The nearly 60-year-old storytelling universe created by Gene Roddenberry feels as eternal as the cosmos itself. A new Star Trek series is currently streaming with more shows and films soaring onto screens in the future. Yet not only was this not inevitable, its success defied the odds and conventional wisdom. With the passing of legendary storyteller Jeri Taylor, fans are reminded Star Trek would have been a dead franchise long ago without her talent and tenacity. Before Star Trek: The Next Generation, no sequel television series was ever more successful than the original. In fact, the early seasons of TNG were troubled in large part because the show couldn’t keep writers.
When Michael Piller showed up in Season 3 as the showrunner, the USS Enterprise-D went where no television series had gone before. Along with Piller, veteran television writer from series like Quincy, M.E., Magnum PI and other 1980s classics, Jeri Taylor joined the writing the staff. She quickly proved her mettle in what was a fierce and competitive creative environment. Jeri Taylor became the first woman showrunner in the TNG era for that series’ final season. Then, just as Piller did for Deep Space Nine’s showrunner Ira Steven Behr, he gave her command of the flagship for the United Paramount Network. At 86 years old, Jeri Taylor died, but she is immortalized for her work on Star Trek, the people she mentored and that this universe and her characters continue to this day.
About The Author
