Jeri Taylor, ‘Star Trek’ Writer and Producer on ‘The Next Generation’ and ‘Voyager,’ Dies at 86
Jeri Taylor, the Emmy-nominated producer, writer, director and showrunner who spent more than a decade working on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager, which she co-created, has died. She was 86.
Taylor died Wednesday night of natural causes at an assisted living facility in Davis, California, her son Andrew Enberg told The Hollywood Reporter.
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“My mother succeeded in a male-dominated industry,” her son said, “but she did it without being super aggressive. She did it with compassion and kindness. She was like a den mother to everyone.”
Before embarking on her Star Trek voyage, the Indiana native wrote and produced episodes of such popular network crime fare as Quincy, M.E., Magnum, P.I., Jake and the Fatman and In the Heat of the Night. She was adept at writing about “character, of people and relationships and feelings,” she once noted.
Taylor began writing for the syndicated Next Generation in 1990 during its fourth season. She graduated to co-executive producer alongside Rick Berman and Michael Pillar during the show’s sixth season and served as the showrunner of the Patrick Stewart starrer for its seventh and final campaign (1993-94).
In 1994, she shared an Emmy nomination for outstanding drama series.
She, Berman and Pillar created Star Trek: Voyager, which bowed on UPN in January 1995, and she was that series’ showrunner for its first four seasons, through 1998, and a creative consultant for its final three seasons.
It was Taylor’s idea to have a female 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.”
One of six kids, Jeri Cecile Taylor was born on June 30, 1938, in Evansville, Indiana. Her father, Robert, was a doctor, and her mother, Ruah, a mathematics teacher.
Taylor graduated from Wilmington High School in Ohio (where she was the valedictorian) and from Indiana University. She earned her master’s from Cal State Northridge, led an acting workshop in L.A. and directed local stage productions before getting into television in 1979 as a writer.
She began work for NBC’s Quincy in 1980 during its fifth season, and she would direct two episodes and serve as a producer on the show’s eighth and final year.
She joined the writing staff of Next Generation after rewriting the fourth-season episode “Suddenly Human.”
Along the way, Taylor also wrote ABC Afterschool Specials, episodes of Little House on the Prairie, The Incredible Hulk, Blue Thunder and Father Dowling Mysteries and the 1987 CBS telefilm A Place to Call Home, starring Linda Lavin.
Of the 30 or so Star Trek episodes for which she received a writing credit, Taylor was said to be most proud of the fourth-season Next Generation installment “The Drumhead,” which was set inside a courtroom.
She also received story by credit on three episodes of the syndicated Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in 1993-94 and wrote three Star Trek novels for Pocket Books.
Taylor was married to famed sportscaster Dick Enberg from 1959 until their 1974 divorce and to writer-producer David Moessinger — they worked together on Quincy and other shows — from 1986 until his 2018 death.
In addition to Andrew, survivors include her other son, Alexander Enberg, who appeared on Voyager as Ensign Vorik, a Vulcan. Her daughter, Jennifer Jo Enberg, died in 2015 of ovarian cancer at age 52.
On Instagram, Brannon Braga, who took over for Taylor as Voyager‘s showrunner, called 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.”
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