Tracy Tormé

Tracy Tormé was a television writer and producer who worked as writer and executive story editor for during the show's first and second season. He also served as a creative consultant for the second season. Tormé also wrote under the pseudonyms Keith Mills and Terry Devereaux.
== Personal life ==
Tormé was born in Los Angeles, California. He was the son of singer . He graduated from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television in 1979. He was married twice; his first wife was Jennifer Marie Bitting, his second wife was named Robin.
== Early career ==
Tormé began his career as a writer on NBC's Saturday Night Live during the show's 1982-83 season. One-time TNG guest actor Joe Piscopo was a cast member on the show at the time. He later wrote and was associate producer on the 1988 film Spellbinder. TNG guest stars Cary-Hiroyuki, Stefan Gierasch, and Richard Fancy were among the actors who had roles in this film.
== Working on The Next Generation ==
While working on TNG, Tormé was permitted to work on his own. He had a close relationship with series creator Gene Roddenberry, who excused Tormé from some staff writer responsibilities such as attending story break sessions or rewriting others' scripts. He had a commitment to deliver three scripts each season. Among his works during the first season were , which introduced the character of Lwaxana Troi, and , which went on to win a Peabody Award. The latter episode contained an in-joke reference to Tormé; was listed in an okudagram as the author of the Dixon Hill stories.
Tormé felt that both the first and second seasons of TNG were very "safe" and "timid", and he would often try to introduce ideas which would change the status quo and push the boundaries of the show. Among these ideas was a new doctor character for the show's second season, since Gates McFadden's Beverly Crusher was being written out of the show. Tormé came up with an alien character that belonged to a race who believed in absolute honesty at all times, which would have created some conflict amongst the characters. This idea, however, received little reception or consideration. 
During the first season, Tormé wrote , which depicted a secret military coup among the ranks of Starfleet Command. The story was deemed too dark and too negative for Star Trek by the show's head writer, Maurice Hurley. Eventually Rick Berman found Tormé's story and liked it, so he ordered it to be developed further despite Hurley's previous rejection. (The final episode depicted alien parasites taking over members of Starfleet Command instead of Tormé's original idea of a "real" inside conspiracy.) From that point on, the relationship between Tormé and Hurley got bad. (William Shatner Presents: Chaos on the Bridge)
During the second season, Tormé again came into conflict with Hurley. Hurley made extensive revisions to Tormé's script for to the point that Tormé had his name removed from the episode in place of a pseudonym, "Keith Mills." As a result of his experience with "The Royale", Tormé was not entirely committed to his next episode, ; Tormé felt that the episode would not turn out as he had written it anyway, so he put little effort into the episode. As further protest, he used a pseudonym for "Manhunt", as well, this time as "Terry Devereaux". Maurice Hurley left the series after the second season, and executive producer Rick Berman asked Tormé to return for the third season. Tormé declined, however, feeling it was time to move on to other projects. 
== Later career ==
Four years after leaving TNG, Tormé was brought in to rework the teleplay for the 1992 CBS TV movie Intruders, which featured Daphne Ashbrook, Steven Berkoff, Michael Cavanaugh, Rosalind Chao, and Ben Vereen in the cast. Tormé then wrote the screenplay for the 1993 film Fire in the Sky, which earned him a Saturn Award nomination from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. Tormé was also a co-producer on the film, along was Star Trek film art director Nilo Rodis-Jamero. The cast of Fire in the Sky included Scott MacDonald and Noble Willingham.
Tormé co-created , on which Jerry O'Connell and John Rhys-Davies were regular cast members. He was a writer and executive producer on the series for its first two seasons and some of the third, but ultimately left the show due to creative differences with the Fox Network. The series was canceled in 1997, but saw two additional seasons on the Sci-Fi Channel (1998-2000).
Tormé later became a writer and executive producer on Manny Coto's , which starred Peter Weller and Leslie Silva. He moved on to become a writer and consulting producer on the HBO series Carnivàle, on which Michael J. Anderson, Adrienne Barbeau, Clancy Brown, K Callan, John Fleck, Robert Knepper, John Carroll Lynch, Scott MacDonald, Matt McCoy, Diane Salinger, John Savage, and Time Winters made regular or recurring appearances.
Tormé was a co-producer on the hit 2007 film I Am Legend, based on the novel by Richard Matheson. The film was written and executive produced by Akiva Goldsman and it featured costume design by Michael Kaplan, while Salli Elise Richardson had a supporting role. Tormé had written a script for the film during an earlier stage of its development, when Arnold Schwarzenegger was intended as its lead; he received no Writers' Guild script credit on the final film.
Tormé died on 4 January 2024, in Escondido, California, from diabetes complications. 
== Star Trek credits ==
* 
** (teleplay, story with Lan O'Kun)
** (writer)
** (writer with Robert Sabaroff)
** Season 1 – Executive Story Editor (uncredited until )
** (teleplay)
** (1989) (writer, as "Keith Mills")
** (1989) (writer, as "Terry Devereaux")
** Season 2 – Creative Consultant (credited as "Tracy Torme" on the first three episodes)
== Star Trek interviews ==
* , "Writer Tracy Tormé – "Haven" & Beyond", interviewed by Edward Gross
== External links ==
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Category:Writers
Category:Story editors