TrekGirl welcomes Ethan H. Calk.  As some of you may have noticed Ethan's not a fan fiction writer.  Why am I interviewing him, you ask?  That's easy; because he's gone one step further, you might say, by actually writing a couple of produced episodes for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.   "Children of Time" ring any bells to you?  The DS9 episode where the crew of the Defiant go back in time and end up colonizing a planet?  Or "Visionary," where Miles O'Brien jumps forward in time and witnesses the Station's destruction?

Well, Ethan is responsible for both of these stories and I thought it would be a good idea to get his perspective on writing, especially for TV.  Hopefully, any of you budding screen writers out there may also benefit from Ethan's experience and advice....
 

TrekGirl asks:

How would you describe yourself?

A would-be full-time writer who barely has enough time to write part-time!

How long have you been writing?

Seems like forever.  I majored in television/film production in college, so I did
some writing then.  One of my minor fields was English, so I took every writing
class they offered - fiction writing, advanced fiction writing, play-writing, etc.  I've
been writing Star Trek off and on for about 7 years now.

Why write about Star Trek?

I loved the original series when I was a kid, and loved TNG as well.  I started
writing Trek when I heard TNG would accept stories from "outside" writers.  I
wrote a TNG spec script, which eventually led to the sale of my two Deep Space
Nine episodes.

Who are your favourite characters in Trek and why?  Also do any of your work,
produced or not, reflect these preferences?

I think I like Worf the best.  I'm also partial to O'Brien.  And, since my two
episodes were for DS9, I'm a little partial to the rest of that crew as well.

Do you read fan fiction at all?  If so, what genre do you prefer and why?

I've read a little.  A friend of mine, William Vodrey, has written a collection of
short stories, which take place on the Federation vessel USS Kearsarge, and I
enjoy his work.  Several years ago, I created a Trek writing club, where writers
would create their own characters and write the conclusions to various missions.
My friend William has sort-of taken over that club (with a new ship and crew),
and I'm also involved in his club.  This allows me to read lots of different writers.
I don't seem to read much that's out there on the net, but there was a fan fic story I
read years ago that may have sparked an idea that eventually became "Children of
Time."

What would you, as a produced writer, describe as the main differences between
fan fiction (in general) and writing for TV (in your case DS9)?

In fan fiction, you can pretty much write about anything.  I notice quite a bit of
character romance in fan fic - taken to much greater lengths than the series ever
does.  You also have the freedom of an unlimited budget, since you don't have to
actually build sets and hire thousands of extras.  Also, the series, especially
Voyager, don't seem to want to take as many chances, and I think they should
sometimes.

Can you tell us how you managed to get "your foot in the door," and be offered
the opportunity to pitch a script, for the first time, to Star Trek?

As I said earlier, somewhere during the run of TNG, they started accepting scripts
from "outside" writers - i.e. writers who weren't professional screenwriters and
who didn't have an agent.  I began writing two different scripts, but only worked
on them occasionally for a couple years.  Then, it was announced that the 7th
season would be the last.  I though to myself, it's now or never!  So, I began really
concentrating on one of the scripts, and after a month of writing at lunch and every
evening, I completed it.  It was the story of how Beverly Crusher unknowingly
took a virus to a planet and nearly decimated all the life on that planet.

I focused on her reactions and how the loss of life and the extinction of a species
affected her.  I submitted the script (two weeks before the deadline, I later found
out), and after four months of checking my mailbox for the dreaded "REJECTED"
stamp on the envelope, I received a call from a writer's assistant at Deep Space
Nine.  She said they had the TNG script, and while they couldn't use it for TNG,
they did like the writing enough to invite me to pitch stories to Deep Space Nine.

So, four months after that, I found myself on the Paramount Pictures lot, sitting in
the office of writer/producer René Echevarria.  I pitched four stories that day.
One, which concerned Odo jumping forward in time and seeing the station
destroyed, interested him.  He said he'd pass it on to the writing staff.  Another
four months of waiting ensued, but I finally got "the call!"  They'd decided to buy
the story!  I wrote two drafts for them (about 8-10 pages, short-story style).  The
script was assigned to another writer, and Odo was changed to O'Brien, but much
of my original concept remains in the episode - the 3rd season's "Visionary."  After
that, I pitched numerous times, scoring another sale with my 5th season "Children
of Time" two years later.  Other stories were considered (and some by Voyager as
well), but those are my only two sales.

TrekGirl note 1: Ethan goes into greater detail of the above at his web site.  Details to be found at the end of this page.

As a writer, and we all know how sensitive they can be, what sort of conflicts have you had to deal with when TV producers and directors discuss how they "see" your vision?

Unfortunately, since I'm not a member of the Trek writing staff, I have very little
input in the final "vision" once the sale is made.  When they buy the story, it's
theirs and they can do pretty much anything they want with it.  They changed
"Visionary" much more than "Children of Time," by the way.

What compromises to your "vision" have you been forced to make once you've
signed a contract for a script?  Or is compromise an implicit part of the television production process?

Again, I had little to do with the stories once the sales were made.  I did spend over
an hour on the phone with writers René Echevarria and Robert Hewitt Wolfe
discussing how the time travel concept should work for "Children of Time," so I
did have some input there.

Who did you enjoy working with on set and why?

I didn't really get to work on the set - as in actually influence what was going on
during the shooting, but I did get to spend a day on the set while they were
shooting "Children of Time."  I guess my favorite parts were meeting Avery
Brooks (tall!) who strolled around humming and singing when he wasn't on
camera, and Terry Farrell (also tall!) who was very friendly.  I also talked to the
director (Allan Kroeker) who even asked my how I thought it was going.  Not that
it mattered, but I thought that was cool…

What is Brannon Braga like?

I pitched to Brannon twice - that's the only contact I've had with him.  He was very nice, very polite, and had nice things to say about my "Visionary" episode.  He almost bought a Voyager story from me, but decided against it a couple months
later.

With a couple of produced scripts under your belt, do you feel you've "made it" in
anyway?  Or is the old adage, "You're only as good as your last script" especially
true in the film/television business?

I think the latter is true, unless you're one of the big money screenwriters.  At Star
Trek, from the time you sell the story until the episode airs, you're a pretty
important person.  The assistants will put you through to the writer/producers most
every time you call, and the writers will call you back very quickly if they can't
take the call right away.  However, and this is not meant to criticize anyone,
between sales, you seem to be just another person off the street.  I do understand
why this is the situation - they're very busy and have enough to do just getting the
episodes written and produced without having to talk to a bunch of wannabe
writers.  It's not always good for the ego, but that's the way it is.

I've also noticed that having written a couple of Trek episodes doesn't seem to
mean much to other producers either.  I have written and am trying to market four
feature screenplays, and only one producer has even mentioned the Trek thing, and
sometimes I wonder if it hinders me (I once heard someone say "some people think
if you write Trek that's all you can write").

What do you think makes for a good story?

Character, character, character!  Oh, and did I mention character?  For pitching to
Trek, you also needed a unique, attention-grabbing sci-fi idea, but you still had to
concentrate on how the events of the story affected our main characters.  Without
that, your story didn't stand a chance.

Obviously telling a story in novella or coda form is a completely different
prospect from the very visual beast that is television.  Can you describe the
mechanics of what you must do, as a writer of a script, to achieve the same
end--emotional resonance--as a written piece of fiction?

You're right - it's very different.  The dialog is basically the same, but the narrative
is extremely difficult.  You don't have the luxury of long passages of description,
nor can you go on for paragraphs about what the character is thinking or feeling.
You must convey the setting of the scene, the character's descriptions, moods,
feelings, etc. in a short couple of sentences.  For example: in "Children of Time,"
there are several scenes where the "old Odo" (the 200-year old Odo from the Gaia
colony) and Kira interact and discuss the relationship between Kira and Odo's
younger counterpart (who is now in a stasis device because he can't hold his shape
due to the quantum fluctuations inside the barrier).  In a novel, short story or fan
fic, you could launch into several paragraphs about their emotions, thoughts and
feelings.  On the script, it has to be condensed into the following:

Kira looks at him, thinking back to their friendship, the clues she missed.  Odo
misinterprets, thinks he's said too much.

(The above was from Act Two, page 22 in the script, written by René Echevarria.)

As you can see, you have to pack a lot of emotions, thoughts and feelings into a
very short space!

Do you think your stories/scripts have a common theme, such as loss, belonging,
abandonment etc?  What are they?

Well, both of my produced episodes are about time travel, but that's just the ones
they bought.  What I tried to do in most of my stories is to present a character with
difficult moral choices.  Another theme seems to be guilt over something they did -
usually innocently.  One of my favorites (which I pitched five times, with no
success) was a story about Jake (or Neelix in Voyager) crashing a runabout and
killing some foreign dignitaries and having to live with the guilt.  Another had the
Defiant taken over by Jem'Hadar and Jake "called their bluff" and consequently
the Jem'Hadar killed Nog (they considered that one for a while, believe it or not!).
"Children of Time" also had to do with moral choices (do we sacrifice this colony
to save ourselves?) and the Kira's guilt over "old Odo" indeed sacrificing them for
her.  So, I guess I'm big on the guilt thing.  Come to think of it, it's a theme in two
of my feature scripts as well.

I'd like to share an example of your script writing style, please choose a scene from one of your scripts and describe what you are trying to achieve in the snippet (dialogue or narrative direction).

This is not from a produced script, since I didn't actually write the script, but from
a Voyager spec script I wrote a couple years ago.  I had pitched an idea that was
very similar to the two-part episode "Equinox" where Voyager encountered
another Alpha Quadrant Federation vessel.  They considered my idea for a while,
but decided to go a different route with a similar story.  I wrote a script version in
hopes that the story (or another they were considering) would sell and this script
would be a writing sample to get me the teleplay assignment.

In this passage, the other Federation ship has just self-destructed because Voyager
had taken them to task for some of their actions and they felt there was no going
home any more (part of that was very similar to "Equinox").  Here we see
Janeway's guilt at possibly causing their deaths…

From "Comrades"....

Chakotay enters carrying a PADD, and walks slowly to the couch.  He places the PADD
down on the table in front of Janeway, and slumps into the couch beside her.
 

   CHAKOTAY
 It was definitely an
 intentional warp core
 breach.  It looks like
 they simply dropped the
 magnetic containment
 field around the anti-
 matter in the core.

   JANEWAY
 What could have been going
 through Franklin's mind?

A beat.  No one replies.

   JANEWAY
 What's sad is that he
 felt so threatened by us.

   CHAKOTAY
 I guess he figured as
 long as they were alone,
 they could do anything
 they wished and return to
 the Alpha Quadrant with no
 one the wiser.  When we
 came along and discovered
 what they'd been doing,
 he knew they'd be held
 accountable.  I suppose the
 more he thought about it,
 the more he felt there
 was no reason to go home
 any more.

   JANEWAY
 By simply showing up, we
 signed their death warrant.

   TUVOK
 Captain, I do not understand
 why you continue to blame
 yourself for their deaths.
 They chose their actions
 willingly.  It was they who
 mutinied.  It was they who
 broke Starfleet regulations.
 It was they who caused the
 warp core breach.

   JANEWAY
 I know, Tuvok.  But, in the
 back of my mind, I keep
 thinking that it was our
 presence that started the
 chain of events that lead
 to their destruction.
 Sometimes logic just can't
 push these thoughts away.

   TUVOK
 I have noticed as much.

   JANEWAY
 The worst part is, I
 keep thinking how much
 we were alike, how we've
 been down such similar
 paths.  It scares me to
 think that could so easily
 happen to us.

   CHAKOTAY
 It won't.  Of that, I have
 no doubt.
 

 
   JANEWAY
 Fifteen years from now,
 Chakotay, I dearly hope
 you're right.

She turns her gaze back to the stars.

.... End of Scene

Do you consider yourself an improving writer or the finished article?

Always improving, I hope.  I look back at stuff I wrote a few years ago and
wonder "what hack wrote this junk…"

How do you keep improving your skills, what help did/do you have?

I think writing and writing and writing is the best way to improve.  I do have a
couple friends (one a fellow DS9 contributor ("Little Green Men" and
"Indiscretion")) who read and critique all my stuff.  In addition, I have had a
couple screenplays "covered" - i.e. analyzed by industry pros.  They've helped in
that they've pointed out things from a selling point of view that I hadn't thought of.
This sounds commercial, but this is, bottom line, a business.

What sort of advice do you seek out when considering an idea for a script?  Do
you have "beta" readers or a group of close associates who you bounce ideas off? How helpful are they and in what way?

I sometimes bounce an idea off someone to see what kind of reaction it gets.  From
there, though, I like to totally finish the script and go through a couple of revisions
before I show it to anyone.  My first two revisions, by the way, are (1) a complete
read-through (sometimes I haven't read the first part for months) and (2) I mark all
the characters with a different highlighter, then read one character at a time out
loud to get a feel for consistency and voice.  Only then will I show it to others.
And yes, they do help very much.  Not only do they comment on little grammatical
things, but also in character motivations, plot threads, character growth, etc.

Can you recommend any Internet sites, books or articles that may be a useful tool
for the fan fiction writer who wants to break into television?  What are they?

If you want to see what doesn't work (or what almost worked) for Trek, you can
check out my web site.  I have posted most all the stories I have pitched to DS9
and Voyager, including comments from the writing staff on each story, plus
articles on writing my two episodes and all three of my Trek spec scripts.

There's also a good site if you're a feature or short screenwriter that lists scripts
that are wanted by producers - hollywoodlitsales.  Also, the Writer's Script Network  will let you list your scripts (for a small fee) for many producers to view.  There are a couple of good books I've found useful - Screenwriting 434 by Lew Hunter, Successful Script Writing by Wolff and Cox, and for working on revisions and fixing script problems, The Screenwriter's Problem Solver by Syd Field.

TrekGirl's note 2: All links to the various sites mentioned in this interview can be found at the bottom of this page.

Which of your own stories/scripts would you recommend to the Internet reader?

My three Trek spec scripts are on my web site.
Another friend, Ted Kopulos, who also pitched quite a bit to Star Trek has also posted his stories on the web.

You have a chance to recommend another title, not your own, what would it be
and who is the author(s)? (Consider any pairing or characters, pro or fan fic.)

William Vodrey's Kearsarge Chronicles is very good fan fic, but it's not on the
web, unfortunately.  I'm in the process of reading the Harry Potter stuff.  I
absolutely love J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and am drooling for the movies
to be released.  I also really like a very obscure set of novels called The Gandalara
Cycle by Randall Garrett and Vicki Ann Heydron.  You can probably find it in
used bookstores - the first book is called The Steel of Raithskar.

Here's your chance to get on the soapbox and rant, if you wish.  Are there any
comments you'd like to make about script writing, writing in general or Star Trek
and how you've viewed any changes to each over the years?

I have a couple things.  First, to be successful, you have to be very, very patient,
and you can never quit.  Even the best screenwriters took years to break in.  So,
don't quit and don't give up.  You may never make it, but you certainly won't if
you give up trying.

Also, I'm a little beefed at Voyager.  I really believe their "Equinox" episode is
much too similar to my pitch to be coincidence, but as all pitches must be verbal
(the Writer's Guild says they can't accept anything written unless they pay you), I
have no proof whatsoever that I pitched that story 11 months before it aired.  I also
pitched a story about Harry and Tom accidentally beaming someone sans their
clothes, and they "borrowed" that and had Chakotay say something about it in the
episode "In the Flesh."  I also pitched a story that was pretty similar to "Timeless."
Of course, it's only my word against theirs, but….

Is there a question that you wished I had asked, if so what was it?

Not really…

Hey, maybe I'm finally doing this interview job properly!  Yeah, right!

Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts with me, Ethan, I hope you enjoyed it.

My pleasure!  I enjoyed it very much!
 
 

The featured author's recommended own work :
Children of Time, Visionary, Comrades

E-Mail the featured author : Ethan H. Calk

The featured author recommends *you* read :
Ted Kopulos
Hollywoodlitsales
Lists scripts that are wanted by producers (for screenwriters of features or shorts).
Writer’s Script Network

Screenwriting 434 by Lew Hunter
Successful Script Writing by Wolff and Cox
The Screenwriter’s Problem Solver by Syd Field.
(Check your local bookshops for these titles)
 
 

 Complete the Circle