10 Most Controversial Star Trek Episodes
9. Angel One
Angel One was embroiled in a sexism stain from its earliest days, even though the original idea for the story was meant to highlight the issue of apartheid in South Africa. The original story was written by Patrick Barry, with scripting sessions featuring Gene Roddenberry and Herb Wright.
The idea of a matriarchal society had been covered numerous times in literature at that point, so Wright recalled that he wanted to avoid anything like an 'Amazonian Sex' type of world. Roddenberry, Wright stated, was adamant that the script feature as much sex as possible, further distancing the show from its original pitch.
Where the women were designed to represent the perpetrators of apartheid, with the men serving as the blacks in South Africa, this was lost somewhat in the telling. Riker's role in the story serves as both a role reversal, forcing the man to wear revealing clothes leading to inappropriate comments, and an extension, as Wil Wheaton put it, of Kirk from The Original Series. Riker, of course, delivers a speech that encourages Beata to stay the execution of the men.
The episode as shown ends up being a statement that a female-led society quickens into barbarism, with only Riker successfully convincing the women to see reason. While the grain of a good idea was planted, what sprang from the ground was a mess.