Jeri Taylor on the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation. She was a writer and producer on the show from its fourth season, and executive producer during the final season.
Born in Bloomington, Indiana in 1938, Taylor received her BA degree in English from Indiana University in 1959. She later gained a master's degree in English from California State University in Northridge.
Taylor began working in television in 1976, producing and writing for shows including Quincy, M.E., Magnum, P.I., In the Heat of the Night, Jake and the Fatman and Blue Thunder. On Jake and the Fatman she met J. Michael Straczynski, giving him one of his first writing credits on a live-action show.
She joined Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1990 as a supervising producer, starting with the episode Brothers in Season 4. Her first writing credit was the episode Suddenly Human. She would go on to write or co-write episodes including The Wounded, Night Terrors, The Drumhead, Unification, Aquiel and Descent.
For Season 6 of TNG she was promoted to Co-executive Producer and for Season 7 became Executive Producer and effective showrunner (though the term was not used at the time) whilst Rick Berman and Michael Piller were focusing on Deep Space Nine. During Season 6 and 7 she was also involved in the development of Star Trek: Voyager, contributing enough that she was named co-creator of the show alongside Berman and Piller. She was made Executive Producer and effective showrunner of Voyager for its first four seasons. Taylor was closely identified with the writing and character development of Captain Janeway.
She also found time to work on Deep Space Nine, contributing story material for three episodes in its second season.
Taylor's appearance at STLV in Las Vegas, 2021, alongside Voyager actor Garrett Wang, TNG/DS9/VOY script supervisor Lolita Fatjo (for whom Leeta is named) and Voyager documentary director Dave Zappone. Source: TrekCore
Taylor was a rare TV writer who made the transition to novels, penning the novelisation of Unification before writing the novel Mosaic, which explores the backstory of Janeway in considerable detail, and its later sequel Pathways. Unlike most Star Trek novels, Taylor's books were considered of a higher level of canonicity and reliability.
Taylor chose to leave the Star Trek franchise after the fourth season of Voyager, but accepted the position of creative consultant for the remainder of Voyager's run, offering feedback on scripts.
After Voyager wrapped Taylor decided to retire from television altogether, and mostly shunned the limelight. However, in 2021 she attended her first Star Trek convention in Las Vegas and was warmly greeted by fans and fellow castmembers.
One of the more significant figures in the writing and development of Star Trek, Jeri Taylor was a skilled writer and producer. She will very much be missed.
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