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TrekMovie.com, the leading Star Trek movie news site, named the Star Trek: Phase II production of Carlos Pedraza’s screenplay, “Blood and Fire, Part 2″ the best Star Trek fan production of 2009.

Carlos co-authored the screenplay with noted scifi author David Gerrold (“The Trouble with Tribbles”), who also directed the episode.

TrekMovie.com hailed “Blood and Fire, Part 2″ as:

An emotional yet exciting story, complete with the excellent production values and effects that we have come to expect from the Phase II team.

The past year also attracted kudos for Carlos’ work from Joss Whedon, who told Rolling Stone that the Phase II episode, “World Enough and Time,” which Carlos co-executive produced, inspired Whedon to create the Internet phenomenon Dr. Horrible’s Singalong Blog.

Rolling Stone, by the way, named Phase II, among its five must-watch Web series.

“Blood and Fire” is based on a script Gerrold originally wrote for Star Trek: The Next Generation in the 1990s. It was never produced because its passing reference to a male couple aboard the Enterprise was considered too controversial by the producers.

Carlos adapted the script for the original Trek series-based Phase II, expanding the story to include Captain Kirk’s nephew Peter as one part of the male couple. Interestingly, two decades later, that portrayal proved controversial when “Blood and Fire, Part 1″ debuted a year ago.

Fortunately, Part 2’s release this past November was greeted by far fewer objections.

“Blood and Fire” was shot by Judas Kiss’s director of photography, Dave Berry, and second-unit director Ben Alpi of our partner company, Runic Films, with visual effects by Joël Bellucci.

UNDER FIRE Capt. Kirk (James Cawley, center) narrowly avoids enemy fire while rushing to aid crewmen in Star Trek: Phase II's next episode, ‘Enemy: Starfleet.’

On the heels of the “Blood and Fire, Part 2” release, Star Trek: Phase II has posted the teaser and part of Act 1 of the next episode, “Enemy: Starfleet.”

The episode marks Blue Seraph director J.T. Tepnapa’s debut as Lt. Cmdr. Sulu, and Carlos Pedraza’s turn as First Assistant Director. Blue Seraph cinematographer Dave Berry served as Director of Photography for this episode as well.

Watch preview of ‘Enemy: Starfleet’

STARFLEET SCIENTIST Jenna Yar (Denise Crosby) exposes herself to danger.

Star Trek: Phase II released the second part of “Blood and Fire,” directed by David Gerrold and co-written by Blue Seraph’s Carlos Pedraza.

The episode also features J.T. Tepnapa’s first appearance as Mr. Sulu, Dave Berry’s turn as cinematographer and Joël Bellucci’s amazing visual effects.

Look for a cameo appearance by J.T. Tepnapa as Mr. Sulu in the cafeteria scene.

The new episode is available for both download and streaming here:

Streaming

• Playlist on YouTube
• Online streaming at startrekphase2media.com

Downloads

• startrekphase2.de
• phase2trek.com
• trekwebmaster.com/ (read page and follow links to downloads)
• http://trekminal.no-ip.org

Torrent

• phase2.us

CLICK TO LISTEN to a recording of the live interview

UPDATE Though the show is over you can still use this link to listen to Carlos and J.T.’s BlogTalkRadio radio interview last Sunday.

Or just click on the BlogTalkRadio graphic on the right, and it’ll take you there, too.

Hosted by Roger Noriega and “Shadow,” the two-hour interview featured news about our upcoming Star Trek: Phase II projects, including “Blood and Fire, Part 2,” “Enemy: Starfleet” and “The Child,” as well as our Blue Seraph projects, Judas Kiss and Love Minus Zero, and lots more.

THE USS COPERNICUS and the Enterprise in Star Trek: Phase II's 'Blood and Fire.'

The second part of “Blood and Fire,” Star Trek: Phase II’s newest episode, is scheduled for wide release on the Internet on Friday, Nov. 20, according to the Phase II Web site.

“Blood and Fire” was written by Blue Seraph’s Carlos Pedraza with noted scifi author David Gerrold, who wrote the original script for Star Trek: The Next Generation in the late 1980s. Principal photography was in June 2007. Part 1 was released in December 2008. Both parts feature stunning visual effects by Blue Seraph partner Joël Bellucci of Bellucci Designs.

Read more about “Blood and Fire, Part 1,” and watch a clip from that episode.

Poster art for 'The Child' by Jeff Hayes.

ATLANTA — The latest episode of Star Trek: Phase II, “The Child,” had its world premiere Labor Day weekend at Dragon*Con, America’s largest fan-run scifi and media convention, featuring the work of Blue Seraph’s Carlos Pedraza and J.T. Tepnapa.

A rough cut of the episode, featuring most of the finished visual effects, was screened as part of the Star Trek track at the 23rd annual convention. On hand for the presentation were Carlos, J.T., Ben Alpi (of Blue Seraph’s partner, Runic Films) and James Cawley (Phase II’s executive producer).

This year was Carlos’ fifth as a guest at Dragon*Con. He appeared on panels for both the Star Trek and Writing tracks at the convention.

Carlos edited the script with its original author, Jon Povill, who penned the teleplay for Paramount Pictures’ Phase II series in the 1970s. In addition, Carlos served as a producer and first assistant director of this production.

J.T. appears as a series regular, Mister Sulu, and worked as an on-set acting coach.

Povill also directed this newest production. Another version of “The Child” was produced as an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) during the 1988 writers’ strike.

Povill, not a fan of the TNG adaptation, wanted to helm a production that was true to his original story, which introduced the Deltan race that was later seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Phase II News

“The Child” is still in post-production and isn’t likely to be released on the Web until sometime in 2010. Still up for release this fall is “Blood and Fire, Part 2,” written by Carlos, along with longtime Trek scribe David Gerrold.

Further down the Phase II pipeline is:

• “Enemy: Starfleet,” which Carlos co-produced and assistant directed, and in which J.T. stars as Sulu. The episode awaits additional principal photography this fall, though some of its post-production is complete.
• “Kitumba,” which Carlos story-edited, and which was shot this past summer.

For more information, see the Star Trek: Phase II Web site.

On Star Trek:

I love the role of Sulu in Star Trek: Phase II! I love that a homosexual playing a heterosexual originated the part. Actors that allow themselves to be vulnerable can breathe authenticity into any role. I actually met George Takei when I was 5 years old. My parents took me to the Lotus Festival in Los Angeles California. I remember going up to George Takei and shaking his hand. It’s funny to think years later, I would be playing a part he originated.

On Being Gay in America:

I did not come out in high school. It wasn’t that I was afraid to come out. I was just too busy with acting and singing to understand homosexuality, but that didn’t stop me from having secret sexual partners in high school. When I finally went to college, my identity became much more complex. I felt it was important to be completely honest with the people around me.

Read the full interview, in English, here. You can also try your language skills in Flemish/Dutch here.

Join the Runic Films team at San Diego Comic-Con 2009.

LOS ANGELES — The principal creative team of Runic Films, veterans of the Web series Star Trek: Phase II and Zerks Log, will attend Comic-Con 2009 in San Diego, July 22-26.

Producer-director Ben Alpi, cinematographer David Berry, visual effects artist Matt Jolly and writer-producer Carlos Pedraza will be at the country’s leading comics and popular arts convention, which is celebrating its 40th year.

Originally showcasing comic books, science fiction/fantasy and film/television, and related popular arts, Comic-Con has expanded over the years to include a larger range of pop culture elements, such as horror, anime, manga,animation, toys, collectible card games, video games, webcomics, and fantasy novels.

The sold-out 2009 convention is the largest of its kind in the world, filling to capacity the San Diego Convention Center with over 126,000 attendees last year.

Runic’s creative team comprises veterans of some of the Web’s most popular series, including Zerks Log, eScape, Star Trek: Hidden Frontier and the Hugo- and Nebula-nominated Star Trek: Phase II.

Runic Films is a full-service HD, film and visual effects studio offering cutting-edge development, production and post-production services. Founded in 2001 by two brothers from upstate New York, it has grown to a full staff of award-winning writers, directors, artists and technicians with presence on both coasts. Runic Films also specializes in rich media content for Web and next-generation devices.