Episode 88 – An Out-Of-This-World Chat with Author & Director Nicholas Meyer – Part 2

During the second half of Tony's eye-opening conversation with award-winning author, screenwriter, and director Nicholas Meyer, they discuss how the blockbuster film “Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan” came to his life, how he had never seen an episode of the TV series Star Trek when he approached to direct the film, how he wrote the screenplay of the movie in 12 days for no credit or pay before the deadline, why he describes his script as "Horatio Hornblower in outer space", how he handled the situation when William Shatner told him that he hated his script, how most of the crew had tears in their eyes during the filming Spock's death, and his experience directing the legendary Ricardo Montalban. 

As well as his experiences filming ABC’s “The Day After”, which remains the single most-watched television film ever made (100 million people in one night), how he did not want the censors to alter the film, as he aimed to show the true effects of nuclear war to American viewers, how the film changed the mind of President Reagan on the prevailing policy on "nuclear war", which resulted in the banning & reducing of their nuclear arsenal, furthermore how he returned to the world of Star Trek, co-writing & directing “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”, the final film for the original cast, & how his sixth Sherlock Holmes novel, “Sherlock Holmes and the Telegram from Hell”, was recently published. 

NICHOLAS MEYER

Nicholas Meyer is an award-winning author, screenwriter and director. His body of creative work in publishing, film and television spans more than 5 decades. 

Meyer’s sixth Sherlock Holmes novel, Sherlock Holmes and the Telegram from Hell, was published August, 2024 by the Mysterious Press.   

He’s the author of 7 previous novels, including The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1974), a Doyle tale in which Sherlock Holmes met Sigmund Freud. The novel sold more than 2 million copies, stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for forty weeks, and won the British Gold Dagger award from the British Crime Writers’ Association. Two years later, Meyer received an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay of the eponymous film, which starred Nicol Williamson, Robert Duvall, Alan Arkin, Vanessa Redgrave and Laurence Olivier. 

Meyer made his directing debut in 1979 with a film he wrote, Time After Time, starring Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen & David Warner. He went on to direct Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Other directing credits include Volunteers (1986), TheDeceivers (1988), Company Business, (1991), Star Trek VI, The Undiscovered Country (1992) and the HBO film, Vendetta (1999). His screenplays include Sommersby (1993) and contributions to Fatal Attraction (1987) and Dreamworks’ Prince of Egypt (1998).  

His other books include Target Practice, which was nominated for an Edgar Award, and 4 other Holmes novels, The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols (2019), The West End Horror (also New York Times bestseller, 1976), The Canary Trainer (1993) & The Return of the Pharaoh, (2022). His autobiographical novel, Confessions of a Homing Pigeon, was published in 1981 and his memoir, The View from the Bridge: Memories of Star Trek and a Life in Hollywood, in 2009.

Meyer directed ABC’s The Day After (1983), which was nominated for 14 Emmys. Additional work includes a two-part miniseries, Houdini (2014) based on his fathers biography. He is the co-creator of the series Medici—Masters of Florence, and worked on STAR TREK: Discovery .

Nicholas Meyer Website – 

https://www.nicholas-meyer.com 

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