T4TNG: The Accidentally Trans STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION Episode
Continuing our Pride Month Star Trek coverage, we're turning towards a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode that 'no homo'd' so hard, it accidentally became a prescient transgender allegory.
For this week's Trek Tuesday , we're considering The Next Generation Season 5's 'The Outcast.' 'The Outcast'
The seventeenth episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5, 'The Outcast,' was originally broadcast on March 26, 1992. The U.S.S. Enterprise-D is assisting a species called the J'naii. What makes this species remarkable is that they are androgynous. As explained over the course of the episode, the majority of the species view binary gender as something they collectively evolved beyond in the past.
In addition to an androgynous gender presentation, the J'naii no longer have biological gender diversity. When it comes to reproduction, both partners inject their DNA into an external womb. Furthermore, the J'naii do have a gender-neutral pronoun. However, it is stated that there is no direct translation for these pronouns.
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In the episode, William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) meets a particular member of the J'naii species: Soren (Melinda Culea). Soren and Riker and assigned to work together closely on the project with which the Enterprise is assisting the J'naii. From the outset, Soren displays a particular interest in the human approach to binary gender. Eventually, she explains to Riker that some members of her species possess binary gender. Soren is one of them.
But then she tells Riker a heartbreaking story about what happens to these gendered J'naii. In addition to ridicule, 'psychotectic therapy' is utilized. This stand-in for conversion therapy brainwashes these gendered individuals into believing they are androgynous. Afterwards, they are reintegrated into J'naii society. At the conclusion of the episode, Soren is identified as a 'gender deviant,' and after a bogus trial, she is placed into psychotectic therapy. When Riker reunites with her in the final scenes, she has been fundamentally altered. The Soren he knew is gone. The Final Front-queer
Written by Jeri Taylor and directed by Robert Scheerer, 'The Outcast' is a standout episode of The Next Generation. Today, with the oppressive American regime targeting the trans community specifically, it is difficult to read the episode as anything besides an allegory about trans acceptance. But part of why the episode works so well with this reading is because punches were pulled regarding the original intention of the story.
When 'The Outcast' aired in the early 1990s, the broader discourse regarding the LGBTQ+ community was centered on gay people. Just as the weapon of conversion therapy can be aimed towards trans people, it can be aimed at gay people, too. In order to ensure that the episode wasn't too 'controversial,' a woman was hired to play Soren rather than a man.
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Decades later, Frakes expressed his regret at the shift in casting. He expressed this sentiment in a 2021 episode of After Trek centering on the Star Trek: Discovery episode 'Vaulting Ambition.' In that episode of After Trek , he stated: 'Clearly, the character who […] fell in love with Riker or vice versa should have been played by a man, and the people at the studio didn't have the guts to cast a man.'
This wasn't the first time that The Next Generation approached gay representation. David Gerrold, who famously wrote the script for the classic Star Trek: The Original Series episode 'The Trouble with Tribbles,' wrote a script for The Next Generation that was never made into an actual episode. In 'Blood and Fire,' two characters were alluded to be gay, and the episode at large dealt with the AIDS crisis. The Trans Read
Casting a woman as Soren may have been a decision made in order to make the romance between her and Riker seem less controversial. However, thirty-three years later, this makes the episode seem more like a trans allegory.
Part of the Star Trek approach is to address real-world social concerns through the lens of science fiction. This allows for the show to include discussion and analysis of themes that might be otherwise considered outside of the purview of 'television entertainment.' There are many examples of this tactic throughout the history of the Franchise. One of the earliest and most frequently cited episodes to utilize the approach is The Original Series Season 3's 'Let That Be Your Last Battlefield.'
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There is a reason that an episode that was written with gay people in mind can today be viewed as a trans allegory. This is because the social and legal pressures that were applied to gay people in the 1990s are so similar to the social and legal pressures that are being applied to trans people today.
While conservative extremists may have trans people on the top of their target list, they are prejudiced against the whole LGBTQ+ community. They do not see any part of our community as people. Or at best, they perceive us to be people who are 'broken,' and need to be fixed with conversion therapy. Soren
Nevertheless, it is remarkable how many of Soren's statements could be straight out of a contemporary trans person's mouth. In the climactic scene, she states, 'I am tired of lies. I am female.' She continues that she was 'born this way.' She says, 'It is not unnatural. I am not sick because I feel this way; I do not need to be helped; I do not need to be cured. What I need, and what all of those who are like me need, is your understanding and your compassion.'
Later in her monologue, she states that people like her are 'called misfits and deviants and criminals.' It is not hard to see how these statements could apply in response to the prejudice that trans people face today. For example, it was recently falsely claimed on The Benny Show that the trans community 'is per capita the most violent domestic terror threat if not in America, probably the entire world.' This is a lie. We are not misfits, deviants or criminals. We are Americans who simply wish to live our lives.
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Soren's entire climactic speech is equally as relevant as these excerpts. In order to fully appreciate it, please watch (or rewatch) the episode for yourself.
However, Soren's speech is not enough to sway her fellow J'naii. As mentioned above, the episode concludes with her having undergone psychotectic therapy. Drained of the passion she once possessed, she is no longer the same person she was. Ad Astra Per Aspera
For some, the decision to conclude the episode with Soren's identity having been eradicated by psychotectic therapy is controversial. However, I would argue the ending is necessary. Furthermore, it is clear from the powerful final shot that the experience weighs heavily on Riker.
This is not meant to be a stable ending. This is meant to be an ending that forces the viewer to consider their own worldview and ask themselves some very difficult questions.
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Today, the spectre of forced conversion therapy is once again becoming more mainstream. For this reason, 'The Outcast' is more relevant than ever. To look the other way from the immoral forces pushing for conversion therapy is to allow innocent people to be subjected to this barbaric abuse.
To borrow a tagline from 1951's The Day the Earth Stood Still, 'The Outcast' is a warning… and an ultimatum. Will you heed its moral?
Star Trek: The Next Generation's 'The Outcast' is currently available for streaming on Paramount+.
STAR TREK: 5 Alternate Lives Avery Kaplan is the author of several books and the Features Editor at Comics Beat. She was honored to serve as a judge for the 2021 Cartoonist Studio Prize Award and the 2021 Prism Awards. She lives in the mountains of Southern California with her partner and a pile of cats, and her favorite place to visit is the cemetery. You can also find her writing on Comics Bookcase, NeoText, Shelfdust, the Mary Sue, StarTrek.com, in many issues of PanelxPanel, and in the margins of the books in her personal library.
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