REVIEWS for Swords, Starships and Superheroes – From Star Trek to Xena to Hercules: A TV Writer’s Life by Paul Robert Coyle
From Dr. Wesley Britton --
Paul Robert Coyle's Swords, Starships and Superheroes ... Coyle's look back over his career includes quick discussions of his freelance script-/writing for shows from The Streets of San Francisco to Superboy/* to various series in the Star Trek franchise. (Anyone remember Gerry Anderson's one season obscurity Space Precinct? I didn't). So there are chapters for Star Trek devotees to dive into, especially lovers of Deep Space Nine. But it's mainly aficionados of Xena and Hercules who are going to want to scoop up this major peek behind the curtains of these shows' productions. For such fans, Coyle doesn't just share his own memories. True, we get a full accounting for his career as a script-writer as he spent many years as a free-lancer pitching stories before graduating to being a staff writer/ producer and going to fan conventions where he had to bite his tongue to not give away production secrets for Zena and Hercules. Beyond describing his duties and relationships with the writers and producers of these shows, Coyle gives us passages from scripts, sometimes two variants of script drafts, along with other production documents. He shares stories of things that might have been and of how problems were solved, notably how the writers and producers had to deal with the absence of Kevin Sorbo in the 4th and 5th seasons of Hercules due to the star's serious health concerns. Of course, Coyle's book is akin to many like it, that is, sharing glimpses into the profession of TV script-writing with suggestions about the things other writers should do to succeed and, just as importantly, the things not to do. In short, this is the sort of book for a niche market--those into the productions Coyle was part of and those wanting to learn about the industry he has worked in for decades. It's all very readable and well told, as you'd expect from an inventive writer who's been drawing from his own creative well for many years now.
The second book that Jacob Brown sent me to check out, “Swords, Starships and Superheroes” is the autobiography of Paul Robert Coyle, a writer of many popular shows that you’ll likely be familiar with, and a good number that you’re not (Simon & Simon?). It’s the stuff that I’ve never heard of before that’s the most interesting to me, so as someone that never got into the Hercules / Xena franchise, this was a fantastic look into the writer’s rooms for both of those series, as he was there for both of them at various times during their production. The Trek content is somewhat limited to the few episodes that were written, re-written, re-authored, and surprisingly used without credit in one case. As with most books that are looking back on a rich career, there are strong lessons that he’s learned about being in the right place at the right time but having to do that multiple times to get noticed by the right people. At 302 pages, it’s not a tiny book, but I’ll be honest, I read it all in one sitting. It’s obvious why in retrospection, Coyle is a professional author that knows his material and most importantly knows how to write it in a captivating and entertaining way. I’m sure my wife didn’t appreciate me having the light on until 3am, but every time I got to the end of a chapter, I could tell that something even more interesting was going to be happening in that next chapter, so I’d read a couple paragraphs and sure enough I’d be at the end of the chapter again, thinking the same thing. “Swords, Starships and Superheroes” (sans Oxford Comma) is an entertaining short read for Trek fans, and is one of the best in-depth looks into the Hercules / Xena writers rooms that I’ve come across, a franchise that at times rivaled even the Trek fandom, though the respective series were apparently wrapped up in a way that Game of Thrones fans will recognize, and has suffered the same fate.
Coyle’s story is a snapshot of the life of a typical TV writer over 30 years in Hollywood, a career of many challenges, highs and lows, with plenty of freelance opportunities (and missed opportunities), failures and lessons learned, ultimately achieving the success of full-time work in the writing department of successful TV series with international fan followings.
If you watch a lot of genre TV, this book is for you. It’s the first time I’ve seen a thorough account of a versatile genre TV writer who made his way across an impressive spectrum of genres. I’ve seen nearly all his episodes and even count some among my personal favorites, especially ... Simon & Simon ...
Coyle’s work includes classic tropes, like Western homages, parallel worlds, and pairing enemies against a common foe, even drafting fake script pages to avoid fan leaks and spoilers before we called them that. He includes script excerpts from Xena: Warrior Princess. Ultimately Coyle would land the ultimate gig, as producer on the writing staff of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. The Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones, Crazy Like a Fox, CHiPs, Space Precinct, The Cape, The Dead Zone, and Legend of the Seeker round out Coyle’s work and recollections in Hollywood.
A fun tour of some of our favorite TV series and how they got that way...