Strange New Worlds' showrunners advise fans to write to Skydance and Paramount if they're interested in a "Year One" Kirk sequel series

[Christopher]

It was easier back then (Anyone could write a script on spec.)

Now, the WGA rules are much stricter. A nonunion writer can't do that anymore.

Of course they can -- by joining the union. That's how it works. A union that refused to let in new members would be pretty useless.

There are actually a fair number of prose SF authors working in television today -- often as executive producers and writers when their books are adapted to the screen, like Daniel Abrahams & Ty Francks (aka "James S.A. Corey") on The Expanse or Martha Wells on Murderbot. George R.R. Martin of Game of Thrones has been writing for television since the 1980s, alongside his prose career. Novelist John Scalzi was a creative consultant on Stargate Universe. But the only one who's been involved with Star Trek was Michael Chabon, who co-created Picard, and he was let go after one season.

So it's not that it doesn't happen. It happens plenty. It just doesn't happen much on Star Trek anymore. And there's no reason why it couldn't.

 

[Danja]

George R.R. Martin of Game of Thrones has been writing for television since the 1980s, alongside his prose career.

When the End of the World finally comes, there will be two survivors:

• The Cockroaches
• George R.R. Martin writing The Winds of Winter.

 

[Firebird]

It was easier back then (Anyone could write a script on spec.)

Now, the WGA rules are much stricter. A nonunion writer can't do that anymore.

The WGAW has been in existence since 1954 and the same union rules have applied to writers working on TOS as they do now, so that's not really an excuse.

TNG and DS9 (up to a point) had the open submission policy as well, which kept the show from grinding to a halt during the third season in particular when they were severely short on scripts. Anyone could submit, whether they were union or not.

You don't have to be union to submit a story and/or a draft. The writing staff of a show will handle the final revisions

 

[Christopher]

TNG and DS9 (up to a point) had the open submission policy as well, which kept the show from grinding to a halt during the third season in particular when they were severely short on scripts. Anyone could submit, whether they were union or not.

Voyager too. I submitted spec scripts to TNG & DS9, flew out to Hollywood to pitch in person for DS9, and did two phone pitches for VGR, none of which achieved more than convincing me I'm really bad at pitching unless it's in writing. (TV pitches have to be spoken, since they have to pay you for anything they ask you to write.)

The open submission policy was Michael Piller's idea, so it was only in effect on the three shows he was involved with. It was an exception to the usual practice, since generally accepting unsolicited proposals is opening yourself to nuisance lawsuits from people who claimed you stole their ideas. Pitchers to Trek had to sign waiver forms going in, promising not to sue. Which is necessary, since different people come up with coincidentally similar ideas all the time without any theft being involved. My TNG spec script had an idea in common with an episode that aired a week after I mailed it. One of my VGR pitches (reworked from my DS9 spec script) turned out to be coincidentally similar to a movie spec script Joe Menosky had written, and another had some similarities to "The Gift," which they'd already written. (I was pitching for season 4 and couldn't have known at the time that Kes was leaving.)

 

[Nerys Myk]

TOS and TAS had a number of writers with such credentials -- Jerry Sohl, Richard Matheson, Norman Spinrad, Theodore Sturgeon, Harlan Ellison, Robert Bloch, Larry Niven, etc. It brought a new level of science fiction literacy to television. I've always regretted that later shows haven't tried as hard to recruit prominent SF authors.

Didn’t say there weren’t Sci-fi writers involved, just that it’s not required. Some were better suited for Trek than others.

 

[Christopher]

Didn’t say there weren’t Sci-fi writers involved, just that it’s not required. Some were better suited for Trek than others.

Nobody said "required." It's just that it would be nice to have a significant number of them again, instead of the usual zero. The sizeable number of prose science fiction authors who wrote for TOS was a key element of what made it distinctive, so if the goal is to redo TOS, doesn't it make sense to suggest emulating that critical aspect of it?