Fade In : The Making of Star Trek Insurrection Fade In : The Making of Star Trek Insurrection is a reference book written by Michael Piller and published by his widow , Sandra Piller . Prior to publication , it had the subheading From Idea to Final Draft , The Writing of Star Trek : Insurrection . Written during the production of , the book chronicles the process of developing the script of " Insurrection " , outlining the various stages of development and the evolution from the original story concept to the final changes in post - production . The book also includes feedback and notes from Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner , as well as the original story notes and outlines , and a complete early draft of the film ' s screenplay . Eric A . Stillwell served as Piller ' s typist and research assistant on the book . He commented , " " I think that was more work than the movie itself . In the end , Michael wrote a wonderful book , from the heart , something he considered a gift to young , aspiring writers . " " Piller himself made these observations about his work remaining unpublished , " " Let me clarify this and make it very clear . With the approval of Viacom Consumer Licensing and Pocket Books , I wrote a book during the writing of " Star Trek : Insurrection " which was meant to be a text book for screenwriters . My pitch to the publisher was to take the reader through the entire process of the development of the film , starting with the idea and showing how changes , problems , opinions , studio requests , financial considerations , would effect the final product . And , in essence , to see if the reader would make the same decisions that Rick and I made as the script evolved . The book was by no means critical , nor did it burn any bridges , it just showed an insight into the behind - the - scenes of making a " Star Trek " movie that had never been told before . For reasons I won ' t go into here , decisions were made at a very high level not to publish the book , which was greatly disappointing to me . However , it does not reflect any dissatisfaction that I had with the final product . I think " Star Trek : Insurrection " holds its own when compared to other " Star Trek " movies . The goals of this particular film were quite different from the ones that preceded it . And for the most part , we met those goals . " " An extract from the book was published in . An incomplete draft was released by the " Star Trek " website on but was later removed at the request of Piller ' s family . Another website , Seb ' Web Archive , also planned to publish excerpts of the book , but was reigned in by the studio itself , whose formal reply was posted instead , citing copyright infringements . In , Sandra Piller revealed that she was looking into the possibility of having the work yet published in print format . She also disclosed why the book , being " brutally honest " as she has put it , was originally not given the go - ahead ; " " Well , when he first got the go - ahead from the studio to write the book , and he got it signed - off with all the actors and everyone . . . when he finally turned it in , he was shocked ! They said , ' We can ' t let the public know what we do here , what goes on behind the scenes ! ' So I ' m hoping that everybody ' s evolved and grown a little bit , and they ' re ready for it . As I said , it ' s on the Internet , but I ' m hoping I can add some special things to it and make it . . . " " Sandra Piller announced in that the book was being printed and would be available for purchase .