On this page you can read about many of the TV series that Marc and Elaine have been associated with as writers and producers.

• SPEC SCRIPTS
• SLIDERS
• BABYLON 5
• LAZARUS MAN
• STAR TREK

Once a year, around late April, comes a time known in the television industry as staffing season -- when all the network shows hire their writer-producers for the entire year. Even for producers at our level, it's important to generate new samples that demonstrate a facility with the new hit shows. A couple of years ago at a Writers Guild mountain retreat, we were having a meal with a modest and charming fellow who told us he was a producer on CYBIL and had just finished writing a personal little screenplay that was then being filmed as a movie starring Kevin Spacey, which he didn't think would do any business. Well, that fellow was Alan Ball, and the movie was AMERICAN BEAUTY. Alan went on to create SIX FEET UNDER, which I read in script stage before it was filmed. I thought it was brilliant, moving, funny. So when it came time to write our new spec, we chose to take a crack at Mr. Ball's show. Here it is, hot off the word processor. So far, the response has been hugely positive. We'll let you know how things go... To read the script, click on the little camera. Scroll down the page to read it. Then click on the X in the upper right corner to close the window. Enjoy....

To see Marc's online chat on SciFi channel, click on the little camera. Scroll down the page to read the transcript. Then click on the X in the upper right corner to close the window.

The biggest difference -- for me -- was that we were determined to go back to the show's science fiction roots and take them even futher. I grew up reading SF and am a real fan of the genre. I thought that the alternate worlds were a fabulous premise and I really wanted to explore that.

The challenge for the TV show was always to suggest an entire alternate world with a few, small number of rooms and with a few extras. However the fact that we were on a limited budget made us focus on our main characters, which I think was very healthy. It made Quinn stronger and and allowed us to explore Maggie more fully.


My favorite episode that I wrote was called "World Killer" and it had a duplicate of Quinn. My favorite episode written by some of the other guys...there's an episode called "Lipschitz Live!" written by Keith Damon that dealt with tabloid TV and is very funny. Chris Black wrote an episode called "Side By Wire" that deals with Maggie's grief over her husbands's death, and I thought that was well done too.

Marc wrote the script "Survivors" for the first season of BABYLON 5. The show was originally titled "A Knife in the Shadows" and, as very often happens in TV, went through several changes from first draft to final shooting script. Often what you see on the screen is not what the writer originally intended.

To read the original script, click on the little camera to see Marc's original draft of his script for Babylon 5. Scroll down the page to read it. Then click on the X in the upper right corner to close the window.

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Marc wrote the story for the popular STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE episode, FAR BEYOND THE STARS. Being producer on Sliders at the time, Marc was unable to write the teleplay, which was written by Ira Steven Behr and Hans Beimer. The show also became a novel written by Steve Barnes.

After a friend's ship is destroyed and Sisko considers leaving Starfleet, he begins having visions of his crew as 1950s Americans. Bashir's examination reveals unusual synaptic patterns, but before Sisko can discuss treatment, he finds himself in 1953 New York City as Benny Russell, a writer for a science-fiction magazine. Fellow staffers resemble O'Brien, Kira, Bashir, Dax, and Quark in human form, and their editor, Pabst, looks like a human Odo. Writing assignments are given as illustrations, and each writer creates a story to fit their drawing. Benny's illustration is a crude version of Deep Space Nine.

Benny writes of Captain Benjamin Sisko and his space station, Deep Space Nine. He shows the story to his girlfriend, Cassie (Kasidy Yates) and to the others at work. While everyone is impressed, Pabst refuses to publish it, telling Sisko that his readers will not accept a Negro man as the head of a space station.

Benny is determined to see his stories published. Albert (O'Brien) suggests making the first story a dream, and Pabst agrees that a young Negro man's vision of a better future is acceptable. That night, Benny's celebration with Cassie turns ugly. First, the preacher warns him of trouble ahead. Then, after two malicious police officers (Dukat and Weyoun) kill a Negro teenager (Jake Sisko), they turn on Benny and beat him mercilessly.

Weeks later, the day Benny's story is to be published, Pabst breaks the news that the magazine's owner refused to distribute the issue -- and that Benny has been fired. Devastated and at the breaking point, Benny tearfully declares that Ben Sisko and his future are real and cannot be destroyed. He is taken away in an ambulance, where he finds the preacher comforting him, then he wakes up on Deep Space Nine as Sisko again. Told he was unconscious only a few minutes, his brain readings have now returned to normal. Encouraged by his dream and its message, Sisko decides to stay with Starfleet and Deep Space Nine.

Ira Steven Behr: "Far Beyond the Stars" [is] one of those episodes that come along once a season it seems. Everyone from the cast to the crew to the studio felt we had something special. People worked incredibly long hours without complaining. When I was down on the set, I was constantly being approached by various DS9ers who would tell me how excited they were to be working on the episode. I don't want to oversell this thing. It's still just an hour of television. And, as with all hours of television, we had to make compromises. Time is a killer. And though we went over time and over budget, we still had to view this monster as just one episode out of 26. But given the time, the money, and the amount of work involved, I think it is something we can all be proud of."

Marc and Elaine's spec scripts
have been moved to their own page.
Click on the little camera to go there.