Stardate not given: After a pitched battle with a Klingon cruiser, the Enterprise is left battered, but a distress call from the U.S.S. Copernicus prevents Kirk from putting in for repairs. The Enterprise limps to the Copernicus’ aid at a low warp speed as a result of the damage, but what the crew finds is almost beyond explanation: the Copernicus is adrift, only a few hours away from sliding into a stream of matter connecting a binary star system. The Copernicus will be destroyed, but it appears that something has already killed the crew. As Kirk selects a boarding party to find out what happened on the Copernicus, he carefully omits his nephew, the recently-arrived Ensign Peter Kirk, from the mission. This draws a note of caution from Spock, and an anguished protest from Peter: if the crew feels that he’s receiving preferential treatment keeping him out of harm’s way, Peter will have to request reassignment. Peter wants to be treated as just another member of the crew – and that includes requesting that Captain Kirk officiate his upcoming wedding to another crewman, medic Alex Freeman. Kirk accedes to both requests, assigning both Peter and Freeman to the Copernicus mission. Soon after arriving, they both wish they’d stayed on the Enterprise: the Copernicus is infested with Regulan bloodworms, a life form so fast-speading and deadly that Starfleet has only one protocol for dealing with them – the immediate destruction of any ship found to be infested. With both his nephew and Spock aboard the Copernicus, Kirk has no plans to follow that order, but it may be too late to save his boarding party anyway, as they’re surrounded by swarming bloodworms.
written by Carlos Pedraza & David Gerrold
directed by David Gerrold
music by Fred SteinerCast: James Cawley (Captain Kirk), Ben Toplin (Mr. Spock), John Kelley (Dr. McCoy), Bobby Quinn Rice (Ensign Peter Kirk), Evan Fowler (Alex Freeman), Charles Root (Scotty), Jay Storey (Kyle), Kim Stinger (Uhura), Ron Boyd (DeSalle), Andy Bray (Chekov), Megan King Johnson (Rand), Nick Cook (Hodel), Paul R. Sieber (Ahrens), Patrick Bell (Xon), Debbie Huth (Fontana), Jeff Mailhotte (Sentell), Joel Belucci (Bren), Phil Koeghen (Admiral Koeghen), Scott Danni, Rich Lundy, George Wilhelm, Gwen Wilkins, Rick Bruns, Danielle Porter, Robert Mauro, Dan Wright, Melissa Wright, Elizabeth Peterson, Mabel Vilagro, Greg Schnitzer, Betsy Durkee, Jeff Collingsworth, Brian Holloway, Pat Heward, Amanda Root, Ralph M. Miller, Joe Nazzarro, John Hermann, Jessica Mailhotte, Glenn Smith, Ed Abbatte, Giovana Contini, Ron Gates, Ryan Storey, Jerry Storey, Paula Bailey, Erik Goodrich, Tom Brown, Howard Huth, Riva Gijanto, Carol Mazur, Howard Miller (Extras), Majel Barrett Roddenberry (Computer Voice)
Notes: Blood And Fire was originally written by David Gerrold (writer of the classic Trek favorite The Trouble With Tribbles) as an episode for the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, allegorically dealing with AIDS, the search for a cure, and its effect on the gay community. In many an interview and convention appearance, Gerrold has said that Gene Roddenberry verbally agreed to pursue these issues in the then-new show, but would never approve Blood And Fire for production, which eventually lead to Gerrold’s departure from the writing staff. It has also been adapted into a non-Star Trek novel. Fan writer Carlos Pedraza, previously a writer on the fan series Star Trek: Hidden Frontier (which prominently featured gay characters in a way that Paramount’s officially produced episodes and series never addressed), adapted Gerrold’s original script for the Kirk era. This is the first episode to carry the “Star Trek: Phase II” banner, though the opening titles still display “New Voyages” before “beaming” in “Phase II.” (Phase II was a semi-official subtitle applied to the aborted late ’70s TV revival of classic Trek, as chronicled in the excellent book of the same name by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens.) Early publicity indicated that Blood And Fire would feature an original score by Neil Norman, the producer behind many Star Trek soundtracks released on CD in the 1990s by his father’s GNP Crescendo label, as well as a composer in his own right, but the finished episode instead features original series music by composer Fred Steiner.
Review: For years we’ve been hearing about Blood And Fire and how great it would’ve been in the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and after a while it’s natural to wonder how much of the hype is warranted. But after seeing the episode itself, and finding that about 2/3 of the way in I was on the edge of my seat, I think it’s safe to say that this is New Voyages/Phase II firing on all cylinders with no casting gimmicks to use as a crutch. It’s just a good story, told and acted well, with one hell of a cliffhanger. (more…)
Stardate 4901.2: Investigating dilithium readings on an otherwise unremarkable planet, Captain Carter and geologist Dr. Bishop find indications of vast mineral wealth both promising and dangerous – not only is starship-powering dilithium abundant, but so is tricobalt, an ingredient for destructive weaponry. And it turns out that the planet’s mineral riches haven’t gone unnoticed by the Klingons…a fact that almost escapes Carter as he and Bishop – who were an item earlier in their Starfleet careers – enjoy a romantic moment. Not only are the Klingons killing the mood, but they might kill a Starfleet captain as well.
Stardate not given: Convinced to join Uhura and Kitrick (a man whose real name, before his freedom fighter days, was Pavel Chekov) on the planet surface, Harriman is branded a traitor by the crew of the Conqueror and sentenced to execution…as soon as he returns to the ship. But for now, he and the others have encountered a different version of Charlie Evans, one whose destiny was not interrupted by James T. Kirk. Convinced to set history back on its original path, Charlie discovers that there’s an obstacle in his way – another being with godlike powers. Harriman and Kitrick know him as the ruler of the empire; Uhura somehow recognizes the same man as Gary Mitchell. Harriman and the others are beamed back to the Conqueror, and they’re only able to escape with one last act of heroism by Ragnar and his shape-shifting ability. Harriman and Kitrick commandeer the bridge and take on the forces of the empire with just a single ship, but the two men’s fierce cunning and skill allows them to inflict more damage in the ensuing battle than anyone expects. Charlie makes one last sacrifice to stop Mitchell, but it will cost him everything.
Stardate not given: The G.S.S. Conqueror captures a shuttle fleeing from the rubble that was the planet Vulcan, and its crew of two – Tuvok and Uhura – are thrown into a cell with the freedom fighters Kitrick and Ragnar. Though Uhura condemns Kitrick’s track record of death and mayhem, saying he’s no better than the Galactic Order itself, she finds herself remembering him as well, though the two have never met. Tuvok performs a mind-meld on Uhura, and stumbles across parallel memories – memories in which she has lived on Vulcan for so long, and memories in which she served aboard a starship with the man who appears to be Kitrick. She calls him Pavel, a name that Kitrick says he hasn’t used in years, and tries to convince him that they should work together – but she runs into trouble when she tries to convince him that they’ll also need Harriman, who she also remembers.
Stardate not given: After fending off yet another Archein ambush, Ro and the Odyssey crew are surprised to hear a Starfleet distress signal of a kind that hasn’t been used in nearly a century. They track the signal to a planet surrounded by gravitational disturbances and small singularities – a breeding ground for black holes – and find a crippled ship in orbit. Ro, T’Lorra and Stadi discover that the ship is occupied only by a middle-aged married couple, whose male half is reluctant to leave before completing his research. His wife, however, is far more eager to leave and stuns him, bringing the research along when they abandon ship. The Odyssey shuttle used to dock with that ship, however, is damaged when the dying ship explodes. Stadi sends a distress signal to the Odyssey and then brings the shuttle in for a hard landing. The truth emerges about the couple that Ro and his crewmates have rescued: they are neither humans nor Archein, but Kelvans, endangered inhabitants of the Andromeda Galaxy who last visited Earth’s galaxy in the days of Captain Kirk. The Kelvans – of whom there are more on the planet – are also secretly using an Omega power source to protect themselves from the Archein, and Ro quickly realizes that this same powerful energy source could also send Odyssey home…but at what cost?
Story: In the immediate aftermath of the Sentinel Island incident, UNIT investigators are concerned by the sudden disappearance (rather than fiery destruction) of the Nestene Consciousness creature. Lockwood warns that he may have inadvertently made their return possible sooner rather than later, thanks to his brief psychic link with Natasha Alexander, the new UNIT scientific advisor. And the Autons do reappear ahead of schedule, but acting strangely. Dr. Arnold is pressed into the dangerous investigation by Palmer, who himself turns out to be another psychic with his own link to Natasha. Increasingly, UNIT is convinced that Lockwood has returned to the Autons and poses a danger to Earth, but only Dr. Arnold and Natasha seem to be prepared to believe that he still remains loyal to humanity.
Story: Two years after the Auton outbreak at UNIT’s storage facility, a shipment of inert Autons being secretly transported by UNIT is awakened by the close proximity of a Nestene sphere. The reanimated Autons kill their UNIT handlers and walk into the bay on their way to Sentinel Island. UNIT comes to Lockwood and Dr. Arnold again for their expertise in dealing with the Auton threat, but the new UNIT scientific advisor, Natasha Alexander, has grave misgivings about Lockwood – and her latent psi abilities give her an insight into his true nature and his connection to the Autons. As UNIT, with a wary Lockwood and a distrustful Natasha in tow, gets ready to wage war on Sentinel Island, Winslet is also ready with a weapon of his own – he’s preparing to revive an inert, stranded Nestene creature using the psychic energy generated by the faith of his parishioners.
Story: Dr. Sally Arnold, senior researcher at an under-funded facility contracted to UNIT, experiments with a round plastic artifact from UNIT’s archives. After running out of other ways to get the sphere to respond, Dr. Arnold bombards it with radio signals from deep space, including one pulsating signal to which it violently responds, killing Arnold’s lab assistant and then disappearing. A pair of unusual investigators and a platoon of UNIT troops arrive to take charge, finding only Arnold and the eccentric UNIT archivist alive. The investigators clearly suspect that there’s more going on, but they aren’t revealing much. When it turns out that the archivist lied about more Auton/Nestene-related items held in UNIT’s warehouse, the search for the missing sphere intensifies – but before long, it will have summoned help in the form of deadly Autons, programmed to defend it at all costs. 
Stardate 61251.3: Faced with a critical shortage of antimatter to power the ship, Lt. Commander Ro orders the Odyssey to double back to a planet that has an apparently unmanned outpost with stores of antimatter there for the taking. But when Ro leads an away team – including the feuding Lt. Stadi and Subcommander T’Lorra – to the planet, the first casualty happens all too quickly and no antimatter is obtained. By the time Ro and his team are beamed back to the Odyssey, the Archein are in orbit. The Starfleet ship escapes the trap, but is still short on supplies. Ro begins to come up with a daring new plan to resupply the ship, but before he can commit to it, he must deal with the fact that no two members of his crew seem to be able to agree on how best to execute his plan.
Stardate 6712.4: Captains Uhura, Chekov and Harriman convene for the dedication of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-M – a museum aboard a fully functional replica of the Constitution-class Enterprise – 12 years after