#cogenitor

[baytadax]

Cogenitor

[tinabelcherseverythingisokface]

Just finished the Cogenitor episode of Enterprise (S2E22) and I’m fucking pissed. I’ve liked Archer up until this moment, and trying to blame Trip for what happened is bullshit, this is on Archer. If he had respected the right of a sentient member of a poorly treated underclass to request asylum, this wouldn’t have happened.

[giffingthingsss]

[purplespacekitty]

Magnifying Glass: "The Outcast"

Episode: "The Outcast"

Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation

Season 5, Episode 17

Original Air Date: March 16, 1992

Screenwriter: Jeri Taylor

Director: Robert Scheerer

I feel like Star Trek as a fandom doesn’t really talk about this episode enough. I find this episode extremely fascinating and have a lot of thoughts about it, but I don’t want to subject anyone who isn’t willing to my (VERY LONG) ramblings, so please, keep reading at your own discretion.

First, a quick synopsis: an alien planet called J'naii enlists the Enterprise-D to help them find a lost shuttlecraft in their star system. First Officer Commander Riker is paired up with Soren, a member of the J'naii, to devise a rescue mission for this shuttlecraft and along the way, the two catch romantic feelings for one another. However, the J'naii are a majority androgynous, aromantic and asexual race and those who deviate from this norm are persecuted and forced to undergo a kind of conversion therapy to "cure" their "condition". Soren confides in Riker her feelings towards him and her identity as a woman, things she could not share with her own people for fear of the violence she has seen others like her face. Understanding the risks, the two pursue a relationship with one another, but eventually the other J'naii find out and Soren is put on trial, where she makes an impassioned speech to stand up for herself and others like her. After the trial, Riker tries to fight for Soren's right to seek asylum with the Federation, but his support and efforts are in vain. Unfortunately, by the end of the episode, Soren has been subjected to psychological treatment and no longer feels any attraction to Riker. The Enterprise leaves, having finished their business with the J'naii and Riker is left to pick up the pieces of his broken heart.

I could go on and on about the "bury your gays"/"queer and trans people must suffer" trope this episode and others like it within the franchise fall into (i.e. DS9's "Rejoined" and ENT's "Cogenitor"). And while I will be criticizing the casting and writing decisions this episode's creators made, I think it's important to recognize the ways in which this episode does achieve some level of success with Star Trek's most favored format for addressing social and political issues; allegorical storytelling. However, I will be dragging this episode before I compliment it, so bear with me.

I’ll be honest…I’m not super jazzed about the way they handled sexuality in this episode. The J’naii reproduce asexually and it is not socially acceptable to have sex or procreate sexually in J’naii society. Which is in an of itself mostly fine, except that the writers portray the agender, aromantic and asexual J’naii as largely dispassionate, cold and close-minded, unable to connect with each other or other beings in meaningful ways which, hey, right off the bat, not a great depiction of aspen folks. The J’naii are supposed to be an antithesis of (‘90s) Earth conventions of gender and sexuality, but in their creation as one of the very few sets of characters up until this point that are generally androgynous, aromantic and asexual, they fall in line with a kind of alienation not uncommon in Star Trek: ‘look at this species, they do things differently from the majority of humans! isn’t that neat? but it’s just unique to them, so what sets us apart from them must be what makes us fundamentally human’. Take Spock, Data, Seven of Nine and Odo for instance, all characters who on some level struggle with human/humanoid conceptions of sexuality and all characters who have a complicated relationship to humanity as they themselves are not (just) human. Each of them are generally received by human characters as cold, calculating and are purposely shown to have difficulty connecting with others intimately because they are not (just) human. The often-used trope is that if only they were human, they would understand what love is (queue Foreigner’s “I Wanna Know What Love Is”). This more broadly implies that romance and sex are essential to humanity and human intimacy, which they are not. Creating a species that is predominantly agender, aromantic and asexual and because of this, predominantly operates in this cold and stagnant way creates a monolith of aromantic and asexual people and ignores the complexities of the aromantic and asexual spectrums, especially against the backdrop of a central star-crossed lovers plot.

Riker's actor Jonathan Frakes insisted that it would have been more impactful to cast Soren with a male actor rather than a cisgender actress. Indeed, because this episode originally was made to challenge viewer attitudes towards homosexuality, such a decision surely would have shaken people’s foundations a bit more and would have actually better-achieved what the writers were going for. Maybe this episode would have been as beloved as “Rejoined” if it had featured Star Trek’s first kiss between two men. However, if they had had Soren still identify as a woman when played by a male actor, we would still have someone who does not live our stories telling our stories for us. A truly meaningful representation of trans people would have seen Soren cast with a trans actress. But as I mentioned, an allegory for trans people wasn’t really what the writers were going for and they probably didn’t see hiring actual trans people as a viable option in the first place. If you look on Memory Alpha, you will see that none of the writers in the room for “The Outcast” were trans or queer themselves. Jeri Taylor herself says that while she is not gay, she wanted to do this story because homosexuality is such a controversial issue and "as a woman [she does] consider [herself] in a particular minority; [she knows] what it feels like to be disenfranchised – not in that precise way – and [she] felt like [she] had a touchstone to some of the feelings that must be involved" (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 240). I think it's admirable that she wanted to head a project like this and to give the issue a great deal more compassion than others would have in her place, but the fact still remains that she herself is not queer or trans, meaning that, again, people who do not live our stories and were mostly just fishing for clout were trying to tell our stories for us.

All this to say, I do think this episode has some things going for it that I would like to outline below. Because regardless of the casting decisions and the way the writers actually ended up handling conventions of gender and sexuality, functionally, Soren is a trans woman: she identifies as a gender different from the gender she was assigned at birth. And Riker falls for her and gives her his love with an open ease that Soren’s own people do not.

When I watched “The Outcast” for the first time, I hadn’t come out yet and I hadn’t even begun to delve into the world of my own gender or sexuality. So it wasn’t my trans awakening or anything, but it certainly is one of the things I ruminate on when I think back to, as we LGBTQIA+ people are wont to do, all the times when perhaps I could have realized it.

Yeah, I know this episode gives us just another of many Riker romances, but it is not at all flippant or without depth in the way it unfolds. The focal romance of this episode is part of what makes it all the more heartbreaking. Riker falls fast and hard for Soren in an era of American TV where trans characters were routinely played for laughs (I’m looking at you, Frasier). Popular cis male characters of the 1990s are vastly insecure about their masculinity and sexuality in interactions with trans people, particularly with trans women. If TNG teaches us nothing else, it certainly teaches us that Riker is admirably comfortable in both his masculinity and sexuality. Of course, Star Trek takes place lightyears ahead of the eras it’s filmed in. This episode was written in the 1990s and is therefore restrained in its exploration of gender by mainstream, Western ‘90s understandings of gender. But by the 24th century, humanity is supposed to have addressed and healed the wounds of its prejudices. So by the time the Enterprise sidles up to J’naii, humanity has had plenty of time to learn about and understand the multitudes of gender, not just in their own cultures but in those of other species (I’m thinking here of Star Trek’s tendency to favor Western cultural values over others). There are no mentions in this episode of the many genders that have been recognized by various Earth cultures throughout history and the writers did not anticipate the way in which gender identities and definitions have now been recovered and expanded, a process one might assume will only continue as we move forward.

"The Outcast" aired in 1992, when the term “nonbinary” had not yet made its way into mainstream English vernacular. But as pointed out above, it is not unaccompanied by other episodes in the franchise addressing gender politics: “The Offspring” showcases Data’s relationship to gender and his determination to let his android child decide their own gender; DS9 has an entire character whose gender and sexuality are fluid depending on their host and the symbiont Dax’s gender is never confirmed; the wormhole Prophets’ genders are never confirmed; there are many episodes in both TNG and DS9 which examine Ferengi gender politics; one episode shows us Sisko and Bashir excitedly discussing a male lieutenant’s pregnancy and upcoming baby shower; etc. However, while it's easy to argue that it would have been plausible for the human officers aboard Enterprise-D to easily grasp the concept of a species where androgyny is the norm, it is precisely the incongruity of a mainstream Western '90s understanding of gender paired with the supposed utopian Earth of the 24th century that makes this episode resonate with me (as I'm sure it has with others) in particular. Science fiction is more about the past than the future, after all. “The Outcast” approaches genderqueerness and pronouns with the compassion and curiosity expected of Starfleet. And because of this, we get to see multiple characters grow in this episode, particularly Riker and Worf, both of whom initially struggle with the idea of gender neutrality.

Now, getting into the romantic plot. Riker’s love for Soren is unconditional, a hopeful light in the face of two different worlds (Earth from our side of the screen and J’naii from the other) that constantly deny trans people our right to exist, which paint us as sick, demented, perverted, monstrous and disgusting. When Soren confides in Riker about her identity, he is not deterred. He is curious and kind, glad to have been shown this part of her truth, even as he struggles to understand J’naii’s general attitude towards gender. Furthermore, there are no reservations on Riker’s part about Soren’s appearance. Although Soren is played by a cisgender actress, binarism in our society pressures many trans people to transition medically in a way that Soren has not, an issue that is of no concern to Riker who is simply in love with her as she is. Which is cool, considering that the majority of Riker’s romantic interests are hyper-feminine. What this shows us is that Riker is not so shallow as to be concerned solely with a person’s appearance when it comes to who he's attracted to and does not so deeply equate gender presentation with gender identity that he is unable to see Soren as the woman she is. He is already attracted to Soren before she confides her gender identity to him.

Soren does not mention anyone who has felt similar feelings for her or for whom she has felt similar feelings and explains that the concept of gender is highly “offensive” to the J’naii. She has spent the majority of her life in fear of her truth being exposed, but in Riker’s company, feels safe to share it with him as he is an outsider who has shown an honest interest in learning. He comes to understand her in a way that she has not been allowed to let others understand her before, in a way that has not been safe before, which is the door that opens them both to their care and love for one another. Though we don’t get to see them learn all that much about each other personally, they do learn that they share an interest in exobotany and get to spent some truly heart-melting moments together.

Back on the Enterprise, Riker has a significant conversation with Deanna about Soren, expressing his deep love for her and letting Deanna know that he wants to continue to pursue a relationship with Soren. Again, this demonstrates that Riker is not only head over heels for Soren but also that he is secure in his masculinity and sexuality, nowhere near ashamed of the feelings he feels for Soren, but simply concerned for the stability of his friendship with his ex. We love a respectful, communicative guy.

We don’t get to see Soren express her feelings for Riker or any potential shame she might harbor about them to anyone but him, which we know would lead to her persecution if she tried to share it with another J’naii. Which leads us to the end of this episode.

The tragedy, of course, is that the other J’naii do find out and do not respond with compassion or respect. Even after Soren has given everything to valiantly make her case, to stand up for herself and others who share her experiences of gender-based oppression, Riker and Worf return to J’naii one last time to rescue her only to find out that they are too late; Soren has already been forced to undergo psychotectic treatment (i.e. conversion therapy). Riker makes one last desperate attempt to get Soren to recall her true self but…she doesn’t. She can’t. And that clipped connection, that final tear in the string that bound them together in an inextricable truth, is what haunts Riker as Ensign Gates takes the Enterprise-D out of J’naii’s orbit.

Obviously, I would have loved to see Riker and Worf succeed in their rescue attempt, have our intrepid heroes break the Prime Directive to save Soren and help forge the first steps to liberating the trans people of J’naii. Unfortunately, for this episode to work, for it to resonate with its viewers as a meaningful commentary on the way our society treats queer and trans people, the screenwriters obviously felt that the tragedy of losing Soren in the end would garner more sympathy. We see a similar take with episodes like DS9's aforementioned “Rejoined”, where Jadzia Dax’s resolve to live the rest of her life with Lenara Kahn is ultimately in vain. She can only watch helplessly from the balcony above the Promenade as Kahn leaves, having chosen instead to favor the life of her symbiont and its future hosts over spending what time she can with the love of her life. Homophobia and transphobia tear people apart - real, living, breathing, loving, caring people. To deny someone their right to stand in their own truth is to deny them their existence. The screenwriters for “The Outcast” made the conscious decision to have us witness this violence, to make us sit with it and understand that Soren's experience represents the real experiences of real people. That the violence committed against queer and trans people harms both them and those who love them. Because Soren was loved. Is loved. She was held and shown a humility she for so long had no access to. And for a brief moment, she felt that love.

Absolutely, this episode could have been done better and I really, really wish they had hired actual trans people to tell Soren’s story or at least cast an actual trans actress to play her. But I do think there is something to be said for the episode’s fundamental, albeit accidental message which is that trans people are not broken or sick in the head. We are whole, vibrant beings entirely deserving of love, respect, support, happiness, care and, above all, life.

[sshbpodcast]

Bottom Five Star Trek ENT Episodes

by Ames

Everyone’s allowed to admit they’re wrong sometimes, and your hosts here at A Star to Steer Her By take back a lot of the credit we’ve given to Star Trek: Enterprise over the years. Guys, we’re sorry to say it’s just not that good a show. And sure, there are a couple beacons of hope in the darkness, but as a full series it doesn’t capitalize on its merits nearly as often as it should, and the mixed messages can be frankly insulting.

From the terrible theme song, to the constant sexualization of T’Pol, to the strange characterization of its captain as just an angry angry man, to whatever the hell went horribly wrong with the third season, there’s a lot to turn your nose up at in this show. So cringe along with us as we give the big thumbs down to the worst episodes of the show as you read along below and listen to our banter over on the podcast (jump to 1:32:58 for the series wrap) where guest star Liz provides some added flavor. It turns out we really didn’t have faith of the heart after all!

[images © CBS/Paramount]

“Bounty”: Caitlin While the A plot of this episode with the Tellarite bounty hunter is perfectly serviceable, it’s the B plot that warrants a place on this list. For no goddamn reason, T’Pol is going through pon farr, a plot device we’ve been railing against for years. Okay, there was a reason after all: to sexually exploit T’Pol as this show is wont to do as much as it can get away with. It’s just disgusting how much Enterprise makes Jolene Blalock run around in her underwear just to titillate the teenage boys they really wanted to appeal to.

“Carpenter Street”: Jake What a waste of time. Literally! It may not have specifically made our worst time travel stories list, but it’s definitely pointless to force us to watch such a boring and convoluted romp around present-day Detroit to stop some Xindi from something or other. Really, anything in the Temporal Cold War arc is a hot mess. And combining that with the Xindi War makes it all the more baffling. Further, opting to bring T’Pol of all people back in time is a terrible decision, Archer. You’re lucky you have plot immunity, cap’n.

“Damage”: Chris “I’m about to step over a line, a line I thought I would never cross. And given the nature of our mission, it probably won’t be the last,” says Archer, nineteen episodes into season three. After he’s not only crossed the line countless times, but shat on it and did a little jig. In the shit. So claiming that it’s not until he steals a warp coil from the Illyrians that he’s crossed the line is just blatant hypocrisy. Oh, and this is also the episode where we learn T’Pol is a drug addict for purely illogical reasons. What a shitshow.

“Harbinger”: Ames Oh hey, you know what was one of the previous horrible things Archer did before “Damage” but apparently didn’t count as “crossing the line”? Torturing a random sphere builder he found even though he had no proof this guy was bad. At fucking all. And there’s more shit to this episode! It’s got Reed being a big baby because he unfoundedly thinks Hayes wants his job. It’s got T’Pol being a big baby because she thinks Trip might like Amanda Cole instead of her. Everyone’s just a big baby this episode!

“Cogenitor”: Chris Frequently, Enterprise gets the ethical lesson you’d expect out of a Star Trek episode entirely backwards. This is one of those times. Trip spends the episode standing up for an oppressed person who has requested sanctuary, but Archer doesn’t want to risk the new best friendship he’s made with their people, so he throws Charles back to the wolves where they inevitably kill themself. And somehow Trip is supposed to be the baddie? Not Archer, who doesn’t even feel bad? What message are we trying to send?

“Dear Doctor”: Ames Oh look, another time Enterprise puts its ethics on backwards and inside out. This utterly infuriating episode turns Archer and Phlox into genocidal monsters who then pat themselves on the back afterwards for handling the situation so diplomatically. Phlox should be ashamed of himself for being a doctor who spreads misinformation about how evolution works, and when Archer tries to question him, convinces the captain of his deplorably bad science. He HAS the cure, and refuses to save an entire race. It’s vomit inducing.

“Broken Bow”: Caitlin The whole series starts off on the wrong foot with a pilot episode that’s just a hot mess. The plot is almost unfollowable because there are just so many elements to keep track of. None of them interesting. In the very first few scenes alone: the time travel nonsense is just confounding; with maybe the exception of Trip, none of the characters holds our attention; and when we’re not confused by whatever’s going on, we’re just bored, which is a huge sin for a series premiere.

“Precious Cargo”: Caitlin, Jake We start seeing some overlap from your hosts in the episodes that are truly truly terrible. This disgusting retread of “The Perfect Mate,” which was disgusting enough on its own, is further tainted by some really shoddy acting from our First Monarch, a laughable portrayal of Archer and T’Pol incompetently playing good cop / bad cop, and a romance subplot so forced that we couldn’t even enjoy watching two very pretty people going to town on each other because we were rolling our eyes too hard!

“Hatchery”: Ames, Caitlin Don’t worry, we have more bad ethics the show is spouting to go through before the end of this list! For a hot second, it seems like Archer is doing the right thing and trying to save Insectoid hatchlings because it’s the moral thing to do, even in war, and everyone else is wrong to mutiny against him. But we should not have had that level of faith in this show. Instead, Archer’s mind has been manipulated by some goo or other, of course! He was wrong to want to save innocent babies! And he’s the hero of this show, FFS.

“These Are the Voyages…”: Caitlin, Chris, Jake The taste the show leaves in your mouth, when all is said and done, is whatever Chef Riker cooked up in the unexpected series finale. Making the last episode a de facto TNG episode is the wrong choice, as it strips away the ownership of the show from the actual characters as if punishing them for being bad. In fact, they don’t even technically appear in the finale at all because they’re a program on the holodeck! And to kill off Trip – the fan favorite character! – so unceremoniously! Did they hate their own fans?

“Fusion”: Ames, Chris, Jake Like Deanna Troi and Seven of Nine before her, T’Pol gets to get violated for the sake of an episode – and bad episode at that! We’re already pretty sick of watching the women characters have their agency stripped away all the time because the story tells them so. So to watch the usually strong-willed science officer  forced out of her comfort zone and used as a plaything by the worst Vulcan we’ve met (redemption for Vorik, I guess?) is just torture to watch. And the asshole sees no consequences either! Ugh!

“Bound”: Ames, Chris, Jake Like in DS9’s “Profit and Lace,” an attempt to seem progressive backfires so abysmally that we’re appalled by its tone deafness. It’s okay that Orion women are enslaved as sex workers because they’re secretly in charge! The episode treats that perplexing retcon like it’s female empowerment, while simultaneously turning all the men into drooling idiots whenever a woman is around. And unlike TAS’s “The Lorelei Signal,” the women don’t even take charge. Trip does! What a slap in the tits.

—

See also: our Top Five Star Trek Enterprise Episodes list. And if you want more: here’re all the past seasonal tops and bottoms from seasons 1, 2, 3, and 4!

Well folks, it’s been a long road, but we’re finally done with Enterprise. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to move on to anything but this, even if that means slogging through the Abramsverse and the streaming era. But at least those shows reward war crimes slightly less. So keep your ears on SoundCloud or whatever podcast platform you like, talk to us through our universal translator on Facebook and Twitter, and go where your heart will take you!

[raurquiz]

#NationalComingOutDay #startrek #sulu #startrekbeyond #thenextgeneration #theoutcast #thehost #deepspacenine #lenarakan #dax #intendant #kiranerys #discovery #culber #stamets #enterprise #cogenitor #startrekpicard #7of9 #raffimusiker #lowerdecks #mariner #jennifer #startrek58

[zero-way-out]

One of the episodes i absolutely hate of star trek: enterprise is "Cogenitor" because of the message it tries to convey. Its in very simple terms "we shouldn't interfere with other cultures when we dont know the whole story" which on its own is a good message but how it is conveyed in the episode is absolutely fucked. This message would make sense with a simple missunderstanding but instead it tells you

"you should be okay with clearly sapient being with a mind of their own being oppressed because trying to override oppression takes too much work, the status quo will do just fine as long as the oppressed group is blissfully ignorant"

Its not as if the cogenitor in question is happy with their role, and it is only seen as oppression by Trip, the cogentor fucking kills themselves when they are forced back into oppression after tasting a tiny bit of freedom. And after all that its blamed on Trip, because he was compassionate enough to recognise that they were being oppressed.

[quasi-normalcy]

According to its Wikipedia entry, "Cogenitor" is...

Critically acclaimed and widely called the best episode of Enterprise's first two seasons?

Great Fucking Christ, 2003 was a fucking cultural wasteland.

[baytadax]

I want to know what is wrong with the writers of Enterprise Season 2 because you can't possibly throw three emotionally devastating episodes like Cogenitor, First Flight and The Expanse in a row like that.

Seriously? It's not like everyone can take what O'Brien can take, this is not Deep Space Nine!

[wildishmazz]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Star Trek: Enterprise Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Jonathan Archer, Charles "Trip" Tucker III Additional Tags: Alternate Ending, Episode: s02e22 Cogenitor (Star Trek Enterprise) Summary:

What if Charles had lived, and gone back to Vissia with a plan?

[starplusfourletters]

That feeling when you take a break from Enterprise for a bit and pick back up on s2e22 “Cogenitor”

Could have been improved by not making one thorny, complicated issue a metaphor for another thorny, complicated issue. Like don’t use ideas about nonbinary gender as a framing device for personhood you think you’re being deep but you’re just making this episode impossible to parse and my monkeybrain can’t take it

Could have been improved by cutting the Last Scene Suicide that we don’t have time to unpack

Could have been improved by having the “don’t impose your moral standards on other cultures” lesson be applied to ANYTHING OTHER than sex slavery. Like yes, this is my Human Bias talking, but I’m gonna say that sex slavery is Unequivocally Bad

Could have been improved by a missing scene between Archer and Phlox where Phlox gets his Uncomfortable Morality on and is like “hey idk slavery seems to be working for this society” and Archer is forced to re-examine the position he’s taken

Could have been improved by leaning into a NextGen comparison. Like, in TNG-DS9-VGR, the Federation can set the moral standard because they have the technology to back it up. Picard can afford to say “we don’t want help if it’s coming from this problematic society” because the stakes are different. In ENT S1-2, the stakes are a very nebulous “if we mess this up we may never get another chance off our planet.” It’s not the direct threat to your ship, or even the threat of annihilation, it’s the threat of stagnation. That’s very cool and I think ENT doesn’t have nearly enough fun with it. All this to say that in the episode, there’s no real downside to leaving and never speaking to these people again. Sure, their tech is nice, but it’s not mission critical.

I get that the lesson is “don’t start something you can’t finish with the slave society,” but Trip is Trip and can’t help but start something, and Archer had too much fun on his three-day weekend with the alien captain and is having “but how can their society be evil if they’re individually nice” issues, and T’Pol is clutching at pragmatism and resisting her What Would the Humans Do arc. I get all that. But no one comes away from that ep looking good, and in a boring way instead of a fun way.

Weirdly this reminded me of VGR s4e17 “Retrospect” - absolutely unhinged takes, not muddied waters as much as straight dirt, ends in a suicide we don’t have time to unpack, ultimately makes the Moral Lesson not about the victim but about the person advocating for the victim and the Lesson is “you were wrong” - honestly I have a lot of words to say about “Retrospect” - but then I’d have to rewatch “Retrospect” - anyway, imho while “Retrospect” is like a train wreck I can’t look away from, “Cogenitor” is just dull and hard to watch. *Drops mic*

[giffingthingsss]

Cogenitor

Uncomfortable. I avoided a rewatch so I might not remember everything perfectly. But here's my take on it anyway.

I don't look back on an episode like this and think 'oh what terrible ethics.' I look back and see a remnant of a time when we were all being told to question our ethics.

There was a period of time, I'm not exactly sure when, I just remember hearing talk of it growing up, when it was fashionable to say something like 'there are no absolutes.'

Sort of an intellectual exercise of 'there is no absolute good or evil, so don't be judgey.' Add those ideas with a post 9/11 where there's all this talk of things like the treatment of women in the middle east, and you've got some people going -

'....well, I mean, that looks terrible to me, but maybe I'm just seeing it through my western values prism. maybe I'm a dodo head. maybe there's some reason for how they do things that i just don't understand. who am I to impose my beliefs onto another culture? maybe bad things would happen if i stuck my nose into something i didn't understand.'

It's kind of a twisted attempt at humility, and it might be true in a lot of circumstances.

I understand people looking at that episode today like, 'wtf is this?' The mood today is basically the opposite. It's something more akin to individual moral absolutism. 'If you don't agree with me allow me to escort you off the planet. None other has ever been as enlightened as I.'

There must be some middle ground between 'my way or the highway' and 'i should probably smother my gut when it tells me something is wrong.'

So anyway, I look at this ep and go, 'oh yeah. I remember that intellectual exercise time period.'

[sshbpodcast]

Well, Season 2 of Enterprise deescalated quickly

by Ames

After an extremely underwhelming season one of Enterprise, your hosts here at A Star to Steer Her By were over the moon to see season two start out with some material that got us actually excited. New ideas? Character moments? Actual stakes? Was this season going to make up for the recycled ideas, boring premises, and missed opportunities of the first?

And then the season went immediately downhill with some of the worst Trek we’ve seen since The Animated Series. Archer might be our pissiest captain to date. T’Pol is so constantly sexualized that it makes our stomachs turn. Every time Mayweather tries to get a line, he’s conveniently injured so we don’t need to have him appear in scenes. Are we being too hard on Enterprise? There is some good stuff, as you’ll see below and in our discussion on this week’s podcast episode (jump to 1:03:49) as we wrap the season with our usual top and bottom episodes, but we’re feeling frustrated. I guess we don’t have faith of the heart.

[images © CBS/Paramount]

Top Three Episodes

We’re starting with Tops this time because we have stronger emotions over this season’s Bottoms list, so we’ll get to those in a minute. There were still some highlights (or at least higher-lights), and you’ll notice that the best of them are clustered around the beginning of the season:

“Judgment”: Caitlin Like in season one when we got episodes with Jeffrey Combs, Ethan Philips, and Fionnula Flanagan, a Trek-experienced guest star can redeem an otherwise standard plot. Sure, “Judgment” treads a lot of the same ground we’ve trod before, but J.G. Hertzler as Advocate Kolos is something new for Klingon culture and he chews the scenery so well!

“Regeneration”: Jake We love us a good Borg episode, and this one pulls it off. You could argue that Borg don’t belong in a prequel series, and you’d probably be right, but the tension created throughout this episode, the creepy environment we find ourselves in, the clever way the writers got around the canon issue, and the sense that there were actual stakes for a change are all commendable. Resistance is futile.

“Singularity”: Chris Like a “The Naked Time” or a “The Naked Now,” this one really thrives on how committed all of the actors are to their respective bits. Most of the plot feels like filler – an anomaly of the week affects the crew in weird ways; we’ve seen this a million times – but there’s just something about watching Trip fixate over a chair and Hoshi obsess over her soup recipe that’s just so charming we can’t help but enjoy it.

“Minefield”: Ames Of all our main crewmembers, Lieutenant Reed remains the most vague, and this episode makes us fully okay with that! We get a glimpse into his stiff-upper-lip brand of British Gumption™ paired with the stress his family put on him to succeed, and he just works! So this sweet little character piece about Reed preparing to sacrifice himself for the ship is just the right amount of character insight we need into our pineapple-loving security chief.

“Cease Fire”: Caitlin Andorians are just fun. A large portion of the appeal of the blue baddies rests on the shoulders of Jeffrey Combs as Shran, who is so capable of playing just about anything. But this episode deepens the culture of our antennaed friends by adding some infighting to the mix with the addition of Lieutenant Tarah, played so hypnotically by the ever-great Suzie Plakson! Always a good day when you get to see her!

“Carbon Creek”: Ames, Chris, Jake The episodes that we see agreement for among your SSHB hosts are also those early episodes I was referring to when we still had hope for the season. This bedtime story of Vulcan lore succeeds in showing us a different side of our pointy-eared allies, basically pulling a Coneheads. Nothing wrong with that. And we get such fascinating new characters out of them that I actually amended my Favorite Vulcans list!

“Dead Stop”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris, Jake The one we all put on our Tops list this season is also one of the more original stories from Enterprise. The idea of an enigmatic race of aliens who created an automated repair station is interesting enough on its own, but the creepiness builds throughout; the clean, white design sets an appropriately offputting tone; and everyone is left on edge. And we already know Roxann Dawson rocks at voicing homicidal computers.

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Bottom Three Episodes

And now for the nerd rage portion of our wrap up. We had such hopes when we started this season, but then the rest alternated from “this has been done before and better” to “well, that was unsatisfying” to “cringe cringe cringe cringe cringe!” Here are this season’s biggest offenders, in every definition of the word:

“The Expanse”: Chris We can see the season finale is trying to set something up with the Xindi attack on Earth, but what we get are a lot of expository scenes, an entirely disjointed sideplot with the unfathomably present Klingons, and a not-at-all-subtle 9/11 allegory that is going to taint a lot of our future watching. Why are the Xindi stupid enough to test their probe on Earth and then do nothing for months? Find out next season on Enterprise!

“Bounty”: Caitlin While the A-plot of this episode is fine, it warrants inclusion because the B-plot is so enraging. We’ve already had enough of pon farr after train wrecks like Voyager’s “Blood Fever” and the uncomfortable Saavik scene from The Search for Spock. So we’re all the more done with it when Enterprise forces T’Pol to writhe around erotically in her underpants and sexually assault Phlox and Reed. YUCK.

“Cogenitor”: Chris If you were looking for more reasons to be angry at Archer, we’ve got an episode for you. It could have been successful if we could be sure what its messaging was. We fume at the Vissians for how they treat the cogenitors and assume that’s the point... Until Archer just starts screaming at Trip for standing up for a marginalized person, and refuses to grant Charles asylum after they begged for it. So. Whose side are we supposed to be on? Because it can’t be Archer’s, right? Right?

“Vanishing Point”: Caitlin, Jake What a let down. What could have been an interesting new concept about early uses of the transporter, in an era when they were even more terrifying than usual, gets entirely negated by the conclusion that “it was all just a dream.” These cop-out ending pull the rug out from under you and make everything you watched feel like a trick. As if we needed more to hate about dream episodes.

“Stigma”: Ames, Jake Just when you thought last season’s rape-happy episode “Fusion” was behind us, it rears its ugly head again in this HIV/AIDS allegory that comes decades too late. Yet again, T’Pol gets stripped of her agency so that various Men In The Room can decide what’s best for her. And to make matters worse, the incongruous B-plot seems to suggest that Trip is close-minded for not wanting Phlox’s wife to sexually assault him all day!

“A Night in Sickbay”: Ames, Chris I disliked Archer and Phlox enough after season one – and things were looking up for season two – when this episode comes crashing down. Archer is just a Big Baby all episode long because he refuses to apologize for Porthos pissing on the Kreetassans’ sacred tree, Phlox is nothing but obnoxious and disgusting the whole time, and we get even more objectifying T’Pol in Archer’s dreams for no reason!

“Precious Cargo”: Ames, Caitlin, Jake But the worst of the worst this season just has to be this rehash of TNG’s “The Perfect Mate,” which we hated enough to begin with! Another Kriosian woman is being transported in cryostasis, allowing for an episode of Kaitamma and Trip running around in their underwear until they predictably make love by a stream. Add to that Padma Lakshmi’s awful, awful acting and you’ve made it to the bottom of the season. Woo.

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It’s been a long road, but we’re already halfway through Enterprise. Season three promises to at least shake things up a little, for better or for worse, so we have that to look forward to as we’ll have SO MUCH to discuss over on the weekly watch-through on SoundCloud (or wherever you podcast). You can also tell us your favorite and least favorite season 2 episodes over on Facebook and Twitter. I, for one, welcome our new Xindi overlords!

[raurquiz]

#remembering #andreaskatsulas #actor #tomalak #startrek #thenextgeneration #drennik #enterprise #cogenitor #gkar #babylon5 #thegathering #inthebginning #thelegendoftherangers #thefugitive #hotshotspartdeux #executivedecision #nypdblue #DiagnosisMurder #Millennium #startrek57

[rockopolis]

it has been nearly 3 months and i have not touched the next episode of enterprise yet because of the sheer mental damage that cogenitor inflicted on me i need to push through this but how can i learn to forgive im not yet so godly 

[hashkath-skies]

"Plato's Stepchildren is the worst episode of Trek" this

"Dear Doctor is the worst episode of Trek" that

First of all, Cogenitor is the worst episode of Trek, followed by Code of Honor and Turnabout Intruder, so jot that down

Second of all, did you SEE the togas Kirk and Spock were put in in Plato's Stepchildren? Did you miss the Spock panty shot? Clearly you have no taste 😆