David Gerrold
Encyclopedia
Jerrold David Friedman better known by his pen name David Gerrold, is an American
science fiction
author who started his career in 1966 while a college student by submitting an unsolicited story outline for the television series
Star Trek
. He was invited to submit several premises, and the one chosen by Star Trek was filmed as "The Trouble with Tribbles" and became one of the most popular episodes of the original series. Gerrold's novelette
"The Martian Child
" won both Hugo
and Nebula awards
.
rejected the outline, he realized Gerrold was talented and expressed interest in him submitting some story premises. Bearing preliminary titles and, in some cases, preliminary character names, Gerrold submitted five premises.
Two of the submissions of which he had little recollection involved a spaceship-destroying machine, similar to Norman Spinrad's "The Doomsday Machine", and a situation in which Kirk had to play a chess game with an advanced intelligence using his crew as chess pieces. A third premise, "Bandi", involved a small being running about the Enterprise as someone's pet, and which empathically sways the crew's feelings and emotions to comfort Bandi, and if necessary at someone else's expense. Gerrold noted, in retrospect, that it would not be like the Enterprise crew to have such attitudes against Kirk as Bandi induced, and that he might instead set the episode on another ship where laxity has been reported.
A fourth premise, "The Protracted Man", applied science fiction to use an effect seen in West Side Story
, when Maria twirls in her dancing dress and the colours separate. Gerrold's story involved a man transported from a shuttlecraft trying out a new space warp technology. The man is no longer unified, separating into three visible forms when he moves, separated by a fraction of a second. As efforts are undertaken to correct the condition and move the Enterprise to where corrective action can be taken, the protraction worsens. According to Gerrold, while they liked this idea, it was deemed too expensive in regards to the special effects required.
The fifth premise, "The Fuzzies", was also initially rejected by Coon, but a while later he changed his mind and called Gerrold's agent to accept it. Gerrold then expanded the story to a full television story outline entitled "A Fuzzy Thing Happened To Me…", and it eventually became "The Trouble With Tribbles". The name "Fuzzy" was changed because H. Beam Piper
had written novels about a fictional alien species of the same name (see Little Fuzzy
). The script went through numerous rewrites, including, at the insistence of Gerrold's agent, being re-set in a stock frontier town instead of an "expensive" space station. Gerrold later wrote a book, The Trouble With Tribbles, telling the whole story about producing the episode and his earlier premises. The concept of Tribbles was considered similar enough to the flat cats of Robert Heinlein's
novel The Rolling Stones
that legal permission was obtained from Robert Heinlein.
This was one of two books Gerrold wrote about Star Trek in the early 1970s after the original series had been canceled. His other was a comprehensive analysis of the series entitled The World of Star Trek. He discussed them at various convention
s where he was a frequent speaker and guest. In The World of Star Trek, he criticized some of the elements of the show, particularly Kirk's habit of placing himself in dangerous situations and leading landing parties from the ship himself, and suggested some things he would change about the show if it were to air again. Among these were a Klingon
as a member of the crew, a counselor
to look after crewmembers' inner lives, and crewmembers allowed to bring their families and children along.
winning Star Trek: The Animated Series
which ran from 1973 to 1974: "More Tribbles, More Troubles
" and "Bem". "Bem" featured the first use of James T. Kirk's middle name, which was revealed, in that installment, to be Tiberius. This was later entered into live-action canon in the movie Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
when Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy are on trial for the death of the Klingon Chancellor Gorkon.
when it debuted in 1987. In particular, Gerrold can be credited for reshaping the position of "first officer" as the ship's executive officer
and commander of "away teams" (to overcome the unrealism of the ship's captain routinely beaming into dangerous situations). He parted company with the producers at the beginning of the first season, after a dispute before the Writers' Guild
in which the Guild required that Gerrold be paid additional wages for the work he did helping to create the series, because he had largely written the show's bible
rather than Gene Roddenberry
. He was awarded cash but chose to forgo additional credit.
Gerrold wrote an unproduced script that would have had an allegory to the AIDS
pandemic along with some brief scenes with two Star Fleet crewmembers that would have subtly been identified as being a homosexual couple. Gerrold wrote this script in response to being with Roddenberry at a convention in 1987 where he had promised that the upcoming Next Generation series would deal with the issue of sexual orientation
in the egalitarian future. The script was rewritten to remove the homosexual couple. This script was later, after substantial rewriting, made a part of Gerrold's Star Wolf
planned TV series, and was novelized as a Star Wolf story, Blood and Fire. (See below.)
", which included an AIDS
metaphor and an incidentally gay couple in the ship's crew. The script was purchased by the TNG producers, but eventually shelved. Gerrold eventually reworked it as a novel, Blood and Fire, the third book in the Star Wolf
series (see below). He later contributed the script to Star Trek: New Voyages
, where the script was reworked by staff writer Carlos Pedraza to place the story in the time frame of Star Trek: The Original Series, and to introduce a homosexual couple on the Enterprise. Gerrold went on to direct the New Voyages episode in 2007.
Gerrold had always wanted to appear onscreen in an episode of Star Trek, particularly "The Trouble with Tribbles". The character of Ensign Freeman, who appears in the famous bar scene with the Klingons, was originally intended by Gerrold to be a walk-on part for himself, although another actor eventually took the role. While Gerrold appeared as a crewman extra with other Trek fandom notables in Star Trek: The Motion Picture
, he did not get the chance to appear in a Trek series until Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
, when he appeared as a security guard in "Trials and Tribble-ations
", set during the very same time frame as his original episode.
Gerrold also published a novelization of the Star Trek: The Next Generation series premiere "Encounter at Farpoint", published in 1987, and an original Star Trek novel titled The Galactic Whirlpool, published in 1980. The Galactic Whirlpool was based on the story outline "Tomorrow Was Yesterday". (It has been suggested that the "Specs" character in that novel was Gerrold himself.) In 2006, for the 40th anniversary of Star Trek, he co-edited, with Robert J. Sawyer
, an essay collection titled "Boarding the Enterprise".
, Babylon 5
, Sliders
, and The Twilight Zone
).
(1973), about a man whose experiments with a time machine
distorts the details of his life and reality, and When HARLIE Was One (1972), the story of an artificial intelligence
's relationship with his creators. When HARLIE Was One was nominated for best novel for both the Hugo Award
and the Nebula Award
. This novel is notable for being the first to use the term "virus" to describe a computer virus
. A revised edition, entitled When HARLIE Was One, Release 2.0, was published in 1988, incorporating new insights and reflecting new developments in computer science
.
The alien invasion is an ecological one. Instead of earthlings Terraforming
another planet, the aliens are "Chtorraforming" Earth. Instead of armies, the unseen aggressors gradually unleash plants and animals from their older, more evolved planet (which is indicated as being perhaps a half billion years older than Earth, and evolved into a higher effective competitiveness). These outcompete and displace their terrestrial counterparts and Earth becomes more and more Chtorr-like as the "war" progresses. With each book, additional layers, features, creatures, details and characteristics are exposed. The Chtorran ecology created by Gerrold is so complex there was at one time rumored to be a "Red Book" in the works - an illustrated field guide to Chtorran wildlife.
One reason given by Gerrold for the length of time taken between books 4 and 5 is the need to develop a writing style called "first person psychotic". Indications are that the central character attempts to survive by adaptation without being absorbed by the alien ecology, descends into his own personal version of living hell, or both. The 5th book is available for preorder at a major online seller. The date is given as July 2011. Publication dates have been set for the 5th book in the past, however, and been unfulfilled. When queried about the July 2011 release date, Gerrold himself has cryptically commented that it would not "make it through the pipeline" by then. Whether this means that the book is forthcoming but will be released later in the year, or whether it is simply still in limbo, is unclear.
Portions of the remaining books have made it into print, however. Gerrold released to fans a cliffhanger teaser chapter from Method for Madness. In his collection The Involuntary Human (ISBN: 978-1-886778-68-X), he included "It Needs Salt" (as a portion of the planned but not formally scheduled Time for Treason). Finally, he also published the story "Enterprise Fish" in a volume of Thrilling Wonder Stories, (ISBN: 978-0-9796718-1-4; Ed. by Winston Engle). "Enterprise Fish" is described as an excerpt from Time For Treason. The Chtorr series and its central character have moved through stages of development with each book in the series, with another layer of the Chtorran ecology explained and understanding of it unveiled with each successive book. "It Needs Salt" and "Enterprise Fish", therefore, should be treated as containing spoilers.
series of books, centered on the star ship Star Wolf and its crew: Voyage of the Star Wolf (1990), The Middle of Nowhere (1995), Blood and Fire (2004), and Yesterday's Children (1972) which is actually an earlier novel that features the same main character, later significantly expanded and republished as Starhunt (1985)—it occurs prior to the other novels in the series' main continuity. The initial germ of Yesterday's Children was the "framing" story in his early Star Trek proposal "Tomorrow was Yesterday", much altered over time. Gerrold had planned to develop this concept into a TV series, as he writes in an introduction to Voyage of the Star Wolf. The Star Wolf series reflects Gerrold's contention that, due to the distances involved, space battles would be more like submarine hunts than the dogfights usually portrayed—in most cases the ships doing battle would not even be able to see each other.
The Martian Child
is a semi-autobiographical novel, expanded from a novelette of the same name, based on the author's own experiences as a single adoptive father, with most of the key moments drawn from actual events. The novelette won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, and a movie version was released in November 2007, with John Cusack playing the adoptive father. There is some controversy surrounding this character, as David Gerrold and his character in the novel are both gay, but in the movie he is a straight widower.
In 2000, his long-time admiration of the works of Robert A. Heinlein
led him to create a new series, called The Dingilliad
. It follows a resourceful teenager and his family as they try to begin a new life. Although not necessarily canon, there are hints that it ties into the War Against the Chtorr universe, with everything from the plagues to the rumored appearance of a giant purple worm (similar cross-universe tie-ins occur in Gerrold's Trackers books). The Dingilliad trilogy consists of Jumping Off The Planet (2000), Bouncing Off the Moon (2001), and Leaping to The Stars (2002). Jumping off the Planet received the 2002 Hal Clement (Young Adult Award) for Excellence in Children's Science Fiction Literature
In 2005, Gerrold was awarded the Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology in Telluride, Colorado.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
author who started his career in 1966 while a college student by submitting an unsolicited story outline for the television series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
. He was invited to submit several premises, and the one chosen by Star Trek was filmed as "The Trouble with Tribbles" and became one of the most popular episodes of the original series. Gerrold's novelette
Novelette
A novelette is a piece of short prose fiction. The distinction between a novelette and other literary forms is usually based upon word count, with a novelette being longer than a short story, but shorter than a novella...
"The Martian Child
The Martian Child
"The Martian Child" is a novelette by David Gerrold. It won the 1995 Hugo Award for Best Novelette, Locus Award and HOMer Award and the 1994 Nebula Award for Best Novelette, and was nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon award for best short fiction...
" won both Hugo
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
and Nebula awards
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
.
Star Trek: The Original Series
Within days of seeing the Star Trek series premiere "The Man Trap" on 8 September 1966, Gerrold wrote a sixty-page outline for a two-part episode called "Tomorrow Was Yesterday", about the Enterprise discovering a generation ship launched from Earth centuries earlier. Although Star Trek producer Gene L. CoonGene L. Coon
Gene L. Coon was an American screenwriter and television producer. He is best remembered for his work on the original Star Trek series.-Life and career:...
rejected the outline, he realized Gerrold was talented and expressed interest in him submitting some story premises. Bearing preliminary titles and, in some cases, preliminary character names, Gerrold submitted five premises.
Two of the submissions of which he had little recollection involved a spaceship-destroying machine, similar to Norman Spinrad's "The Doomsday Machine", and a situation in which Kirk had to play a chess game with an advanced intelligence using his crew as chess pieces. A third premise, "Bandi", involved a small being running about the Enterprise as someone's pet, and which empathically sways the crew's feelings and emotions to comfort Bandi, and if necessary at someone else's expense. Gerrold noted, in retrospect, that it would not be like the Enterprise crew to have such attitudes against Kirk as Bandi induced, and that he might instead set the episode on another ship where laxity has been reported.
A fourth premise, "The Protracted Man", applied science fiction to use an effect seen in West Side Story
West Side Story (film)
West Side Story is a 1961 musical film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. The film is an adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was adapted from William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. It stars Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno,...
, when Maria twirls in her dancing dress and the colours separate. Gerrold's story involved a man transported from a shuttlecraft trying out a new space warp technology. The man is no longer unified, separating into three visible forms when he moves, separated by a fraction of a second. As efforts are undertaken to correct the condition and move the Enterprise to where corrective action can be taken, the protraction worsens. According to Gerrold, while they liked this idea, it was deemed too expensive in regards to the special effects required.
The fifth premise, "The Fuzzies", was also initially rejected by Coon, but a while later he changed his mind and called Gerrold's agent to accept it. Gerrold then expanded the story to a full television story outline entitled "A Fuzzy Thing Happened To Me…", and it eventually became "The Trouble With Tribbles". The name "Fuzzy" was changed because H. Beam Piper
H. Beam Piper
Henry Beam Piper was an American science fiction author. He wrote many short stories and several novels. He is best known for his extensive Terro-Human Future History series of stories and a shorter series of "Paratime" alternate history tales.He wrote under the name H. Beam Piper...
had written novels about a fictional alien species of the same name (see Little Fuzzy
Little Fuzzy
Little Fuzzy is the name of a 1962 science fiction novel by H. Beam Piper, and is now in public domain. It is generally seen as a work of juvenile fiction. It was nominated for the 1963 Hugo Award for Best Novel....
). The script went through numerous rewrites, including, at the insistence of Gerrold's agent, being re-set in a stock frontier town instead of an "expensive" space station. Gerrold later wrote a book, The Trouble With Tribbles, telling the whole story about producing the episode and his earlier premises. The concept of Tribbles was considered similar enough to the flat cats of Robert Heinlein's
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
novel The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones (novel)
The Rolling Stones is a 1952 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein....
that legal permission was obtained from Robert Heinlein.
This was one of two books Gerrold wrote about Star Trek in the early 1970s after the original series had been canceled. His other was a comprehensive analysis of the series entitled The World of Star Trek. He discussed them at various convention
Convention (meeting)
A convention, in the sense of a meeting, is a gathering of individuals who meet at an arranged place and time in order to discuss or engage in some common interest. The most common conventions are based upon industry, profession, and fandom...
s where he was a frequent speaker and guest. In The World of Star Trek, he criticized some of the elements of the show, particularly Kirk's habit of placing himself in dangerous situations and leading landing parties from the ship himself, and suggested some things he would change about the show if it were to air again. Among these were a Klingon
Klingon
Klingons are a fictional warrior race in the Star Trek universe.Klingons are recurring villains in the 1960s television show Star Trek: The Original Series, and have appeared in all five spin-off series and eight feature films...
as a member of the crew, a counselor
Mental Health Counselor
Mental health counselors practice mental health counseling which is a dynamic, holistic, strengths-based and psychoeducational discipline born in the late 1970s when several mental health professionals realized that the master’s degree level counselors working in community settings lacked a...
to look after crewmembers' inner lives, and crewmembers allowed to bring their families and children along.
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Gerrold contributed two stories for the Emmy AwardEmmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
winning Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series is an animated science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe following the events of Star Trek: The Original Series of the 1960s...
which ran from 1973 to 1974: "More Tribbles, More Troubles
More Tribbles, More Troubles
-Plot outline:While the USS Enterprise escorts two robot cargo ships carrying quintotriticale, a new seed grain, to famine stricken Sherman's Planet, it encounters a Klingon battlecruiser pursuing a Federation scout ship...
" and "Bem". "Bem" featured the first use of James T. Kirk's middle name, which was revealed, in that installment, to be Tiberius. This was later entered into live-action canon in the movie Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the sixth feature film in the Star Trek science fiction franchise and is the last of the Star Trek films to include the entire main cast of the 1960s Star Trek television series. Released in 1991 by Paramount Pictures, it was directed by Nicholas Meyer and...
when Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy are on trial for the death of the Klingon Chancellor Gorkon.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Many of the changes Gerrold had advocated in The World of Star Trek were incorporated into Star Trek: The Next GenerationStar Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
when it debuted in 1987. In particular, Gerrold can be credited for reshaping the position of "first officer" as the ship's executive officer
Executive officer
An executive officer is generally a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization.-Administrative law:...
and commander of "away teams" (to overcome the unrealism of the ship's captain routinely beaming into dangerous situations). He parted company with the producers at the beginning of the first season, after a dispute before the Writers' Guild
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
in which the Guild required that Gerrold be paid additional wages for the work he did helping to create the series, because he had largely written the show's bible
Bible (television)
A bible for screenwriters is a reference document used for information on a story's characters, settings and other elements. Show bibles are commonly used in television series; new writers and freelancers are often referred to it when writing scripts for the show to ensure continuity with previous...
rather than Gene Roddenberry
Gene Roddenberry
Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry was an American television screenwriter, producer and futurist, best known for creating the American science fiction series Star Trek. Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, California where his father worked as a police officer...
. He was awarded cash but chose to forgo additional credit.
Gerrold wrote an unproduced script that would have had an allegory to the AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
pandemic along with some brief scenes with two Star Fleet crewmembers that would have subtly been identified as being a homosexual couple. Gerrold wrote this script in response to being with Roddenberry at a convention in 1987 where he had promised that the upcoming Next Generation series would deal with the issue of sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
in the egalitarian future. The script was rewritten to remove the homosexual couple. This script was later, after substantial rewriting, made a part of Gerrold's Star Wolf
Star Wolf (David Gerrold)
The Star Wolf series of novels by David Gerrold is centered on the star ship Star Wolf and its crew. The Star Wolf is a "Liberty Ship," officially designated the LS-1187...
planned TV series, and was novelized as a Star Wolf story, Blood and Fire. (See below.)
Post-Trek involvement
Gerrold wrote a script for Star Trek: The Next Generation entitled "Blood and FireBlood and Fire (Star Trek)
"Blood and Fire" is an episode written by David Gerrold for possible use on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The script was commissioned and written, but never actually filmed because certain studio executives had a negative reaction to its positive depiction of an openly gay couple...
", which included an AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
metaphor and an incidentally gay couple in the ship's crew. The script was purchased by the TNG producers, but eventually shelved. Gerrold eventually reworked it as a novel, Blood and Fire, the third book in the Star Wolf
Star Wolf (David Gerrold)
The Star Wolf series of novels by David Gerrold is centered on the star ship Star Wolf and its crew. The Star Wolf is a "Liberty Ship," officially designated the LS-1187...
series (see below). He later contributed the script to Star Trek: New Voyages
Star Trek: New Voyages
Star Trek New Voyages: Phase II is a fan-created science fiction series set in the Star Trek universe. The series was created by James Cawley and Jack Marshall in April 2003...
, where the script was reworked by staff writer Carlos Pedraza to place the story in the time frame of Star Trek: The Original Series, and to introduce a homosexual couple on the Enterprise. Gerrold went on to direct the New Voyages episode in 2007.
Gerrold had always wanted to appear onscreen in an episode of Star Trek, particularly "The Trouble with Tribbles". The character of Ensign Freeman, who appears in the famous bar scene with the Klingons, was originally intended by Gerrold to be a walk-on part for himself, although another actor eventually took the role. While Gerrold appeared as a crewman extra with other Trek fandom notables in Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first film based on the Star Trek television series. The film is set in the twenty-third century, when a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud called V'Ger approaches the Earth,...
, he did not get the chance to appear in a Trek series until Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe...
, when he appeared as a security guard in "Trials and Tribble-ations
Trials and Tribble-ations (DS9 episode)
"Trials and Tribble-ations" is a fifth season episode of the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It has an average fan rating of 4.7/5 on the official Star Trek website and was written as a tribute to the original series of Star Trek, in the 30th anniversary year of the show; sister...
", set during the very same time frame as his original episode.
Gerrold also published a novelization of the Star Trek: The Next Generation series premiere "Encounter at Farpoint", published in 1987, and an original Star Trek novel titled The Galactic Whirlpool, published in 1980. The Galactic Whirlpool was based on the story outline "Tomorrow Was Yesterday". (It has been suggested that the "Specs" character in that novel was Gerrold himself.) In 2006, for the 40th anniversary of Star Trek, he co-edited, with Robert J. Sawyer
Robert J. Sawyer
Robert James Sawyer is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 20 novels published, and his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, On Spec, Nature, and many anthologies. Sawyer has won over forty awards for his fiction, including the Nebula Award ,...
, an essay collection titled "Boarding the Enterprise".
Other television work
After his early success with "The Trouble with Tribbles" Gerrold continued writing television scripts (mostly for science fiction series such as Land of the LostLand of the Lost (1974 TV series)
Land of the Lost is a children's television series co-created and produced by Sid and Marty Krofft. During its original run, it was broadcast on the NBC television network....
, Babylon 5
Babylon 5
Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...
, Sliders
Sliders
Sliders is an American science fiction television series. It was broadcast for five seasons, beginning in 1995 and ending in 2000. The series follows a group of travelers as they use a wormhole to "slide" between different parallel universes. The show was created by Robert K. Weiss and Tracy Tormé...
, and The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
).
Early science fiction novels
His science fiction novels, of which the best known are The Man Who Folded HimselfThe Man Who Folded Himself
The Man Who Folded Himself is a 1973 science fiction novel by David Gerrold that deals with time travel. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1973 and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1974...
(1973), about a man whose experiments with a time machine
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
distorts the details of his life and reality, and When HARLIE Was One (1972), the story of an artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
's relationship with his creators. When HARLIE Was One was nominated for best novel for both the Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
and the Nebula Award
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
. This novel is notable for being the first to use the term "virus" to describe a computer virus
Computer virus
A computer virus is a computer program that can replicate itself and spread from one computer to another. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, including but not limited to adware and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability...
. A revised edition, entitled When HARLIE Was One, Release 2.0, was published in 1988, incorporating new insights and reflecting new developments in computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
.
The War Against the Chtorr
Gerrold is the author of the War Against the Chtorr series of books, about an invasion of Earth by mysterious aliens: A Matter for Men (1983), A Day for Damnation (1985), A Rage for Revenge (1989), and A Season for Slaughter (1993). As of 2010, he is still writing the fifth book (A Method For Madness), and has contracted to write a sixth (A Time For Treason). The ending chapters of the series have been set aside for the seventh and final book, which will be A Case For Courage. As of 2007, he said he was only four sequences away from completing book five. The first two books exist in both "original" and "extended" versions.The alien invasion is an ecological one. Instead of earthlings Terraforming
Terraforming
Terraforming of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth, in order to make it habitable by terrestrial organisms.The term is sometimes used more generally as a...
another planet, the aliens are "Chtorraforming" Earth. Instead of armies, the unseen aggressors gradually unleash plants and animals from their older, more evolved planet (which is indicated as being perhaps a half billion years older than Earth, and evolved into a higher effective competitiveness). These outcompete and displace their terrestrial counterparts and Earth becomes more and more Chtorr-like as the "war" progresses. With each book, additional layers, features, creatures, details and characteristics are exposed. The Chtorran ecology created by Gerrold is so complex there was at one time rumored to be a "Red Book" in the works - an illustrated field guide to Chtorran wildlife.
One reason given by Gerrold for the length of time taken between books 4 and 5 is the need to develop a writing style called "first person psychotic". Indications are that the central character attempts to survive by adaptation without being absorbed by the alien ecology, descends into his own personal version of living hell, or both. The 5th book is available for preorder at a major online seller. The date is given as July 2011. Publication dates have been set for the 5th book in the past, however, and been unfulfilled. When queried about the July 2011 release date, Gerrold himself has cryptically commented that it would not "make it through the pipeline" by then. Whether this means that the book is forthcoming but will be released later in the year, or whether it is simply still in limbo, is unclear.
Portions of the remaining books have made it into print, however. Gerrold released to fans a cliffhanger teaser chapter from Method for Madness. In his collection The Involuntary Human (ISBN: 978-1-886778-68-X), he included "It Needs Salt" (as a portion of the planned but not formally scheduled Time for Treason). Finally, he also published the story "Enterprise Fish" in a volume of Thrilling Wonder Stories, (ISBN: 978-0-9796718-1-4; Ed. by Winston Engle). "Enterprise Fish" is described as an excerpt from Time For Treason. The Chtorr series and its central character have moved through stages of development with each book in the series, with another layer of the Chtorran ecology explained and understanding of it unveiled with each successive book. "It Needs Salt" and "Enterprise Fish", therefore, should be treated as containing spoilers.
Star Wolf
Gerrold is also the author of the Star WolfStar Wolf (David Gerrold)
The Star Wolf series of novels by David Gerrold is centered on the star ship Star Wolf and its crew. The Star Wolf is a "Liberty Ship," officially designated the LS-1187...
series of books, centered on the star ship Star Wolf and its crew: Voyage of the Star Wolf (1990), The Middle of Nowhere (1995), Blood and Fire (2004), and Yesterday's Children (1972) which is actually an earlier novel that features the same main character, later significantly expanded and republished as Starhunt (1985)—it occurs prior to the other novels in the series' main continuity. The initial germ of Yesterday's Children was the "framing" story in his early Star Trek proposal "Tomorrow was Yesterday", much altered over time. Gerrold had planned to develop this concept into a TV series, as he writes in an introduction to Voyage of the Star Wolf. The Star Wolf series reflects Gerrold's contention that, due to the distances involved, space battles would be more like submarine hunts than the dogfights usually portrayed—in most cases the ships doing battle would not even be able to see each other.
Other works
He also wrote the non-fiction book Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, published in 2001.The Martian Child
The Martian Child
"The Martian Child" is a novelette by David Gerrold. It won the 1995 Hugo Award for Best Novelette, Locus Award and HOMer Award and the 1994 Nebula Award for Best Novelette, and was nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon award for best short fiction...
is a semi-autobiographical novel, expanded from a novelette of the same name, based on the author's own experiences as a single adoptive father, with most of the key moments drawn from actual events. The novelette won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, and a movie version was released in November 2007, with John Cusack playing the adoptive father. There is some controversy surrounding this character, as David Gerrold and his character in the novel are both gay, but in the movie he is a straight widower.
In 2000, his long-time admiration of the works of Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
led him to create a new series, called The Dingilliad
The Dingilliad
The Dingilliad is a series of young adult science fiction novels by the author David Gerrold. The trilogy is published under the title The Far Side of the Sky. It is also known as The Starsiders Trilogy, although The Dingilliad is the name given by the author. The latter refers to Dingillian, the...
. It follows a resourceful teenager and his family as they try to begin a new life. Although not necessarily canon, there are hints that it ties into the War Against the Chtorr universe, with everything from the plagues to the rumored appearance of a giant purple worm (similar cross-universe tie-ins occur in Gerrold's Trackers books). The Dingilliad trilogy consists of Jumping Off The Planet (2000), Bouncing Off the Moon (2001), and Leaping to The Stars (2002). Jumping off the Planet received the 2002 Hal Clement (Young Adult Award) for Excellence in Children's Science Fiction Literature
In 2005, Gerrold was awarded the Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology in Telluride, Colorado.
The War Against the Chtorr
- A Matter for Men (1983)
- A Day for Damnation (1984)
- A Rage for Revenge (1989)
- A Season for Slaughter (1992)
- A Method for Madness (projected)
- A Time for Treason (projected)
- A Case for Courage (projected)
Star Wolf
- Yesterday's Children (aka Starhunt) (1972, rv.1980)
- Voyage of the Star Wolf (1990)
- The Middle of Nowhere (1995)
- Blood and Fire (2004)
The Dingilliad
- Jumping Off the Planet (2000)
- Bouncing Off the Moon (2001)
- Leaping to the Stars (2002)
Star Trek novels
- The Galactic Whirlpool (1980)
- The Trouble With Tribbles (photonovel) (1977)
- Encounter at Farpoint (1987)
Other novels
- The Flying SorcerersThe Flying SorcerersThe Flying Sorcerers is a humorous 1971 science fiction novel by David Gerrold and Larry Niven. It was originally serialized in 1970 as The Misspelled Magishun in If magazine....
(aka The Misspelled Magician) (1971) (with Larry NivenLarry NivenLaurence van Cott Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/ is an American science fiction author. His best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics...
) - Space Skimmer (1972)
- When HARLIE Was One (1972; rv. as When HARLIE Was One, Release 2.0, 1988)
- Battle For the Planet of the ApesBattle for the Planet of the ApesBattle for the Planet of the Apes is a 1973 science fiction film directed by J. Lee Thompson. It is the fifth and last entry in the original Planet of the Apes series produced by Arthur P...
(1973) - The Man Who Folded HimselfThe Man Who Folded HimselfThe Man Who Folded Himself is a 1973 science fiction novel by David Gerrold that deals with time travel. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1973 and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1974...
(1973) - Moonstar Odyssey (1977)
- Deathbeast (1978)
- Chess with a Dragon (1987)
- The Martian ChildThe Martian Child"The Martian Child" is a novelette by David Gerrold. It won the 1995 Hugo Award for Best Novelette, Locus Award and HOMer Award and the 1994 Nebula Award for Best Novelette, and was nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon award for best short fiction...
(2002) - Child of Earth (2005)
Collections
- With a Finger in My I (1972)
- Alternate Gerrolds (2005)
- The Involuntary Human (2007)
Anthologies (editor)
- ProtostarsProtostarsProtostars is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by David Gerrold and Stephen Goldin. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books in October 1971, and has been reprinted a number of times since....
(1971) (with Stephen GoldinStephen GoldinStephen Charles Goldin is an American science fiction and fantasy author.-Biography:Goldin was born in in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
) - Generation (1972)
- Science Fiction Emphasis 1 (1974)
- Alternities (1974)
- Ascents of Wonder (1977)
Nonfiction
- The Trouble With Tribbles (1973)
- The World of Star Trek (1973, rv.1984)
- Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy (2001)
- Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in The Matrix (2003) (with Glenn Yeffeth)
- Boarding the Enterprise: Transporters, Tribbles, and the Vulcan Death Grip in Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek (2006) (with Robert J. SawyerRobert J. SawyerRobert James Sawyer is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 20 novels published, and his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, On Spec, Nature, and many anthologies. Sawyer has won over forty awards for his fiction, including the Nebula Award ,...
)