A new Star Trek fan production will show a gay liaison between Captain Kirk's nephew and his Starfleet Lieutenant boyfriend, in a storyline written for ‘The Next Generation', but never filmed. When David Gerrold left Star Trek: The Next Generation back in 1988, it was with a bit of a broken heart. He had penned an episode called "Blood and Fire" which dealt with an epidemic caused by a blood-borne pathogen that was an allegory for AIDS. The episode was to have featured the first openly gay couple in Star Trek history, something that Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was said to fully support. Gerrold was with Roddenberry at a Star Trek convention when Roddenberry was asked whether there would be gay characters in Next Generation. Gerrold recalls him saying, "You're right, it's time we do that." But Roddenberry was in fading health by that time, and he had less to do with the show's day-to-day operations than he had on the original Star Trek series that ran from 1966–69. So after reviewing Gerrold's completed script, the show's producers got cold feet. "This script was written as a promise," says Gerrold, an associate producer on Star Trek at the time. "There was a subtext that they were gay, but we treated them like they were really good friends. But someone does ask them: 'How long have you been together?' Well, a few people in the office went ballistic! A memo came down that said, 'We don't want to risk the franchise by having mommies calling the station because they saw gay people on Star Trek.'" With no Star Trek series on the air since the cancellation of Enterprise in 2005, several fan websites have helped to keep the Star Trek franchise alive by shooting their own episodes that are available for download. Among the most successful is Star Trek: New Voyages which has already shot three episodes; the most recent one features original cast member George Takei – now openly gay – reprising his role of Capt. Sulu. "I knew about the script and the story, and I approached David [Gerrold] with an idea of using it in our series," says James Cawley, executive producer for New Voyages. "A few of the original elements were kept intact but changed to make it relevant to 2001 as opposed to 1987. “I really feel this is something Gene Roddenberry wanted to do. He had promised there would be gay characters. That was the episode that was going to deliver. They never had the guts to tackle the issue, which is a shame. If we don't pick up his torch, it's never going to happen." Ref: 365gay.com (m)