{"id":4988,"date":"2014-07-16T05:05:22","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T05:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/Star-Trek-Phase-II-4x04-05-Blood-and-Fire"},"modified":"2014-07-16T05:05:22","modified_gmt":"2014-07-16T05:05:22","slug":"star-trek-phase-ii-4x04-05-blood-and-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/16\/star-trek-phase-ii-4x04-05-blood-and-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Trek Phase II: 4×04-05 — \u201cBlood and Fire\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

Star Trek Phase II: 4×04-05 — \u201cBlood and Fire\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time, the special guest star in this two-part episode (edited together into a 90-minute movie in the version I watched) is Denise Crosby, who of course played Tasha Yar in TNG. Here she is playing Tasha\u2019s grandmother. The script is adapted from a Star Trek novel by David Gerrold (writer of \u201cThe Trouble With Tribbles\u201d and \u201cMore Tribbles, More Troubles\u201d), which in turn was adapted from a rejected script idea Gerrold pitched to TNG, which Gerrold claims was rejected because it dealt with themes of homosexuality and AIDS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Plot:<\/strong> The Enterprise<\/em> is fighting Klingons again, for no apparent reason (what happened to the Organian Peace Treaty?), when it receives a distress signal from a disabled vessel. Spock and an away team beam over to discover that the ship has been overrun by blood parasites from a quarantined planet. Spock and the team are trapped on the infected vessel. In a subplot, Captain Kirk\u2019s nephew transfers on board the ship and asks Kirk to use his authority to marry him to another crewmember.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thoughts:<\/strong> I guess this installment is fine as fan fiction. This episode felt farther away than ever to me from the original flavor of the series, with the characterizations of Kirk and McCoy seeming especially out of whack. The lighting throughout the episode is strangely dark and ugly, which makes a huge difference, whether or not it registers consciously, and the score is not well suited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The script itself, while it has clever touches, depends on an enormous array of contrivances to function, which unfortunately are at best poorly explained. Meanwhile, overwrought dramatic scene after overwrought scene plays out endlessly. Surely a single-length episode could have been constructed that would have played better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The bloodworms look cool for a minute, but I really didn’t buy the monster of the week. One minute it\u2019s a wavicle, next minute a bloodworm. No, it really just wants to turn into a happy space jellyfish \u00e0 la TNG 1.1&2, \u201cEncounter at Farpoint.\u201d But only if someone sacrifices themseves first, because\u2026 oh never mind the reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I\u2019m glad that Denise Crosby agreed to do the series. What frelling genius decided to dress her in a sack? And why even bother with makeup, someone reasoned, since they weren’t planning to light her face anyway. In previous episodes, the producers had no problem making senior citizens Walter Koenig and George Takei look good. It\u2019s simply inexcusable to make former Playboy<\/em> model Denise Crosby look terrible. I’m sorry–film is a sensual medium, and this is important. There is no way they are going to convince professional actors to continue to guest star on their show if they don’t make them look good. Funny–looking ahead, there seem to be no more high profile guest stars from mainstream Star Trek for the rest of the fan series (so far). Whoops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I don\u2019t like to criticize super fans like the people who made these episodes, but we\u2019ve already seen that they are capable of much better. I rate this one \u201cmostly tiresome.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PWWR9z71CFI<\/a>