Nov 17 | Originally hired as co-executive producer to help with the second half of the show's first season, Kevin Murphy has now taken the reins of Caprica, the Battlestar Galactica prequel on Syfy, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He now serves as an executive producer along with Ronald D. Moore, David Eick and Jane Espenson and oversees the day-to-day functions of the show.
Nov 12 | Star Trek star Zachary Quinto is loosely attached to star in the romantic dramedy Whirligig, reports Risky Business.Quinto would play the lead role in the independent Canadian film, which is aiming to shoot early next year. The movie centers on a man who, in a misguided attempt to woo an older woman, befriends the woman's adopted son.Chaz Thorne is directing the pic, based on a screenplay by Michael Amo, creator of the Canadian supernatural series "The Listener."
Nov 11 | The CNS Foundation, is hosting an on-line charity auction at www.charitybuzz.com. One of the items they are auctioning is a signed movie poster of the new Star Trek movie which has all the cast members and writers. The president of our organization is Carol Abrams, JJ's mother, and she arranged for the donation from Bad Robot Production Company. J.J. Abrams is also a major donor to their organization. The funds raised will go to help find a cure to neurological disorders in children. The auction link is here.
Nov 10 | Candice Bergen, Charles Lisanby, Don Pardo, Gene Roddenberry, Tom and Dick Smothers and Bob Stewart have been selected as the next inductees into the Television Academy's Hall of Fame. They will be honored at a Jan. 20 ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel. "This year's inductees have challenged and shaped popular culture, changed television for the better and entertained us royally while doing so," TV Academy Chairman-CEO John Shaffner said. More info at the Hollywood Reporter
Nov 08 | Unreality-SF.net has interviewed Star Trerk author James Swallow about some of his upcoming projects. He talks about Titan: Synthesis and Seven Deadly Sins: The Slow Knife, as well as some forthcoming Doctor Who and Stargate stories.
Author Glenn Greenberg is an award-winning editor and writer whose work has appeared in numerous fiction anthologies, comic books, lifestyle and news magazines, and on several Web sites. THE ART OF THE DEAL marks his return to the STAR TREK universe - he previously developed and wrote the five-issue STAR TREK UNTOLD VOYAGES limited series for Marvel Comics, which chronicled adventures from the second five-year mission of Captain James T. Kirk and his crew aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise.
Glenn’s writing work for Marvel also included stints on such world-famous characters as Spider-Man, the Hulk, Dracula, and the Silver Surfer. As a Marvel editor, he is proudest of having developed the Starlord limited series written by bestselling science fiction author Timothy Zahn, as well as the inter-company crossover project, The Incredible Hulk vs. Superman, which made Glenn one of the very few Marvel editors in history to edit a project featuring DC Comics’ flagship character, Superman. For the GrayHaven Magazine Web site (www.ghmonline.com), Glenn was co-writer of the much-acclaimed, 35-part Internet column “The Life of Reilly,” in which he chronicled his rather reluctant role in the making of the infamous “Clone Saga” that ran through the Spider-Man titles in the mid-1990s. Glenn has written various articles for magazines such as Smoke and Time Out New York, and currently serves as editor and head writer for Scholastic News, a weekly newsmagazine for kids.
In 2002, his work on that magazine earned him the prestigious Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers. Glenn also writes regularly for the Scholastic News Online Web site (www.Scholastic.com/news), for which he provided all-day coverage of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America.
TrekWeb.com brings you this exclusive interview with Greenberg, in which he talks about his work wih THE UNTOLD VOYAGES, and his upcoming STAR TREK STARFLEET CORPS OF ENGINEERS ebook, THE ART OF THE DEAL.
Q : Glenn, how did you start out in the writing field ?
Greenberg : I’ve been writing since I was a kid, really. I still have all of the comic books that I wrote and drew, starting from when I was eight years old. The Hulk, Star Wars, Star Trek, Godzilla, King Kong, Batman… It was great practice for my later career at Marvel Comics! When I started working at Marvel in 1992, I slowly began to pitch stories, some of which were rejected, some of which were bought. After a while, editors became familiar with my work and were receptive to my ideas. I eventually got to work on a lot of my favorite characters, like Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Silver Surfer, Dracula, and Thor.
Q : What was it like writing the STAR TREK: UNTOLD VOYAGES mini-series for Marvel ?
Greenberg : That was a dream come true, really. A labor of love. I got to write my favorite version of Star Trek, which is the Original Series, and I got to tell some stories that I felt needed to be told, stories that I’d wanted to tell for quite some time. It was a very exciting project to work on, and yet it was somewhat intimidating too, because so much had already been done with those characters and I was following in the footsteps of people I had admired for many years - especially Peter David and Mike W. Barr.
Q : UNTOLD VOYAGES was the second STAR TREK comics series produced by Marvel that was set after the first feature film (the 18-issue series from 1979-81, written by Marv Wolfman, was the first). Did you have any concerns, directives, etc. about not duplicating events in the prior series or not discussing later events to come ?
Greenberg : I don’t mean to nitpick, but Marv Wolfman only wrote the first 4 issues of the original Marvel series. The other writers were Mike W. Barr, Marty Pasko, Tom DeFalco, and J.M. DeMatteis.
I really had no concerns about covering the same era as the first Marvel series, because I was not under the same restrictions. The contract that Marvel had with Paramount to do that first comic book series prohibited Marvel from making reference to, or showing, anything or anyone from the original TV show, with the exception of the Enterprise crewmembers who appeared in the first movie. But that was back in 1979. By the time Marvel got the rights back in 1996, the rules had changed and we were free to utilize characters, places, and situations from Star Trek’s vast history. That freedom allowed me to do a lot of the things I’d always wanted to do with Star Trek, and I think - no, I know - that UNTOLD VOYAGES benefited greatly because of it.
In terms of directives, I don’t recall receiving any, other than “Do good Star Trek!” As for duplicating events from the prior series, there certainly was some degree of duplication - the Enterprise facing the Klingons shortly after the V’Ger encounter, McCoy being reunited with his daughter - but I felt the stories I was telling were different enough from what had come before that the fans wouldn’t mind.
Q : In issue 2, you told the origin of Lt. Saavik as a savage, half-Romulan half-Vulcan girl, discovered by Spock on a Romulan planet, a backstory explored in the novel THE PANDORA PRINCIPLE by author Carolyn Clowes. And the scene in which Spock tells Kirk that Lt. Saavik is half-Romulan was shot, but cut from THE WRATH OF KHAN. And in issue 3, you introduce the character of Joanna McCoy, Doctor McCoy's daughter, a character created by D.C. Fontana for the third season of The Original Series, but never used. In both cases, how much research did you do on the TREK chronology, backstory and history ?
Greenberg : Oh, I did lots of research - but I must admit, I’d already read most of the material loooong before I ever knew I was going to be writing Star Trek professionally! I was a Trek fan since childhood, so I knew Saavik’s origin from Vonda McIntyre’s novelizations of THE WRATH OF KHAN and THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK. And I knew that Carolyn Clowes expanded on Saavik’s origin in THE PANDORA PRINCIPLE - which, by the way, is one of my favorite Trek novels. And Mike W. Barr added a few ideas of his own about Saavik’s backstory in an issue of DC’s Star Trek comic (issue #7, I believe).
In my script for UNTOLD VOYAGES #2, I even added a caption that said, “With acknowledgment to the works of Vonda McIntyre, Mike W. Barr, and Carolyn Clowes,” because I feel very strongly about giving credit where credit is due. And since I was using so much of their material in my Saavik story, I felt I had to acknowledge them. But for some reason, Paramount asked that the caption be removed, so I never got to properly acknowledge those writers, much to my regret.
In fact, Paramount encouraged me to come up with a completely new origin for Saavik, one that didn’t tie in at all with what had been previously established about her. Paramount’s feeling was that since all the references to her being half-Romulan never showed up onscreen, I didn’t have stick to that and I could even establish her as a full Vulcan if I wanted to.
I responded that Saavik’s background from the novels and comics - official or not - had been in print since 1982, and most fans were familiar with that version and had enthusiastically embraced it. And I was one of those fans! Today, maybe I would accept the challenge of establishing a whole new history for Saavik, but back then, I wasn’t interested in doing so. I just wanted to take what was already there and add a little something to it.
As for Joanna McCoy in #3, there’s a pretty funny history surrounding that issue. My story was inspired by a script called “Joanna,” which was written for the third season of the Original Series. In that script, Dr. McCoy’s daughter, Joanna, comes aboard the Enterprise and has a romantic fling with Captain Kirk. This causes a major conflict between McCoy and Kirk - and between McCoy and Joanna.
As you mentioned, the script for “Joanna” was written by D.C. Fontana, who, as most fans know, wrote many of the Original Series’ best episodes. However, Fontana’s script was so heavily rewritten that it bore no resemblance to her original story. The focus of the episode shifted to Chekov, and Joanna McCoy became Irina Galliulin, who had been Chekov’s love interest at Starfleet Academy, but dropped out to become a space hippie. The episode was filmed as “The Way to Eden,” and is now widely considered to be one of the loopiest - if not one of the worst - episodes of the Original Series. Fontana had her name removed from the credits of the filmed version.
For years, I’d been fascinated by the story of “Joanna” and thought it could have been a terrific episode. Even today, I wish I could get my hands on a copy of that original script so I could read it! Anyway, when I was working on UNTOLD VOYAGES, I wanted to take a crack at making Fontana’s story idea finally come to fruition. To be fair, other writers had used Joanna McCoy before me. She showed up in at least one of the novels, and she appeared in one issue of the first Marvel Star Trek comic book series. But those appearances, in my humble opinion, weren’t very satisfying. I felt that I could do better, by being more faithful to Fontana’s original concept.
For my story, I followed the basic idea of the original Fontana script, but added a lot of stuff of my own. For one thing, my story also served as a sequel to the Classic Trek episode “Miri,” in which McCoy found a cure for a planet of children who died horribly as soon as they reached puberty. In my story, I established that McCoy’s cure turned out to be almost as bad as the disease itself, and the leader of the kids, Jahn (played by Michael J. Pollard in the episode), went after McCoy seeking revenge. Joanna ended up as Jahn’s prisoner, and Kirk and McCoy had to put their conflict aside and work together to rescue her.
Marvel and Paramount liked my story, but Paramount was concerned that Kirk would be too old for Joanna to get romantically involved with her. Paramount suggested that Joanna get involved with another crew member, and named as a possibility - get ready for this - Mr. Chekov!
In response, I wrote a lengthy memo explaining why we shouldn’t change the story. For one thing, a conflict between McCoy and Chekov just wouldn’t have the same emotional resonance as a conflict between McCoy and Kirk. Secondly, Kirk wasn’t all that much older than Joanna. Using the Star Trek Chronology book published by Pocket Books, which was officially sanctioned by Paramount and written by people who actually worked on the various Trek TV shows, I proved that there was probably no more than a 16-year age difference between Kirk and Joanna. At the time of my story, Kirk was about 41 years old, which meant Joanna was about 25. Nothing too scandalous about that! And besides, the original “Joanna” episode was going to have them get together, and their characters would have been about six years younger back then!
Paramount ultimately relented, and let me go forward with my story. I was even allowed to include in the opening credits, "Inspired by a concept by D.C. Fontana", which I greatly appreciated. And a couple of years later, the official Star Trek fan club magazine, Star Trek Communicator, named the story as one of the 10 best Dr. McCoy stories ever published. That was extremely gratifying.
Q : How was working with artist Mike Collins on UNTOLD VOYAGES ? Mike is also drawing the covers for the STARFLEET CORPS OF ENGINNERS e-books.
Greenberg : Mike was a joy to work with. He’s a really good artist, an excellent storyteller, and he knows Star Trek very well. He threw in a lot of great little details that made my stories come alive. I felt like we were very much on the same wavelength, and that my scripts were in good hands. I was pleased to find out that he was the cover artist on the S.C.E. e-books - this is the closest we’ve come in years to working together again !
Q : Let's talk about your next TREK project, the STARFLEET CORPS OF ENGINEERS e-book, THE ART OF THE DEAL. Were you familiar with the S.C.E concept and characters? What's it like writing a story in e-book format ?
Greenberg : I became familiar with the S.C.E. concept and characters through the editor of the series, Keith R.A. DeCandido. I’d done some freelance writing for Keith in the past, and we became friendly as a result of that. I had gotten in touch with him at one point to ask for advice on how to better establish myself as a prose writer, in the hopes of eventually doing some Star Trek work, and he told me about the S.C.E. line, which was just getting underway at that time. He invited me to pitch some story ideas, once I’d read the manuscripts that were already done. So I read all the manuscripts that Keith sent me, and then I submitted a bunch of ideas. It took a while for me to come up with something that both Keith and Paramount would approve, but once I did, we were pretty much up and running.
Writing a story in e-book format is really no different than writing a regular novella, which is essentially the kind of work I did for Keith in the mid-1990s. Although the S.C.E. project was about three times the length of my previous stories - definitely the longest piece of fiction I’ve ever written. But I loved having so much extra space to tell my story to its fullest potential and to explore the characters !
Q : Editor Keith R.A. DeCandido described THE ART OF THE DEAL, saying that "the story involves the da Vinci being assigned to construct facilities on a non-member planet that the Federation is helping transform from a farm world into an industrial/scientific research center, and Things Go Horribly Wrong." What more can you tell us about the story, without giving too much away ?
Greenberg : Well, I can tell you that we’ll learn some more details about the history of Captain David Gold, the commander of the da Vinci. We’ll meet someone from his past. Security Chief Corsi gets plenty of time in the spotlight - I’ve found that she’s a fun character to write. There’s plenty of action, things blow up, characters are challenged in what I think are very interesting ways, and at the heart of it all is a villain I hope readers will find intriguing and memorable.
Q : Have you been contacted by Simon and Schuster to write a full-length novel ?
Greenberg : No, but I’ve certainly contacted them enough times! (Laughter)
I do hope to someday write a full-length novel, preferably featuring the Classic Trek crew. That would be another dream come true for me. It’s something I’ve fantasized about doing since I was a kid.
Q- What is next for you? Any plans for future S.C.E. e-book entries?
Greenberg : Well, Keith and I have discussed the possibility of me doing another S.C.E. project, and I already have an idea of what I’d want to do next, but it’s waaaay too early to talk about that. I’ve got my fingers crossed, though.
Right now, I’m working on a full-length novel that’s not related to Star Trek. I’m having a lot of fun with it. I don’t know if it’ll ever get published or not, but the experience of creating it is very exciting and fulfilling.
Q : Glenn, thank you for taking your time to talk with TrekWeb.
Greenberg : My pleasure! Thanks for your interest - and the exposure!
STAR TREK: S.C.E. # 45 - THE ART OF THE DEAL will be available online in October 2004. Thanks to Bill Williams for his help in this article.
I never got to reading the untold Voyages themselves, but I did read a fiar amount of the other Marvel Paramount Comics Star Trek stuff. It was great; the telepathy war crossovers, the Starfleet Academy stories (the one on Talos IV with Captain Pike foremost) were great. It touched on an aspect of the Domninion War that was ignored on Deep Spac Nine: the telepathic races of the alpha quadrant as a threat to the founder plot. And they were all so well illustrated...each meticulously recreated the era in which it was set; Early voyages, with captain Pike, caught the look of the Enterprise bridge on The Cage perfectly, and applied the same kind of style to everything else seen on the ship. Anyway, they were great. I wish I'd have got osme of the Untold Voyages; it'd be intersting to see a few more adventures in those pastel leisure suit uniforms of TMP. The entire seocnd five year msision with Kirk is an incredible blank in Star Trek history; it would have been something to see an interpretation of it. But these thigns are so hard to find...in fact, I can't find Trek comics anywhere; last one I did find was one of the Wildstorm anthologies with Double Time and a few other stories in it. I guess there are no more Trek comics left in Southwestern Ontario.
I've been wondering about picking up one of the SCE books; Foudnations had my interest particularly. There are just too many books...I'd never be able to keep up/catch up. :S Hell, I still read some of the novels from the eighties when I find them; it's simply imposible to read all the Trek that comes out. I think fans are kind of oblivious to just how much there is, and how great a percentage of it is good...I can honestly say that the only bad Trek novel I remember reading was Dreams of the Raven, in which giant ravens attack the crew and suck their brigs out of their heads. It was bad. But the rest is gold.
Every time I read one of the revies or interviews on Trekweb, I want to read whatevers reviewed...yet seldom am able to.
Well, I hope Glenn Greenberg keeps up the good work; it's good to see fans like us writing these things; even though fans like me have increasingly less time in which to read them.
--------
"Peace or…UTTER DESTRUCTION…it's up to you." — Kirk, A Taste Of Armageddon
"Alright you mutinous, disloyal, computerized half-breed, we'll see about you desserting my ship." — Kirk, This Side Of Paradise
| 
