John D.F. Black

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John D.F. Black

John D.F. Black began his writing career in the late 1950s with "The Unearthly". After that, he worked on several television shows. In 1964, he won a Writer's Guild award for an episode of the television series Mr. Novak (in which Walter Koenig incidentally guested). Gene Roddenberry invited him to visit following the ceremony, a kind of impromptu audition that turned into a job offer. Black served as the first Executive Story Consultant, and was an Associate Editor (along with the more famous Robert Justman). He met his future wife, then Mary Stowell, while working there. His writing contribution to Star Trek: The Original Series was limited to a single episode, "The Naked Time", that was later reprised as an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. He once said the hardest part of his supervisory job was dealing evenhandedly with writers – both those who intimidated him, folks like Theodore Sturgeon, and those he felt weren't living up to the show's standards. Following his tenure on Star Trek, he continued working as a writer and producer until about 1978, returning only once after that: to collaborate on two Next Generation episodes.

Wil Wheaton has claimed that Black deliberately wrote poor lines for his character Wesley Crusher: "In fact, John D.F. Black – who I didn't realize at the time hated me – also wrote "Justice", where he gave me the awesome line, "We're from Starfleet! We don't lie!" Thanks for that one, too, Mr. Black." [1]

Writing credits

• TOS:
  • "The Naked Time" (written by)
• TNG:
  • "The Naked Now" (written by)
  • "Justice" (story credit / teleplay by) [as Ralph Wills]