Jinaal Bix was a Trill xenobiologist who lived in the 24th and 25th centuries.
Early in his career, Jinaal studied the itronoks.
Following the discovery of the Progenitors by the USS Enterprise-D in 2369, Jinaal was one of six scientists assembled by the Federation President to investigate them. Years of work led the group to the technology that the Progenitors used to create life but, after one of them was killed attempting to activate it, they decided it was too dangerous to be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. They destroyed their research and removed themselves from every database they could access; protecting the secret became the focus of their lives.
In order to guide others to the Progenitor technology when the time was right, Jinaal and his fellows each took responsibility for a piece of a map containing its location. Jinaal hid his piece inside a canyon near the Caves of Mak'ala, which he knew to be a nesting ground for itronoks. To preserve his knowledge for the future, Jinaal elected to be joined to the Bix symbiont.
In 3191, the USS Discovery crew was directed to Jinaal by his unique spot pattern, which Doctor Vellek had printed on his piece of the map. Bix's last host, Kalzara, insisted on performing the zhian'tara so that Jinaal could interact with them directly. Doctor Hugh Culber volunteered to hold Jinaal's consciousness.
Jinaal took Captain Michael Burnham and Cleveland Booker into the canyon, where he misled them into provoking the itronoks by approaching their nest with phasers drawn. During the ensuing encounter, Burnham recognized that the itronoks were protecting their young and negotiated a retreat by disarming herself and Booker. Afterwards, Jinaal revealed that he had been testing their response to a lifeform vastly different from themselves, and gave them the map piece and the coordinates to the next clue in Tzenkethi space. His consciousness was then returned to the Bix symbiont. (DIS: "Jinaal")
Jinaal's name later appeared crossed out on a list that Dr. Kovich gave to Burnham after discovering the names of the scientists that had hidden the Progenitors' technology. (DIS: "Whistlespeak")
After finding the portal to the technology, Culber unexpectedly gained access to one of Jinaal's memories which allowed him and Booker to stabilize the portal with a tractor beam. Culber explained that the scientists had encountered the same problem when they had built the structure around the portal, but Culber didn't know why he suddenly had access to one of Jinaal's memories or why he was driven to join Booker on the mission in the first place, particularly as Culber had never had access to any of Jinaal's memories before. (DIS: "Life, Itself")
Background information
Jinaal was played by Wilson Cruz while inhabiting Culber's body.
Bix's personnel file indicates he lived 2253 to 2367, meaning he died two years before the events of "The Chase" in 2369. Timothy Peel has suggested this intended to read that he had lived until 2467. [1]
Additional unused text prepared for Bix's personnel file indicated Jinaal's education included a "Bachelor of Science, University of Alpha Centauri, top of class, with honors, internships and independent research studies attached to numerous Trill and Federation educational and scientific bodies, including the Vulcan Science Academy, additional post-graduate studies conducted across dozens of worlds and colonies, both Federation and unaligned, in Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Quadrants, including extensive zoological-study safaris on Trill, Earth, Vulcan, Bajor, Janus VI." His doctorates included "biology, xenobiology, animal biology, animal studies, from multiple Trill and Federation universities." His research history included: "10 years in special projects division, Trill Science Ministry, accepted appointment to the Special Projects Division, Federation Science Council." It further noted his application for joining to Bix symbiont was reviewed and accepted by the Trill Symbiosis Commission. [2]