Should "Discovery" bring back the policy of fans being able to send scripts to the show?

Yes, it was a previous policy with Trek TV shows. That's why the OP asked if it should be "brought back."

When I was in grade school, we had pen pals who were in college, and my pen pal said he was going to submit a story to TNG. I don't know what ever became of it.

Kor

 

If TOS had been staff written we wouldn't have had "Amok Time" among others.

The only thing staff writing promotes with some assurance is consistency. That is neutral with respect to whether something's any good or not.

 

Specifically the shows Michael Piller was the showrunner on at some point, since he's the one who spearheaded it -- TNG, DS9, and VGR. I'm pretty sure Enterprise didn't practice it. And I think Piller practiced open submissions on one or two post-Trek shows like The Dead Zone, though I could be wrong.

 

Enterprise did not have the policy.

 

Apples and Oranges. The TOS production staff went out of their way to ENCOURAGE known science fiction literary authors like Theodore Sturgeon (the writer of TOS - "Amok Time") to submit Star Trek stories. They also spoke to former Twilight Zone writers. ALL THESE were know professional writers with a successful writing history.
^^^
That's a lot different from what was TNG - VOY 's open script submission policy while Brannon Braga was calling the shots.

 

You mean Michael Piller. As I said, open submissions were his baby. Brannon Braga started as an intern in TNG's 4th season and rose through the ranks on TNG and VGR until he finally became showrunner in VGR seasons 5 & 6, before leaving it to co-create Enterprise. He never worked on DS9 at all. So over the 21 combined seasons of TNG, DS9, and VGR, Braga was "calling the shots" for exactly two seasons. And even then, Rick Berman was really the one calling the shots.

 

Beside the point. I was responding to this...

...a position which I find lacking.

 

Yup.

That's how Babylon 5 happens.

 

Nemesis was.
But the fan had an Oscar and Brent Spiner on speed dial.

Which helped.

The director was a tit, and not a fan, though one aspect does not preclude the other.

 

which is the best possible argument for it

 

I'm a freelancer (of videography and editing, not writing) so I'm biased in favor of people from outside the staff. The staff, any staff, can get too "inside the bubble". Sometimes you need outside ideas that the staff can't see because they've developed tunnel vision from looking at the same things from the same angle too long.

The staff, though, can make sure there's a standard template, so the characters aren't suddenly acting wildly out of character and so stories don't end up written into a corner the people writing the next episode can't get out of.

Doesn't change that I'm still not sure how it works with serialization, especially if it's tight serialization, but having outsiders you can bring in never hurts.

 

Another thing to keep in mind is that it typically takes close to 3 months to get a concept from the initial pitch to the finished episode. At least, I once read that on TNG the average was 11 weeks. So any single script is being written, rewritten, pre-produced, and shot while the next half-dozen or so episodes are simultaneously in the works at earlier stages. So even in a rare case like Babylon 5 (or maybe Doctor Who?) where the showrunner doesn't rewrite freelancers' scripts, those freelancers will still be aware of where the storyline is going after their episode and will incorporate any story arc details as requested, either in the initial writing phase or in subsequent rewrites as new details emerge. Even after filming, it's possible to rewrite an episode through editing, dialogue redubbing, or even reshoots if the need, time, and budget are sufficient.

 

Ooops - my bad.

 

Yep. See also Richard Matheson, Harlan Ellison, Robert Bloch, George Clayton Johnson, Norman Spinrad . . ..

Many of whom had also written for THE OUTER LIMITS, THRILLER, ALFRED HITCHCOCK, etc, not to mention various feature films before they freelanced for TOS.

None of them were fans trying to break in . . .

 

These days we don't have SF prose authors contributing freelance scripts all that often, since TV has become so much more staff-driven -- but instead we have prose authors actually becoming consultants or producers on series based on their work, like Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck for The Expanse, or Neil Gaiman on American Gods. Also, SF novelist John Scalzi was the science consultant on Stargate Universe, and I think he was slated to write a script for them if the show had lasted longer.

 

Perhaps there could be a middle ground; i.e., welcome script submission from writers who are already in the industry, rather than from everybody.

Kor

 

They already do. Anyone with an agent can request to pitch to a show or try out for a staff position. What was distinctive about the open submission policy was that it permitted unagented submissions, as long as a legal waiver was signed first.

See, the reason unagented submissions generally aren't allowed is the risk of nuisance plagiarism lawsuits. Different writers come up with parallel ideas all the time; it happened to me several times just during the brief period that I was trying to pitch for Trek. (When I sent in my first spec script to TNG, an episode with a similar premise aired exactly 10 days later!) But amateurs often don't realize how common it is, so they'll often see a coincidental similarity, assume they were ripped off, and file a lawsuit. The reason writers usually have to go through agents is because then the interaction is all by the book and they're legally covered. The waivers you had to sign for the open submission policy were a promise not to sue in the event of a perceived similarity between your ideas and something they actually did. (Another case where this happened to me -- I pitched a DS9 premise called "Terok Hel," a thriller set aboard an abandoned Cardassian station identical to DS9, and then a year or so later they did "Empok Nor" along very similar lines. But I'm sure I was far from the first person to propose such an obvious money-saving idea. Often it's a matter of finding the right take on an obvious idea, and mine wasn't the right one.)