Trek Cast Involved in Trek Lit?

[DarKush]

Outside of William Shatner, are there any other Trek cast members (actors and behind the scenes people) involved in Trek Lit? From writing, reading, offering suggestions about characters, technical aspects, etc.?

Also, have any of the Trek cast members ever contacted writers to tell them what they thought of certain books?

 

[Christopher]

You mean currently or ever? Armin Shimerman co-wrote The 34th Rule. John DeLancie co-wrote I, Q. Andrew Robinson wrote A Stitch in Time. J. G. Hertzler co-wrote The Left Hand of Destiny. Nichelle Nichols co-wrote a short story in Bantam's The New Voyages 2 anthology. Robert Picardo co-wrote The Hologram's Handbook, I believe. Walter Koenig, George Takei, Mark Lenard, Aron Eisenberg, and Wil Wheaton have all written or co-written Trek comics stories: Koenig in DC's first TOS series, Takei (with Peter David) in its second, Lenard and Eisenberg in Malibu's DS9 series, and Wheaton in two consecutive Tokyopop TOS manga volumes.

 

[JD]

We've also had people who have written for both the TV series and the books:
David Gerrold
DC Fontana
David Mack
David R. George III
Michael Jan Friedman
Jeri Taylor
Howard Weinstein
Mike Sussman (he only provided the story for Age of the Empress)
Those are the only ones I immediately recognized when I was looking on Memory Alpha, so there might be others I'm not aware of.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Diane Duane has written Trek for books, TV, comics and computer games.

 

[Marco Palmieri]

^Add:

- Jim Swallow
- John Ordover
- Kevin Ryan
- Melinda Snodgrass

Also,
- Jill Sherwin was a member of the DS9 production staff.

 

[LightningStorm]

And the obvious:

Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

 

[David Henderson]

Ethan Phillips co-wrote Neelix's Cookbook, though that doesn't exactly fit in "fiction".

davidh

 

[David Mack]

Diane Duane has written Trek for books, TV, comics and computer games.

As have I.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Diane Duane has written Trek for books, TV, comics and computer games.

As have I.

I didn't realize about the computer game. Which one was it?

ETA: Never mind, I found the info on Memory Alpha (and will add it to Memory Beta).

Mack also wrote the dialog for the ''Deep Space Nine'' videogames Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars, and the character bios for ''Star Trek: Starship Creator''.

 

[Christopher]

We've also had people who have written for both the TV series and the books:
David Gerrold
DC Fontana
David Mack
David R. George III
Michael Jan Friedman
Jeri Taylor
Howard Weinstein
Mike Sussman (he only provided the story for Age of the Empress)

And of those, at least Gerrold and Sussman also qualify as "Trek cast." Gerrold did at least two voices for the animated series (Korax and Em-3-Green) and had a walk-on as an Enterprise crewman in "Trials and Tribble-ations." Sussman appeared as one of the deceased Defiant crew in "In a Mirror, Darkly." Also, Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens appeared in the finale of "These Are the Voyages" as members of the audience for the signing ceremony, along with the other producers.

 

[donners22]

I notice on one of the Voyager DVD special features, Roxann Dawson talks about Simon & Schuster approaching her to write sci-fi books, though not Trek ones. LeVar Burton and Michael Dorn also have non-Trek novels.

I actually asked John de Lancie about co-writing I, Q at a convention, and he made it very clear it was not at his inititive, and not something he had any real interest in.

 

[DarKush]

Thanks for the info. But what about the relaunch efforts? Has Trek vets been involved in or commented on the various relaunches?

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

You could say that it was Andrew Robinson who really kicked off the DS9 relaunch--a lot of what he did with Cardassia has underpinned the other books (especially the Oralian Way storyline!).

 

[David Henderson]

Thanks for the info. But what about the relaunch efforts? Has Trek vets been involved in or commented on the various relaunches?

DS9 writer David Weddle was involved in Section 31: Abyss, and his writing partner, Bradley Thompson, was originally going to be writing a novel entitled Walking Wounded, but that fell through for some reason (I forget why).

davidh

 

[Marco Palmieri]

DS9 writer David Weddle was involved in Section 31: Abyss

Wow, how'd I forget that?

 

[PaulSimpson]

I notice on one of the Voyager DVD special features, Roxann Dawson talks about Simon & Schuster approaching her to write sci-fi books, though not Trek ones. LeVar Burton and Michael Dorn also have non-Trek novels.

I actually asked John de Lancie about co-writing I, Q at a convention, and he made it very clear it was not at his inititive, and not something he had any real interest in.

That's interesting, because at FedCon this year, John was talking positively about both that and the Spock vs Q debates into which it seemed he had input.

P

 

[Therin of Andor]

That's interesting, because at FedCon this year, John was talking positively about both that and the Spock vs Q debates into which it seemed he had input.

Yeah, I'm wondering if some anecdotes got switched or misremembered by donners22? I've asked JdL about both of these:

John deLancie was critical, in the past, with the DC Comics annual about Q he once "co-wrote" with PAD because he felt his own contribution was quite minor.

It was my impression that deLancie was more of a generating and proud force with the hardcover novel, "I, Q". (Indeed, the audio adaptation is also by deLancie and doesn't carry a PAD credit for the abridgment; at a time when George Truett was adapting most S&S audios whether the book authors were busy or not.)

 

[donners22]

That's interesting, because at FedCon this year, John was talking positively about both that and the Spock vs Q debates into which it seemed he had input.

Yeah, I'm wondering if some anecdotes got switched or misremembered by donners22? I've asked JdL about both of these:

John deLancie was critical, in the past, with the DC Comics annual about Q he once "co-wrote" with PAD because he felt his own contribution was quite minor.

It was my impression that deLancie was more of a generating and proud force with the hardcover novel, "I, Q". (Indeed, the audio adaptation is also by deLancie and doesn't carry a PAD credit for the abridgment; at a time when George Truett was adapting most S&S audios whether the book authors were busy or not.)

It was just last year, I asked the question directly and I wrote about the answer the following day.

I had asked if he took an active interest in the character and whether his involvement with Peter David (specifically mentioning reading the audio of Q-Squared and co-writing I, Q) was at his inititive. His answer made it quite clear that they were the result of him being approached. His other answers suggested he had much more of a passion for composing music than he did for anything relating to Q.

That's not a criticism or complaint in any way, simply the impression I got of one actor's view on his involvement in Trek lit.

 

[Stevil2001]

James Doohan had a series of original novels called The Flight Engineer, though the first one of those was more than enough for me.

 

[Bob Greenberger]

Actually, it was John DeLancie who wrote ST:TNG Annual #1, heavily featuring Q. When the script arrived, I was concerned that it didn't feature the rest of the crew enough and that some sort of B story be added to give everyone some "screen" time.

John, though Richard Arnold, insisted the story was fine. Paramount's Licensing Department, though, also felt the main cast was under-represented so I asked Michael Jan Friedman for a polish.

Richard Arnold bluntly told me that the script was fine with him and Gene Roddenberry as is and Licensing was to be ignored.

I asked my superiors at DC to speak with Paramount and sort this out since I did not want to be caught between Gene's office and the Licensing office. In the end, Michael's script was approved for use and they share the byline. John's contributions are far from minor since we just added stuff, taking away very little from his original draft.

Fortunately, time heals most wounds, so John and I have been able to get past this and enjoy friendly terms whenever out paths cross.