Naren Shankar Narendra " Naren " Kanakaiah Shankar is a writer and producer who joined the writing staff of as an intern during the latter half of the fourth season . He then wrote several episodes for " The Next Generation " and for , as well as one first season episode for , and worked as science consultant during the shows sixth season and as story editor during the seventh season . Shankar also contributed to the video games " " and " Star Trek Generations " . As an aspiring Hollywood writer , he sent a spec script to Jeri Taylor who didn ' t want to buy it , but liked the writing enough to hire Shankar as writing intern on the show . Shankar himself is a Trekkie and went to the early " Star Trek " conventions in the 1970s . ( ) He was able to fully indulge his passion on the occasion of the production of the sixth season homage episode , on which he served as the science consultant . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 24 , issue 3 / 4 , pp . 24 - 25 ) He was interviewed by Bill Florence for the article " Naren Shankar - Herald of , published in . Shankar describes his position as science consultant as " " . . . something of a misnomer , because the job generally doens ' t have a whole lot to do with science . I ' m more of a story consultant or creative consultant with scientific overtones . I get involved with the technical jeopardy aspect of episodes . " " He has subsequently been featured in the " The Next Generation ' s Impact : 20 Years Later " - special feature on the extra DVD disc of the " TNG Complete Series Boxset " . Career outside " Star Trek " . Despite having somewhat downplayed his role as such himself , Shankar was able to serve as a science consultant on " The Next Generation " , as he held a 1990 PhD in engineering physics and electrical engineering from Cornell University . But he didn ' t want to work as scientist and moved to Los Angeles to become a writer . After his time on " Star Trek " , Shankar became an associate producer on during its final season and also wrote several episodes for the series . He then became a writer for " The Outer Limits " from 1997 through 1999 , working with Harlan Ellison , among others , sharing with him a 2000 Writers Guild of Canada Award for the episode " The Human Operators " . After stints as a writer and executive producer of the Sci - Fi Channel ' s " Farscape " and NBC ' s short - lived " UC : Undercover " , Shankar became a consulting producer and head writer on the hit CBS series " CSI : Crime Scene Investigation " . He has earned a number of award nominations for his work on this program , including two , 2003 and 2004 , Emmy Award , a 2005 PGA Award and a 2006 Writers Guild of America Award nominations , shared with his fellow producers . He served as executive producer on " CSI " until 2010 , and continues to write for the series , including the Trek - spoofing episode " A Space Oddity " featuring Liz Vassey , Wallace Langham , Kate Vernon , and Ronald D . Moore . Shankar also made his directing debut with the tenth season episode " Working Stiffs " ( 2009 ) for which he also wrote the story . This episode features " Trek " alumni Wallace Langham , Liz Vassey , Tracy Middendorf , and Tom Virtue . Between 2011 and 2012 , Shankar joined the production team of the fantasy television series " Grimm " as writer and executive producer . Steve Oster worked as producer on this series and Barney Burman as special effects makeup designer and creator . In 2013 , Shankar was named executive producer for the futuristic television series " Almost Human , " produced by J . J . Abrams and starring Karl Urban , which was canceled after one season , before moving on as producer for the newly conceived 2015 science - fiction series , " The Expanse " .