25 WORST Episodes Of Star Trek EVER

So the story goes that the production staff all sat around watching this and that Gene Roddenberry started well. The show was to be an allegory for apartheid, using the disconnect between the two genders as a stand in for the racial divide. The women were to be the rulers of society with the men in a lower caste.

There was a deliberate attempt to avoid portraying the women as Amazonian warriors and to simply have them as normal people. Gene then changed his mind, stating that he didn't want to portray a society where women ruling equals a better reality. He allegedly referred to women as vicious creatures.

With this as part of the foundation of the episode, the story changed track and an attempt to portray 'sexier' story elements came in. Riker acts very much like Kirk here, entering into a relationship with the leader Beata and generally cavorting. It was a mess, truly one of the low points of the Next Generation's first season (which is saying something).

The Next Generation, from midway through its second season, would grow up rapidly and start to show some of the best that the Trek universe had to offer, which is one of the reasons these early episodes stand out so much. The entire message gets lost in the episode and none of the regular characters come out of it looking good at all. Then the side plot featuring a virus goes absolutely nowhere. Very poor overall.