The Star Trek Episode That Secretly Explored The ‘90s Most Controversial Issue

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 52 seconds ago

From the very beginning, Star Trek embraced progressive ideals that risked angering the more conservative audiences of the time. The Original Seriesfor example, made a Black woman a main character at the height of the Civil Rights era. It also featured a prominent Japanese character when post-World War II racism was still in full swing and added a Russian character at the height of the Cold War. Later, shows like Deep Space Nine took bigger swings by making a Black man the captain, and Voyager did the same thing by putting a woman in charge, nearly 30 years after TOS insisted there could be no female Starfleet captains.

However, there was one final frontier that the Golden Age of Star Trek didn’t dare explore, and that was featuring openly gay characters. There are multiple people responsible for this decision. Historically, franchise creator Gene Roddenberry was opposed to including gay characters because he worried about offending the network and the fandom. After his death, new Trek guru Rick Berman reportedly did his best to quash multiple gay characters and stories. However, that didn’t keep the writers from occasionally sneaking coded moments past the goalie. For example, the Deep Space Nine episode “Rules of Acquistion” features Dax being fully accepting of a Ferengi who loves Quark, even when she thinks that the Ferengi is a man!

Star Trek‘s Sneaky Sexuality

For this weird tale to make sense, we’re gonna have to slingshot around the sun and visit different Star Trek eras. In an interview with PBS, gay franchise icon George Takei said that he spoke to Roddenberry about including any openly homosexual characters. He claims that Roddenberry really wanted to do it but worried he was “walking a tightrope” with viewers, pointing out that Kirk and Uhura’s interracial kiss “was very controversial.” When The Next Generation came out, there were unconfirmed accounts that Roddenberry promised various groups that he would include gay characters, but that never happened.

After Roddenberry died, Rick Berman became the final word on Star Trek. Unfortunately, he allegedly did everything he could to quash gay representation in the franchise. This included reportedly killing a David Gerrold TNG script which featured gay characters and a clear AIDs allegory. Berman also killed the Bashir/Garak relationship on DS9 despite the actors being into it. Later, he even put out a press release to kill rumors that First Contact’s Lieutenant Hawke was gay. Eventually, prolific TNG and DS9 writer Ronald Moore seemingly alluded to Berman, telling Fandom the only reason there were no gay characters in the franchise is that “people in charge don’t want gay characters in Star Trek, period.”

The Latinum That Dare Not Speak Its Name

So, what does all of this have to do with “Rules of Acquisition,” a largely forgotten Deep Space Nine episode? This episode features a female employee of Quark’s, Pel, who has the hots for her boss. However, thanks to synthetic lobes, she presents herself to the galaxy as a male. She’s passing as a dude when she confesses her love for Quark to Dax. The science officer was perfectly fine with Pel expressing his love for a man, a simple action that helped normalize same-sex relationships in the 24th century. It’s not as loud and proud as it could have been, but getting this moment past Rick Berman was a small miracle.

After this, Deep Space Nine got more progressive in terms of gay representation. Dax kisses another woman in “Rejoined,” for example. In “Chimera,” Quark cracks a meta joke about a “Changeling Pride” demonstration. Meanwhile, the DS9 Mirror Universe is filled with queer versions of characters, including Kira, Ezri Dax, Garak, and even Worf, most of whom dress like they’re headed to the local sex dungeon. Is all of this campy and mostly catering to straight dudes who like to see women making out? Sure. But DS9 still had better gay representation than any Star Trek show until Discoveryand it all started with Dax quietly normalizing gay relationships, right under Rick Berman’s nose!