
Ever since Gene Roddenberry created the series in 1964, people have been working with his dream,
optimism and characters. First there were the writers for the seventy-nine television episodes, and then he
let James Blish handle the first everStar Trek novel. Since then, there have been scores of novels, short
stories and comic books all sharing in the same world. There have been some bumps and bruises along
the way, but these days most everyone likes to share the universe and keep it as tightly knit as possible.
Perhaps now, we thought, was the time to come up with a novel idea that could involve a group of
writers.
Though everyone nodded and walked away feeling really good about the idea, no one wrote an outline.
This became increasingly obvious as winter turned to spring and spring rapidly gave way to summer.
With the Mets rallying for a repeat of 1986, I decided that if no one else was going to try to write the
outline, I would.
I prepared an outline and David liked it. He sent copies out to a number of the people who’d expressed
interest in the shared novel and said we’d all discuss it at the first annualStar Trek authors’ picnic. That
August saw everyone gather at a park in Manhasset, New York, and this time we lost Margaret, Allan
and Arlene, but gained Brad Ferguson and Howard Weinstein. David never showed up. He claimed he
was sick. We think he can’t be seen in sunlight.
The authors discussed the outline in depth and agreed that something usable was here and that we
should all get to work on it. Michael and Bob were set on participating, but Carmen was waffling. She
wasn’t sure if this was something that could play to her strengths as a writer. Carmen wanted to see
more.
Thus were born the semi-frequent writers’ meetings. By late 1988, David had hired Kevin Ryan as an
assistant editor and they hosted meetings to discuss the book outline. Based on feedback from others, I
had revised the story repeatedly. Peter David had already sold Pocket one novel and had established his
credentials on theStar Trek comic for DC Comics. He readily agreed to be the third member of the
writing team (after all, at Peter’s speed this would be easily a two-, maybe three-hour job).
Somewhere during all this, DC Comics reacquired the rights toStar Trek comics, and it was no surprise
that Peter went right back to work on theStar Trek title while Michael accepted the challenge of
producing a monthlyNext Generation comic, concurrent with the TV series. This, of course, meant more
expensive lunches and dinners to talk aboutStar Trek, which is as fine a pastime as any.
The novel, finally dubbedDoomsday World, continued to evolve, and Carmen found herself enjoying the
give and take that happened during these meetings and agreed to be our fourth author. I also think she
liked the rotating appetizer idea, which featured everything from small breads to cookies to rugelah,
followed by pizzas galore.
We finally had an outline we liked and that Paramount Pictures then approved. From there, I broke the
story down into thirty-eight elements and we assigned character points of view. We divided the
thirty-eight sections among ourselves, swapping a few here and there for balance, and then we worked
on a character bible. We also agreed that since I wrote the basic outline, Michael would get the dubious
honor of melding four distinctive styles into a final polish. So, finally, by July 1989 we were ready to
begin simultaneous writing.
Everyone wrote diligently (although Peter managed to squeeze inA Rock and a Hard Place prior to
starting his section) and Mike, Carmen and I met at the 1989 World Con in Boston to compare notes. In
September we had a meeting to make sure we all felt comfortable, and it was surprising how comfortable