Maurice Hurley Maurice " Maury " Edward Hurley was a producer and writer on . Hurley along with Robert Lewin , were brought in during the series ' first season by Gene Roddenberry ' s lawyer , Leonard Maizlish ( who had no authority whatsoever to do so , but the studio went along with it nevertheless ) , shortly thereafter replacing " " veterans D . C . Fontana and David Gerrold as head writers , despite Hurley never having worked on a science fiction series before . Because Roddenberry trusted Hurley with keeping his so - called " vision of the future " and his directions for the show intact , he appointed Hurley as show runner . Hurley took this task so seriously that he often got into argument with writers such as Tracy Tormé for " deviating " from Roddenberry ' s " dogmas " by writing darker , less - optimistic episodes , therefore adding conflicts among the writing staff . " " That ' s just the way it is . " Star Trek " is not like any other show because it is one unique vision , and if you agree with Gene Roddenberry ' s vision for the future , you should be locked up somewhere , " " Hurley declared at the time , " " It ' s wacky doodle , but it ' s his wacky doodle . If you can ' t deal with that , you can ' t do the show . There are rules on top of rules on top of rules . . . Gene sees this pollyanish view of the future where everything is going to be fine . . . I don ' t believe it , but you have to suppress all that and put it aside . You suspend your own feelings and your own beliefs , and you get with his vision . . . or you get rewritten . " " ( " " , issue 152 , p . 29 ) Hurley became co - executive producer of the series at the end of its first season but , during the second season , he started to argue with Roddenberry himself , when the creator / executive producer endorsed a script which broke " his own " " guidelines " . Subsequently , Hurley took a dimmer view on Roddenberry ' s guidelines , which he found lacking in dramatic story telling potential , deeming them too " wacky doodle " himself . Deeply embroiled with Roddenberry , Hurley left at the end of the second season . His position as head writer was eventually assumed by his friend , Michael Piller , who joined the " Star Trek " staff on Hurley ' s invitation . ( " " ; " " , 2003 , pp . 29 - 30 ) Hurley ' s first contribution had been the first season episode , but the script was rewritten by Roddenberry to such an extent that Hurley requested the pseudonym C . J . Holland to be used instead for the credits . As the writer of the episode , Hurley became the creator of the Borg when he came up with the idea of an unbeatable foe . ( TNG Season 2 DVD - special feature , " Departmental Briefing Year Two : Production " ) Alongside Rob Bowman and Bowman ' s assistant he also provided the Voice of the Borg for this episode . He was also partly responsible for the introduction of Lore ( having co - written the story for ) and the introduction of the Romulan s in the " Next Generation " era ( he wrote the teleplay for ) . Additionally , Hurley would shortly return to the series to write two more episodes , for season four and for season five . The late Herbert J . Wright cited Hurley as one of the reasons he left TNG . He described Hurley as " " basically playing drinking buddies with Gene , " " having already left before he could witness for himself the vicious battles between the two men that ensued afterwards . ( " " , p . 224 ) Tracy Tormé also named Hurley as one of the causes of his departure , after numerous disagreements over Tormé ' s scripts . ( " " , pp . 170 , 177 - 178 , 181 - 182 ) Tormé later referred to Hurley as " a very unpopular person " in the DVD audio commentary for the " Sliders " pilot episode , having named an irascible character after his former TNG boss . Some other writers spoke more positively about Hurley , however ; Melinda M . Snodgrass in particular recounted that she got on very well with him , and much better than she did with succeeding showrunners Michael Wagner or Michael Piller , a viewpoint shared by Hans Beimler and Richard Manning . ( TNG Season 3 Blu - ray - special features ) According to Rick Berman , Hurley was the reason behind Gates McFadden ' s departure from " The Next Generation " in its second season , as he disliked her acting and " " had a bone to pick with her . " " After he left the show in the third season , McFadden was invited back by Berman . In February 1993 , Hurley was shortly reacquainted with " The Next Generation " , when he , together with Brannon Braga and Ronald D . Moore , were asked by Rick Berman to come up with script drafts for what was to become , , with the proviso that it somehow reflected the transition of the " " to the " Next Generation Crew " . Hurley ' s story treatment involved a plot in which Captain James T . Kirk alone is propelled into the future , by having Captain Jean - Luc Picard recreating Kirk on the holodeck to help him to solve a dilemma involving an interdimensional species wreaking havoc by crossing into our realm ( since Kirk had experience with the same kind of interdimensional rift during the events of ) . Berman stated , " " In both scripts , the stories that we developed , were stories that entailed to different degrees members of " The Original Series " along with " The Next Generation " . First , we went through the story development on both , and both stories were submitted to the studio . We got a lot of notes from the studio , the stories were revised , and then we went to first draft on each . Eventually , it became quite obvious that the studio and I were leaning toward Ron ' s and Brannon ' s script . That ' s not to say Maury ' s script wasn ' t terrific , it just was far less advanced by the time we really had to make a decision . " " Moore ' s and Braga ' s script treatment was preferred as it featured Kirk in the flesh , whereas the rest of the " Original Crew " was to be featured in an extended prologue , though Berman intimated at the time that Hurley ' s script treatment " may be used for subsequence movies " , which it never was as it turned out . Hurley had turned in a completed script on 1 October 1993 . ( ; " " , 2003 , p . 308 ; " Cinefantastique " , Vol 26 # 2 , p . 16 ) The somewhat contentious circumstances under which Hurley left , has caused him to refrain from making any public statement on his " Star Trek " involvement after his 1990 interviews ( " see below " ) , until 2014 when he was persuaded to give his side of the story for the documentary " " . This turned out to be timely , as Hurley was to pass away a short time later . Other Works . Before his time on " TNG " , Hurley co - wrote a Canadian science fiction film called " Firebird 2015 AD " in 1981 . He then became a co - producer on " The Equalizer " , a series which starred Robert Lansing and Keith Szarabajka . Hurley also wrote at least nine episodes of this series , which he followed up with writing several episodes for the then very popular series " Miami Vice " . After leaving " TNG " , Hurley wrote a number of episodes for " Kung Fu : The Legend Continues " and became a writer and executive producer on the short - lived series " Pointman " . From 1996 through 1997 , he served as executive producer for " Baywatch Nights " and wrote several episodes of that series , as well . He moved on to become a writer and co - executive producer on " Baywatch " from 1999 through 2000 . Hurley wrote the screenplay for the 2002 film " Groom Lake " from a story by William Shatner , who also directed and starred in the film ( with Dan Gauthier ) . In addition , Hurley wrote a 2001 film called " The Proposal " and two episodes of the hit series " 24 " – one for the first season and another for the second . " Trek " performers who appeared in the " 24 " episodes which Hurley wrote include Jude Ciccolella , Michelle Forbes , Penny Johnson , Daniel Dae Kim , and Harris Yulin , all of whom were either regular or recurring players at the time . Upon his passing in 2015 , Hurley was survived by his wife of 43 years , Geraldine Garrett , and four children , of which three were by his first wife , Adrienne St . John Geer .