I had the opposite reaction to this episode. It created a visceral dislike for "Enterprise" series. Most of the episodes were about spreading our enlightened human values among the heathen aliens, making the viewer feel morally superior without teaching the viewer anything.
Every time you fill your car with gasoline you implicitly prop up a regime in Saudi Arabia that oppresses women nearly as bad as in that "Enterprise" episode. How did that episode really affect your personal ethics?
Conversely, no society in our history oppressed women quite as bad as in that Enterprise episode. It creates a strawman argument. And it's not a useful strawman that simplifies things making them easier to understand, but making it easier to hate those who disagree with us.
What if the third sex in that species WASN'T as intelligent, but only slightly so, like maybe 10 IQ points less. Is Star Trek saying in such cases it WOULD be okay to treat them as property???? That's pretty much the only way to read that episode. It teaches bad ethics, not good.
To be fair, that episode did redeem itself in the end. It did show how Tucker's actions served only to satisfy his own feelings, making things worse for the individual he was trying to help, and making things worse for Enterprise's mission.
