The Enterprise is set to aid an alien race that's lost a manned shuttle into a once theoretical space phenomenon, a pocket of "null space." The race, the J'nnai, are an androgynous race having evolved past common gender roles.
Over the course of the mission Riker works closely with one of their specialists, Soren, who asks Riker many questions about being part of a species with two sexes, Riker naturally has his own questions about a race with one sex. As they continue to work together Soren reveals that she's part of a minority of J'naii who identify with common gender roles, in this case female.
On her planet identifying with a gender is considered deviant behavior and if discovered she'll be given treatments to "reprogram" her back into an androgynous way of thinking.
After Riker and Soren save the lost shuttle crew they kiss while on a walk on her planet. But a series of other incidents, as well as Soren's curiosity on gender roles, gets her discovered by her superiors and is put on trial. Riker tries to make an impassioned speech on her behalf, even offering asylum on the ship, but he's turned down.
Soren makes an impassioned speech in order to try and convince the justices to not force people like her into undergoing these treatments but she's found guilty anyway and sent off to be treated. Riker tries to save her before the treatments are set to take place but is too late, the reprogrammed Soren now realizes how "sick" she was all of this time and apologizes to Riker for misleading him. Riker, sad, returns to the Enterprise which sets off for its next mission.
Okay, obviously this was Trek's first stab (or one of the first stabs) to tackle the "gay issue" that was beginning to become more and more on the surface during the the time this episode was produced and still continues to be an issue up to present day.
And, honestly, I think the episode mostly handles the issue okay. It puts enough of a sci-fi twist on it to make it a unique situation while at the same time maintaining the premise of the message it wants to go for. Society taking those who are "deviant" by not being acting in a manner that's not expected and outcasting them from society and in extreme cases taking measures to force them into the status quo.
In the episode Soren speaks of how she's had to hide her leanings for her entire life, in particular scared watching a classmate reprogrammed after identifying as male.
As scary as it sounds, the idea of "reprogramming" someone to fit into the status quo isn't too out of line considering "faith healing" and other forms and attempts of curing or correcting homosexuality is practiced today. Granting that the medical community says it's not only impossible but likely doing more harm than any good making the processes not widely excepted it's still something that exists.
As far as society (in particular American society) may have come in the 20+ years since this episode was made the constant battles continuing on in the "red states" for same-sex marriages shows there's still a long way for our own society to go. And there's still plenty of people out there who see homosexuality as a deviant behavior that needs "correcting," a choice on the person "afflicted" with it or that it's anything other than a human being who simply has different tastes and desires.
Considering the time the episode came from it's actually pretty remarkable and good in how it handles the issue in a unique way.
It's also worth noting that the androgynous "woman" Riker connects with is hardly.... Well, she's hardly Riker's "type" at least when we compare her to all of the other women Riker has sexual encounters with over the course of the series. On a physical level, at least. (This is not to insult the actress playing Soren, but the makeup, costuming, and other aspects were all intentionally designed to make her as androgynous looking as possible.) This actually reveals something about Riker that's good to see in that he's more attracted to the person beneath and not the physicality of the person. Riker truly cared for Soren, so much so he effectively asks for Troi's permission to pursue a relationship, and wanted to save her so badly he potentially jeopardized his career in order to save her.
I'd always heard they originally wanted to use a male actor to play Soren, which Jonathon Frakes was all for, but the show's creators decided to play it safe and used a female.
We get some interesting insight as Soren asks various members of the crew about gender roles where it seems our 20th/21st century manners are still very much in play. (Largely women be more concerned and obvious in their physical appearance to attract men.) There's also discussion during a poker game over gender roles where we learn Worf is bothered by the androgynous races and perhaps still harbors some preferences to traditional gender roles. (Criticizing Troi's choice for wild cards in their poker game, that they make it a woman's game.)
Overall, I think this is an episode that probably gets overlooked when it comes to the "message episodes." And while it's certainly trying to play things fairly safe and isn't too greatly subtle about it's message it still manages to play things pretty good, again considering the time the episode was made.
Not too bad of an episode really. But next week? We're in for a treat!
