SWORDS, STARSHIPS AND SUPERHEROES:
From Star Trek to Xena to Hercules,
A TV Writer’s Life Scripting the Stories of Heroes
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Paul Robert Coyle takes us behind closed doors into the life of a television writer, through his work at The Streets of San Francisco, CHiPs, Barnaby Jones, Simon & Simon, Crazy Like a Fox, Jake and the Fatman, Columbo, Superboy, Space Precinct, The Dead Zone, and numerous treks into the worlds of Gene Roddenberry, with Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek Voyager, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. As a producer/writer, Paul helped shepherd cult favorites such as Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journey. Through it all, Paul not only invented the stories television audiences would watch, and remember, but now shares the funny, even poignant, and often surprising tales of how a freelance writer navigated the stormy seas of the TV industry, with unexpected candor. |
Available in Paperback on the JB Store
Sneak Peek: On Writing Xena |
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I had an idea for a scene. “Why does Callisto go along with Xena’s proposal? I know, it’s so she can get her hands on the ambrosia. But that’s just the MacGuffin. It’s just plot. Why does she really do it? I mean, emotionally?”
I already had the idea. This was in line with one of my personal rules: Don’t criticize something – a plot point, a line of dialogue – in your script, or especially in someone else’s – unless you have a “fix.” (That’s the best tip I always pass along to writing students.) I pitched mine …
“What if Callisto says, I’ll help you on one condition. There’s something I want you to do first, Xena.”
Her plan is to put Xena through an emotional hell. Xena’s backstory was that she was a badass warrior; her army wiped out Callisto’s village of Cirra. Young Callisto saw her parents slaughtered in front of her eyes. Xena’s thing now is to atone for her past, but she’s never made a public mea culpa. “That’s what Callisto demands of her now,” I said. “Stop in a public square, and make a confession. For the world to hear.”
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A simple scene. It wouldn’t take long, and it wouldn’t detract from the mission to lure Velasca to a box canyon, where Xena planned a trap. But this set off a shitload of objections from Liz Friedman. Liz was a fierce protector of Xena’s character, of her mantle as The Hero. There were unwritten rules I wasn’t aware of.
Paul Coyle gets to open up his first box of books!
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Xena can’t be tricked.
Xena can’t be made to do something she doesn’t want to do.
If Xena makes this speech, it has to happen in such a way that Callisto gains no satisfaction from it.
And on and on and on. Liz was stubborn, she was passionate. And she was right. I put the scene in, and somehow made it work for her.
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