Blood and Fire would have been the first Star Trek (Next Generation) episode to include a positive portrayal of openly gay characters. Paramount lost its nerve, never produced it, and still hasn’t given us a positive portrayal of gays in the 22nd, 23rd, or 24th centuries. The racial and cultural integration of The Original Series bridge crew was groundbreaking for its time, and subsequent productions have tackled plenty of other current social issues–just not this one particular issue.
The crew over at Star Trek: New Voyages has teamed up with the original author, David Gerrold, and turned it into a two-part episode set in the last two years of Kirk’s five-year mission. The gay story line here is vastly expanded and includes Kirk’s nephew. The teaser for Part 1 opens with the Enterprise fighting a Klingon battlecruiser:
Star Trek: New Voyages Download Page – Everything is available as parts on YouTube, but I recommend visiting their downloads page to grab the H.264 files form BitTorrent, especially the teaser.
Approach NV understanding it’s a work by and of the fans; they’re learning, evolving with every new release. This episode in particular benefits from Gerrold’s rewriting and directing. Loving attention to detail and the fondness for the material shines through the sometimes awkward moments of an amateur production.
Pause for a brief nerdgasm here. The Klingon K’t’inga class, also known as the D7 in Star Fleet Battles, it my absolute favorite ship design from the entire Trek universe. I loved the combat scene with amazing FX quality for a fan production. NV also pushed my ship-combat-FX geek buttons with an earlier episode featuring The Doomsday Machine. Be still my geeky heart! BTW, You also must see the remastered version of that TOS episode.