Stephen Beck Joins 'Enterprise' Writing Staff

Before filming on Enterprise started, producers promised to introduce new blood to the franchise for Series V. While over the past month most of the announced production crew members have been Trek veterans, the show's writing staff will apparently include some new Star Trek writers, as former Seven Days staff writer Stephen Beck has apparently joined Enterprise.

The news was revealed on the alt.tv.sevendays newsgroup, one of the regular posters on which is a former member of the Seven Days marketing agency. Known only as PR Girl, she wrote that "a little birdie" had told her Beck had moved on to be a writer on Enterprise. While this news has not been officially announced yet, PR Girl's long-standing assocation with this newsgroup makes it likely she is telling the truth.

Beck was part of the Seven Days writing staff for all of its three seasons. He co-wrote the first regular episode after the pilot, 'The Gettysburg Virus,' and in the first season also wrote the episodes 'A Dish Best Served Cold' and 'Walter.' In the second season, he wrote the episodes 'Buried Alive' and 'Space Station Down.' The former episode, which explored the main character's past, was directed by Trek veteran Mike Vejar and is apparently a fan favourite. Finally, this year he wrote the season opener 'Stairway to Heaven' as well as the episodes 'The Dunwych Madness' and 'Raven.'

In addition to his work on Seven Days, Beck also penned the fifth-season Chicago Hope episode 'McNeil and Pray.' That episode's main guest actress, Tamlyn Tomita, later also appeared in Beck's Seven Days episode 'Walter.'

Seven Days aired for most of its run in the Wednesday 8:00pm timeslot that will now be occupied by Enterprise. After Special Unit 2 premiered on Wednesdays, Seven Days was unceremoniously left to burn off its final episodes on Tuesday evenings, where it failed to attract a large audience. With UPN taking over both Buffy and Roswell from the WB, there was no room left on its schedule for Seven Days, and the show was cancelled.

Though the show's fans were distressed by its cancellation, many members of the cast apparently were not. "There is no real progression with the characters," a Jonathan LaPaglia, who played lead character Frank Parker, told last month's Starlog. And co-star Nick Searcy (Nathan Ramsey) went even further, commenting on the lack of character development in the Seven Days newsgroup. "We (the cast) all wanted it to end. We knew, due to the tastes of our producer(s), that nothing would ever change, and we would be doomed to be forever spewing exposition with no character development except for the endless Parker/Olga Scully/Mulder wannabe BULL**** until the bitter end, which has thankfully now finally COME, R.I.P."

UPN will be showing a double dose of third-season Seven Days episodes every Tuesday throughout the Summer. While no episodes by Beck are scheduled for the next two weeks, his episodes are bound to be repeated as well, giving you the chance to check out his writing prior to the premiere of Enterprise.

As usual, please be aware that Paramount has made no official announcements about the Enterprise writing staff yet, beyond the fact that it will be headed by Brannon Braga. Thanks go out to Lysette van Erp for pointing us to this!

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