Fan Film Friday: Star Trek Phase II: Blood and Fire
Written by Randy Hall on December 4, 2009 – 12:00 pm -
David Gerrold is best known for creating and introducing those cute, furry tribbles, but his latest contribution to the Star Trek universe is vastly different: co-writing and directing the Phase II two-parter entitled “Blood and Fire.”
While the Classic Trek episode “The Trouble With Tribbles” dealt with purring little animals, Gerrold’s latest work focuses on Regulan bloodworms, ugly little slugs that can suck all the blood out of a human body and possibly trigger a war between the Federation and the Klingons.
In addition, “Blood” features a plotline regarding a same-sex romance between Ensign Peter Kirk (Captain Kirk’s nephew, played by Bobby Rice) and Lieutenant Alex Freeman (Evan Fowler).
That might sound ripped from today’s headlines, but both stories were actually adapted by Carlos Pedraza from a script of the same name Gerrold wrote more than 20 years ago for The Next Generation TV series as an allegory for the AIDS epidemic. It was deemed too controversial and never produced … until now.
Part 1 got underway with the Enterprise, badly damaged after a shootout with a Klingon battle cruiser, limping to the rescue in response to a distress call from a research vessel called the U.S.S. Copernicus.
When Captain Kirk (played by James Cawley) and company arrived at the scene, they found the vessel adrift and just hours away from slipping into an explosive stream of solar energy. As if that weren’t bad enough, the crew had apparently already been killed.
To sort out the situation, the captain picked a boarding party led by Spock (played in this adventure by Ben Tolpin) but obviously without his nephew, who fumed that he would have to seek assignment to another starship if the crew believed he was receiving preferential treatment.
The security officer had another reason to talk with his uncle: He wanted the captain to perform the marriage ceremony between himself and Freeman. That led to one of the most entertaining scenes in the program, as Kirk wondered aloud if he was the only one who didn’t know about his nephew’s romance. Spock’s reaction was classic: “Mister Scott has been quite busy lately.”
The captain then asked Peter to join Freeman and the others in the boarding party, which beamed over to the Copernicus and found a body in the captain’s chair that was drained of all blood. The group was suddenly attacked by Regulan bloodworms (or plasmacytes, if you prefer), which are so quick and lethal that Starfleet demands the immediate destruction of any ship infested by them.
Part 1 ended with the rest of the boarding party facing another onslaught of bloodworms, and Part 2 began with Scotty (Charles Root) beaming the group inside a force field elsewhere on the Copernicus, where they found several crew members still alive.
Also, Doctor Jenna Yar (Denise Crosby) and Federation medical researcher Michael Blodgett (Bill Blair) were there, and they claimed to have found a “cure” for the plasmacytes.
As Doctor McCoy (John Kelley) examined the research, the situation grew more complicated when Captain Kargh (played by John Carrigan) and his Klingon battle cruiser arrived on the scene. Kargh threatened to destroy the infested starship if Kirk didn’t.
Bones determined that everyone on the Copernicus could be beamed over safely if they quickly received a total transfusion of blood. Despite the fact that the force field around the survivors was beginning to fail, he transported there to oversee the operation himself.
When Spock, Peter Kirk and Alex Freeman were left to return to the Enterprise and only two able to beam out at a time, Freeman unexpectedly injected the others with a tranquilizer so they’d have to be rescued first. That led Spock to surmise that the medic had learned his bedside manner from Doctor McCoy.
Sadly, one person didn’t make it back when the bloodworms broke through the barrier (and it’s not too hard to figure out who).
Captain Kirk then learned that Blodgett had been using the research to help Section 31 develop bloodworms as a weapon against the Klingons. McCoy came up with his own antidote to the plasmacytes, but it had to be delivered by a living human body, so Yar volunteered to do it if Kirk agreed to tell her daughter about the sacrifice of “Jenna Natasha Yar.”
With the situation resolved and Blodgett in custody, Kargh and Kirk ordered their ships out of range as the Copernicus was incinerated by the stellar energy in some spectacular effects.
Quite a lot happened in that two-parter. I only have a one-part Clint Eastwood hat, but it will have to do.
The Good: Phase II continues to be the “gold standard” of independent Trek productions, and I particularly enjoyed the tips of the hat to Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation.
I appreciated the fact that the same-sex romance in the episode was underplayed instead of overdone, such as having Kirk give a big speech on the universal nature of love or something like that.
And while “Blood and Fire” was pretty tragic, there was a good deal of humor throughout, mostly provided by Spock. I’m sad that Tolpin will be replaced by Brandon Stacy in the next episode, but such is the often fleeting nature of fan films.
Again, the acting, effects, costumes and props improved by leaps and bounds over earlier efforts, and sometimes I have to wonder how much longer Phase II can continue to be considered an “amateur” series.
The Bad: To make Part 2 available in November, the Phase II folks had to include a preliminary soundtrack in which you can hear things like the wooden floors of the sets creaking when people walk on them. Still, their website states that this will be updated with better sound very soon.
The Ugly: The first time I saw Part 1 and a rough cut of Part 2 was at the Shore Leave convention north of Baltimore, Maryland, back in July of 2008. That means I went without any new stuff from these folks for about 18 months! That’s a long time, but I realize it takes a while for volunteers to put together such labors of love.
Along with “Blood and Fire,” Phase II released the first six minutes of the next adventure, “Enemy Starfleet,” at the same time. I’m impressed by what I’ve seen so far, particularly the shots of the Enterprise, and I’m looking forward to enjoying the entire episode, which is slated to be made available in the spring.
Related posts:
- Fan Film Friday: Star Trek: Phase II: In Harm’s Way
- Fan Film Friday: Star Trek Phase II: To Serve All My Days [Revised]
- Fan Film Friday: Star Trek Phase II: World Enough and Time
- Phase II Breaches Treks Gay Frontier
- Fan Film Friday: Star Trek: Of Gods and Men
Tags: Captain Kirk, David Gerrold, Phase II, Star Trek
Posted in Fan Film Friday, Web Productions | 1 Comment »
By edward on Dec 15, 2009 | Reply
I am very impresses with Start Trek Phase II. As a volunteer “amateur” fan film series, it often rivals commercial productions. I find the actors believable and true to characters. It is obvious that these guys are devoted to Trek, and they bring us new episodes proving that after 40 years, the show and concept are still vital.
Blood and Fire is a very good episode that is engaging and emotionally compelling. I found parts of it humorous, tragic, and often suspenseful. The special effects were very well done also. Some people complain about the gay aspect, but that didn’t matter to me. In the universe of ST, anything is possible.
Hats of to James Crowley and the crew of volunteers who make Star Trek Phase II possible! They have boldly gone where no studio dared to go before, and proved that ST is a timeless enterprise.
Thanks to them!