Newsgroup: it.fan.startrek
Titolo: Intervista con Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/7930.html
This week's Star Trek: Enterprise episode "The Forge" was penned by
acclaimed sci-fi writing duo Judith and Garfield ("Gar") Reeves-Stevens,
who joined the show's writing staff this season. (See related Production
Report.) The Canadian duo's rich and varied background has served them well
in their chosen field, providing them with perfect credentials to write for
the show.
The two met while both were working in the field of educational publishing
in their native Canada. Although they started out writing books on
conventional educational subjects such as math and English as a Second
Language, they soon gravitated towards the creative world. Looking at their
impressive résumé, it's clear that they didn't simply halve their work by
being in a creative partnership — they doubled it!
"I was doing some non-fiction writing, and Gar had already embarked on some
horror novels," comments Judith on their early career. "I was the editor
for a series they called 'Energy Literacy' for K thru grade 13 (in Canada
they have a grade 13!) and I lost patience with some of the writers I was
working with and I thought, 'Gee, Gar could do a great job on this,' and
brought him in because both of us had a great interest in science and
technology. We really enjoyed the process of working on it and we went on
to develop a series of our own for kids in grades 1, 2 and 3 to introduce
them to science and technology through activities."
"That took about three years and had us flying across Canada dealing with
all the ministries of education," recalls Gar. "At the end of it, well, we
enjoyed working together and we never wanted to do another textbook series!"
"So we thought, 'What's something else we could write together?'" Judith
recounts. "Gar had written horror fiction, but technically, he hadn't
written science fiction. So we happened to go to New York and we saw 'Star
Trek IV.' When we came out of the movie we thought, 'Gee, I wonder if they
do books?'" The pair then called down to Pocket Books in New York and the
first question the publishers asked was if they were already published and
if they had an agent. They said yes and later followed up by sending some
of their story ideas, one being a Klingon trilogy.
Pocket picked one of their other ideas. "That was 'Memory Prime,'" says
Gar. "And we hadn't met anybody in New York. We just did it by the mail,"
adds Judith.
The first novel was written during their transition from Canada to Los
Angeles. "We finally figured out that you could write books in a place
where there was no snow! About that time, Pocket Books said, 'You're only
living 20 minutes from the studio, how would you like to do some
behind-the-scenes books on Star Trek?'" says Judith.
The pair was all over the invitation for more work and their new assignment
brought them within the hallowed studio gates. "The first time we came
through the Melrose Gates at Paramount...," starts Judith. "Was for 'The
Making of Deep Space Nine,'" says Gar finishing her thought.
"We started working on that book towards the end of the first season,"
Judith picks up the story once more. "And the nice thing about that was,
because it was a behind-the-scenes book, it introduced us to the whole
workings of a television series in production. And we were able to talk to
people since it wasn't too far back, in terms of the planning; we were able
to talk to them about how the whole series had come into being. That was a
wonderful introduction to the television world in general, but also to Star
Trek."
"That was something that Rick Berman really made possible, because,
basically, he opened the door to every department for us and so we were
able to be flies on the wall for virtually the entire production process.
And that was invaluable," says Gar.
As writers, they had a perfect window seat into the world of television
production and writing. "We concentrated on the writers, in that book,"
continues Judith, "because we were really interested to see how the series
got up and running and was developed — its format, its bible — and the way
the characters were handled in the first few scripts. That also led to
other non-fiction books, behind the scenes, for Pocket, and with 'The Art
of Star Trek' we were able then to find out about the other aspects, the
physical production and all of the artifacts that they had around from the
original show onwards that have never really been brought together to
showcase them."
The idea of writing strictly in the non-fiction or fiction genre, however,
simply doesn't appeal to the duo. "We love mixing it up," says Gar.
"We love mixing it up," continues Judith, "because they are part of the
same process. It was a lot of fun to be able, though, to see both sides. I
think if you concentrate on one or the other you might not get the whole
picture."
The insider's look into the Trek world brings with it a certain amount of
educated speculation. For instance, Judith and Gar wrote "Star Trek Phase
II – The Lost Series" which dealt with the origins, development and
ultimate plug-pulling of what would have been the second TV series. The
question being, would a new show have worked back then? "At the time,"
offers Gar, "there definitely would have been a market for it. And, quite
possibly, Star Trek might have sputtered out at that point because it was
basically a continuation of the Original Series and there wasn't a lot that
was new to it. It was sort of like a fourth season, and a fifth season."
Or, as Judith notes: "When you put it between the Original Series and The
Next Generation, you can see it as a continuum."
"It's certainly a transition piece," concludes Gar.
All the Star Trek shows, the authors agree, fit within their cultural
timeframe as well as the Trek-verse, while maintaining their overarching
message. "There are many great things about The Next Generation," says Gar.
"But what that did was, it showed that the metaphor of Star Trek, the
context of Star Trek, is what made the series compelling. You could build
another completely new series within that context."
"What's fascinating to us," Judith picks up the thread, "is you can see how
the Original Series was of its time. When you looked at the Sixties, it fit
its time and it fit the concerns of people at the time. The Next Generation
is very different, but it matched its time as well and that's just a trend
to have that continued. Each series, you can see it having themes and
issues that are of interest to the current audience. But they still all fit
within Star Trek."
"And that's why we think Star Trek is a storytelling medium that is going
to be with us a long, long time. It's almost like each generation gets to
find an element of Star Trek that they can tell stories in."
"And it's unique!" chimes Judith.
Jolan Tru
-- 
Filippo "Hytok" Simone - L'oracolo sampdoriano di Sunnydale
La Casa degli Elfi - 
http://www.freewebtown.com/lacasadeglielfi/
Enclave del Dominio - S.N.S. Despiser - 
http://ildominio.altervista.org/
Commissione Voyager - 
http://www.voyageritalia.com/

cut
La seconda parte:
http://www.trektoday.com/news/231104_01.shtml
Describing Star Trek as an "amazing franchise", new Enterprise writers
Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens discussed the differences between
writing books and television episodes and talked about working on Kirk
novels with William Shatner.
In the second half of an interview with StarTrek.com (see previous story),
the writers explained that the only limitations they perceive writing for
Enterprise are the limited number of episodes per season. "It's really only
trying to decide which stories...it's a really interesting period. What we
have is this undeveloped country," said Judith Reeves-Stevens. "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."
The pair has written science books, most recently Going to Mars with the
chief engineer of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Brian Muirhead, which led
them to "trying to figure out what was it that brought [people] in to space
exploration," in the words of Gar Reeves-Stevens, who noted that nearly all
of them were inspired by science fiction. "Because we've had three seasons
of Enterprise, we know how the Star Trek story began," he added. "There are
still mysteries to be solved and [executive producer] Manny [Coto]'s got us
hard at work thinking of ways to solve them."
The Reeves-Stevenses explained that a phone call from Pocket Books editor
Kevin Ryan put them in touch with Shatner, with whom they "hit it right
off", leading to nine books thus far, plus a series about Kirk's Starfleet
Academy days in the works for the future. The pair explained that during a
year in Australia working on The Lost World, they visited the Great Barrier
Reef, which figured in one of the Kirk novels, Captain's Peril. "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," said Judith Reeves-Stevens.
The two explained that they rarely take a weekend or a holiday, but they
enjoy being part of "a big, major piece of Enterprise, and of Star Trek",
in writing for the current Vulcan arc. "The excitement that's in the room,
the enthusiasm in the room when Manny leads us through these story breaking
sessions is really wonderful," concluded Gar Reeves-Stevens.
For more, including some background on the Reeves-Stevenses' other
projects, see the article at StarTrek.com.
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/8060.html
