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* BrokenAesop:
** For an episode with a GayAesop, the show doesn't even acknowledge anything other than heterosexual relationships in Federation society. This was likely due to content restrictions of its era.[[note]]An [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E16TheOffspring earlier episode]] attempted to show a same-sex couple in the background, but a spoilsport MediaWatchdog blew the whistle on them.[[/note]] The fact that the episode uses gender identity as a metaphor for sexual orientation also causes it to trip all over the real-world subject of gender identity, which receives much more attention now than it did when the episode aired.
** The completion of Soren's psychotectic treatment is supposed to be a DownerEnding, but there was no indication of physical abuse, she wasn't speaking in a CreepyMonotone or sporting a [[TechnicallyASmile forced smile]] to indicate she had been lobotomized, and there was no indication that she was putting on an act out of fear that someone was watching. She seemed genuinely grateful to have been "cured." This could allow viewers to confuse the moral of the story to support conversion therapy.
** For an episode with a GayAesop, the show doesn't even acknowledge anything other than heterosexual relationships in Federation society. This was likely due to content restrictions of its era.[[note]]An [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E16TheOffspring earlier episode]] attempted to show a same-sex couple in the background, but a spoilsport MediaWatchdog blew the whistle on them.[[/note]] The fact that the episode uses gender identity as a metaphor for sexual orientation also causes it to trip all over the real-world subject of gender identity, which receives much more attention now than it did when the episode aired.
** The completion of Soren's psychotectic treatment is supposed to be a DownerEnding, but there was no indication of physical abuse, she wasn't speaking in a CreepyMonotone or sporting a [[TechnicallyASmile forced smile]] to indicate she had been lobotomized, and there was no indication that she was putting on an act out of fear that someone was watching. She seemed genuinely grateful to have been "cured." This could allow viewers to confuse the moral of the story to support conversion therapy.
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** The episode is frequently criticized for not having Soren played by a male actor to make the gay aesop more explicit. While this would obviously have been difficult to pull off due to the social mores of its broadcast date, it also would have muddled the PersecutionFlip metaphor. The episode's tactic was to gain the sympathy of a 1990s audience by presenting the argument for gay rights through the defense of an explicitly heterosexual relationship.
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** The episode is frequently criticized for not having Soren played by a male actor to make the gay aesop more explicit.explicit (Jonathan Frakes was apparently very much in favor of this). While this would obviously have been difficult to pull off due to the social mores of its broadcast date, it also would have muddled the PersecutionFlip metaphor. The episode's tactic was to gain the sympathy of a 1990s audience by presenting the argument for gay rights through the defense of an explicitly heterosexual relationship.
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* UnfortunateImplications: The hosts of recap podcast ''The Greatest Generation'' pointed these out when the episode used the "psychotectic therapy" as a quick way to wrap up the loose ends of the episode. It's essentially analogous to what "conversion therapy" is supposed to do on Earth, which is to "cure" people of being [=LGBT=]. While the episode treats it as a barbaric practice, it is presented as a rather bloodless brainwashing, which is possibly how it was perceived in the 1990s. In modern times, it's more widely recognized as involving brutal tactics and resulting in high rates of mental illness and suicide afterwards.
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* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Riker is tripped up by what pronoun to use for J'naii individuals and says that his language's only option for gender-neutral is "it", [[ItIsDehumanizing which he even says is wrong for obvious reasons]]. Just a few decades later, trans and nonbinary people took the matter into their own hands with pronouns like "xie" and the singular "they".
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* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Riker is tripped up by what pronoun to use for J'naii individuals and says that his language's only option for gender-neutral is "it", [[ItIsDehumanizing which he even says is wrong for obvious reasons]]. Just a few decades later, trans and nonbinary people took the matter into their own hands a variety of neopronouns arose to address just this problem, with pronouns like "xie" and the singular "they"."singular they" being the most common.
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** Jonathan Frakes himself criticized the episode for not having Soren played by a male actor to make the GayAesop more explicit.
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** Jonathan Frakes Creator/JonathanFrakes himself criticized the episode for not having Soren played by a male actor to make the GayAesop more explicit.
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* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Riker is tripped up by what pronoun to use for J'naii individuals and says that his language's only option for gender-neutral is "it", [[ItIsDehumanizing which he even says is wrong for obvious reasons]]. Just a few decades later, trans and nonbinary people took the matter into their own hands with pronouns like "xie" and the singular "they".
