Star Trek Phase 2: 4×07 — “The Child”
Plot: A being of pure energy enters the Enterprise while the ship is passing through an energy cloud and implants a child in the womb of a Deltan Ensign. While the child quickens and grows in mysterious ways, the ship is pursued by a strange vessel of unknown intention and origin.
Thoughts: This production is still in desperate need of a lighting designer. I’m convinced that inept lighting is responsible for much of the pain involved in watching this episode. Certainly not all.
Grump, grump, grump. The new actor playing Spock doesn’t even register on screen as more important than any other background character. The rest of the actors are not growing on me–especially not the one who plays Peter Kirk. The episode just isn’t up to the production quality standards set by the early episodes, and the limp plot doesn’t make up for any of these deficiencies. The premise is completely outrageous, yet I feel like the cast is tiptoeing around the whole time pretending that it isn’t a story about immaculate conception, rape, and victim pathology. Hence, the episode skips along the line that separates lame from offensive, sometimes landing lightly on one side, sometimes the other. Unlike earlier episodes, there are no really impressive special effects to speak of. The result is perilously close to being tedious, which may be the worst sin of all.
Rating: skippable.
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