Marc Cushman Matthew Marc Cushman , generally credited as " Marc Cushman " , is a writer who wrote together with Jake Jacobs the original story for the third season episode . Cushman ' s and Jacobs ' unpublished story was later rewritten by Peter S . Beagle who also wrote the teleplay . Cushman is also the primary co - author of the unlicensed reference book " " , which was released in . The follow - ups of the book , dealing with the second and third season s of respectively , were released in 2014 and 2015 respectively . Cushman embarked on the project in 1982 when he , " " ( . . . ) was happily assigned the job of meeting with Gene Roddenberry and interviewing him for a television special I was hired to write on the Star Trek phenomenon . This was in 1982 for a Los Angeles - based company that made programs of that type for local TV . Gene was wonderfully gracious and giving , with both his time and materials – he provided me with all the scripts from TOS , along with numerous other documents . " " Amazed at the sheer amount of documents Roddenberry still had in his possession , the idea germinated , spurred on by Roddenberry by giving Cushman a letter of endorsement , to have all these incorporated into a book about the production of " The Original Series " . Ultimately , the project would become three decades in the making , with frequent meetings with Roddenberry and other " Original Series " production staffers , like Robert Justman and D . C . Fontana . It was during one of his many meetings with Roddenberry that Cushman pitched his story for " Sarek " . His three - tome magnum opus has earned him a 2014 Saturn Award in the category " Special Recognition Award " , with The Academy of Science Fiction , Fantasy & Horror Films citing his work as " one of the great achievements of 2013 / 2014 in literature " . On " Sarek " , Cushman was interviewed in a special feature on the 2013 feature - length Unification Blu - ray disc release . Career outside " Star Trek " . Marc Cushman was born in San Diego , California , but spent his childhood traveling throughout the United States , due to the fact that his father was constantly relocating in search of job opportunities . Out of necessity , Cushman learned to entertain himself through writing . As a youth in the 1960s he had to persuade his parents to let him see the original run of " Star Trek " , but it did turn him into a " trekkie " . In 1982 he settled in Los Angeles to pursue a career in television writing , and as happenstance would have it , his first professional assignment for a small production company was to write an one - hour local television special on the " Star Trek " phenomena , which brought him into contact with Gene Roddenberry . The special itself though , never got produced . Cushman , former four time president of the Alameda Writers Group , wrote in 2006 with fellow writer Linda J . LaRosa the reference book " I Spy : A History And Episode Guide to the Groundbreaking Television Series " . Other written work includes the short projects " Pal 201 : A Vehicular Odyssey " ( 1981 ) , " Heart , Soul and Plastic " ( 1982 ) , and " The Magic of Christmas " ( 1987 ) , several episodes of the television series " Channel K " ( 1986 - 1988 ) , " Bachelor Pad " ( 1986 - 1990 ) , " Diagnosis Murder " ( 1999 ) , and " Beyond Belief : Fact or Fiction " ( 1998 - 2002 ) , the drama " Midnight Confessions " ( 1995 ) , the documentary " Desperately Seeking Paul McCartney " ( 2008 ) , the mystery thriller " In the Eyes of a Killer " ( 2009 ) , and the family movie " The Magic of Christmas II " ( 2010 ) . He also worked as producer on the series " Bachelor Pad " and " Channel K " and worked as composer and director on the documentary " Desperately Seeking Paul McCartney " ( 2008 ) . Aside from his contributions to mainstream Hollywood , Cushman , under the pseudonym " Cash Markman " , a play on his name , has from the mid - 1980s onward , been concurrently engaged in a parallel career as writer , producer and director in the adult motion picture industry , and as such has over 500 adult movie credits to his name , including the nine " Star Trek " themed outings , the " Sex Trek " - series ( 1990 - 2007 ) in particular .