Star Trek writers of decades past - where have they gone?

[Jinn]

I did some searching online. I believe it was ST - Unlimitedcomic: "An Infinite Jest" (January 1998). It's been a while, so my synopsis might not be perfect. For instance, I forgot that the catalyst for the story was an argument between Q and Trelane.

Thank you very much I have to find a copy of that somewhere... But I think I know just the right guy.

Haha, fair point. I guess it's the fervency that I don't get; I love a good "who would win" argument (Death Battle is honestly a favorite channel of mine for the level of research they try to put into things, even if I don't always agree with the results), but it's all in good fun to me.

Good point, "who would win" arguments can be very interesting and i would lie if I said I didn't engage in one or two of them at the one point or another. Also because I just noticed it, when I wrote "Interestingly pretty much all the people who later want to study chemistry or physics absolutely hate biology." I only meant the ones I know, not generally all future chemists and phisicists.

Even if so, though, that's maybe 2 or 3 years? Vs. over 20 years for Picard. Different environments, different metrics. They're both great captains.

Yeah, okay that is definitely a difference. I am currently reading the immediate post TF novels and wondered how old he was by then. As it turns out he is 80 by The Fall.

Not canonically. The Making of Star Trek (the source of a lot of fannish conventional wisdom) said that he was the youngest-ever captain of a starship-class vessel (i.e. a large capital ship like the Enterprise rather than something smaller like his destroyer-ish first command). But that was probably just a handwave to reconcile Hollywood's desire for mid-thirties leading men with the fact that command of a top-of-the-line ship would usually fall to more seasoned officers. It was never actually a story point in TOS itself.

Huh, I seem to have a pretty bad memory of TOS...

Elizabeth Dehner said that Kirk "asked for him" (Gary) "on your first command." That phrasing implied that it was a previous ship, though some fans have assumed she meant the Enterprise, because the only other mention of Kirk having a prior command was in TMoST.

Those three ships are all different tie-ins' separate conjectures about what his prior command was -- the Saladin from DC's "First Mission" annual, the Lydia Sutherland from Vonda McIntyre's near-contemporary but incompatible Enterprise: The First Adventure, and the Oxford from DC's later "Star-Crossed" storyline -- which doesn't necessarily contradict either of those, because it shows the beginning of Kirk's command of the Oxford, while the others show the end of his tour aboard the ship in question and his transfer to the Enterprise. So he could've commanded as many as two of the three.

I guess she could have also meant the ship that Kirk temporarily commanded in Inception. MaybeI don't consider TFA as part of my personal continuity, so there won't be all that much conflic there.

 

[Idran]

Yeah, okay that is definitely a difference. I am currently reading the immediate post TF novels and wondered how old he was by then. As it turns out he is 80 by The Fall.

Yep, he was captain of the Stargazer from 2333 until 2355, and was off-the-map for 9 years until the Ent-D; TNG wasn't the new guy making a name for himself like TOS was, it was the well-established guy making his comeback after a hiatus.

 

[Christopher]

Huh, I seem to have a pretty bad memory of TOS...

Don't feel bad. For decades, a ton of things that people have thought they remembered from TOS were actually from The Making of Star Trek. It was the definitive book about the series for a while and had enormous influence.

Yep, he was captain of the Stargazer from 2333 until 2355, and was off-the-map for 9 years until the Ent-D;

Except for this map: https://christopherlbennett.wordpress.com/home-page/star-trek-fiction/tng-the-buried-age/

 

[Jinn]

Don't feel bad. For decades, a ton of things that people have thought they remembered from TOS were actually from The Making of Star Trek. It was the definitive book about the series for a while and had enormous influence.

I am going to rewatch TOS in the near future anyway, so I'm looking forward to seeing what actually happened and what came from The Making of Star Trek or other sources.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Was this book literally unauthorized, or just called that to sound rebelious?

Written without CBS involvement. However, Bob did plan to add new and revised material for the trade reprint but the publisher, Voyageur Books, was asked by CBS Licensing to just reprint the original version.

(UPDATED)

 

[Leto_II]

Not canonically. The Making of Star Trek (the source of a lot of fannish conventional wisdom) said that he was the youngest-ever captain of a starship-class vessel (i.e. a large capital ship like the Enterprise rather than something smaller like his destroyer-ish first command). But that was probably just a handwave to reconcile Hollywood's desire for mid-thirties leading men with the fact that command of a top-of-the-line ship would usually fall to more seasoned officers. It was never actually a story point in TOS itself.

Strangely, Prime Universe Kirk's official entry over at StarTrek.com actually mentions this factoid, even though it never appeared onscreen in a TV episode or movie:

As much as any other figure in Starfleet history, the tall tales about James T. Kirk's exploits over a 40-year career are as numerous as the official record — and probably closer to the truth in some instances. Kirk's renown began by becoming the youngest captain in Starfleet to date at 34 and the first captain to bring his starship back relatively intact after a five-year mission, having also gained a reputation as an independent whose success couldn't be argued even though he often bucked the system. He also has the distinction of being involved in 17 different temporal violations, a career record which still stands.

 

[trampledamage]

J.M. Dillard
Seems to be writing historical novels under her real name Jeanne Kalogridis these days.

I'm going to see if I can find some of these - I love Dillard's Trek novels, and I like historical novels - so it should be a good fit

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Diane Carey
Tried her hands in politics some years back. AFAIK Her last published novel was Banners, a novel set in the War of 1812

I read Banners two years ago, and I enjoyed it. In a review of the book, I called it "good, not great," which I think is fair, as it had a few problems that could have been fixed easily. If you ever wanted to read a Hornblower-esque Carey novel and you have an interest in the Early Republic period of American history, which I did and do, then Banners is worth the time.

 

[Christopher]

Strangely, Prime Universe Kirk's official entry over at StarTrek.com actually mentions this factoid, even though it never appeared onscreen in a TV episode or movie:

That bit about "becoming the youngest captain in Starfleet to date at 34" makes no sense. He was 34 in "The Deadly Years," which was several years into his command of the Enterprise. (TMoST put it at four years, but conventional wisdom now is 2-3.)

 

[Trek Survivor]

Nostalgic to see some of these names.

Michael Jan Friedman is still my all-time favourite Trek author (including his huge amount of TNG comic work), with John Vornholt a comfortable second.

 

[Hugh Cambridge]

I loved every book Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens wrote.
Do someone know what they are doing these days ?

 

[Christopher]

I loved every book Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens wrote.
Do someone know what they are doing these days ?

They seem to be continuing to work at TV writers-producers. After their work on Enterprise's fourth season, they created and wrote for Primeval: New World in 2012-13, and in 2015 they were attached to a CW horror pilot called Incarnate that doesn't seem to have materialized. They've worked on several projects currently in development, including a Captain Power reboot and feature-film adaptations of Jerry Pournelle's novel Janissaries and Andre Norton's Witch World novels. But they still write prose -- an original fantasy/horror novel called Wraith came out last year.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I loved every book Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens wrote.
Do someone know what they are doing these days ?

Updated website launching soon (but the "coming soon" ad for Wraith says Fall 2014")...?
http://www.reeves-stevens.com/Welcome_to_Reeves-Stevens.com.html

 

[Ronald Held]

Could this thread be archieved for future use?

 

[TheAlmanac]

Susan Wright
Seems to be writing erotic fiction these days.

Wright is also the co-founder and current spokesperson of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom.

 

[Defcon]

I'm pretty sure that list is not complete. I would be surprised if whoever edited for Bantam is sill around for example, but I just don't know who was editing back then. I think I read somewhere that Fred Pohl was involved somehow back then, if so I would have to add him to the list, for example.

ETA: I checked, it was in Voyages of the Imagination where I read about Pohl. I have checked about others I might have missed and that leads to three new entries to the list:

Shirley Maiewski (1920-2004)
"Mind-Sifter" (Short story in The New Voyages)

Rebecca Neason (1954-2010)
Guises of the Mind

Frederik Pohl (1919-2013)
Editor for Star Trek at Bantam Books

Sadly I had to add another author to the page who died recently:

Victoria "Vicki" Estelle Mitchell Gustafson a.k.a. V.E. Mitchell (1954-2017)

Enemy Unseen
Windows on a Lost World
Imbalance
Atlantis Station

Thanks to @Daddy Todd for sending me the news.

 

[Timewalker]

J.M. Dillard
Seems to be writing historical novels under her real name Jeanne Kalogridis these days.

I'm going to see if I can find some of these - I love Dillard's Trek novels, and I like historical novels - so it should be a good fit

The name seemed familiar, so I checked Amazon... turns out that I have some of her historicals. She's nowhere near the caliber of Margaret George, Pauline Gedge, Lindsey Davis, or Philippa Gregory, but they're not bad. Borgia-themed novels were quite popular when the TV series were on.

I'm pretty sure that list is not complete. I would be surprised if whoever edited for Bantam is sill around for example, but I just don't know who was editing back then. I think I read somewhere that Fred Pohl was involved somehow back then, if so I would have to add him to the list, for example.

ETA: I checked, it was in Voyages of the Imagination where I read about Pohl. I have checked about others I might have missed and that leads to three new entries to the list:

Frederik Pohl (1919-2013)
Editor for Star Trek at Bantam Books

I was privileged to meet him at a convention in Calgary, back in the '90s. I was able to chat with him for a few minutes after the autograph session, and his wife came in... I remember her fuming because he called us "gals" as he hurried out the door. I certainly took no offense - he was really nice.

Sadly I had to add another author to the page who died recently:

Victoria "Vicki" Estelle Mitchell Gustafson a.k.a. V.E. Mitchell (1954-2017)

Enemy Unseen
Windows on a Lost World
Imbalance
Atlantis Station

Thanks to @Daddy Todd for sending me the news.

Vicky Mitchell and her husband, Jon Gustafson, used to attend NonCon and Con-Version, the two annual SF conventions in Alberta, back in the '80s and '90s. I didn't get to talk to her much - just a brief autograph in one of the novels - but her husband is an art and book appraiser specializing in science fiction and fantasy. Since I had an extensive collection even then, he's the one I talked to more.

 

[stardream]

A Star Trek Author used to live near me but for the life of me, I can't remember which one...or what books she wrote.

Does anyone remember if any of the authors lived in a small town in Virginia?

 

[Bob Greenberger]

Written without CBS involvement. However, Bob did plan to add new and revised material for the trade reprint and was asked by CBS Licensing to just reprint the original version.

Actually, I never talked to Paramount/CBS directly. This was between Voyageur Books and them.

I'd still love to write more Trek fiction but the current team at Pocket doesn't seem interested and two projects at IDW went nowhere.

 

[Therin of Andor]

... two projects at IDW went nowhere.

Yeah, I remember. That was weird!