Lost “Star Trek” Episode Breaches Final “Gay” Frontier

In Part 1, the Enterprise receives a “distress call” from another starship. En route to the source of the call, we meet a new Enterprise crewmember, Captain Kirk’s nephew, Peter (played by Bobby Rice, an actor from another gay-friendly Star Trek online fan series called Star Trek: Hidden Frontier).

Bobby Rice as Peter Kirk and Evan Fowler as Alex Freeman

But there’s tension between Peter and his famous uncle, who is determined to keep him out of harm’s way, even if it means treating him differently than the other crewmembers. Eventually, Peter reveals the real reason he requested a stint on the Enterprise: to be near his boyfriend, Alex Freeman (Evan Fowler). When the couple make plans to marry, Kirk agrees to officiate, but only “after the away mission” — which may or may not bode well for the future of this relationship.

“The episode isn’t about ‘being gay,’” Cawley says. “It’s about family tensions and a lot of other things.”

Still, the gay couple does share several kisses and a surprisingly steamy bedroom encounter (which begins with a cheeky homage to recent Phase II guest star George Takei when one of the two men climbs on back of the other, covering his eyes and asking, “Guess who?” “Mr. Sulu?” the other answers. “You wish!” the first responds).

The gay elements are interwoven nicely into the plot and don’t feel forced or part of a “very special episode”. The couple is accepted by the crew as something perfectly normal though at one point Captain Kirk does ask another crewmember if he was the only one who hadn't known about Peter.

Furthermore, the portrayal of Peter and Alex's romantic relationship is treated no differently than any of the dozens of heterosexual relationships the various Star Trek incarnations have included over the decades. Indeed, the storyline is incorporated so naturally as to make the “official” Trek's inexcusable lack of gay characters even more obvious.

Eventually, the Enterprise discovers that the ship sending the distress call has been ravaged by something called “bloodworms,” which quickly infect all those on the away mission too. Meanwhile, Kirk and those back on the Enterprise are left to wrestle with the uncomfortable implications of a contagious, fatal disease that was previously thought to be contained.

Lt. Freeman and Lt. DeSalle (Ron Boyd)

Denise Crosby, who played Tasha Yar in Next Generation, appears in Part 2 of “Blood and Fire”. In addition to Takei, Walter Koenig, another actor from the original series, guested on an earlier episode of Star Trek: Phase II. The episode in which Takei starred was nominated for a Hugo Award.

“Blood and Fire” looks and sounds a lot like one of the original Star Trek episodes, but with much better special effects and a much more contemporary feel. Star Trek: Phase II underplays its portrayals of characters such as Kirk and Spock, so famously portrayed by iconic actors William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.