Jeri Taylor, the Emmy-nominated producer, author, director and showrunner who spent greater than a decade engaged on Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology and Star Trek: Voyager, which she co-created, has died. She was 86.
“My mother succeeded in a male-dominated industry,” her son mentioned, “but she did it without being super aggressive. She did it with compassion and kindness. She was like a den mother to everyone.”
Earlier than embarking on her Star Trek voyage, the Indiana native wrote and produced episodes of such well-liked community crime fare as Quincy, M.E., Magnum, P.I., Jake and the Fatman and Within the Warmth of the Night time. She was adept at writing about “character, of people and relationships and feelings,” she as soon as famous.
Taylor started writing for the syndicated Subsequent Technology in 1990 throughout its fourth season. She graduated to co-executive producer alongside Rick Berman and Michael Pillar throughout the present’s sixth season and served because the showrunner of the Patrick Stewart starrer for its seventh and ultimate marketing campaign (1993-94).
In 1994, she shared an Emmy nomination for excellent drama sequence.
She, Berman and Pillar created Star Trek: Voyager, which bowed on UPN in January 1995, and she or he was that sequence’ showrunner for its first 4 seasons, via 1998, and a inventive guide for its ultimate three seasons.
It was Taylor’s thought to have a feminine lead on Star Trek, and Kate Mulgrew, who starred as Capt. Kathryn Janeway on Voyager, wrote on X that Taylor “was responsible, in large part, for changing my life.”
“She was elegant, erudite and fiercely opinionated,” Mulgrew wrote. “She wanted Kathryn Janeway to be a significant part of her legacy, and I think there is no doubt that in that endeavor she succeeded.”
Considered one of six children, Jeri Cecile Suer was born on June 30, 1938, in Evansville, Indiana. Her father, Robert, was a health care provider, and her mom, Ruah, a arithmetic instructor.
Taylor graduated from Wilmington Excessive Faculty in Ohio (the place she was the valedictorian) and from Indiana College. She earned her grasp’s from Cal State Northridge, led an performing workshop in L.A. and directed native stage productions earlier than entering into tv in 1979 as a author.
She started work for NBC’s Quincy in 1980 throughout its fifth season, and she or he would direct two episodes and function a producer on the present’s eighth and ultimate 12 months.
She joined the writing workers of Subsequent Technology after rewriting the fourth-season episode “Suddenly Human.”
Alongside the best way, Taylor additionally wrote ABC Afterschool Specials, episodes of Little Home on the Prairie, The Unbelievable Hulk, Blue Thunder and Father Dowling Mysteries and the 1987 CBS telefilm A Place to Name Dwelling, starring Linda Lavin.
Of the 30 or so Star Trek episodes for which she obtained a writing credit score, Taylor was mentioned to be most pleased with the fourth-season Subsequent Technology installment “The Drumhead,” which was set inside a courtroom.
She additionally obtained story by credit score on three episodes of the syndicated Star Trek: Deep House 9 in 1993-94 and wrote three Star Trek novels for Pocket Books.
Taylor was married to famed sportscaster Dick Enberg from 1959 till their 1974 divorce and to writer-producer David Moessinger — they labored collectively on Quincy and different exhibits — from 1986 till his 2018 loss of life.
Along with Andrew, survivors embody her different son, Alexander Enberg, who appeared on Voyager as Ensign Vorik, a Vulcan. Her daughter, Jennifer Jo Enberg, died in 2015 of ovarian most cancers at age 52.
On Instagram, Brannon Braga, who took over for Taylor as Voyager‘s showrunner, referred to as her “a cherished mentor.”
“Jeri was generous with her wisdom and her time, she nurtured an entire staff of young writers, which is a testament to her patience,” he continued. “I would not have a career without Jeri’s intricate guidance. She taught us all so much. Her memory will live on in many ways, but perhaps most of all in the character of Captain Janeway, who reflected the best dimensions of Jeri herself. Jeri Taylor, we were lucky to know you.”
