The Enterprise is playing host to an ambassador charged with settling a dispute that could lead to war between the leaders of two moons with separate sovereignties. A war that'd be dangerous and deadly to not only the moons but their parent planet.
The ambassador, Odan, during his short time on the ship has grown a close relationship with Dr. Crusher and the two often have romantic encounters while also trying to keep their relationship from the rest of the ship.
Upon arrival at the planetary system Odan attempts to transport, via shuttle, to the mother planet but the shuttle is ambushed by a ship from one of the moons and Odan is mortally wounded. He refuses molecular transport back to the ship insisting the transport will kill him so Riker manages to land the crippled shuttle back on the ship.
In sickbay, a dying Odan reveals his true nature. His species, the Trill, actually consist of two beings, the humanoid one they see before them and a parasitic organism inside. Odan suggests a symbiotic relationship (which we'll get to in a moment) between he and the parasitic organism, which seems to be the more dominant personality in the union. The transporter's biofilters would have removed the parasite, hence the reason why he refused transport. As Odan's host body is dying they must contact the Trill to send a new host, in the meantime they must keep the parasite in stasis.
As it turns out a new host cannot be delivered from Trill in time to save the Odan parasite which cannot survive much longer in stasis, and the relationship between the planetary moons is growing more and more in need of Odan's services to mediate a solution. Riker offers up his body to serve as host until the Trill one can arrive.
Crusher is able to successfully implant the Trill parasite and Riker/Odan quickly recover and become "one."
The change in body for Odan has upset Crusher as she's now unsure if she can continue a relationship with the "person" Odan inside Riker's body, not knowing if her love was based on him physically, him as a person, or some combination and out of, in part, seeing Riker as a friend and colleague.
Crusher struggles with her feelings on Riker/Odan as Riker/Odan works to convince the lunar leaders that he's indeed the same "man" they were expecting, as well as being the same person who had negotiated a treaty between the two moons generations earlier (in another host body than the one they were expecting, claimed to be Odan's father.) Eventually the leaders agree to the negotiations.
Problems are growing more and more deep as Riker's body seems to be rejecting the parasite and Crusher struggles to control Riker's immune system but gets to a point where she can only do so much without killing Riker.
Eventually Crusher is able to see past the physical and rekindle her relationship with Odan but only on the night before they expect to reach the limit Odan is willing to go to in using Riker's body.
Riker/Odan is able to successfully negotiate a new treaty between the two moons, the Odan parasite is removed in put in stasis until the Enterprise is able to rendezvous with the Trill ship, ferrying the new host. The new host, a female, has the Trill parasite successfully implanted in her.
In parting Female/Odan expresses that [he's] still the same person and still loves Crusher, but Crusher says she's unsure she can "keep up" in a relationship with Odan with so many unknowns in their future. But says she still loves Odan as well, the two share a tender moment before Odan departs.
For me this largely an okay episode, but I feel it's a bit too weighted down with this "love story" between Odan and Crusher. Though I do think Johnathon Frakes does a great job in separating his Riker personality and bringing in the Riker/Odan one.
The deeper thing for me is, "What is this episode about?"
Trek has always had a way with somehow placing a message in its episodes and it can do it in a variety of ways. Sometimes it can beat you over the head with it ("Religion is bad, m'kay?" in "Who Watches the Watchers) and sometimes it can be more subtle. (See last week's episode, which tackles many issues on guilt over innocence when someone is a suspected enemy.) And, well, sometimes the message can be so muddy and scattered it's hard to see exactly what it is.
Whether this is good or bad is hard to decide.
One moment in this episode comes when Crusher struggles to figure out whether the person she loved was the physical Odan or was it him, the person Odan was inside (really the parasite.) And could she still love this person when the person he was inside has a different outward appearance. (In this case Riker, someone she considers a friend.)
A talk with Troi in 10-Forward has her telling Crusher that she should be thankful she still has this man she loves to talk to, even if he looks different. Recounting a story of how much she loved her father and would give anything to speak with him again. Eventually Crusher seems to take everything she's told by Troi to heart and tries to rekindle her realtionship with Odan on the last day he can be Riker.
But when Female/Odan comes into her office, Crusher expresses an unwillingness to continue their relationship. And, here's the interesting part and maybe one of the better "gay moments" in the series during a time when homosexuality was still very much in a struggle in society.
Crusher doesn't express a difficulty in continuing her relationship with Odan because he is now female, but simply because it is a human failing to not being able to keep up with change. She may very well be willing to continue her relationship with Odan under different circumstances but it's not that that circumstance is that Odan is now female, just the uncertainty of changes down the road she may have to adapt to.
What that means under all of it is up to speculation. Is the episode trying to say it's a human failing (in us in the here and now) that so many have a hard time with uncommon relationships because it goes against what is expected? The hope being that humans will one day look past the physical to what's on the inside? To not worry about what the physical is?
It's hard to see how this could be talking about anything but homosexuality given that despite the shallowness of many, humans love and connect with people all of the time who may not meet their physical expectations or perfections. And people continue to love their closest relationships after physical changes.
Probably a lot to ponder on what this episode wants to represent to us.
On a more technical side, this episode introduces us to the Trill species. Initially a one-off Alien-of-the-Week species meant to be different to either better fit the message they're trying to send or just to be different and interesting because they can be with the freedom of Sci-Fi.
A few years later the Trill would be re-introduced to us in Deep Space Nine, but they come back with many, many contradictions to what is established in this episode. Not the least of which being the physical appearance of the species, but how the relationship between the slug-like creature and the humanoid behaves. In this episode it seems far more parasitic (the Trill-slug being the more dominate creature int he relationship if not out-right taking over the host's personality, feelings and thoughts) where as in DS9 is presented as much more symbiotic. (The experiences of the Trill-slug and the Trill-humanoid merge to become a "new person.")
In the end, sort of an interesting episode but also maybe one that's a little slow for me as the romance between Crusher and Odan is just a bit too romance book/movie-y for me. Filled with cliches and tropes to the romance genre. (Friend to the main female character: "Oh, you're glowing!")
We could also raise *several* ethical questions on Crusher's part considering she apparently had a romantic encounter with Will's body while hosting Odan. Is that a form of rape on Riker's body? I mean, he didn't know Odan and Crusher had a sexual relationship and likely didn't consent to any sexual activities being performed on his body. It seems sort of unethical for Crusher to not only sleep with Riker's body but to also sleep with someone who is now her patient.
I wonder how much Riker remembers of his time with Odan controlling his body and how awkward things were between him and Crusher for a while after this episode?
Again, sort of an okay episode to watch but not for me one of the series' strongest.
