Merri D. Howard is one of the Supervising Producers on Enterprise.  In this 2002 interview, we found out about the fun and challenges she finds in her job.

Could you please describe your job?

I oversee the episode from the time the writers give us the script. I budget it, then break it down with the assistant directors and the directors. I basically oversee the physical production. I'm involved in the budgeting, the scheduling, the administration duties, liaison between the director and the executive producers, casting, and making sure everything runs smoothly and all the elements from all the different departments come together.

Are there any production challenges that a new show like Enterprise represents?

Obviously every show brings another challenge. I think, for us, it's trying to make this the best that has been done. As far as all the production elements, the writers want to produce things bigger and better than what's been done before. The question is how do we go ahead and give the writers the vision to be able to produce that within budgetary constraints. We're just trying to produce the best show we can within the physical issues.

Does a job like yours ever get any easier?

Yes, it does. As the seasons go on it becomes an even more well-oiled machine. But everyday presents a new challenge. You never know what's going to happen within the day when you walk in to work. Something always comes up that you never expected and it's how do you approach the problem and fix it. You just try to do it to the best of your knowledge. There's always the challenge and you try to challenge yourself as well.

Did you have any involvement in the last couple of Star Trek films?

Hands on, no. The only involvement was the coordination of the stages because the films used some of our stages during the production of Voyager. I worked with [executive producer] Marty Hornstein and [production designer] Herman Zimmerman and incorporated our television schedule with the features. They were able to use certain sets, working within certain dates.

You've worked on the show for so long, do you still watch the end results?

I do watch it. I watch the dailies more than the end results, but whenever I can, I do because we never see any of the visual effects or hear the music scores. All of the elements that are put together I never see until the end result, so I try to watch as many episodes as I can.

Do you ever get involved in casting decisions, or offer suggestions?

Yes I do. Obviously Rick [Berman] and Brannon [Braga] and the writers have a vision of what their characters should be and so they're pretty much giving most of the direction to our casting director. If we see someone we' ve worked with before, all of us have input and we can make suggestions whether it's right or not. We can talk about it.

Do you have any desire to pitch, or write, a story for Star Trek?

I really don't. I'm very much of a hands-on person, so I let those who have much more of a creative mind do that. I like the nuts and bolts of it.

What do you do if an episode runs short?

I have to go to the writers and tell them to write more, and then we have to shoot more. If I know upfront, we go ahead and time the shows prior to bringing it to stage so we have an idea what it should really come to when we're all finished with producing the show. If we know that we're three or four minutes short I'll call Brannon, or whoever the writers are at that time, and say I think we should go ahead and really think about doing another two page scene or three page scene and even if we don't shoot it, hold it in abeyance so that we know we can get it afterwards in a second unit. It really depends — sometimes we think the show will be short and its five minutes over. When we time a script we try to do it not only at the pace of the actors but also the pace of the director.

Is there ever a scheduling problem when an actor is also the director?

Usually not. Most of the time we will schedule our production meetings, our optical meetings, or our castings around the actor's time on stage. We know upfront that we're going to have one of the actors direct our show, so Brannon will write the episode with the understanding that we have to have him [or her] for a few scenes versus every single scene.

How far in advance do you schedule the directors?

Usually what happens is we'll get our schedule for the beginning of the season out in May and we'll start booking directors in May and June all the way through to January.

Are you looking forward to the premiere of Enterprise?

I'm very excited. I'm very excited.

Would you say you're as excited as any of the previous Star Trek shows premiering?

Yes, this one more than all the others. Obviously, I wasn't here for The Next Generation — I started on the second season — which is very close to my heart. But this one feels like it's going to have the buzz like The Next Generation did and it's very exciting. A lot of hard work by everybody and I hope it's going to show on the screen. Scott Bakula is perfect for this and he has an audience and I'll hope he'll bring it to the show.

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