Renowned Sci-Fi Author Recounts Credit Battle on ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture'

Renowned science fiction and fantasy author Alan Dean Foster has opened up about the grueling behind-the-scenes battle he faced to secure rightful screen credit for his contributions to 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Foster, widely celebrated for his extensive work expanding universes like Star Wars and Alien, provided the foundational narrative treatment that eventually evolved into the feature film. However, when initial credits were being filed with the Writers Guild, the author discovered his name had been sidelined.

According to documentation publicized by the book "The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years", early paperwork designated the writing credits solely to franchise creator Gene Roddenberry and screenwriter Harold Livingston, attempting to freeze Foster out of his story credit.

Dismissed by his own agent as "just business," Foster refused to let the omission stand and formally petitioned the Guild to claim what was his, remembering that he did "98% of the writing on the treatment."

A fortunate timing quirk ultimately aided Foster's appeal. When the Guild reached out for comment, Roddenberry was away on vacation recuperating and unavailable to contest the filing. Left without opposition, Foster’s petition succeeded, securing his official story credit on the landmark sci-fi film.

"I just laughed. Is this real life or Kindergarten? I just threw up my hands and said 'Fine, whatever,' and that's why I have sole story credit on the movie", he said in , highlighting how different it was to work on Star Wars, that didn't follow strict Hollywood laws, compared to Star Trek.