John D . F . Black John Donald Francis Black began his writing career in the late 1950s with the horror film " The Unearthly " ( 1957 , featuring Arthur Batanides ) . After that , he worked on several television shows . In 1964 , he won a Writer ' s Guild award for an episode of the television series " Mr . Novak " ( in which Walter Koenig incidentally guested ) . Gene Roddenberry invited him to visit his home following the ceremony , a kind of impromptu audition that turned into a job offer . Black served as the first Executive Story Consultant , and also worked as an Associate Producer ( along with the more famous Robert Justman ) . He met his future wife , then Mary Stowell , while working there . His writing contribution to was limited to a single episode , , that was later reprised as an episode of . He once said the hardest part of his supervisory job was dealing evenhandedly with writers – both those who intimidated him , like Theodore Sturgeon , and those he felt weren ' t living up to the show ' s standards . Black left the series when he got a big - money contract from Universal Pictures . The last episode he worked on as associate producer was , although as a writer he also contributed to the script of and . Black was mainly responsible for the famous opening speech for " The Original Series " , which was developed by him and Justman from Roddenberry ' s original idea . ( " Inside Star Trek - The Real Story " ) According to Justman and Herb Solow ' s book , " " , Black didn ' t get along well with Roddenberry . He often felt badly that the " Star Trek " creator completely rewrote scripts by authors Black held in high regard , like Richard Matheson or Harlan Ellison , especially as Roddenberry promised them their work won ' t be meddled with . A week after he finished the script for " The Naked Time " , Black discovered that Roddenberry rewrote it , without consulting with him , or even telling him about it . Black was disappointed and never again had the same positive disposition for the series . When he left the show , he celebrated the fact that he no longer worked for Roddenberry . ( " " , p . 139 ; " " , p . 265 - 267 ) Black also wrote the original " envelope " script for " The Menagerie " , originally titled " From the First Day to the Last " . However , Roddenberry completely rewrote it and took sole on - screen credit for the two - parter . Black filed a Writers ' Guild grievance over payment and screen credit , but his claims were denied . ( " " , p 251 ) Following his tenure on " Star Trek " , he continued working as a writer and producer until about 1978 , returning only three times after that : to collaborate on two " Next Generation " episodes , an episode of " Hell Town " ( featuring Jeff Corey ) and an episode of " Murder , She Wrote " . The time repeated itself when Black left the production of " The Next Generation " . Black questioned some rewrite instructions from Gene Roddenberry for the episode " Justice " and was asked to leave . Worley Thorne took over and rewrote " Justice " . ( " " , p . 46 ) In a 2006 review of , Wil Wheaton complained about the lines Black provided for his character Wesley Crusher : " " In fact , John D . F . Black – who I didn ' t realize at the time hated me – also wrote , where he gave me the awesome line , " " We ' re from Starfleet ! We don ' t lie ! " " Thanks for that one , too , Mr . Black . " " In fact , Black got screen credit for only for his story , originally pitched for " The Original Series " , dated on which the episode was based .