Gays and lesbians are about to go boldly where they`ve never gone before. They`ll be portrayed as ordinary citizens of the 24th Century in the fall season of ''Star Trek: The Next Generation.''

Not as outcasts. Not as deviates. Not as eccentrics. Just as ordinary men and women living in a distant century when one`s sexual orientation is a matter of total public indifference.

There`ll be none of the ''are they or aren`t they?'' hand-wringing that accompanied a kiss between women on ''L.A. Law.'' Just the occasional sight-in between phaser blasts, interstellar chases and teleportations-of two men or two women doing something, such as holding hands, that unmistakably says:

''We`re homosexual-and who cares?''

''We agree that dealing with this issue is an important thing to do,''

said ''Star Trek'' executive producer Rick Berman. The syndicated program`s fall season began last Saturday, and gays and lesbians should begin to appear sometime later in the autumn season.

''Viewers will see more of shipboard life in some episodes, which will, among other things, include gay crew members in day-to-day circumstances,''

said the show`s creator, Gene Roddenberry, in a statement published by The Advocate, the gay and lesbian journal.

Paramount Television`s decision to portray gays and lesbians is the latest sign that the show remains close to the political edge.

The show`s politics reflect its historical roots. It was born as ''Star Trek'' in 1966, in the bright afterglow of President John F. Kennedy`s

''Camelot''-a vision of a better society that was only half-realized by his successor`s push for civil rights and a war on poverty. A generation of Baby Boomers grew up watching the amiable crew of the starship USS Enterprise, a crew that, racially and ethnically, resembled idealistic 1950s visions of the ''Family of Man.''

Although white males were still in charge-Capt. James T. Kirk and the alien science officer, Mr. Spock-they tackled science-fiction versions of issues inspired by the `60s: the smoking streets of Watts, the ICBM-rattling of superpowers, the brush wars in Asia and the eternal tension between logic, epitomized by Spock, and emotion, epitomized by ship`s doctor Leonard McCoy.

Sexually, the old show had a pre-women`s rights mentality. Its famed opening line-''to boldly go where no man has gone before''-seems like a double entendre, since Kirk seduced countless women in countless worlds.

But a hint of things to come appeared in one of the last episodes, aired in 1969 before NBC canceled the series. A woman who hated the social constraints placed on females used a gizmo to switch bodies with Kirk, much to his dismay. He got his body back in the end, but not before the show portrayed the woman`s rage with a sympathy that is startling even today.