Watch any episode of Star Trek. Does it engage in cultural commentary? If so, how does it do so? Why do you think it comments (or doesn’t) on that particular topic?

Star trek is known for providing cultural commentary. It is very much so a satirical look at society. Pretty much every episode I’ve seen has made a reference to issues with society. And sometimes provides a solution to them since it’s in the future. The episode I chose to watch for Star Trek is The Cogenitor. The cogenitor absolutely engages in cultural commentary. It brings up the idea of slavery. To give you some background information: the cogenitor basically has the occupation of reproducing and that’s it. The reason it is a reference to slavery is because the cogenitor is born into this life and has its freedom taken away from it around birth. The cogenitor has no gender. This is kind of ironic that they touch on the point of slavery and discrimination as for most of the early versions of Star Trek, there were little to no black actors on the show. I think the writer of the episode chose to make it target slavery because it made for a more interesting episode. Slavery was illegal at the time the episode was made but it was a better episode as opposed to doing one that focused on discrimination against a certain race.