Richard Arnold

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... as a Romulan crewman

Richard Arnold (born 28 April 1954; age 69) was a research consultant on Star Trek: The Next Generation, holding the position title of "Star Trek Archivist", an appointment made not long after the premiere of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. As part of his duties, Arnold vetted proposals and final manuscripts for licensed tie-ins (novels, comics, guidebooks, video cover art, etc) on behalf of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, until Roddenberry died in 1991.

Arnold first met Roddenberry while attending the first Star Trek convention in New York in January of 1972. He moved to Los Angeles and became a volunteer tour guide at Paramount Studios (from about the time of Star Trek: The Motion Picture), and greatly impressed Roddenberry with his memory for Star Trek trivia. He often assisted Roddenberry with a range of Star Trek-related duties.

A fan extra, one of the Enterprise crewmembers, in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Arnold was also interviewed in the Roger Nygard/Denise Crosby documentaries, Trekkies and Trekkies 2. For many years, he wrote a regular column for the Star Trek Communicator (magazine of the now defunct Star Trek: The Official Fan Club) in which he answered fans' questions about the shows and movies.

Arnold became infamous among fans with a series of decrees restricting what the tie-in novel and comic writers could and could not do. Many of these decrees were perceived as arbitrary and counter-intuitive by fans and the writers alike – perceptions that were verified by a usenet interview with Arnold conducted by Tim Lynch in 1990 – and Arnold, along with his assistant Guy Vardaman, was fired by Paramount several days after the death of Gene Roddenberry. Following his departure from the Trek universe, all of his decrees and arbitrary policies either have fallen into disuse or were outright reversed. The tie-ins are now vetted only by CBS Consumer Products, led by Paula Block and a small team. ^{(citation needed • edit)}

More recently, Arnold appeared as a background performer, a Romulan crewmember aboard the Narada in 2009's Star Trek.

Star Trek credits

• TNG:
  • Season 3 - Research Consultant (26 episodes)
  • Season 4 - Research Consultant (26 episodes)

External link

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