I can only speak for Phase II and Ironsides "while I was involved" here. While I was involved, we TRIED to adhere to the WGA guidelines with the "suggested credits". Greg and I used to have long-winded discussions as to what writing credit was appropriate and accurate. (all suggested credits for P2 were either accepted as is or James made unilateral changes in his role as senior exec based on what he wanted or what others had requested. For instance, Jon Povill and Dave Galanter wrote the "writer credits" for their respective episodes.)
For "Kitumba", for example, I began with the basic story that JML had worked with for his two part "writer's drafts". However, I changed that story to my own story, still using his basic premise. So the "based on a story by" was in line with the WGA guidelines instead of the "story by" because, as I said, a lot of the story was mind, not JMLs.
However, when I wrote "Mind Sifter", I didn't change the story at all - I simply turned it into a screenplay and threw in a few "polishes" that I'd previously discussed with Shirley. (they mostly involved addressing the fact that a Russian with a thick accent was beaming down and running around McCarthy era early 50s USA). So the credits read "Story by".
According to David Gerrold (who was responding to the "how much of Patty's MS changes are in the new MS script" discussion) the current MS script was based on Sondra and Marsha's edited story published in TNV book, not on Shirley's original story, and the screenplay for that was written by Rick Chambers. (Shirley objected to this edited version and wanted her name distanced from it, so I don't know you acknoweldge that. "Based on Sondra and Marsha's edit based on Shirley's original story"? Pretty cumbersome. I'm sure P2 will figure something out. "based on a story by Shirley, Sondra and Marsha"?) According to David Gerrold, that first screenplay was then completely rewritten by David Reddish, removing what David G felt were faults with Shirley''s original story and introducing completely new story elements to it. David G then "did the final polish". David G specifically stated that David Reddish needed to have writing credit on the episode along side Rick Chambers, all of which is what I based my questions/observations on.
Reminder - if it's needed for some reason - I am not part of P2 any longer and don't represent them. I am simply commenting on/answering what we did to figure out writing credits while I was there to provide one answer to the "how do fanfilms figure this out". We did it the same way on Ironsides while I was involved as a producer with that fanfilm. The comments on the current episode's credits are simply using info I was given by the showrunner. I don't know how they'll figure it out and what they'll say in the end. As a writer, though, I've seen too many people not get credit for what they did so I'm a little Sheldon Cooper about proper writing credits....
Following up on that... here's a discussion worth having. How DO fanfims handle attribution for writers? I know the WGAw guidelines for the number of writers who can be credited on a screenplay/teleplay, but fan productions aren't beholden to that, so how are the credits determined, and what guidelines do people follow, if any?
Here's how a number of fanfilms have dome it in some (not all) of their segments, and how they compare to what you'd see on TV.
Farragut has credited writers with "Story & Screenplay by", but on TV that would be simply "written by". You only credit both Story and Screenplay when the story originated with one writer or writing team and script was written or heavily rewritten by others. One of their vignettes features a "story concept by" credit instead of "story by", and another has the credit "screenplay by" without an associated "story by", both of which are not standard.
In Continues's "Pilgrim of Eternity" and "Lolani" they use "written by" instead of "teleplay by" on scripts which also have "story by" credits, but they get it WGA correct for "Fairest of Them All" with "story by" and "teleplay by" credits. The credits for their "Turn About Intruder" vignette are very nonstandard: "original teleplay by" and "extended script by" credits.
Phase II's "Kitumba" used a "based on a story by" instead of "story by", whereas "Enemy Starfleet" has the more standard "story by" attribution, but "The Child" has a really weird combo of "written by" and "teleplay by" which is confusing as heck.
Exeter's "The Savage Empire" has a nonstandard "Written and Directed by" credit, whereas "The Tressaurian Intersection" has WGAw standard credits, with separate "story by" and "teleplay by" credits and correct usage of "and" and "&" to indicate separate writers and writing teams.
