- Home
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Swords, Starships and Superheroes – From Star Trek to Xena to Hercules: A TV Writer’s Life Scripting the Stories of Heroes Reviewed By Dr. Wesley Britton of Bookpleasures.com
Swords, Starships and Superheroes – From Star Trek to Xena to Hercules: A TV Writer’s Life Scripting the Stories of Heroes Reviewed By Dr. Wesley Britton of Bookpleasures.com
- By Dr. Wesley Britton
- Published February 11, 2021
- Biographies & Memoirs
Dr. Wesley Britton
Reviewer Dr. Wesley Britton: Dr. Britton is the author of four non-fiction books on espionage in literature and the media. Starting in fall 2015, his new six-book science fiction series, The Beta-Earth Chronicles, debuted via BearManor Media.
In 2018, Britton self-published the seventh book in the Chronicles, Alpha Tales 2044, a collection of short stories, many of which first appeared at a number of online venues.
For seven years, he was co-host of online radio’s Dave White Presents where he contributed interviews with a host of entertainment insiders. Before his retirement in 2016, Dr. Britton taught English at Harrisburg Area Community College. Learn more about Dr. Britton at his WEBSITE
View all articles by Dr. Wesley Britton
Author: Paul Robert Coyle
Foreword by Steven L. Sears
ASIN : B08M953MG2
Publisher : Jacobs/Brown Press (October 28, 2020)
I've read enough entertainment insider memoirs to know most fit into one of two categories. The first includes reminiscences by performers, writers, directors or other well-known participants from movies, television, or other performing arts whose names are all it takes to stir up reader interest. The second are autobiographies by participants who aren't especially famous in their own right. But they've had to good fortune to work on projects with large fan bases. Their memoirs appeal to the sorts of fans hungry for behind-the-scenes tidbits from insiders from stuntmen to scriptwriters to visual graphics -*/designers.
Paul Robert
Coyle's Swords, Starships and Superheroes clearly falls into the
second category. True, he's had his brushes with fame by appearing at
fan conventions for devotees of, in particular, the cult hits, Zena:
Warrior Princess and Hercules, The Legendary
Journeys.
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.