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[writergeekrhw]

With your long experience in the industry, would you recommend potential writers to pursue it as a career in the current day?

I always say if you can do anything else and don't absolutely LOVE writing, pursue another career. TV and movie writing is extremely hard. The work is sporadic, you're almost always chasing the next gig, and when you are working, you basically have homework every day, and the hours can be insane.

That said, I'm glad I did it, and I love my job. It's just hard to break in, hard to stay in, and hard work when you can get it.

[writergeekrhw]

Hi, I hope you're doing well today!

I don't know if my question may be a little bizarre, but we read Twyla Tharp's Creative Habit in my art class recently, and she talks about the concept of a box where you keep all of your brainstorming and research and such for an idea or project (for her, a literal cardboard box), and I started wondering how other creatives do this, or even if they do it. I myself keep memos on my phone and tabs of online research (though I recently learned how vulnerable that can be when I dropped my phone in the ocean...)

So anyway, I guess my question is: do you have a box or method for keeping track of research etc for each idea? If so, what is it?

I usually just figure if it's a good idea I'll remember it, but on ELEMENTARY I started jotting down ideas on 3x5 cards to help me keep track of all the little mystery bits that we'd use to build stories.

So for example, I had cards that read: FORGED MUMMY, KHOPESH, HEMA, URBAN SPELUNKING and MASTER FORGER and eventually all those cards came together to become "The Adventure of the Ersatz Sobekneferu."

I also did this for my novels, jotting down scene ideas on cards and then, when it was time, putting them all in order to make an outline.

[writergeekrhw]

Did you hear that Lower Decks has brought back Shannon Fill as Sito Jaxa in Season 4? Even though she hasn't done any acting for about 30 years. Maybe there's hope for Avery as well? (No, I don't think there is though.)

That's awesome! I haven't seen that one yet, but I'll check it out.

As far as I know, though, Avery is retired.

[writergeekrhw]

Hi! Thanks for asking my questions a while back, but I was rewatching and had another one. I think you said some specific writer who wasn’t you mostly wrote the Sisko baseball stuff, so I was curious: what were the team loyalties for people writing that, if you remember? My mom thought it must be a National League team because in the scene where they’re on their first date, Sisko seems to approve of Kasidy’s brother’s league not having a designated hitter. (We’re an AL family — Tigers and Orioles — so she was pretty salty about that, haha.)

Team loyalties of DS9 writers (the ones I remember):

Michael Piller - Creator, main baseball guy - Dodgers - BOOOO!

Ira Behr - Showrunner S3-7 - Yankees - BOOOO!

Ron Moore - Giants - YAY!

Rene Echavarria - Braves I think? He didn't grow up with the Marlins - Shrug

Me - Giants - YAY!

Hans Beimler - Pumas UNAM (Didn't care about baseball, I decided to root for Club América just to be contrary)

Draw your own conclusions!

[writergeekrhw]

Hi Robert!

Have you read this book?

The author is a professor of Cultural Geography at Harvey Mudd College.

I strongely recommend it!

I've seen it before. It looks cool, but I generally don't read scholarly analysis of things I've worked on, TBH. It seems too much like homework.

[writergeekrhw]

I understand not answering this out of consideration for your career but I am watching DS9 to take my mind off of things and noticing that there's a lot of parallels between Bajor's story and current events. Was that intentional?

We definitely drew from history and things that were going on in the world in the 90s when we came up with stories for Bajor and for all the civilizations of DS9.

[writergeekrhw]

Hello! I got into Star Trek last year, and I am just now on season three of DS9. Anyway, I am well aware that Garak and Bashir never get together in the show, but I was curious to see how you felt about this ship and if you ship it yourself.

Also, if you could go back in time and make Garashir happen would you?

I enjoyed their relationship, and it was certainly subtext that there was an attraction. At least that's how I wrote it and that's how the actors played it.

Honestly, I have no idea how I'd do things now if I were on DS9 today. Writing a TV show is an organic process and involves a whole team of writers and I'm sure we'd discuss all sorts of relationship permutations. And unlike the 90s, I don't think the powers that be would squash a relationship between Garak and Bashir. So it's entirely possible.

[writergeekrhw]

Did you personally read any of the licensed tie-in fiction for any of the series that you worked on?

Nope. Never have. Never will. Mostly because reading it makes me insane. (Except for "A Stitch in Time.")

[writergeekrhw]

Hi Robert, may I ask you about the references in DS9? Not the Shakespeare ones, those are quite common in the Trek universe but others that may not necessarily relate to the plot. Like in 'Paradise Lost', when O'Brien and Bashir tell direct quotes from a lesser-known Monty Python sketch, or in the same episode, Sisko is reading his friends' names from a manifest which are all characters in Catch-22 (one of the greatest books ever written btw). Have these been added for fun or to pay respect? (My guess is both.) Were there any copyright issues because of these (except for the James Bond thing)?

Also, very important :-) where did the chicken paprikash come from? It even looks perfectly authentic on screen - other than no one would eat it with the salad Sisko is making, it's usually served with a special kind of pasta due to its thick and rich sour cream based sauce. In the early 90's, you couldn't just type it into Google to find a million recipes. Was there maybe a Hungarian cook in the crew you took the inspiration/idea from?

Thank you!

REFERENCES:

You're right, those were done both out of respect and as a bit of fun. Like the names in "Past Tense" or "Little Green Men." We never got any pushback from legal that I know of.

CHICKEN PAPRIKASH

My summer job in college was working at Ghirardelli Square at home in San Francisco, and when I was there, there was a Hungarian restaurant on the top floor called Paprikás Fonó. I'd eat lunch there sometimes and their chicken paprikash was AMAZING. I have no idea why props decided to serve it with salad instead of nokedli. Madness.

[writergeekrhw]

Did you guys make Garak claustrophobic because you knew how Andy Robinson felt about the makeup?

No. We did that all on our own. I learned (a bit too late for "Heart of Stone") that Nana has claustrophobia, but I didn't know Andy did until I read it online a few months ago.

[writergeekrhw]

Oh, okay, I really enjoy Irrational so far but, as a university professor, man did ep 4 completely destroy my suspension of disbelief when Rizwan breaks federal law (FERPA, passed in 1974!!!!) with his zero sum game example in the second lecture. 😂 Still, it was a great episode, especially the dialogue in the climax. I enjoyed how the culprit was well telegraphed and grounded in both realistic characters and genuine and believable motivations.

Thanks! I confess complete ignorance of FERPA and our advisor didn't flag it, so my bad.

If it makes you feel better, imagine Rizwan got a stern talking to from an Academic Review Board, and then Alec paid the $500 fine and is taking it out of Rizwan's salary $5 a week for the next two years. Bad Rizwan! Don't do it again.

[writergeekrhw]

I was wondering - because I’ve seen a few people say this - who were the Bajorans supposed to be based off of? I’ve seen several people say they were supposed to be based off of palestinians but I could have sworn I’d seen a post somewhere saying that it was based at least partially off of vietnam, and honestly I personally always felt that the bajorans were a pretty good allegory for Jewish people (especially Kira, she always reminded me of the Jewish people in Eastern Europe who formed their own resistance groups to dismantle and disrupt Nazi encampments).

All of the above, plus the Irish, plus Native Americans, plus the Lebanese, with a bit of South Africa and a dash of Eastern European partisans in general. Religiously, they were a little of this and that, but probably Buddhism plus Catholicism plus Islam, with an extra helping of fundamentalist Protestant for Winn. Most decent alien cultures have more than one inspiration.

[writergeekrhw]

I hope this isn't a weird question, but I'm curious: IF you had been allowed to make the relationship between Garak and Bashir romantic, and had been able to portray that on screen like a typical relationship arc, how do you think you would have played it? (Like in an ideal world, or if it were a TV show airing right now - not based on the social mores of the 90s. I'm just curious how you think that arc would work with everything else they go through on the show.)

Honestly I have no idea. Figuring something like that out would've been weeks of work for the entire staff and since it wasn't ever a real possibility, I've never spent the energy. Hope that doesn't sound like a cop-out, but it's the truth.

[writergeekrhw]

Math checks out.

a phenomenon

[writergeekrhw]

Wait!

One of the writers of the best show I ever watched is here?

This is fascinating!

Where? Must be in here somewhere!

[writergeekrhw]

I hope you know that The Wire changed/saved/ruined my life. Thank you for your contribution to my new psyche. Wonderful experience.

I'm glad you found our little TV show helpful/transformative. Live long and prosper.

[writergeekrhw]

I usually put DS9 on the TV while I work. Netflix often asks "is anyone watching DS9?" Then I think: "there's always someone watching DS9 here at home!" and press play again. I'm crazy?

Based on my residuals, I can tell you, someone is ALWAYS watching DS9. God bless them.