Questions about what's what

[omgahitsbritt08]

Okay, so I'm doing alittle research for my fanfic and there are plenty of things I dk about/in the Star Trek universe. So I have many questions. I thought if I had questions other fans do as well.

This thread is exactly that. Anything in Star Trek, you want to know more about type it here.

 

[omgahitsbritt08]

Okay, so I came across, Cogenitor. So they help a woman get pregnant? Umm...or are they like surrogates?

 

[6079SmithW]

Cogenitors are like a third sex and yes, they are required for impregnation of the woman.

 

[Jax]

Okay, so I came across, Cogenitor. So they help a woman get pregnant? Umm...or are they like surrogates?

There a slave gender designed for nothing more than to give out an enzyme needed to make a fetus.

 

[JiNX-01]

Okay, so I'm doing alittle research for my fanfic and there are plenty of things I dk about/in the Star Trek universe. So I have many questions. I thought if I had questions other fans do as well.

This thread is exactly that. Anything in Star Trek, you want to know more about type it here.

Uh, since you're talking about anything in Trek, you might want to ask a mod to move this to General Trek Discussion.

This is the Enterprise series thread.

 

[Admiral Shran]

Okay, so I came across, Cogenitor. So they help a woman get pregnant? Umm...or are they like surrogates?

The Cogenitors were from a species with three sexes. The males and females couldn't reproduce on their own. They needed an enzyme that only the congenitors could provide. So, they kept the cogenitors, who were a very small part of the population, as virtual sex slaves.

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

An example of sexism as well as really poor math...3% of the population, yeah right. Anyways, Phlox explained it in the episode...they don't provide any DNA, just the enzyme.
What a stupid concept.

 

[Alrik]

I see we have a recurring thread going on here...in every series forum. Better yet it's like Seinfeld, a thread about nothing.

 

[JiNX-01]

An example of sexism as well as really poor math...3% of the population, yeah right. Anyways, Phlox explained it in the episode...they don't provide any DNA, just the enzyme.
What a stupid concept.

I have a theory about that: It's possible that cogenitors are rare to keep the population down. The wife did bitch about having to wait to get one.

 

[AMQ]

^^That seems likely. They did seem to be desperate to keep cogenitor and claimed that they wouldn't be able to get another one for years, if I understood right. It also seemed that one congenitor would have its "role" in reproduction for many couples during its lifetime.

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

^Yes but if you do the math it doesn't seem likely that 3% of the population would be able to be moved around enough to procreate with every couple and have any population growth worth speaking of.
Now something like 33% might work, one cogenitor for every married couple. But 3% doesn't seem feasible.

 

[JiNX-01]

^Yes but if you do the math it doesn't seem likely that 3% of the population would be able to be moved around enough to procreate with every couple and have any population growth worth speaking of.
Now something like 33% might work, one cogenitor for every married couple. But 3% doesn't seem feasible.

I agree.

And I just remembered something else from the episode. The wife gripes about how long it took to get the cogenitor, but the husband told Trip that the 3% of the population that are cogenitors was just about right.

The low cogenitor population would explain why they are not allowed to have fulfilling lives. All of their time would have to be devoted to reproduction. My impression was that having a cogenitor assigned to the couple serving aboard the starship would have to have been pretty rare.

I really wish they had revisted the Vissians -- maybe have Archer decide to try to smooth over the disastrous first contact.

A few questions that I wish had been answered:
-- I wonder whether the imbalance in the population was a result of natural selection, a disaster or genetic engineering in a bid to control population growth?
-- Or was it perhaps the consequence of many couples electing to abort cogenitors in hopes of getting a child who would have a better future? Is it even legal to abort a cogenitor?
-- How many children can a Vissian couple have? Is it likely that cogenitors -- as rare as they are -- would be made available to a couple who already has a child?
-- Is it illegal to teach a cogenitor to read? Why are they not given names?
-- Have the prejudices we witnessed in the episode always been part of the social structure of Vissia?

I think some of these questions could have been answered if the writers hadn't used up so much time on the Malcolm Eats Cheese and Gets Laid subplot (tho' it might have created an interesting conflict with Trip if the Vissian tactical officer had "borrowed" the cogenitor for a menage a trois with Malcolm -- and when he tells Trip about it, Trip berates him because he knows the cogenitor was not free to decline).