‘Star Trek: Voyager’ Co-Creator Jeri Taylor Has Passed Away

Jeri Taylor, known to Trek fans for her work on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager has passed away. The Emmy-nominated writer and producer was 86 years old. According to her son Andrew, Jeri passed away Wednesday night at an assisted living facility in Davis, CA.

RIP Jeri Taylor

Jeri Taylor began her time with the Trek franchise in the fourth season of The Next Generation, becoming the showrunner in the final season, which garnered her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama Series. She co-created Star Trek: Voyager with Rick Berman and Michael Piller, and stayed with the series as executive producer and showrunner until retiring and handing over the reins to Brannon Braga after the fourth season. It was Braga who first shared the news of Taylor’s passing on Instagram, praising her writing and describing her as “a cherished mentor,” crediting his career to her “intricate guidance.”

 

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Taylor is likely most associated for her work on Voyager, including writing credits for 14 episodes, starting with the series premiere “Caretaker.” Developing the character of Captain Kathryn Janeway was particularly important to Taylor. In his post today, Braga noted “Her memory will live on in many ways, but perhaps most of all in the character of Captain Janeway.” Speaking at STLV in 2021, Taylor talked about how she put a lot of herself into the character:

“I always thought of Janeway is just me, I wrote her. I can’t say that I wrote her as me, but as I would like to be. I felt full of her. And I think she is full of me, although, in many ways, far more skilled and able than I am. But it was my fantasy that Janeway was me and I tried to approach it like that. Flaws—we all have flaws. I could name my own; I don’t know that I could name Janeway’s”

Taylor even gave Janeway the same city of her own birth, Bloomington, Indiana, which now has a statue to the fictional captain.

Jeri Taylor at the 55-Year Mission convention, Las Vegas, August 2021

Jeri Taylor at the 55-Year Mission convention, Las Vegas, August 2021 (Photo: TrekMovie)

Janeway actress, Kate Mulgrew offered her memorial on Twitter, saying Taylor was responsible for changing her life, and praising her for the legacy of Janeway and being “elegant, erudite, and fiercely opinionated.”

Voyager‘s Roxann Dawson also posted her tribute to Taylor.

Taylor’s career before Trek began in the late 1970s including becoming a staff writer and producer on the drama Quincy M.E in 1980, where she met her second husband, David Moessigner. She worked as a writer and producer on several other popular series during the 80s, including Magnum P.I., In the Heat of the Night and Jake and the Fatman in 1989, her first credit as a co-executive producer. She started her time with TNG as a supervising producer in season 4, with writing credits on several episodes in her first season including sole credit on the critically acclaimed episode “The Drumhead.”

Jeri Taylor on the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation with Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner

Taylor also penned three Star Trek novels, including the Voyager novels “Mosaic” and “Pathways,” seen by many fans as semi-canon due to her being the author. Jeri had three children, including Voyager’s Vorik, actor Alexander Enberg (with her first husband, sportscaster Dick Enberg). In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Enberg said: “My mother succeeded in a male-dominated industry, but she did it without being super aggressive. She did it with compassion and kindness. She was like a den mother to everyone.”

In a post on Instagram, TNG executive producer and co-creator of Voyager with Jeri said this of his former collogue:

“A generous woman who used her remarkable talents to bring out the best in all of us. Voyager would never have been what it was, nor would Janeway, if it weren’t for Jeri Taylor. The warmest colleague and friend one could ever ask for.”

Taylor on the set of Voyager with her co-creators Michael Piller and Rick Berman

More Jeri on Janeway

Jeri Taylor was interviewed for upcoming Voyager documentary To the Journey, and she can be seen talking about developing the character of Janeway in the following clip.

 Jeri remembered

Several more Star Trek luminaries are sharing their thoughts about the passing of Jeri Taylor on social media, including some who worked with her…

Voyager writer/producer Bryan Fuller:

 

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Next Generation and DS9 writer/producer Robert Hewitt Wolfe:

Trek artist Mike Okuda:

Star Trek historian and podcaster Mark Altman:

Star Trek Communicator editor and historian Larry Nemecek:

Prodigy writer/co-executive producer Aaron Waltke:

TrekMovie offers our condolences to the friends and family of Jeri Taylor.

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May She Rest In Holy Peace.

OMG no! This is horrible! RIP Jeri!

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Jeri gave us great Star Trek TV with TNG and VOY, especially Captain Janeway. She will be missed greatly by all. RIP

Absolute pioneer who wrote many excellent stories and help craft some incredibly memorable characters.

I always wanted to ask her if she had plotted the whole story to Janeway’s season 1 and 2 holonovel. I have nothing but love and respect for Captain Proton, but damned if I didn’t want to watch Mrs Davenport find out what was on the mysterious fourth floor of the mansion…

One of so many lovely ideas Taylor had.

Condolences. Another sad passing of a talented writer who ‘got’ Trek. We need more, imo.

and showrunner for Voy.

I always kind of thought of her as the D.C. Fontana of the Berman era. Her approach to the franchise had a lot of heart, and is sorely missed.

Same!

RIP

RIP Jeri! My first Star Trek was Voyager. My first captain was Janeway. Thank you Jeri, for creating this wonderful character and opening my young mind to the world of Star Trek.

As I understand it, Jeri was bought in to TNG to strengthen the woman characters and boy did she succeed! I don’t think we would have seen Crusher or Troi in command if not for Teri’s input. RIP as you ascend to a higher realm!

Rest in Peace…

I had the privilege of meeting this amazing woman twice in my life, once in the late 90s and again a little over a decade ago. I told her because of her and creating an amazing character like Captain Janeway inspired my daughter to become a scientist and she did. Taylor, like D.C. Fontana before her paved the way for women in science fiction and helped create more inspiring women characters as well.

Jeri Taylor created some of the best acclaimed Star Trek stories to date. I wish we had more voices like hers today working on the franchise.

She will be truly missed.

that last scene in ‘drumhead’ more relevant now than ever…

Haven’t seen it in decades, but am thinking it has to do with being ever-vigilant?

Honestly, with all the voting fervor from trek alums, surprised nobody has made a big deal of using Scotty’s ‘Fool me once, shame on you — fool me twice, shame on me’ line in FRIDAY’S CHILD as a way of ear-flicking those who were conned into voting Trump in 2016 and were somehow thinking about going down that same nutty path again this time.

The Harris campaign could have used this as a sub-heading for ‘reasoning’ with some of these folks.

Agreed, Kev.

Oh, no. From what I hear she made TNG a Great Working environment. One of Treks Great moms:(

Wow just on a weird lark, I watched Drumhead a week ago. Taylor was a major talent and the first woman credited for creating a Star Trek show. Voyager and especially Janeway will live on for decades so her legacy will always be sealed. She did a lot for women producers in this space, especially for science fiction. RIP

I don’t think it’s said enough, even though it isn’t a particularly profound insight, but women made Star Trek the thing we all love it to be. From TOS forward, women writers shaped the shows, and Jeri Taylor had to have been one of its biggest influencers. So glad we were blessed with her wonderful work, which will forever shine as a testament to who she was and what she stood for :)