Mike Sussman (TV series writer/producer)

Last updated
Mike Sussman
Born (1975-06-22) June 22, 1975 (age 48)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Occupation(s) Television producer and writer

Mike Sussman (born June 22, 1975) is an American television writer and producer. He is best known as a creator and executive producer of the TNT crime drama Perception , as well as a writer and producer of the Star Trek franchise.

Contents

Early life

Sussman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, later moving with his family to Sarasota, Florida. While attending Florida State University, he took a class in screenwriting, penning a spec script for Star Trek: The Next Generation that obtained him a Writers Guild of America internship with the writing staff of Star Trek: Voyager . [1]

Career

Prior to his first staff job on a scripted drama, Sussman worked in broadcast journalism, serving as a writer and producer for KCAL-TV's Emmy Award-winning Prime Nine News. He later shared the award for "Best Newscast" at the New York Festivals Television & Film Awards.

A longtime Star Trek fan, Sussman made his first professional sale to Voyager Executive Producer Michael Piller on the final day of his writing internship. That story became the basis for the acclaimed second-season episode "Meld," which cast Academy Award-nominee Brad Dourif in a recurring role as sociopathic crewman Lon Suder. Sussman ultimately sold several freelance stories to Voyager before partnering with Phyllis Strong, and the pair were hired as story editors by showrunner Kenneth Biller for the series' seventh and final season. [2] Their partnership continued on the next spin-off, Star Trek: Enterprise , until the two branched out as solo writers; Sussman was subsequently promoted to producer on the series. [1] All told, he is credited with writing or co-writing more than thirty episodes of the Star Trek franchise.

Sussman's work on Enterprise included many of the series most popular and acclaimed episodes. In its third season, he penned the time-jumping alternate reality tale "Twilight", which was rebroadcast on April 8, 2005, as the "#1 Fan Favorite Episode" of the series, chosen in a Viewer's Choice poll at UPN.com. [3] In the show's fourth season, Sussman showed his affection for the original Star Trek series with arguably his most popular script, the two-part episode "In a Mirror, Darkly". Set in Star Trek's dark and oppressive Mirror Universe, the feature-length adventure recreated many of the iconic sets from The Original Series, and served as both a sequel and a prequel to episodes from Captain Kirk's era. New York Daily News TV critic David Bianculli called the two-parter "the best hours of Enterprise yet." [4] In 2016, Star Trek fans at the 50th anniversary convention in Las Vegas chose "In a Mirror, Darkly" as one of the "10 Best Star Trek episodes" out of the more than seven hundred live-action episodes produced as of that date. [5]

After his tenure on Star Trek, Sussman served as a writer and producer on the CBS science fiction drama Threshold, starring Carla Gugino and Peter Dinklage; and later on Sam Raimi's syndicated fantasy series Legend of the Seeker for Disney/ABC Studios.

Diversifying from his sci-fi background, Sussman went on to co-create and executive produce the one-hour crime procedural Perception with his former Trek colleague Kenneth Biller. [6] That series, also from ABC Studios, starred Emmy Award-winner Eric McCormack as a crime-solving neurologist, and aired for three seasons on TNT. Following Perception, Sussman wrote and produced the SyFy Channel series 12 Monkeys; and The Last Ship from Executive Producer Michael Bay and TNT Originals.

Related Research Articles

Star Trek: Enterprise, originally titled simply Enterprise for its first two seasons, is an American science fiction television series created by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. It originally aired from September 26, 2001, to May 13, 2005 on United Paramount Network (UPN). The sixth series in the Star Trek franchise, it is a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series. Set in the 22nd century, a hundred years before the events of The Original Series, it follows the adventures of the Enterprise, Earth's first starship capable of traveling at warp five, as it explores the galaxy and encounters various alien species.

<i>Enterprise</i> (NX-01) Fictional spacecraft from Star Trek: Enterprise

Enterprise (NX-01) is the fictional spaceship that serves as the primary setting of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise. The ship predates the other Starfleet ships named Enterprise and was first seen in the pilot episode "Broken Bow". Its missions included an initial period of deep space exploration and a mission into the Delphic Expanse following the Xindi attack on Earth; it was also instrumental in the formation of the United Federation of Planets with the Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites.

"Twilight" is the eighth episode of the third season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise, originally broadcast on November 5, 2003. It was the sixtieth episode of the series overall. It was written by co-producer Michael Sussman, and directed by former Star Trek: Voyager actor Robert Duncan McNeill.

James Duff is an American television writer, producer and director. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and has written plays and television screenplays. He is credited as the creator of the TV series The Closer and Major Crimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brannon Braga</span> American television producer, director, and screenwriter

Brannon Braga is an American television producer, director and screenwriter. Best known for his work in the Star Trek franchise, Braga was a key creative force behind three of the franchise's live action series. He later became an executive producer and writer on several Fox shows including 24, Terra Nova, and The Orville. His film credits include Mission: Impossible 2, Star Trek Generations and Star Trek: First Contact.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronald D. Moore</span> American screenwriter and television producer (born 1964)

Ronald Dowl Moore is an American screenwriter and television producer. He is best known for his work on Star Trek, as well as on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series, for which he won a Peabody Award, and on Outlander, based on the novels of the same name by Diana Gabaldon. In 2019, he created and wrote the series For All Mankind for Apple TV+.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manny Coto</span> American director, producer and writer (1961–2023)

Manuel Hector Coto was a Cuban-born American screenwriter, television and film director, and producer of films and television programs.

"These Are the Voyages..." is the series finale of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise. The 22nd episode of the fourth season and the 98th of the series overall, it first aired on the UPN network in the United States on May 13, 2005. It is a frame story where the 22nd-century events of Star Trek: Enterprise are recounted in a 24th-century holodeck re-creation that is folded into the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Pegasus", which aired eleven years earlier. It features guest stars Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis and Jeffrey Combs, as well as a voice cameo from Brent Spiner. Series creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, who co-wrote the episode, conceived "These Are the Voyages..." as a valentine to Star Trek fans.

"In a Mirror, Darkly" is the eighteenth and nineteenth episodes of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise, and originally aired on April 22 and 29, 2005. This installment was developed to be a sequel to The Original Series episode "The Tholian Web" and a prequel to "Mirror, Mirror". The decision to set an Enterprise episode in the mirror universe originated with a pitch to enable William Shatner to appear in the series. The teleplays for both parts of the episode were written by Mike Sussman, with Manny Coto contributing the story for the second part.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ira Steven Behr</span> American screen writer and television producer

Ira Steven Behr is an American screenwriter and television producer, best known for his work on Star Trek, especially Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, on which he served as showrunner and executive producer. He was the executive producer and showrunner on Crash, executive producer on Syfy's Alphas and a writer and co-executive producer on Outlander.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Piller</span> American television producer and scriptwriter (1948–2005)

Michael Piller was an American television scriptwriter and producer, who was best known for his contributions to the Star Trek franchise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naren Shankar</span> American television writer, producer, and director

Narendra "Naren" Kanakaiah Shankar is an Indian American writer, producer and director of several television series. He was co-showrunner of the Amazon Prime series The Expanse. He was also co-showrunner on the long-running CBS crime drama CSI and Almost Human, among other series. As a writer and producer, Shankar has contributed with works for Farscape, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Night Visions, The Outer Limits, The Chronicle, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, seaQuest 2032, Grimm, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Biller</span> American television director, producer and writer

Kenneth Todd Biller is a television producer, writer, director and editor. He has worked on a number of American television shows including Beverly Hills, 90210, Star Trek: Voyager, Legend of the Seeker and Perception. During his time on Voyager, he rose from executive story editor during the first season up to executive producer in the final season, and was responsible for writing the episode which introduced the Borg into the show.

James L. Conway is an American film and television director, producer, and writer, studio executive, and novelist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Taylor (screenwriter)</span> American screenwriter

Michael Taylor is a screenwriter who is best known for his work as a writer for both Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager.

Star Trek is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. Since its creation, the franchise has expanded into various films, television series, video games, novels, and comic books, and it has become one of the most recognizable and highest-grossing media franchises of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Shiban</span> American television writer and producer

John Shiban is an American television writer and producer. He worked in both capacities on The X-Files, its spin-off The Lone Gunmen, Star Trek: Enterprise, Smallville, Supernatural, Legend of the Seeker, Breaking Bad, and The Vampire Diaries. In 1997, he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for his work on The X-Files episode "Memento Mori". He shared the nomination with co-writers Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, and Vince Gilligan. In 1998, Shiban shared a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series with The X-Files production team.

<i>Perception</i> (TV series) US crime drama television series

Perception is an American crime drama television series created by Kenneth Biller and Mike Sussman. The series stars Eric McCormack as Daniel Pierce, a neuropsychiatrist with schizophrenia who assists the FBI on some of its most complex cases.

<i>Star Trek: Voyager</i> (season 4) Season of television series

The fourth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager commenced airing on UPN in the United States on September 3, 1997, and concluded on May 20, 1998, after airing 26 episodes. Set in the 24th century, the series followed the adventures of the Starfleet and Maquis crew of the starship USS Voyager after they were stranded in the Delta Quadrant, far from the rest of the Federation. Season Four featured the debut of new main cast member Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine, nicknamed Seven, and the departure of Jennifer Lien, who portrayed Kes during the first three seasons of the show. At the end of the season, co-creator and executive producer Jeri Taylor retired.

<i>Star Trek: Enterprise</i> (season 4) Season of television series

The fourth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise commenced airing on the UPN network in the United States on October 8, 2004 and concluded on May 13, 2005 after airing 22 episodes. Set in the 22nd century, the series follows the adventures of the first Starfleet starship Enterprise, registration NX-01. The fourth season saw changes made to the production team, with Manny Coto becoming the show runner. He had joined the team during the third season as a co-executive producer. Other changes included Star Trek novelists Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens being brought on board as writers.

References

  1. 1 2 Bassom, David (January 2006). "Renaissance Sussman". Star Trek Magazine. No. 124. pp. 40–45.
  2. Nemecek, Larry (April–May 2004). "Enterprise Scribe" (PDF). Star Trek Communicator. No. 114. pp. 58–62. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
  3. "Breaking News". The Futon Critic. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
  4. Bianculli, David. "'Star Trek': The Final Frontier". New York Daily News. Retrieved 2022-02-27.
  5. "Captains Beam Down to Star Trek Las Vegas for Day 4". Star Trek.com. August 6, 2016.
  6. "Catching Up with Star Trek Writer Mike Sussman". Star Trek.com. September 30, 2010. Retrieved August 2, 2013.