Production Order: 17
Air Order: 17
Stardate: 45614.6
Original Air Date: March 16, 1992
Sorry for the skipped weeks. There was a lot that I had to say about this episode, and I needed the extra weeks to think and write about it. Regardless, I'll probably forget several points I wanted to make. This topic is entirely too big to fit into an episode.
Picard's Log 45614.6: "This androgynous race, the J'naii, have asked for our help in finding their lost shuttlecraft."
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Picard's Log 45614.6: "This androgynous race, the J'naii, have asked for our help in finding their lost shuttlecraft."
Okay, a quick note here: we're dealing with a species this episode that doesn't recognize gender in their culture. Star Trek uses the term "androgynous," and it kind of works in some cases, and in others, they kind of mean non-binary. BUT we're also talking about a show written and filmed in the very early 90's, and terminology has changed and evolved since then.
For the curious, a good definition between the two is
Non-binary is a term that refers to any gender identity that isn't male or female. Androgynous refers to an outward appearance of indeterminate gender. While some non-binary people may express themselves androgynously, it is a personal choice that is not a requirement of non-binary gender identity.
(Snagged from here.)
You can also identify as a gender and select an androgynous look, but that's more of a mainstream idea, so I assume that readers are aware.
In this episode, the J'naii present androgynously, but are also non-binary.
Star Trek is... trying. It's an unintentional theme for this episode.
So here's the low-down: a J'naii shuttlecraft with two crew members has disappeared in space near their planet. They asked the Enterprise, with its fancy equipment, to help them find it. They can't find the shuttle in the star system, and Soren, the J'naii character that we'll be focusing on, confirms that the shuttle could not have left the solar system, so it has to be here somewhere. A debris scan turns up nothing.
But then Data announces that he's found a neutrino emission that's not connected to anything, and he has no guess as to why it could be there.
"Probe?" he asks.
"Make that shit so," agrees Picard.
So they launch a probe, which... disappears also. Transmitting one moment, gone the next.
"WTF?" asks Soren.
Dramatic music! Zoom-in on Picard! Opening credits break!
Picard's Log, supplemental: "Okay, the disappearance of the probe suggest that we found the first ever example of "null space," which is a cool theory, but has never been proven. Riker is working with a team of J'naii specialists to figure this out."
Downstairs on the J'naii homeworld, Soren and Riker are giving a Powerpoint to a bunch of other J'naii, who are presumably scientists and politicians, or are otherwise People In Charge.
Soren explains the null space theory: "It's a little pocket of space that forms when a star system does. We think there may be one in our system. If something like a shuttlecraft enters that space, the pocket absorbs the energy the shuttle gives off. And energy bends around the pocket, so it's kind of cloaked. We think the probe went into the pocket, and we think our shuttle did, too."
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| I don't love these bowl haircuts, but maybe they're all the rage on J'naii |
Noor, who is the head of the J'naii government (no formal title given here), asks if they think their shuttle is still in the pocket.
"We do," says Soren. "And based on our propulsion systems and what we think we might know about the pocket, the shuttle is in there with life support for about ten days."
Noor seems optimistic that the crew could still be alive, and while they don't say how long the shuttle has been missing, it has to be less than ten days here.
"Our plan is to take a Starfleet shuttle into the pocket," says Riker. "It will absorb the energy from the shuttle, but our transporter chief is working on a way to beam us and the J'naii crew off of the missing shuttle."
Noor thanks Riker for his help, and the meeting breaks up.
"I would like to pilot the shuttle," Soren tells Riker once everyone else has left.
"It's a Starfleet craft," he argues.
"Yeah, but I can't ask any of you to risk your lives for my people," says Soren.
That's fair. It's also courteous.
They both state that they're awesome pilots, so Riker suggests that they team up to get the job done. Soren agrees, and they get to work right away.
They go back to the shuttle bay on the E, and Riker introduces Soren to the shuttle they'll be using. Soren knows their way around a shuttlecraft, which becomes apparent. Riker mentions that shuttles don't usually come equipped with weapons of any kind, but this one has been outfitted with a phaser array.
"We're going to shoot the phasers at where we think the pocket is, and map out where the energy disappears. Then we can get a feel for the boundaries. La Forge thought it up."
Y'all. That's fucking smart.
They get on the shuttle, and Riker says they'll do a flight simulator later, but now they can go over controls. Soren is no slouch. They pull up schematics and quickly figure out where everything is, and how it works.
"My parents were pilots. I grew up in shuttles. Then I went to flight school and trained under Krite."
"He had a good student," Riker remarks.
This gives Soren pause. "We don't have gender. There's no he or she here."
Riker tosses his hands up in a kind of surrender, but he's smiling. "Okay, for the last two days, I've been trying to speak without using personal pronouns. I mean, I can't use it. My people find that insulting."
(Eh, not all of them. Some enby people do use "it" as a pronoun. But yeah, a lot of people bristle at using it because it has been insulting.)
Now, this convo makes me bristle a bit. Riker's complaint could go two ways here:
"I am trying, but this is a different way of thinking, and slipping back into familiar patterns is proving to be a hurdle. Please be patient with me as I navigate this. My goal is to be respectful."
Or
"I am trying, and am therefore above criticism. I will probably give up at some point, tell people behind your back that you are nuts, and will eventually assign you whatever gender and pronouns I personally feel most comfortable with."
Always go with the former, y'all. Patience is granted to those who are earnestly trying.
"We use a neutral pronoun, but there isn't really a translation," Soren explains.
Pssst, Riker: humans have been using the singular "they" for nearly 1000 years by your time. Just use "they."
But I guess he hasn't thought of that, and says he will try his best.
It is time for lunch.
In Ten Forward, they are served bowls of split pea soup, and Riker says he programmed the replicators to make his father's recipe.
"It's good for keeping you warm on cold Alaskan nights," he says cheerfully.
"We prefer to sleep with friends for warmth," Soren replies.
Riker is taken aback.
"No, not like mating," Soren corrects. "Like, platonic spooning."
Sassy Riker Moment: "Still sounds better than pea soup."
They briefly discuss how they're each finding the other's culture and ways of thinking to be completely different from their own.
"So you're male," says Soren. "What the difference between you and females?"
"Umm." Riker is not sure how to answer, because that's a complicated question. And so, I shit you not, he replies, "Snips and snails, and puppy dog tails."
Soren is alarmed.
He fumbles, then replies that there are a lot of similarities, but males and females are built a little differently, and that they have different sexual organs. When Soren asks about emotional attitudes, he says that that sort of question can take a lifetime to answer.
Riker asks what things are like on a planet with no gender, and as an example, he asks who leads if they're dancing, which is kind of a funny, stupid question.
"Whoever is taller," says Soren simply. They make a remark that Terrans and J'naii are probably not all that different, and Riker agrees that there are most likely more similarities than differences.
Soren looks over at a hetero couple behind them in Ten Forward, then asks Riker what he finds attractive in a female.
"She has to laugh at my jokes," he quips.
Soren grins.
Another J'naii who was on the bridge earlier enters Ten Forward and sees them.
"Hello, Commander."
Soren gets up hastily and thanks Riker for going over the shuttle controls, but now they have to be going, and they offer their seat to the other J'naii... Krite, the flight instructor.
Dramatic music! Commercial break!
Picard's Log, supplemental: "Riker and Soren are going out in the shuttle to try to map the null space pocket. If it works out, they can start the rescue."
On the shuttle, they have started shooting phaser pulses into and around the space pocket, and after the first few manual shots turn up good info, set it to the computer to finish the task.
"So tell me about your sexual organs," says Soren conversationally.
Jesus, Soren. Buy a guy dinner first.
"Uhhhh," says Riker.
"I'm interested in what's involved with two sexes during mating practices," Soren presses.
Y'all wanna have a weird-ass sex talk? I'm getting the worst flashbacks to Kirk explaining sex to the Vaalians.
"Um, men inseminate the women, women bear the children," Riker mumbles.
Wow, Riker. Drier than Ben Shapiro's wife.
"Oh. Our people inseminate a fibrous husk. We've heard about the mating practices of some other species, and our way seems less risky and painful."
Soren is aiming for "Sahara," apparently.
Now they get defensive and prickly over whose mating practices are more pleasurable.
I'm fucking done. Can I stop writing this review now?
They find a neutrino emission coming from inside the pocket, and Soren thinks it may be coming from their shuttle, so they make a note of the coordinates.
"I wonder if a human and a J'naii are sexually compatible," they muse.
"Um, I dunno," replies Riker.
But before they can get into a discussion as to whether or not the peepees match, Soren notes that their people wouldn't allow such a thing to happen.
"The J'naii find gender to be offensive. We used to have two sexes - like you - but we evolved. My people now find such a thing primitive. No offense or anything."
Riker finds that amusing. "Yeah, but primitive can be fun."
The computer has completed the mapping project, and they turn the shuttle around to go back to the E. Unfortunately, the shuttle's nacelle skims one of the boundaries of the null space pocket, and several layers of engine disappear, then reappear.
The engine fails, and Riker and Soren try to adjust to using just the one engine. It's not going well. The shuttle careens, and Soren, making their way to the back of the cabin to make a manual adjustment, is thrown forward, smacking their head.
Riker calls the E. "Engine failing, shuttle losing control, and Soren needs to be beamed to sick bay."
La Forge tractors them back in.
In sick bay, Soren is being examined, and Crusher tells them that they just have a minor concussion.
"So you're female," says Soren. "What's that like?"
"Huh?" asks Crusher.
So far, Soren has asked Riker what it's like to be male, and Crusher what it's like to be female; and Riker has asked Soren what it's like to be genderless. But these are all "as compared to what?" questions. No one knows any different.
"Okay, so females have longer hair a lot of the time, and they wear it more elaborately. And females wear color on their faces and nails." Just some things that Soren has noticed. "Is it to attract a male?"
"It can be," concedes Crusher.
"But the males don't do it. Is it down to the females to do all of the attracting?"
"No." Crusher is amused. "Males try to be attractive, but play it off like they're not, even if it's currently the most important thing to them."
"But they don't wear color on their faces," Soren asserts.
"Nope," Crusher agrees.
"Woof, this scene feels dated," Lady Archon typed, thinking of male make-up artists with cosmetics contracts, and all of the boys she knows who have nicer manicures than her.
"Are the females considered superior to males?" Soren asks.
"No, actually it used to be the other way around. But that was a long time ago."
Dated, yet optimistic.
Riker comes in to check on Soren, and Crusher releases the J'naii to go finish their rescue mission.
Later, Crusher gets together with Worf, Troi, and Data for their regular poker game. It's Troi's turn to deal, and she proclaims the game to be "Federation Day."
Worf, in place of the audience, asks what that is, and she replies that the Federation was founded in 2161, so twos, sixes, and aces are wild.
"That is a woman's game," Worf grumbles. "It favors a weak hand."
COOL. LOVE ME SOME CASUAL SEXISM.
Fortunately, Crusher and Troi aren't going to let him get away with it, and they do that lovely thing where they make him describe his misogyny until it boils down to him just being an asshole. He also doesn't like the J'naii.
"They're all the same, no males or females. It's weird."
Crusher spills the tea: "I think one of them is sweet on Riker."
"That's not right," grumbles Worf.
Dude is the authority on what's right, apparently.
Again, everyone makes him break it down until he sheepishly looks at his cards and says he doesn't know what kind of hand he has with all of these wild cards in the mix.
I hope he loses his fucking shirt.
Don't be a dick, Worf.
Ohhh, after multiple viewings, I think they're having Worf be the maybe-homophobe/possible ally here: the cisgender-heterosexual observer who is just too confused by everything related to queerness to get it.
On the shuttle, Riker tells Soren that the transporter for the shuttle is ready to go, but La Forge is still working on the transporter that should be able to grab them all from inside the pocket.
They need to get under the dashboard to access a panel, so Riker does something unusual: he removes the back of the chair that Soren was sitting in. It's made to look like it's a thing that he has to do to access the panel better, but I think it was actually a thing that Jonathan Frakes did so that the camera operator could film what they were doing. It's... strange.
They climb under the dash and begin using tools with glowing ends to alter...something.
"Can I tell you something?" Soren asks furtively. "I could get into a lot of trouble for saying something."
"What's that?" asks Riker.
"I find you attractive."
Riker was only half-paying attention, but now puts his tool down.
"On my planet," says Soren, "sometimes people are born different. They experience urges to be male or female, rather than genderless. I am one of those people who identifies as female. We have to hide who we are, or they'll try to "fix" us through pyschotectic therapy."
"How long have you known?" asks Riker quietly.
"All my life," she replies. "But I didn't understand until I was older."
She tells Riker a story about being a kid in school, and another child preferred a gender (male). This kid was teased relentlessly, and sometimes they would beat the hell out of him. He disappeared for a while, and when he came back, he was made to stand in front of the whole school and talk about how he was given psychotectic treatments, and it cured him of having a gender.
Oh, yay. Conversion therapy with a touch of George Orwell.
Riker is fully invested in this confession. "Do you have relationships with other people like you?"
"Yes, with people who identify as male. I have to live a life of lies, but I feel like I can be honest with you." She touches his face, and he opens his mouth to respond, but she tells him not to. "Just think about it."
She gets up and leaves the shuttle.
Dramatic music! Commercial break!
Wait, did she just ask him out?
Soren moves quick. I'm wondering, though... what is her endgame? He showed up on her doorstep because of a space anomaly, and he'll be leaving presumably once they find the lost shuttle (sometime tomorrow), so is she asking for a quickie with an alien? Like Lanel?
The next morning at 0800 hours, Soren and Riker are ready to go. La Forge talks to them briefly about how they'll need to get in, get the J'naii pilots, and get out, because the pocket will drain their shuttle quickly, as will the altered transporters. Soren and Riker get in, and there's a little song and dance to launch the shuttle. Picard wishes Riker and Soren luck over the comm channels, and as an added charm, Riker tells Picard that he'll see him at dinner.
The shuttle is launched.
Riker and Soren pilot the shuttle forward with 100% power, and slip into the pocket space.
Wild.
The shuttle's power drops by 16% just going in.
Riker tries calling the E, but gets no answer.
Out the window, they see the J'naii shuttle, the Taris Murn.
Man, that milky off-white of the pocket space is creeping me out. It looks like when a movie is trying to get all high-concept about the afterlife, and it's portrayed as being basically a blank white canvas. Or when Coraline walks too far from Other Mother's house, and the world disappears.
Soren tries to call the other ship, but gets no response. Riker's scans come back - the pilots are alive, but unconscious.
Time to transport over.
They try it, but it doesn't work. The pilots do not rematerialize.
"Down to 34% power," says Soren. "Much more, and we won't be able to beam ourselves out."
Riker makes some adjustments to the transporter, and attempts another beam. This time it works, and quick scans of the J'naii pilots shows that they're in need of medical attention.
They try to beam all four out, but again, it does not go through.
Soren checks the power. "We're at 9%. Not enough to get us out."
"We'll run out of life support in an hour if we just sit here," Riker notes. "Okay, we pretty much have one shot. I'm gonna dump power from everything - propulsion, life support, absolutely everything - into the transporters. That should give us enough juice."
"That should give us too much," Soren points out. "The shuttle will explode."
"Sure," he answers. "But if we do nothing, we die anyway. At least this way, we have a chance of making it out alive."
She agrees, they set the shuttle to overload, and jump back into position. This time, it works. They beam off, and the shuttle explodes.
Everyone is beamed directly to sick bay. Crusher confirms that the J'naii pilots have been deprived of oxygen, but that they'll recover nicely.
Krite thanks Riker for his help. Riker offers his thanks to Soren.
"Will you all join us for dinner on our planet?" asks Krite.
"Sounds awesome," says Picard cheerfully.
Then Krite suggests that Noor will want a first-hand report, and asks Soren to beam back down to the surface right away.
Soren says she will see Riker at the celebration later, and there's the briefest of shots of Krite, watching them, before both J'naii leave.
Later, everyone is enjoying the party, when Soren spots Riker sitting on a bench outside by himself. She approaches him, calling him the guest of honor.
"I can only take so much of social functions before I need to get some air," he explains.
"I would have thought you'd be used to these kinds of functions," she suggests.
"Nah, I was raised outdoors. Don't care much for crowded rooms."
Yeah, watching this during a pandemic... I gotta agree.
They get to talking about exobotany, and she offers to give him a nighttime tour of the garden. Seems innocent enough, but I'm aro-ace, and I never recognize flirting anyway, so what do I know?
Krite watches them go, because Krite is a creeper. Reminds me of Martin from Masterpiece Society. Why is it that when this show wants to indicate that someone is watching someone else, and is suspicious of that person, the watcher gets kind of stalkery, and them doing the watching is typically followed by dramatic music and sometimes a commercial break?
The foliage is pretty thick, and it seems like there's a path. Soren starts telling Riker about the different kinds of plants, like a trees whose leaves turn blue in winter, and another whose flowers only bloom rarely.
Riker pulls her arm, and lets her know without words that he's been doing that thinking that she asked him to do.
Dramatic music! Commercial break!
Picard's Log 45620.4: "We don't want other people getting lost in space, so we're hanging out here for a bit to chart the null space pocket."
Troi is in her quarters, looking through a plastic case, and removing antiques: some dolls and books and jewelry, as well as some old-school photographs.
Riker comes in for a visit, and she tells him that her mother sent her a box of stuff from her father's Terran ancestors. They look at some of the stuff together for a few moments.
"Hey, um... I need to talk to you," he starts. "I met someone who has become important to me."
"Soren?" she guesses.
"Yeah. And we're friends, right? You and me? I want to make sure that nothing is going to change between us," he says earnestly.
"Of course things will change," she smiles. "That's what relationships do. They change. But we'll still be friends, maybe even better friends than we are now."
Oh, I like that answer. Because it's true. You have no idea how things are going to go, and blindly saying "nothing will change between us!" rings hollow.
Riker is relieved.
He and Deanna are still friends.
Friends who kiss, apparently.
Riker goes to some quarters. Looks like maybe they were assigned to Soren while she was working with Riker? I don't know. But Soren isn't who is waiting for him. It's Krite.
"Hey, Soren and I had an appointment to talk about null space - "
"Nope. Soren isn't here. We know what the two of you were doing."
Making out in a garden?
Riker is getting pissed. "WHERE IS SOREN?"
"With the thought police. Leave it be."
"Not gonna happen." Riker stalks from the room.
Downstairs on the surface, Noor is holding a trial in an official-looking room.
"Are you aware of the charges?" they ask.
"I am," replies Soren, who is sitting by herself in front of Noor.
Riker bursts in.
"The hell?" asks Noor. "These are closed proceedings."
"I need you to know what really happened," he says. Riker can see the writing on the wall. He throws himself under the space bus. "I was attracted to Soren, and she explained your ways, but I pursued her. I acted in an inappropriate manner according to your culture."
"That true?" Noor asks Soren.
"No," says Soren quietly. She stands up. "I am tired of living a lie. I am female. I was born like this, and I am not sick, and I do not need to be cured. We're like you. We haven't injured you. But you attack us, because we're different. Why are you punishing us, and trying to change us?"
Dramatic music! Commercial break!
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| There's a subtle, muted rainbow among the costumes on the J'naii |
We return where it left off, in the official-looking trial room.
Noor: "I congratulate you, Soren. Your decision to admit your perversion makes it much more likely that we can help you."
Jesus, Noor. I want to complain that Star Trek is laying it on thick here, but these are things that homophobes have actually said to queer people (and still do), so I can't even be annoyed.
Noor gestures to some guards, who start to take Soren away.
Riker jumps in - now or never. "Wait - you don't have to take her away. I can take her with me, on the Enterprise. You won't have to deal with her, and she won't be here, influencing other people. Everybody wins!"
"No, you don't understand," Noor says. "Soren is sick, and wants to get well. That's what all sick people want. We take care of our people. We're not cruel. We want them to get better. Our treatment has a high success rate, and people are grateful after we've cured them of their deviance. Everyone wants to be normal."
This last statement pisses Riker off. "She is!"
But Noor tells the guards to haul Soren off, to start conversion therapy tomorrow, and Riker beams off the surface.
Get into the Neural Neutralizer, deviant!
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Upstairs, Riker is using Picard as the friend-therapist again, which... is still not the worst idea, although I do hope he's asking if this is okay first. Trauma-dumping on your boss is not the best choice, ya know?
Riker is frustrated and angry, because he cares for Soren, and recognizes that she's only going up on the mental chopping block because of him.
"I can't let them do the conversion therapy."
"Soooo, it sounds like you're asking permission to do something rash," Picard suggests. "I could talk to Noor for you instead?"
"They don't want to hear it," Riker replies.
"You can't get involved with J'naii internal affairs. It's against the Prime Directive," points out Picard.
Riker knows that. And he also knows that he could be risking his career over this.
"I can't defend your actions, after a certain point," says Picard.
This is not what Riker wants to hear. He formally asks Picard's permission to be excused, then leaves.
Riker is rushing around his quarters, gathering tools for whatever he's about to do, when the door chimes. It's Worf, who comes in with the plans to deploy warning buoys around the pocket of null space.
It's pretty much revealed then that Worf was using the buoy deployment as an excuse to come talk to Riker about his plans to spring Soren from gender jail. He wants in.
Riker admits nothing, but Worf is insisting that he accompany his friend to the surface to help him.
Two episodes in a row about the Riker-Worf friendship, which was maybe not done on purpose, but which is still kind of interesting. Because they are friends, Riker is not willing to help Worf commit suicide. And because they are friends, Worf is willing to risk his career and a possible interstellar incident to help Riker rescue his new girlfriend.
It's nighttime on the surface, of the same day that Soren is sentenced? I'm not sure. Without log entries, and with the E in space, the demarcation is kind of fuzzy. Riker has clearly accepted Worf's offer to ninja together in the bushes, but it is unclear whether they have come to Soren's rescue before or after that first treatment.
I know to save money on sets, they keep reusing the same building over and over again, but it really comes off as the J'naii only having one building for everyone and everything. Before, it was an official building for a Powerpoint, and then a party, then a trial. Now it's a mental hospital or something. There's no change to the building or the surrounding gardens. All of J'naii culture and activity is in that one building. Like Whittier, Alaska.
A bunch of people, dressed like regular J'naii rather than health professionals or patients, exit through the door where Riker was taking a break from the party earlier. Who are these people? Unclear.
Worf and Riker wait until those people have walked off, then Soren exits, flanked by the guards from before.
Riker steps out of the shadows and asks the guards if he can talk to Soren alone, which we all know isn't going to happen, so he and Worf start a fistfight. Worf stays behind to finish the job, while Riker runs off into the garden with Soren.
But Soren gets Riker to stop.
"It's okay," he says. "We'll go back to the Enterprise and you won't have to do the treatments. I won't let them hurt you."
"You don't understand," says Soren. "We've always been at war with Eurasia."
FUCK.
You can see Riker's face fall. Has Soren already had a treatment? Been brainwashed? Gaslit? Is this code-switching?
Either way, Soren is all, "I am happier now, because I was sick, and I will get better, and I'm sorry I dragged you into this."
Riker is stunned. This was not what he was expecting. "I love you," he says desperately.
"I'm sorry," says Soren, walking away into the darkness toward the building.
Upstairs on the bridge, Picard and Data are discussing the next assignment, when Riker comes in.
"We're going to the Phelan system," Picard tells him.
"Cool," mutters Riker.
"Didn't know what to tell Starfleet as to when we could get there," says Picard, dancing around the actual reason. "We done with the J'naii?"
"Yep," says Riker tonelessly.
And he does the thousand-mile stare they warp away from the J'naii homeworld.
*******
Before I get into the crux of the issues with this episode, let's discuss some side stuff.
For me, the B-plot is top notch sci-fi. Was it written specifically for this episode, with these characters in mind? Or was it an idea the writers had kicking around, kept in a hat somewhere until they needed a B-plot? Honestly, I don't think it matters. As far as I can tell, null space pockets don't exist in science. But they could. And the idea of a dangerous little pocket of space where one could disappear and not escape, is great.
One-episode romances rarely work for me. I get that they're put in to give the protagonist extra encouragement to Do The Thing, and to encourage the audience to root for the protagonist to Do The Thing, but they feel rushed. While there are definitely people in the universe who form attachments almost instantly, the truth is that more time is needed to for the audience to form an attachment to that pairing. There are instances of where it works, like in "The Host," where we start the story several weeks in. We see Crusher and Odan in the middle of their relationship, rather than the outset, and we're good with it. With stories like this and "Masterpiece Society," we see the moments where the couples meet, they form an attachment really quickly, and we're lead to believe that they're instantly all-in. Like, life-changingly all-in. Throw your career away, move to another planet, all-in. This person that they hardly know. This episode tries to make up for the lack of time involved by having Riker go to Troi to declare how much Soren means to him, and by insisting to Picard that his relationship with Soren is "not trivial." While we have no idea how long the Enterprise crew was working with the J'naii, it feels very Romeo and Juliet... in that they seem to have known one another about 4 days.
I think someone was not paying attention to dates for these few episodes, as this one takes place 10 days after Worf is paralyzed. By all accounts, he should not be in this episode, as he is either preparing for surgery, or recovering from it...
So let's get into it.
Picture it: the US, around the late 80's, early 90's.
The gay community has been left reeling from the AIDS epidemic. That motherfucking piece of shit Reagan has actually rejoiced in the mysterious deaths of gay men, because he figures it will solve The Gay Problem.
It's at least another six years until "The Puppy Episode" on Ellen.
And so the gay community asks Star Trek, "please could you make a gay episode, because when you talk about forbidden things, you wrap it up in sci-fi, to get away with it?" Which makes sense, given that, even though the Hays Code had been ditched in 1968, people were still toeing the line when it came to gay stories in the mainstream. (And frankly, we are still dealing with repercussions from the Hays Code in the form of the Bury Your Gays trope.) Several letter-writing campaigns pointed out that they had tackled a lot of sensitive topics this way, but had not yet covered queer stories.
Before his death, Gene Rod had suggested that they add two men holding hands in the background of some episodes but both Michael Piller and Rick Berman rejected this idea.
(I agree. A "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" moment is not good representation. It's too subtle, and comes off as wishy-washy, and feels like you're either taking baby steps until the mainstream catches up; or suggests that you think that we live in a post-homophobic world, which we definitely do not.)
The writers kicked the idea down the road a few times before it was finally taken up by Jeri Taylor, who was eager to write such a story."I am not a gay person, but as a woman I do consider myself in a particular minority; I know what it feels like to be disenfranchised - not in that precise way - and I felt like I had a touchstone to some of the feelings that must be involved."
Oh, Jeri. Jeri, Jeri, Jeri. This is a great place to start, but an exceptionally bad place to end. Because I don't think she ever gave her script to a gay person.
You start with the feelings of discrimination you feel, but you end by finding out if it matches the feelings of discrimination by a member of that group.
The feelings I get from being charged a uterus tax at the mechanic are different from the feelings I have when being queer-bashed. And neither is the same as the feelings that other queer people get while being queer-bashed. As a person with a lot of transgender friends, I have a front row seat to their experiences. But I am not living them.
Am I saying that giving that giving the script to a gay person to look over would have fixed this episode?Hell no. I've already spoken about the trans opera, where a gay man wrote the opera based on the life story of his friend, a trans woman. My friends and I were invited to see it, and found it a bit tone-deaf. The people involved all seemed to be patting themselves on the back for making the First Trans Opera, but did not seem open to criticism during the Q&A. And the film "Stonewall" was written by gay man, and hideously whitewashed.
Queer people make crap too. But there was a possibility that this could have turned out better than it did, and I don't feel like it got that chance.
Did all of it suck? No. Soren's speech to Noor in the courtroom scene was pretty accurate, though her closing line of "What makes you think you can dictate how people love each other?" feels awkward because, while it pertains specifically to queer people, it doesn't really pertain to the J'naii. No one is asking them to choose different partners. Soren stated that she tends to choose partners who identify as male, but no one would have known that that would be why Soren had that partner, unless he was also outed as having a gender. And the J'naii might not even object to their pairing. Their sole concern seemed to be gender.
As ever, it all comes back to sex. Soren and Riker discuss what sex is like for humans versus J'naii. Soren wonders if humans and J'naii are sexually compatible. She asks Riker about his genitals. People are obsessed with sex. And I get it, humans are a curious lot. If something is different from our learned experience, we ask a lot of questions to gain a better perspective. But queer people are tired of having awkward, invasive conversations about queer sex. And trans people should never - and I do mean NOT FUCKING EVER - be asked about their genitals. Cisgender, heterosexual people never get asked about sex or genitals, because we as a species seem to have collectively declared cishet as the default (debatable), and we already know all of that. But here is some advice, when one feels like asking another about sex or genitals:
Google does not give one loose fuck about giving you the answer to an otherwise invasive question. It has neverending patience for such a thing, and if you feel such compunctions, you can erase your browser history afterward.
This also leads me to believe that Jeri Taylor never ran this script by gay people: queers are done talking about sex. Being that it was 1991 and there was no wide-spread access to the internet at that time, a queer editor may have sighed and said "okay," when presented with Taylor's script, but the response would have been apathetic. An acceptance of an irritation for the sake of knowledge.
The part where they made all of the J'naii queer, and a small number of the population feels like an itchy, ill-fitting sweater. "We'll flip the situation on-end, so that straight people will know how it feels."
No? Not really? It comes off as a rehash of season one's "Angel One," where the writers tried to convey a sense of patriarchy vs feminism by representing a matriarchal society. That episode wasn't great, either. You can't just reverse the situation and expect it to stick your whole landing.
Then we come to the weirdness of the actors chosen: the J'naii are all played by female actors. Now, I'm not going to complain about the lack of enby actors to play enby characters. This was 1991, and non-binary people were in shorter supply because it just wasn't safe to be out. For anyone. For every out musician/actor/public figure, how many closeted ones? Dozens, is my guess. Did they purposefully cast only females to play genderless people? Seems like it. Because if they had chosen a male actor to play Soren, to be kissed by Riker, that would have technically been a same-sex kiss, and called Riker's sexuality into question. Which Jonathan Frakes actually called out as being kind of cowardly: "I didn't think they were gutsy enough to have taken it where they should have. Soren should have been more obviously male. We've gotten a lot of mail on this episode, but I'm not sure it was as good as it could have been - if they were trying to do what they call a gay episode."
And receive mail they did - conservative viewers wrote in to complain about the "gay episode," but Star Trek received far more mail from queer viewers who felt that the show had not gone far enough. Rick Berman noted that the writers tried not to let viewers influence their choices in making television too much, but thought that "having Riker engaged in passionate kisses with a male actor might have been a little unpalatable to viewers."
BOO, RICK BERMAN. Are you the same franchise that celebrated an interracial kiss between Kirk and Uhura, or what?
Because this episode is a layer cake of heavy sighs, I should note that Jeri Taylor said that she "really wanted to make a statement about tolerance, broad-mindedness, and acceptance for those who are disenfranchised." Michael Piller had similar thoughts, concerning not being balanced in viewpoints: "I don't think there is another side that's easily supportable. I think that bigotry is bigotry, prejudice is prejudice, and it can be said with all the fervor and belief, but it still comes out as prejudice. I don't know how to make an intolerant person attractive."
Intentions there were good, but Hell & Handbaskets. You know the drill.
It kind of goes sideways again when you recognize that the writing staff is very proud of this episode. Lots of back-patting by straight cis writers, writing a queer episode that no queer person seems to have read beforehand, and which queer people generally object to for being too subtle. Rick Berman said: "We thought we had made a very positive statement in a distinctly Star Trek way, but we still got letters from those who thought it was just our way of "washing our hands" of the homosexual situation."
Yeah, Rick. Definitely feels that way.
It reminds me heavily of "Violations," where the writing staff stood around and congratulated themselves on having written a "creative" rape episode. It just feels so tone-deaf.
Fun Facts:
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Pie for Klingon Council
The last thing that I want to talk about is legacies.
Sometimes, something is made that is considered groundbreaking for the time, but comes to be known later as being problematic or not pushing the envelope far enough. Camp and cross-dressing has been acceptable in comedy, as long as it was played for laughs, and being gay was not mentioned outright. Sitcoms began featuring gay characters in the 1970's. But real-life people like Liberace and Paul Lynde never publicly came out. Too dangerous. Paul Lynde could get away with thinly-veiled jokes his whole life, playing it for laughs, but never saying the thing outright. Star Trek banks on the same - they could produce shows during the Vietnam War that were very clearly about the Vietnam War, because they could hide behind the concept of science fiction. And when that works, you can end up with a very poignant message. When it doesn't, the best you can say is that an attempt was made. This episode falls into the latter category. The envelope wasn't pushed hard enough, and when I think about content to recommend to people as good examples of queer content in otherwise straight shows or films, I am not reaching for this episode. I am, in fact, sending people to watch TOS' "Metamorphosis," an excellent example of a trans allegory, even if Star Trek had not intended it to be so. It works as good sci-fi, a queer story, and a fine specimen of Star Trek storytelling. This episode is... not that.
In the end, "The Outcast" doesn't really talk about gay issues, queer issues, trans issues, conversion therapy... it just kind of quietly whispers to itself in the corner about those things while the writers congratulate themselves.
Fun Facts:
- The concept of null space will come up again in both Voyager and Discovery
- Megan Cole (Noor) will later appear in two episodes of DS9.
- The poker game Federation Day is the first time that we hear that the Federation was formed in 2161.
- This is the first appearance of La Forge's beard. LeVar Burton prefers facial hair, but the producers were not into it. He basically snuck it in, but would be made to shave prior to the filming of the next episode. It will appear in two more TNG episodes, then two TNG films.
- The Magellan was the first armed shuttlecraft on TNG.
- It's tough to know how Klingons feel about gender equality. In "Angel One," Worf notes that Klingons like "strong women." K'Ehleyr is offered a spot on the Council in exchange for favors, but it is later revealed that women cannot sit on the Council. Lursa and B'Etor are forced to gain power through a bastard brother of their father. Women go to war alongside the men, and a female warrior carries just as much clout as a male. But here, Worf complains that the poker game that Troi has chosen is a "women's game" because it favors a weak hand. Figure it out, Star Trek. Starting to feel like the old, "can Data use contractions?" argument.
- There's a Vermeer painting hanging on the wall behind Worf during the poker scene. It's called "Woman Holding a Balance," which is rather apt for a poker scene in an episode where a woman is deciding whether or not to come out as female. These are Data's quarters, so it'll be seen there again in season six.
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Mentions of the number 47: 0
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