‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ Retro Recap – ‘The Outcast’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

It’s been a long time since these Retro Recaps have had anything incredibly critical to say about Star Trek: The Next Generation and there is good reason for that. Because once we got past the utter disaster that was ‘Shades of Grey’, the series turned everything around in the writers’ room, and delivered powerhouse tale after powerhouse tale. To the point where it appeared for a while there, that this series could do no wrong. As though the writing staff had figured out the formula and knew how to tell nothing but stories that resonated and made us think, but alas, that was a false sense of security for certain. Because the next episode in this series made it clear that mistakes were still going to happen in this saga, especially when the story in question… played it safe. 
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Which is precisely what ‘The Outcast’ does and that’s shocking to say the least since its subject matter initially makes it seem as though it is going to be a brave tale. For it saw Commander William T. Riker fall head over heels in love with an alien named Soren that hailed from a race of non-binary beings known as the J’naii and well, that alone makes it sound like Trek was about to tackle some serious topics head on. Because having a non-binary individual on screen in such a major franchise would have been and should have been groundbreaking in every way imaginable. Since that is something that no science fiction series or story in general was tackling in the early 1990s. But alas, it doesn’t take long for this particular tale to make it clear that it is going to bungle everything it is going to attempt to say about equal rights.

For this particular tale shows us a Federation and members of Starfleet that are straight up close minded to this species. Since Worf says some downright awful and out of character things about non-binary individuals and an organization as progressive as the Federation, sees its members struggle with the concept of non-binary individuals, to the point where they have to ask about what it is like to be in a genderless species and speak to how ‘strange’ that is for them and that’s just awful to see play out on screen. Because this is 2368, when man has moved past that kind of closed-minded thinking, and it has no place here. Plus, to complicate matters further, the story eventually reveals that sometimes a member of the J’naii will ‘choose’ a gender, allowing for that heteronormal relationship between Soren and Riker to take place.

Which is perhaps the greatest insult this episode puts forth since it more or less paints the LGBTQ+ community as one that is striving for heteronormalcy and well, that’s a shame when all is said and done. Because this is a second swing and a miss for TNG when it comes to addressing equal rights and representation and what’s worse is that it was so close to being something so brilliant. In fact, just by having members of the Federation or Starfleet pay no mind to a person’s gender would have made this story insanely progressive. And if the story also had the crew of the Enterprise step in and perhaps save the J’naii from persecution and still have Riker fall in love with Soren, well then, this episode would have been downright iconic. But alas, it was afraid to push the envelope and will forever be remembered as a bit of an embarrassment and a lost opportunity storytelling wise.

But it is important to note that eventually the franchise would make up for its mistakes here. Since Deep Space Nine would handle gender fluidity better by way of Jadzia and Ezri Dax and Discovery would of course introduce non-binary characters into canon and treat them with the respect and the proper pronouns that were missing here. It is frustrating though that TNG never quite led the way in such matters however, considering how many thoughtful and forward-thinking episodes it featured over the course of its seven-year run. But sadly, behind the scenes politics and concerns that a mainstream audience wouldn’t be able to handle something this progressive, marred this series from becoming one of the most progressive of its time and that’s genuinely unfortunate for certain and all we can hope for at this point, is that we don’t run into any more episodes during this re-watch, that shy away from what’s right in such a cowardly manner. Until next time.

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