Overview by Susan Nicoletti 

 

Written by Michael Piller, who has been variously described as a “writer’s writer” and the man who played a major role  in saving  the Star Trek franchise,  here is the very inside story of the writing process that resulted in the franchise’s 1998 film Star Trek: Insurrection. Certainly for Star Trek fans – of which there are legions – and students of film and television, this is a sought-after look at the screenwriting process from concept to final film script through the inclusion of treatments, story meetings, storyboards, and the moving of the Trek characters on the resultant creative chessboard. Fans, hungry for this kind of rare access, may well be thoroughly engrossed in and entertained by the book; whereas students of writing for television and film will definitely benefit from this textbook as not only reference material but also as a bona fide annotated resource on this particular film and/or on the entire Star Trek oeuvre, in general.

 

The book also beckons fans of good writing in general as well as film aficionados and those entrenched in the lore of old Hollywood. The first thing Mr. Piller does is to invoke all the great writers of vintage Paramount Hollywood days – from Preston Sturges to Billy Wilder – and great television writers such as Rod Serling et al….too numerous to mention.  Piller weaves in his own rich history in “the business” – did you know he was a censor for CBS and part of his job was to sanitize President Nixon’s language on those famous audiotapes, which he refused to do?! (I didn’t know that, and I was a film Ratings board censor….. oh, the discussions we could’ve had!)  This is by way of saying the book may well also appeal to the sophisticated film or television buff out there.

 

Mr. Piller’s personality emerges, as well:  A baseball aficionado (his mother, the great songwriter Ruth Roberts, wrote two of the most popular baseball team theme songs – “Meet the Mets” and the Dodgers’ “It’s a Beautiful Day for a Ballgame,” so baseball is in his genes), Piller invokes his favorite team (the Los Angeles Dodgers) struggling in the playoffs as it parallels his own struggles with draft after draft of the film’s treatment. Piller’s trusted co-producer Rick Berman shares his love of baseball and also serves as his sounding board, business partner, and faithful lunch companion.

 

A bit of back-story that is not really covered in the book but is alluded to (Piller was always too modest to toot his own horn about this): Piller’s much-heralded importance to Trekkers originates from the fact that, early on in his association with the franchise, Piller had risen to the Roddenberry challenge (also known as “The Roddenberry Box”) when he was hired to “fix” the third season of The Next Generation series. Previous writers had been frustrated by “the box,” which discouraged writers from relying on emotion and/or “drama” (the very life blood of story!) to tell their tale. Seemingly anathema to all that drama consists of, The Roddenberry Box had Piller momentarily stymied, but he was ultimately inspired to invent the story-telling strategy that allowed ST The Next Generation to continue – thereby "saving the franchise" (writer Ira Behr speaks regularly to ST audiences about this). As a result, Piller and Berman had a solid springboard from which to spin the Deep Space 9 and Voyager series. These subsequent series enjoyed various levels of success.

 

Piller can make a story meeting downright suspenseful, even exciting; after all, considering the enormity of the franchise, it is welcome “inside stuff,” it is entertaining stuff, it’s the stuff that dreams are made on! (at least, to a Trekker and/or a screenwriting student). It is such an intimate look at the meetings, the writing processes, the conversations, and the thought processes that the reader is brought directly into the room and into the moment. Piller brings such “inside” material into this that, at a few points, even Patrick Stewart himself (and to a lesser extent Brent Spiner) weighs in with his input, which is fascinating. Hard-core Trekkers and students of screenwriting will absolutely devour each Piller tangent into minutiae precisely because it is Star Trek minutiae!  Also, and this is an extremely welcome bonus, the sketched Storyboards are included in the textbook.

 

My overall impression is that, ultimately, this will appeal to film students as well as the Star Trek nerd/fan in all of us – all of those Sheldons and Leonards and Howards and Rajeshes out there will absolutely relish this!

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