Trivia / Star Trek: The Next Generation S5E17 "The Outcast"

• Creator Backlash: Jonathan Frakes criticized the decision to cast women in the roles of the J'naii.
  I didn't think they were gutsy enough to take it where they should have. Soren should have been more obviously male. We've gotten a lot of mail on this episode, but I'm not sure it was as good as it could have been – if they were trying to do what they call a gay episode.
• Deleted Scene: Two lines of dialogue were cut from the final episode: Noor explaining to Riker that the J'naii are by all measurements an enlightened race and Riker asking, "Then how is it that Soren has no choice about her sexual orientation?"
• Gay Panic: Rick Berman tried not to let perceptions of what the public would find acceptable "influence us too much" in the choice of Riker's opposite, adding "but having Riker engaged in passionate kisses with a male actor might have been a little unpalatable to viewers." Jonathan Frakes disagreed with this decision, believing Soren should have had a male actor to make the message actually mean something.

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