sees that the cogenitors are treated like commodities, going from one family to another to impregnate the female. In addition, they're only fed once a day and aren't given a proper education.
