 The story would have seen the Deltan, Ilia (Persis Khambatta), becoming pregnant by an alien entity as the ship passes near a nebula. She gives birth to a baby girl, who she names Irska. The Enterprise suffers multiple near-disasters, which are each resolved by the intervention of the child. Meanwhile the ship's hull is slowly dissolving and the vessel will break apart in a matter of hours. The new Vulcan science officer Xon (David Gautreaux) mind melds with the child and discovers that it needs to be transported directly into a bright light which had been pursuing the Enterprise. This procedure is completed and as the child enters the light, it transforms into a higher life form. The episode ends with the crew musing that Ilia acted as the being's first womb and the Enterprise was the second. The series was cancelled as it went into initial production for the pilot, "In Thy Image", with that being rewritten as Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The script for the Phase II version of "The Child" was later reprinted in full in Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens' 1997 book Star Trek: Phase II: The Lost Series. Povill and Summers adapted the script for use in the fan-series Star Trek: Phase II, also known as Star Trek: New Voyages. Povill also directed the episode.
