Interview with David Mack: The Mind Behind More Than 30 Star Trek Tie-In Novels
David Mack is a prominent author in the Star Trek universe, with a portfolio that includes 31 original novels, such as Collateral Damage for Star Trek: The Next Generation and Firewall for Star Trek: Picard. His literary work also features four novellas and ten short stories, with notable recognition for the award-winning “Lost and Founder,” published in Star Trek Explorer.
In television, Mack co-wrote the episodes “Starship Down” and “It’s Only a Paper Moon” for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. His additional contributions to the Star Trek universe include a miniseries of comics that links TNG and DS9, scripts for computer games, contributions to reference works, and the book The Starfleet Survival Guide.
Check out the interview with David Mack.
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EDUARDO FREITAS: David, it is a great honor for me to interview you. I love your books.
DAVID MACK: Thank you. That’s very kind of you to say, and always nice to hear.
EF: To start, I would like to ask you: Which authors or works have had the greatest influence on your development as a writer?
DM: That might seem like a simple question, but answering it is more difficult than one might think. I have to believe that nearly everything I’ve read throughout my life has contributed to my authorial mindscape, in some way or other.
I spent a good chunk of my childhood in my town’s local library, devouring its youth-oriented science-fiction and fantasy offerings. I loved reading from a very young age, and by the time I was 10 or 11 years old I was already daydreaming about becoming an author. Around that time, I was reading a lot of work by such authors as Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, J.R.R. Tolkien, H.G. Wells, Richard Matheson, and Andre Norton, as well as works by Pierre Boule and James Blish.
By the time I was 15, I had shifted my focus to screenwriting. I quickly came to admire the work of such scriptwriters as Robert Towne, Shane Black, Lawrence Kasdan, James Cameron, and Brian Helgeland.
However, the writer who captured my imagination like no other before or since is Richard Brautigan. He’s not very well known, which I think is a terrible shame. He was one of the last authors of the Beat movement, which was popular in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. Brautigan’s style was spare but poetic. There was an austere beauty to his prose as well as his verse. He had a gift for anthropomorphizing not just objects but forces of nature. Most important, however, was the delicate and respectful way that he explored the emotional lives of ordinary human beings struggling to understand life, love, and loss. The first of his novels that I read was In Watermelon Sugar, a surrealistic tale of friendship and love both requited and not, set in a fantasy land where the sun shines a different color each day of the week. I read it when I was 17 years old; 38 years later I still love that novel. I’ve collected copies of all of Brautigan’s published work, including some first editions that are quite dear to me.
EF: In addition to having written and consulted for Star Trek on television, you are one of the most prolific tie-in authors in the Star Trek universe. Your published tie-ins for Star Trek include 31 original novels (including two Scribe Award winners, your Star Trek: The Next Generation novel Collateral Damage and your Star Trek: Picard novel Firewall), four novellas, ten short stories (including the recent Scribe Award-winning tale “Lost and Founder,” published in Issue 8 of Star Trek Explorer magazine), a four-issue TNG/DS9 crossover comic-book miniseries, scripts for Star Trek computer games, contributions to Star Trek reference works, and the ever-useful tome The Starfleet Survival Guide. How do you perceive the impact of your work within the literary universe of Star Trek over the years?
DM: Well, it certainly takes up quite a bit of space on a bookshelf when gathered all in one place.
Seriously, I feel very fortunate to have been allowed to contribute so much to Star Trek over the past three decades. I grew up with Star Trek as one of my earliest influences, both creatively and ideologically. As a fandom, Star Trek is my true first love. Consequently, the fact that I have been allowed to contribute to its canon works, and to add to its shared mythology with my short fiction, novels, and other work, has been and remains a tremendous honor. And one of the greatest rewards has been seeing ideas that I’ve suggested to the producers, or elements that I’ve created in my fiction, show up on-screen as part of new canon Star Trek adventures.
EF: Two of your books that I like the most are the Mirror Universe novels The Sorrows of Empire and Rise Like Lions. I believe their combined story would make a great film.
DM: I don’t. It’s all far too complicated, layered, and nuanced to be done justice in under two and a half hours. Each of those novels would merit at least a 12-episode season of television, and that’s before we factor in other related tales that would need to be filmed and incorporated into those seasons in order for it all to make sense.
That being said, the moment Alex Kurtzman asks me to write that series, I’ll get to work on it.
EF: Is there any book or series within the Star Trek universe that you consider your most significant work or of which you are most proud?
DM: What a Sophie’s Choice-level dilemma. You might as well ask a parent which of their children they love best. For me, I think this needs to be a three-part answer.
In terms of significance, I don’t think anything else I’ve done approaches the impact of the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy — Gods of Night, Mere Mortals, and Lost Souls. Some readers have described it as “the Lord of the Rings of Star Trek,” and I think that’s fairly apt. It remains one of the most epic single story ideas I’ve ever dreamed up, and the sprawling scale of it is something I don’t think I’d be brave enough to tackle again. It’s the sort of thing I could have written only when I was young enough not to understand how insane an undertaking it really was.
If I’m trying to choose a favorite creation overall, however, that would be the Star Trek: Vanguard saga. I developed it under the direction of editor Marco Palmieri, and in the years that followed I wrote half the saga, alternating from book to book with the writing team of Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore. As a creative team, we pushed each others to new heights, and the result was a Star Trek literary series unlike anything before or since. Dayton once likened the experience of creating Vanguard as “catching lightning in a bottle.” In hindsight, I see he was right. There was a serendipitous confluence of talent, energy, and inspiration that helped us create that nine-book series, and it’s a creation of which we all remain proud.
The third part of my answer would be to single out a Star Trek work that feels like a special accomplishment to me: my Star Trek: Picard novel Firewall. It’s a coming-of-age tale about a queer adult woman, Seven of Nine, breaking away from her first found family and venturing alone into the galaxy to find herself and build her own life.
I had a lot of concerns when I first took on the project; as a straight, white, middle-aged, cishet man, could I really craft a Bildungsroman about a queer woman and not have it devolve into something inauthentic — or worse, exploitative? But I put in the work, did the research, and spent time talking to members of that community before I wrote the book, and the warm reception it has received from women both straight and queer, as well as from various members of the queer and trans communities, has been overwhelmingly positive. Its strong, steady sales, glowing reviews, and recent win of a Scribe Award for Best Original Novel has made Firewall one of the most rewarding tales I’ve ever written, both personally and professionally.
EF: How has fan feedback influenced your work and the way you approach writing within the Star Trek universe?
DM: I know this will sound terrible to some folks, but fan feedback has had virtually no effect on my creative decisions. The feedback I need to heed is that which I receive from my editors, and from the licensing office and other official representatives of the Star Trek franchise.
Part of why I pay little attention to fan criticisms or suggestions is that there is rarely any consensus among fans as to what they want to see, or how they think a certain character should be written. Over the past twenty years I have frequently received emails from different fans writing about the same book or story, in which one reader thinks I got everything wrong, and the other thanks me for getting it so true to the show they remember and love. Fans are not exempt from the only true saying about show business, “No one knows anything.”
EF: As we are developing a tribute to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on the channel “Apenas um Trekker,” I would like to ask you a question about the series. What is your favorite episode or story arc in Deep Space Nine, and how has it influenced your work in the novels?
DM: In the interest of not being That Guy™, I will not cite either of the episodes I co-wrote.
It’s difficult to have just one “favorite” episode of Deep Space Nine. It is such an amazing series, with such incredible storytelling range, that singling out one episode feels like betraying others.
I really connected with its pilot episode, but the episode that made me certain I loved the show was season one’s tragic hour “Duet.” So many twists and turns, and such a heartbreaking moral core, makes it an episode rarely equaled on Star Trek or by any other series.
But also blazing with genius, all tied with “Duet” for #1, would be “The Visitor,” “Civil Defense,” “Our Man Bashir,” “Trials and Tribble-ations,” “In the Pale Moonlight,” and “Far Beyond the Stars.”
As for how the quality and intensity of the writing on Deep Space Nine affected my work in the novels, I will simply point out that my career as a professional writer of fiction began on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. That was my break-in venue. From day one I had to swim in the deep water with writers far more experienced than myself. There is no better education than that.
EF: You are one of the few authors in the Star Trek literary universe who has also written episodes for the franchise. What was it like to participate in the writing of the Deep Space Nine episodes “Starship Down” and “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” with the latter being one of the most iconic hours of the series?
DM: Being in the writers’ room for the break session on “Starship Down” was one of the most exciting experiences of my professional life. To be in that room with so many immensely talented writers, whose career paths I aspired to follow, was both intimidating and invigorating. In a way, it’s a cruel joke by the universe that I was allowed to start my writing career there, in such rarefied air — but that in the 30 years since, I’ve never been able to get back there.
The contributions that I and my former scriptwriting partner John J. Ordover made to “It’s Only a Paper Moon” seemed at first to be less substantial than those we’d made to “Starship Down.” On our first writing sale to TV, we’d snagged a script assignment and came away with the coveted “written by” screen credit. We found that ironic, because our script for “Starship Down” had been so drastically rewritten by Rene Echevarria that, by the time it aired, we barely recognized ten words of dialogue in the episode as being ours.
Our on-screen credit for “It’s Only a Paper Moon” reads “story by David Mack and John J. Ordover,” and “teleplay by Ronald D. Moore”. In TV, “story by” is considered a less prestigious credit than “written by” or even “teleplay by.” But when the episode finally aired, John and I marveled at how much of our line-by-line writing from the story outline had made it into the final episode. Despite having the less impressive screen credit, we both felt like more of our actual work made it onto the screen for “It’s Only a Paper Moon.”
What can I say? Television is a strange business. And publishing ain’t exactly normal, either.
EF: How do you see the evolution of the Star Trek universe in the coming years and your role within that evolution?
DM: If you mean on television, I honestly couldn’t say for sure. At the moment, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is prepping its third season for release and writing its fourth season. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is almost done writing its first season, and is expected to come back for a second season. The Star Trek: Section 31 television movie is coming any day now. And who knows if strong fan response might inspire a third season of Star Trek: Prodigy?
Could there be more Star Trek series in the pipeline behind these? Sure. But there also might not be. Secret Hideout’s overall deal with CBS Studios ends soon, and it’s not clear if either or both parties intend to continue the relationship. Adding to the uncertainty is the recent confusion over the sale of Paramount, recently announced as being to Skydance, but now threatened by a new potential buyer. If Paramount is sold, will it affect the Star Trek television production license? I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe it will spur new investment in Star Trek. Or maybe the new owners will decide the market is saturated and cut back. A lot will depend upon what the new owners decide to do with the Paramount+ streaming channel. If they close it down, that could be bad news for Star Trek fans.
As for my own role in all of that, or even in the small ancillary pond of Star Trek tie-in fiction, I don’t know if there will be one. Over the past several years, publisher Simon & Schuster (via its various imprints) has cut back the number of original Star Trek novels published each year. At the moment, I’m told they’re cutting back to just three books per year. I had been heartened to have Star Trek Explorer magazine as a venue to which I could sell Star Trek short fiction, but magazine publishing is an even more volatile industry than book publishing. So, who knows?
I continue to daydream about persuading Alex Kurtzman and the CBS Studios team to let me help write and produce a multi-season television adaptation of the Star Trek: Vanguard saga, but the odds against that happening are roughly ten million to one. Then again, I’ve made a career out of making million-to-one shots happen, so I’m not giving up yet.
EF: The Brazilian publishing market seems to have forgotten Star Trek. The last release was in 2016. Because most of the Brazilian audience does not read in English, access to the works is quite restricted. Do you have any suggestions on how Brazilian Trekkers can mobilize to show that there is a strong interest in the franchise’s books in Brazil?
DM: I’ve noticed that you’ve asked this question of nearly every Star Trek writer who has agreed to be interviewed on your blog. I don’t have much advice to offer that they haven’t already given. The key would be finding a Brazil-based publisher that has the resources to translate Star Trek novels into Portuguese or other common languages for Brazilian readers.
One possible approach might be to find an excellent translator who is fluent in English and the languages of Brazil, and see if they can be hired for a nominal fee to translate a sample chapter from a popular Star Trek novel. Then that could be used as an example to a publisher, to show them that there are people capable of making it happen.
The more difficult challenge would lie in making a business case to a publisher. It can be hard to show them that something like this would be profitable, especially because so few ventures in the publishing business ever are. I might suggest that you reach out to the publisher and editors of Cross Cult Romane in Germany, to ask them how they got the much-celebrated German-language Star Trek books program started, and see if they’ll share any general information about its profitability. That would all be information one could use to try to persuade a Brazilian publisher that there is money to be made in exploiting such a market. Another important metric would be to find out how much Brazilian television viewers watch the new Star Trek series.
Bottom line: You have a difficult mission ahead of you. I wish you luck, and I hope you succeed.
