Plot Synopsis: Riker falls in love with a member of an androgynous race known as the J’naii, who dares to be female. Also some shuttlecraft crew are in mortal danger for most of the episode, but who cares about them?
Plot A and B Analysis: The teaser is very brief. The Enterprise are helping the J’naii investigate the disappearance of one of their shuttlecraft. Plot A is about Riker and Soren, the barely evident plot B involves rescuing the J’naii shuttle crew. The plot begins with a boring lesson on what null space is; it’s mercifully brief. It’s invisible to sensors and drains the energy of whatever is inside it, and it’s where the J’naii shuttlecraft is. Soren is a member of the J’naii (we never really learn what she does), who, as a self-proclaimed “good pilot” insists on piloting the shuttle they’ll use for the rescue mission. Riker agrees to train her to fly a Federation shuttle. They spend a lot of time together on this episode, and we learn the J’naii used to have both sexes before evolving into a ‘higher form’ and view gender as being primitive. This is a problem for Soren, who is a throwback to the days when there used to be two sexes, and she views herself as female. She and Riker get involved while rescuing the J’naii shuttlecraft crew, gets found out, and ordered to undergo “psychotectic” treatment. Riker and Worf try to rescue her, but it’s too late. The plot moves along at a reasonable pace, but it’s not particularly memorable.
Favorite Scenes: There are two. There is one line that’s easily the best in the entire episode. It’s in the 12th minute while Riker and Soren are in the shuttle. They’re firing phasers to map the outline of the ridiculous ‘null space’ when Soren says, “Commander, tell me about your sexual organs.” The conversation that follows will likely give you a chuckle. The best overall scene is the poker game in Data’s quarters in the 18th minute. Deanna says in this game three different cards are wild, which Worf disapproves of:
Worf: That is a woman’s game.
Deanna *playing it cool*: Oh, why is that?
Worf: All those wild cards. They support a weak hand. A man’s game has no wild cards.
Beverly: Let me get this straight. You’re saying it’s a woman’s game because women are weak and need more help?
Worf *looking right at her*: Yes.
Worf goes on to talk about why the J’naii bother him, Beverly thinks Soren has got the hots for Riker, and Worf doesn’t like this either.
Worf: A human and a J’naii? impossible.
Data *confused*: Why?
Deanna: Good question. Worf?
Worf *looks around, realizing the deep water he is in*: All these wild cards, it is difficult to know what is exactly in my hand…
Use of Cast/Characters: This is a Riker episode, though structurally you could call it a two-person episode: Riker and Soren. He gets some character development, falling in love, and has a pretty rough time of things. Frakes does a good job with the material he is given, and is in virtually every scene. Geordi’s main purpose is to have one scene in the shuttle bay showing off his new beard! Whenever Geordi’s name is mentioned in this episode, change it in your mind to “Beardy” and you’ll have more fun watching. Beardy, Picard and Data all have one scene. Beverly and Deanna are lucky I guess, they have two. Worf has one scene also, and he finally gets to win a fight! It feels like the first time, though he probably has on the Klingon-centered episodes. Someone should comb through TNG and number how many of them Worf actually wins. Worf also supports his friend, Will Riker, which is cool. Melinda Culea portrays Soren and does a serviceable but not exceptional job–this may be in part because the J’naii seem to express virtually no emotion, but Spiner does this every episode.
Blu Ray Version: If you have a chance, watch the episode promo. Even the promo doesn’t make this episode seem that interesting. It’s one you watch and go “oh geez, Riker falls in love, that’s the plot?” The promo ends with a tacked-on explosion I find funny as it’s blatant pandering. There is a deleted scene that takes place right after Riker talks to Deanna in her quarters. It’s in engineering, and features Beardy! He says the null space pocket is harder to map than they thought and leaves, and Riker and Soren make dinner plans while the J’naii leader looks on from a distance. It’s only 45 seconds long, but it bridges the scene with Deanna and Riker walking into Soren’s quarters, and gives the audience more reason to see why the J’naii leader suspects something is going on. It’s a little better leaving it in, which is usually not my opinion. Some of the graphical displays are improved, and the planet is altered a bit. I love some of the beautiful bright colors, especially in the meeting in the 3rd minute.
Nitpicks: I suppose this is just an artifact of the decade that TNG was on, but I don’t like how this teaser ends, with Soren asking a question and instead of any answer or reaction, Picard just stands up and walks forward, staring into the middle distance; it’s a trope that is used again and again. If you pause at 10:06 and look at Soren’s face, the prosthetic bone ridge isn’t lined up with her nose, it’s crooked. Later in the 21st minute, it is perfectly aligned.
Overall Impression: The subtext of this episode, of course, is homosexuality. As a rural 16-yr old in early 1992 I didn’t pick up on it, but it is pretty obvious. I’m going to sidestep the social issues a bit here, but I will say that while this is a clever way to deal with a topic that has only gotten hotter as time has passed, the plot of the episode itself isn’t terrifically interesting. It plays up to sci-fi’s unique position to address social issues from an oblique angle, but Riker having a forbidden love doesn’t do much for me; I also don’t see a guy like Riker falling in love with someone with her personality. This episode does take some chances, but is also boring one to watch. There is no felt sense of danger or tension regarding the endangered shuttlecraft crew, and not much chemistry between Riker and Soren. I rate this episode 2 out of 5 stars.
Behind the Scenes/Trivia: Other episodes that address homosexuality include The Host, the DS9 episode Rejoined, and the ENT episode Stigma. The poker game reveals to us for the first time the year the Federation was founded, 2161. I’ll make a brief mention of Beardy: while Levar liked the idea of having a beard evidently the producers did not. He goes a bit stubbly in A Fistful of Datas and The Quality of Life, but that’s it until the movies.
Missable/Unmissable? Missable. The next one, though, is one of the greatest episodes in the history of Star Trek.