The issue of gay rights was not a new one for STAR TREK. As early as 1987 when THE NEXT GENERATION was first announced, a group of homosexual and lesbian fans queried series creator Gene Roddenberry at a Boston convention about whether the proposed show would feature gay characters. Roddenberry replied that it would. On the scene, taking copious notes, was David Gerrold, who had been hired by Roddenberry to work on the writing staff of the new show.

For Gerrold, Roddenberry's comments in Boston provided a jumping off point for "Blood and Fire," a NEXT GENERATION script that never made it on the air. "We were at the convention together a week after Paramount had announced the new show," said Gerrold. "

[Roddenberry inset: Roddenberry, all talk and no action on the issue of gay rights.]

[The Outcast scene shot: Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and his androgynous lover Soren (Melinda Culea), a member of the J'naii, a race that forbids gender contact, in "The Outcast," a plea for sexual tolerance.

[Photo of the kiss: Forbidden love: Riker kisses Soren in "The Outcast.'" Jonathan Frakes, who plays Riker, felt that the episode would have been even stronger if men, instead of women, had been cast in the roles of the androgynous J'naii.

Everybody wanted to know what we were going to do. A group of gay fans had organized and asked Gene if it wasn't time to put a gay character on the Enterprise? Gene said, 'Yes, you're right.' I was taking notes of everything he said because I was going to write the show's bible for Gene, which he had asked me to do. Later on, in a staff meeting with everyone in November or December of that year, Gene said we should put a gay character in a script and [producer] Bob Justman replied, 'What do you want, Lt. Tootie Fruitie?' and Gene said, 'No, no, no! Seriously, it is time that we acknowledged this.'"

Noted first season writer/producer Herb Wright, "Gene's public reaction first season, when we were talking about doing his [Gerrold's unproduced] script for 'Blood and Fire' which David certainly saw as dealing with a gay issue was, 'It's the 24th century. By that time nobody gives a shit! It's an issue of the 20th century and maybe the 19th century, but it has nothing to do with the 24th century. By that time it's your choice of whoever you want.'"

But Gerrold quickly realized that what Roddenberry may have said in public didn't necessarily reflect his intentions, as many writers would learn in their dealings with the late STAR TREK producer. "I fall into the category of people who believed Gene Roddenberry when he said things," recalled Gerrold, who wrote "The Trouble With Tribbles" one of "Classic Trek's" most popular episodes. "Gene Roddenberry said he wanted to do issue shows. I was struggling with doing a script that was so good that people would forget about the Tribbles' for a while."

Recalled Gerrold, "About that time [designer] Mike Minor [STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN] was being considered as art director. We found out he had AIDS, and he later died of it. He wasn't hired because he was very sick. I decided I would do a script as an AIDS allegory in which there was a disease so awful that you had to destroy an infected ship and our people beam over there."

Gerrold was assigned by Roddenberry to work on the script with producer Herb Wright with whom Gerrold immediately developed a rapport. "I worked very, very closely with him [Wright] and we argued about the story, and we found an ending, and we found everything to make it work," said Gerrold. "It was really a good STAR TREK story. The idea was that the disease itself was a creature, called a 'Sparkle-dancer,' that had been hurt. It needed to be cured itself to become healthy. In writing the script I had to kill off a crewman. We had this continuing phobia about the old show that no one would put on the red shirt. I decided to kill off a medical technician, not the security guy. I told Herb Wright, 'Gene said he wanted to see gay characters on the Enterprise. What if these two guys were lovers? We won't make a big thing out of it.'It worked for me.'Try it,'he said."

The reaction among the staff to Grerrold's idea was mixed, as memos began to circulate about the storyline. "The way the show worked at that time was that instead of staff meetings, everyone wrote memos," said Gerrold. "There was a paper trail trail yard wide and a mile long on everything and the memo on this was half that. People complained the script had blatant homo-sexual characters. Rick Berman said we can't do this in an afternoon market in some places. Well have parents writing letters. The other half of the memos were, from people like Dorothy Fontana and Herb Wright and Bob Lewin, who said this is a very strong script. "I'm not making Rick Berman a villain because he also acknowledged the technical aspects of the script were right on the nose for what the show needed to be. But Rick Berman was the studio guy. He was watching out for the studio's interests. Herb Wright stuck his head in my office and said something or other about them wanting me to take the gay characters out. I said, 'Fine, I'm not married to them. It's just Gene said he wanted to do it. Why not pay off the debt? Keep the promises. It was to honor Mike Minor but if Gene doesn't want to do it, it is his show.'"

Gerrold thought better of the requested script rewrite and continued to press the issue. "I wrote a memo in which I noted Gene had said in front of an audience of 3000 people that he wanted to see gay characters on the show; he wanted to do issue stories, and later said the same thing in a staff meeting. I wrote that I had just one question. 'If not here, where? If not now, when?' I left it at that. Herb Wright stuck his head in my office later that day and said, 'Great memo, but still take the characters out.' I did the rewrite with Tasha instead, and it worked."

Once Gerrold had dropped the gay characters, reaction to the script again circulated through the office. "Bob Justman had written a memo about the gay characters not working, and then he wrote a memo saying this version isn't any stronger," said Gerrold. "Justman said we should put the gay characters back. Why are we afraid of showing gay characters on STAR TREK? What are we, wusses? Dorothy Fontana told him that his story memos weren't helpful.

[picture: Nicole Orth-Pallavicini as the new physical vessel for Odan in "The Host," bidding farewell to Crusher who finds she is unable to continue a relationship. in fourth season's "The Host," Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) falls in love with Odan (Frank Luz), a parasitic alien whose corporeal body is only a temporary shell.]

People used them as an excuse to scuttle stories. It was really upsetting." After several rewrites, ordered by Roddenberry and others, Gerrold gave up on the script and the hope of tackling the AIDS and the gay issue on THE NEXT GENERATION. Gerrold left the show to develop a science fiction series for Columbia called TRACKERS, but continued to drop by the STAR TREK office to visit. On one occasion when he stopped off to see Herb Wright, Wright complained that he had been given the job of rewriting Gerrold's "Blood and Fire." . Recalled Gerrold, "He was complaining that he had six rewrites to do. I said, 'Let me do the rewrite on "Blood and Fire"for you.' He said, 'Well, go get Gene's permission.' I went downstairs, stuck my head into Gene's office and said, 'Look, I know Herb Wright has to do a rewrite on "Blood and Fire." Let me do it for you guys. Ill take some of the load off.' And Gene replied, 'Gosh, David, I knew I could always depend on you. You're such a good friend.' Gene said, 'Go upstairs and see if it's all right with Herb Wright.' Instead of telling him Herb had already said it was all right, I said, 'Yes, sir.'

The elevator was real, real slow," recalled Gerrold about trying to rush to the writer's office to give him the good news. "When I get to the top floor, he's on the phone. Herb holds up his finger Shh!—a sign not to make any noise. On the phone he's saying, 'Right Gene. Yes, I'll tell him.' He hung up and said, That was Gene Roddenberry. He told me to tell you that it wasn't all right with me.' Then Herb said, 'I don't lie for any man.'"

For Gerrold, who later brought Roddenberry to task before the Writers Guild for union infractions during his tenure on THE NEXT GENERATION, reportedly winning a sizable settlement when the matter went into arbitration, the moment was a turning point. "At that point I knew that I had been lied to about a lot of stuff all season long," said Gerrold. "All the pieces fell into place. It's like the epiphany in the movies. I really felt betrayed. Egos got in the way of the storytelling the first couple of seasons. That was unfortunate. I didn't care if Gene wanted to be The Great Bird of the Galaxy.' I just wanted to tell good, meaningful stories."

With Gerrold's "Blood and Fire" choked off in its embryonic development, the gay issue on THE NEXT GENERATION had been put on the back burner. It wasn't until fourth season's "The Host" that the issue of sexual preference was once again raised. Ironically, "The Host," in which Dr. Crusher falls in love with an alien ambassador who is actually the host body of an extraterrestrial parasite, has been looked at as an episode affirming acceptance of gay rights, a message not intended by the script's writers or the episode's director, Marvin Rush. In the episode's penultimate scene, Crusher rejects her parasite lover, who has chosen the body of a woman as a new "host."

"Some were unhappy with the ending because they felt it left a question," said Rush. "There was, or could have been a homosexual aspect to it. We chose not to go that route. I felt it was more about the nature of love, why we love and what prevents us from loving. To me the best analogy is—if your beloved turned into a cockroach, could you love a cockroach? It's the same person, but can you get past the outside? Gates, in her last scene, talks about maybe someday our ability to love won't be so limited. She says maybe mankind one day will be able to deal with this, but I can't. The rejection wasn't because of any homosexual bent, per se, it's just that in our culture and our society, people are heterosexual and want the companionship of a male because they are a female. "

Rush didn't see "The Host" as lending impetus for THE NEXT GENERATION to again tackle gay issues fifth season with "The Outcast," but Rush was a big fan of the episode. "Male/female, male/male, female/female relationships exist in life in various forms and they're fair game for drama,"said Rush. "I think 'The Host' was about an aspect of that. But to me it was more about the nature of love, and whatever the package makes a difference. That's what I hooked onto in directing the episode. Someone else could have gone another way with it, but that's what I saw as the point of the story. Every choice I made was trying to amplify that thought."

[picture: Crusher transplants Odan into Riker's body in "The Host", a science fiction exploration of the meaning of love.]

For writing staff supervisor Michael Piller, however, "The Host" was very definitely the seed from which "The Outcast" sprung. "It certainly raised the question mark," said Piller. "I was very happy with "The Outcast," I thought [supervising producer] Jeri [Taylor] did a marvelous job on the script. To me, this was the turning point of the season. This was where I thought we started doing excellent television again."

After "The Host" aired fourth season, the STAR TREK offices received numerous letters from gay activists clamoring for a homosexual character aboard the Enterprise. Some suggested that Geordi LaForge should be homosexual. Berman and Piller both wanted to strive for a less mundane way of dealing with the issue of sexual intolerance by placing it in a science fiction milieu. "We had been the target of a concerted, organized movement by gay activists to put a gay character in the show," said Piller. "What it came down to was Roddenberry had been barraged by letters and had discussed with us before his death the possibility of having two men hold hands in some scene, which was totally irrelevant to the issue of homosexuality. I didn't think, nor did Rick [Berman], that was an appropriate way to do a story that addressed the issue of sexual intolerance. I felt that was really the broader issue. So we decided to tell a story that was about sexual intolerance. The [androgyny] twist, I thought, turned out very well."

For Berman, Paramount's keeper of the STAR TREK flame, the gay issue was a delicate, potentially volatile matter. "We'd been spending a lot of time wrestling with all the elements of the requests of the gay community for us to involve a gay character on the show," said Berman. "It got a lot of publicity, both good and bad. We wrestled with a lot of different stories and came up with ["The Outcast"], a very obvious metaphor for the gay community and the intolerance they are subjected to on this planet. It's difficult to show people being tolerant. It's much easier to show people being intolerant. In this instance we felt it better to draw the parallel. The story that came in, I thought, was wonderful. The acting was very well done. I think we dealt with well-meaning people and their intolerance. Our people in the 24th century absolutely lack acceptance of their intolerance, and we depicted their frustration in fighting it. It did not satisfy certain segments of the gay and lesbian community because it was not what they were asking for. They wanted us to introduce a gay or lesbian character in a normal and acceptable way as one of the members of the crew. But I think it did deal with the issue of intolerance towards sexual orientation. It met that objective well."

The task of addressing the issue, within the confines of a STAR TREK adventure, fell to supervising producer Jeri Taylor. "I really wanted to write this episode," said Taylor. "It came out of staff discussion. We had wanted to do a gay rights story and had not been able to figure out how to do it in an interesting science fiction, STAR TREKian way. We came up with the idea of turning it on its ear. I wanted to do it partly because it would be controversial. I welcomed that. The idea of any drama is to touch people's feelings and engage them, whether you make them laugh, cry or angry, as long as you stir something in them, then you've been successful. I knew this would touch a lot of buttons in a lot of people." As the only woman on the writing staff, Taylor believed she would bring a unique perspective to the material. "I am not a gay person, but as a woman I do consider myself the subject of intolerance and discrimination," said Taylor. "I know what it feels like to be disenfranchised. Not in that precise way, but I felt like I had a touch stone to some of the feelings that must be involved. So, on a personal level, I wanted to write it. It's the episode of the whole two years I've been on the show I'm the most proud of, the most glad that I could be associated with. We've gotten every range or response, but largely it's been positive. 'The Host' was really more about the nature of what is the basis of a love relationship? 'The Outcast,' though, is a gay rights story. It absolutely, specifically and outspokenly dealt with gay issues."

Co-producer Ron Moore dubbed "The Outcast" the "stepdaughter of 'The Host,'"and noted how the show garnered a more mixed response. "Mail has been very split on that," said Moore. "We had people across the spectrum; people who saluted us for doing it, people who said we didn't go far enough. It was just the way we like to do these shows: an interesting issue, a good science fiction premise, conflict, and an exploration of our characters in a different way. The reaction to 'The Host' was positive and we wanted to expand that."

Staff writer Brannon Braga said he was mystified by the negative mail. "Some people reacted to the show in a way that I didn't understand," said Braga. "They thought we were advocating a particular sexual preference. I don't think that's true at all. We were advocating tolerance. What's so risky about making a statement that intolerance is bad?" Risky or not, Braga had to agree, "It was a very special episode. There are no subjects taboo for this show."

Now that STAR TREK has come out of the closet on gay issues, maybe it's time to dust off Gerrold's script for "Blood and Fire." TREK has yet to tackle the subject of AIDS.

[picture: Soren (Melinda Culea) defends herself in court in "The Outcast," tried by the J'naii for consorting with Riker in violation of the laws of their society.