In Part 2 of our interview with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, the pair discusses working with William Shatner, the Star Trek
franchise, writing for television, and specifically Enterprise.
Soon after Judith and Gar began writing Star Trek novels, they made the enviable transition to working with Bill Shatner as co-authors on a new series of books that would extend the fictional life of his character, the iconic Captain James T. Kirk, who had recently met his fate in the movie "Star Trek Generations."
"We had just finished 'Federation,' says Gar, setting the scene. "And we were wondering what we could possibly do now, because 'Federation' was our love letter to the series. As Judy said at the time, there was such a history to Star Trek it was time for a James Michener-type novel, one that would span hundreds of years. So we wrote this book and were thinking, how do you follow that one up, when we got a call out of the blue from [Pocket Books editor] Kevin Ryan, who asked us if we'd be interested in working with William Shatner. At the time, they were just filming 'Generations.'"
Judith picks up the ball: "And they (including Mr. Shatner) didn't really want to see an end to the character. As he was such an important part of it, they were wondering whether or not there was a way to continue his story. So we went in to talk to Bill and hit it right off. It was a rich assignment, no matter who they'd offered it to. We were just glad they had considered us."
"The fun thing about that one," continues Gar, "was 'The Ashes of Eden' takes place just prior to 'Generations,' before Kirk goes out on the initial voyage of the Enterprise-B. The manuscript was in and Pocket Books loved it, we all loved it and [the publishers] said, well let's do a sequel and Bill's question was, How can you do a sequel if the character's dead?"
The now seasoned authors of science fiction merely regarded this obstacle as a challenge. Today, nine books have been written comprising three trilogies with a new project on the horizon for 2005 that will further the Kirk storyline, but take it back a few years, specifically to his Starfleet Academy days.
"We are looking forward to plunging into [the stories] with him and going back to Kirk and Spock, even before they became part of Starfleet," says Judith with customary optimism.
The idea of the "Starfleet Academy Years" is, of course, a long-running one that has yet to be fully realized. "I remember at the World Science Fiction convention in 1968 (was it that long ago?!), Gene Roddenberry spoke to the group and said he was thinking at that time of a feature film for Star Trek that would be Kirk, Spock and McCoy at the Academy," notes Gar.
"This is a new take on it," Judith clarifies.
"Bill actually came up with an interesting twist on the tale and it gave us entry," says Gar. "When they were doing the original
Star Trek they kept track of a number of things, but not as closely as everyone does today because it was a television series and who knew 35 years later it would still be going. So there is a lot of discrepancy when it comes to describing the early years of Kirk and Spock."
As noted earlier, the idea of tackling fictional discrepancies is something the pair relishes. "Of course, just as anyone who has read any of our books knows, discrepancies are the best things in the world because what you would like to do is say, well, you might think it's a discrepancy but when you look at it there is a very simple explanation. (Or perhaps not so simple!) But there is a way to weave it all together to make sense. It gives us lots of opportunity to find why that appears to be a discrepancy," explains Judith.
In their writing for Star Trek: Enterprise, the two scribes also see the future in terms of an open book, or "rich territory" as they like to describe it. "It's really only trying to decide which stories, because you've only got a certain number of episodes, but there are so many stories that can be told because it's a really interesting period. What we have is this undeveloped country," notes Judith.
"Because we've had three seasons of Enterprise, we know how the Star Trek story began, and certainly with the movie 'First Contact.' With the Original Series in mind, we know how it developed, what it was at that stage," says Gar. "How did they go from one to another?"
In their writing, which crosses over from fiction to non-fiction and science books, they have a vast canvas with which to paint. What do they find most interesting to write about, people or the science?
"Probably the people are more consistently fascinating," says Gar. "We've just finished a book called 'Going to Mars' which we've written with the chief engineer of JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) Brian Muirhead."
Rick Berman was responsible for introducing the writers to Muirhead. "Brian was the flight systems manager on Pathfinder when he met Rick Berman. Brian was interested in telling the story of Pathfinder and that, of course, is a number of years ago now, but Rick Berman suggested us and we got into this project with Brian, and then Mars became a much bigger topic. But it wasn't just the story of Pathfinder, it was the story of all the missions of going to Mars. That is what the story of "Going to Mars" is about. So that [project] came to us via Star Trek as well," explains Judith.
"We talked with a lot of scientists and engineers involved in Mars exploration; we were trying to figure out what was it that brought them in to space exploration. Without exception, all their stories are fascinating," adds Gar.
The
Trek connection to science and its adherents is well known, a fact backed up by Judith and Gar. "Almost all were inspired, at some point, by science fiction," notes Judith. "And
Star Trek was a big part of that and that's what became really an organizing principle for our book was this back and forth of mutual inspiration of the science fiction community and the community of scientists and engineers working in the real world."
"Nobody, except for a very few, want to read long pages of technical explanations," suggests Gar. "But what we loved, and what we bring out in this book, are those challenges that the scientists and engineers face. They needed to do something, they needed to find out something, and the thought process that they go through in developing the technology is really fascinating. You know, guys going home and working in their garage on the weekends, or building models of elaborate machines out of yarn and rubber bands at their kitchen table, and that develops into these $800 million machines. That human story is really fascinating and certainly that [the human story] is the story of Star Trek. It all ties together, it all goes back and forth."
As the couple work in so many different media — episodic television, animation, original novels, Trek novels, non-fiction novels, behind-the-scenes books — what becomes apparent in talking with Judith and Gar is that their approach to their various projects is as logical as their writing; they approach things differently, as the medium they are working in dictates their working methods.
Case in point provided by Gar: "If we approached an episode of Enterprise the way we approached a book, we'd be looking at seven-hour episodes!"
Point seconded by Judith: "And they'd be cutting our dialogue in the first page!"
"Animation," suggests Gar, "is a completely different storytelling style because in modern television, animation is a visual form of storytelling where the writer puts down on the page virtually every shot, every cut, which is something we would never do in the live action scripts because that becomes the director's domain. Everything is slightly different, and that actually keeps us fresh."
To achieve their standard, and their prodigious output, a certain work ethic is required. "We're talking from the moment we wake up," states Gar. "We love what we do and we're fully involved in it every day. There certainly is no such thing as weekends. For our latest book ['Freefall,' coming next spring], which is a 'conspiracy thriller,' we found ourselves at the Johnson Space Center in the shuttle simulator trying to land the shuttle. Judy landed it, I tried to land it."
Time off, recreation or anything resembling casual holidays are not really part of the overall plan for the writing couple, but whatever trips they take often end up being what they call "a fun research trip."
"We spent a year in Australia as supervising producers on 'The Lost World' television series and at the end of that production we were able to take some time off and visit the outback and Ularu, but those were areas we really wanted to go to just personally. All of that weaves into stories and books and other projects that we have on the go," says Gar.
"Also during that year, we visited the Great Barrier Reef for the first time and it did figure in one of Bill's books," notes Judith.
"Yes, Bill is an avid diver," Gar picks up the story. "And he wanted us to do some diving so we could write about it properly. So we went diving in the Great Barrier Reef and that worked into 'Captain's Peril.'"
This is the beauty of their job. "We always thought that this was one of the nicest parts of growing up to become writers, that the research would take you to places that you always wanted to see anyways and then you can share it with others," says Judith.
Incorporating real world with fantasy is something that great authors have been doing for a long time. But the challenges of writing within the confines of an established framework, like Star Trek, can be limiting. Do the authors prefer to write within these walls, or creating something new?
"There are different challenges in both," states Gar. "We always like to point to the opening chapter of 'Prime Directive' which we really like. It's where Kirk is no longer working for Starfleet, but is working on a construction crew hollowing out an asteroid. It's an exciting first chapter, but it only works because Captain Kirk is a character everybody reading that book has known 15 or 20 years and so there is a weight to the character and we can get right into the story."
"There is an added resonance when the characters are known to the readers," Judith points out. "
Star Trek has the hundreds of scripts that have gone before, plus the books, the movies and the television series that inform your characters. Everything they do has much greater resonance, every word you put down can have ripples for everyone. No matter which series they preferred or if they watched them all, it has greater resonance.
"When you do it yourself, it takes a while. When Gar and I wrote our first book series, 'Chronicles of Galen Sword,' by the second book we sat down and thought, my gosh we've created our own continuity. We had to sit down and we had to go through it because our readers would expect us to at least know it as well as they did. By the third book we realized we wrote ourselves into a corner and now we would have to get ourselves out of it. It was a real challenge. And we could see that anything with a long, long running storyline, the more you write the more inventive you have to be."
Which is to say that this is one of Star Trek's main strengths, according to Gar. "That's why, when you think about it, Star Trek is just an amazing franchise. It stayed fresh and this continuity has stayed more or less intact. There are still mysteries to be solved and [executive producer] Manny [Coto]'s got us hard at work thinking of ways to solve them, which is great. But when you think about other long-running entertainment franchises — James Bond, Superman, Batman — they are constantly being reinvented every five years, ten years ..."
"And sometimes they just dump the continuity," notes Judith. "With James Bond," suggests Gar, "there might be continuity between two or three movies, but that's it."
As for their role this season, the duo is happy to be involved in some of the show's big story arcs, namely the Vulcan arc, and to be part of Manny Coto's team. "This is really going to be a big, major piece of Enterprise, and of Star Trek. It's really exciting. The excitement that's in the room, the enthusiasm in the room when Manny leads us through these story breaking sessions is really wonderful," says Gar.
"It's very infectious and this is just a wonderful time to have joined them," notes Judith.
All in all, according to the authors, the future for Star Trek is still bright.
"Oh, gosh yes!" states Gar emphatically.
"Absolutely," concurs Judith.
