Michael Piller

Piller and Rick Berman on the set of Deep Space Nine	Daily Variety 11/10/05
Michael B. Piller was a writer and Executive Producer of , and co-creator of and . He is probably best known for co-writing and the pilots of both Deep Space Nine and Voyager ( and , respectively). A 24th century chemical element, pillerium, was named for him.
== Biography ==
Piller, a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, began his career as a news producer for CBS News in New York. He later produced news programs in North Carolina and Chicago, eventually winning two Emmy awards for news journalism. In the late 1970s, he moved to Los Angeles and became a censor in the CBS television docudrama unit. His creative writing career began in the early 1980s, when he wrote numerous teleplays for hit shows, including Simon and Simon and the innovative Miami Vice. He also produced (or co-produced) many of the episodes he wrote.
Piller's association with science fiction began in the late 1980s, when he served as writer and producer on two short-lived sci-fi series, Probe in 1988 and Hard Time on Planet Earth in 1989.
Following a long illness, Piller died of head and neck cancer in his home in Los Angeles in 2005. He was survived by his wife Sandra, and his children Brent and Shawn.
=== Star Trek ===
In 1989, Piller's long-time friend Maurice Hurley called upon him to script a few episodes for . His stories were widely acclaimed, and Piller eventually became the showrunner of the series, serving in Executive Producer capacity. His tenure is noted for its character development, rather than for exploiting sci-fi gadgetry of the future. Piller originally had a one year contract and was ready to leave The Next Generation with the ending of Season 3. Gene Roddenberry himself asked him to come back for another year, noting that the fourth season was the one where the audience would fall in love with the series. (TNG Season 3 DVD special feature, "Mission Overview Year Three – Ending Season Three")
In 1992, Piller (along with Rick Berman) began the creation of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and he contributed to the series' writing, casting, and budgetary direction, all the while continuing his duties as showrunner and executive producer of TNG. Piller was an avid baseball card collector, reportedly with a collection numbering in the hundred-thousands (hence Benjamin Sisko's affinity for the game). He left TNG during the sixth season to fully work on DS9.
After two seasons with DS9, Piller left the show to help create Star Trek: Voyager, which launched in 1995 as the "flagship vessel" of the newly-created UPN (United Paramount Network). He left the staff of Voyager in 1996 after seven continuous years with the Star Trek franchise, but remained a "creative consultant" for Voyager and Deep Space Nine. He subsequently returned to write and co-produce in 1998.
=== Later works ===
During his Star Trek years, Piller only made one major venture outside the franchise. The result was the unusual sci-fi western series Legend, which he created with Bill Dial and which starred John de Lancie. This series had a very brief run on UPN in 1995.
In 2002, Piller co-developed (with his son, Shawn) the television series based upon the Stephen King novel . That series featured DS9's Nicole de Boer and TNG guest star David Ogden Stiers.
Piller wrote a screenplay called Oversight, which he described as a Washington-based thriller that is not a big action movie but rather a "small personal character story." The screenplay has yet to be produced.
In early 2005, he created and produced a new television series, the family drama Wildfire, which starred DS9's Nana Visitor.
== Writing credits ==
*
** (teleplay, story with Michael Wagner)
** (teleplay with Ron Roman and Richard Danus)
** (with David Kemper)
** (teleplay, uncredited)
** 
**
** (teleplay with Dennis Russell Bailey, David Bischoff, Joe Menosky, and Ronald D. Moore)
** (teleplay, story with Rick Berman)
** (story with Rick Berman)
** (teleplay, story with Rick Berman)
** (teleplay with Adam Belanoff) 
** (teleplay with Gary Perconte)
** (teleplay with Joe Menosky)
** (story with Ward Botsford and Diana Dru Botsford)
*
** (teleplay, story with Rick Berman)
** (teleplay, story with Gerald Sanford)
** (teleplay with Jill Sherman Donner)
** (teleplay with Morgan Gendel and Robert Hewitt Wolfe)
** (story)
** (teleplay with Nell McCue Crawford and William L. Crawford)
** (teleplay with Don Carlos Dunaway)
**
** (teleplay with Evan Carlos Somers and James Crocker)
** (story with Jim Trombetta)
** (teleplay with Paul Robert Coyle)
** (teleplay with Jim Trombetta)
** (story with Rick Berman, Jeri Taylor, and James Crocker)
** (story with Rick Berman, Jeri Taylor, and Ira Steven Behr)
** (teleplay with Peter Allan Fields)
*
** (teleplay with Jeri Taylor, story with Rick Berman and Jeri Taylor)
** (teleplay with David Kemper)
** (teleplay with Tom Szollosi)
** (teleplay with Evan Carlos Somers)
** (teleplay)
** (teleplay)
** (teleplay)
**
**
* (screenplay, story with Rick Berman)
== Producing credits ==
* ( – ) – Co-Executive Producer
* Star Trek: The Next Generation ( – ) – Executive Producer
* ( – ) – Executive Producer
* ( – ) – Executive Producer
* – Co-Producer
== Star Trek interviews ==
Piller was interviewed on about the creation of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This interview was later used as part of the DS9 Season 1 DVD special feature "Deep Space Nine: A Bold Beginning".
Piller was interviewed in an on-line chat. Piller stated that his favorite TNG episodes were , , and , "because they had remarkable emotional impacts. And they genuinely explored the Human condition, which this franchise does better than any other when it does it well."
* E! Inside Star Trek: Voyager ()
* Launch of Star Trek: Voyager (1995)
* Star Trek: Voyager - Inside the New Adventure (1995)
* TNG Season 3 DVD special feature "Mission Overview Year Three" ("Introduction", "Ending Season Three"), interviewed on 
* TNG Season 3 DVD special feature "Selected Crew Analysis – Year Three" ("Crew Profile: Worf"), interviewed on 
* TNG Season 3 DVD special feature "Departmental Briefing Year Three" ("Production", "A New Writing Staff", "Technical Consultation"), interviewed on 22 January 2002
* TNG Season 3 DVD special feature "Memorable Missions" ("The Most Toys", "Deja Q"), interviewed on 22 January 2002
* TNG Season 4 DVD special feature "Mission Overview Year Four", interviewed on 22 January 2002
* TNG Season 4 DVD special feature "Chronicles from the Final Frontier", interviewed on 22 January 2002
* TNG Season 4 DVD special feature "Inside the Star Trek Archives" ("First Contact"), interviewed on 22 January 2002
* TNG Season 5 DVD special feature "Mission Overview Year Five" ("A Visit from Spock", , , ), interviewed on 22 January 2002
* TNG Season 5 DVD special feature "Departmental Briefing Year Five" (), interviewed on 22 January 2002
* TNG Season 5 DVD special feature "Intergalactic Guest Stars" ("Crew Profile: Ensign Ro Laren"), interviewed on 22 January 2002
* TNG Season 6 DVD special feature "Mission Overview Year Six" ("Resolving the Cliffhanger", "January 1993 Debuts", "Chain of Command"), interviewed on and 22 January 2002
* TNG Season 7 DVD special feature "Mission Overview Year Seven" ("An Ending And A Beginning"), interviewed on 22 January 2002
* TNG Season 7 DVD special feature "Starfleet Moments & Memories Year Seven" ("A Unique Legacy"), interviewed on 22 January 2002
* TNG Season 7 DVD special feature "The Making of "All Good Things..." Year Seven" ("Writing The Final Episode"), interviewed on 22 January 2002
* TNG Season 7 DVD special feature "Special Profiles Year Seven" ("Q"), interviewed on 22 January 2002
* VOY Season 1 DVD special feature Braving the Unknown: Season One, interviewed on 
* VOY Season 1 DVD special feature Lost Transmissions from the Delta Quadrant, interviewed on 19 September 2003
== Star Trek awards ==
For his work on Star Trek Michael Piller received the following award and nominations in the various writing and producer categories.
=== Emmy Award ===
Piller received the following Emmy Award nomination in the category Outstanding Drama Series
* for , shared with Rick Berman, Ron D. Moore, Jeri Taylor, David Livingston, Peter Lauritson, Merri D. Howard, Wendy Neuss, and Brannon Braga
=== Hugo Award ===
Piller received the following Hugo Award nomination in the category Best Dramatic Presentation 
* for , shared with Jonathan Frakes and Rick Berman
=== Gene Roddenberry Award ===
Piller received the following honorary Gene Roddenberry Award as Executive Producer/Writer from the FantastiCon Science-Fiction Convention, which was presented to him by original actress Anne Lockhart :
* for , , , and 
== Bibliography ==
Piller wrote a book about the writing of Star Trek: Insurrection entitled Fade In: From Idea to Final Draft. The manuscript was completed, but he died before it could be published. Officially, both Paramount and the Piller family have exercised legal options to keep the book private, though Piller's widow, Sandra, who described the work as "brutally honest", later, in 2013, gave somewhat more nuanced reasons for its non-publication: "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!"" Nevertheless, due to a miscommunication, the full text was by in 2010. It has never been fully suppressed since. Sandra Piller furthermore revealed that she was looking into the possibility to have the work yet published.
== See also ==
* 
== External links ==
* 
* 
* 
* Ronald D. Moore's 
* Wil Wheaton's 
* Eric A. Stillwell's 
* 
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