Jeri Taylor Dead: ‘Star Trek: Voyager’ Co-Creator Was 86

Jeri Taylor, the Emmy-nominated producer, author, director and showrunner who spent greater than a decade engaged on Star Trek: The Subsequent Era and Star Trek: Voyager, which she co-created, has died. She was 86.

Taylor died Wednesday evening of pure causes at an assisted residing facility in Davis, California, her son Andrew Enberg informed The Hollywood Reporter.

“My mom succeeded in a male-dominated business,” her son stated, “however she did it with out being tremendous aggressive. She did it with compassion and kindness. She was like a den mom to everybody.”

Earlier than embarking on her Star Trek voyage, the Indiana native wrote and produced episodes of such standard community crime fare as Quincy, M.E., Magnum, P.I., Jake and the Fatman and Within the Warmth of the Night time. She was adept at writing about “character, of individuals and relationships and emotions,” she as soon as famous.

Taylor started writing for the syndicated Subsequent Era in 1990 throughout its fourth season. She graduated to co-executive producer alongside Rick Berman and Michael Pillar through the present’s sixth season and served because the showrunner of the Patrick Stewart starrer for its seventh and remaining marketing campaign (1993-94).

In 1994, she shared an Emmy nomination for excellent drama collection.

She, Berman and Pillar created Star Trek: Voyager, which bowed on UPN in January 1995, and he or she was that collection’ showrunner for its first 4 seasons, by way of 1998, and a artistic marketing consultant for its remaining three seasons.

It was Taylor’s concept to have a feminine lead on Star Trek, and Kate Mulgrew, who starred as Capt. Kathryn Janeway on Voyager, wrote on X that Taylor “was accountable, largely, for altering my life.”

“She was elegant, erudite and fiercely opinionated,” Mulgrew wrote. “She needed Kathryn Janeway to be a major a part of her legacy, and I feel there isn’t a doubt that in that endeavor she succeeded.”

One in all six children, Jeri Cecile Suer was born on June 30, 1938, in Evansville, Indiana. Her father, Robert, was a physician, and her mom, Ruah, a arithmetic trainer.

Taylor graduated from Wilmington Excessive College in Ohio (the place she was the valedictorian) and from Indiana College. She earned her grasp’s from Cal State Northridge, led an appearing workshop in L.A. and directed native stage productions earlier than moving into tv in 1979 as a author.

She started work for NBC’s Quincy in 1980 throughout its fifth season, and he or she would direct two episodes and function a producer on the present’s eighth and remaining yr.

She joined the writing workers of Subsequent Era after rewriting the fourth-season episode “All of the sudden Human.”

Alongside the best way, Taylor additionally wrote ABC Afterschool Specials, episodes of Little Home on the Prairie, The Unbelievable Hulk, Blue Thunder and Father Dowling Mysteries and the 1987 CBS telefilm A Place to Name Residence, starring Linda Lavin.

Of the 30 or so Star Trek episodes for which she acquired a writing credit score, Taylor was stated to be most pleased with the fourth-season Subsequent Era installment “The Drumhead,” which was set inside a courtroom.

She additionally acquired story by credit score on three episodes of the syndicated Star Trek: Deep Area 9 in 1993-94 and wrote three Star Trek novels for Pocket Books.

Taylor was married to famed sportscaster Dick Enberg from 1959 till their 1974 divorce and to writer-producer David Moessinger — they labored collectively on Quincy and different reveals — from 1986 till his 2018 loss of life.

Along with Andrew, survivors embody her different son, Alexander Enberg, who appeared on Voyager as Ensign Vorik, a Vulcan. Her daughter, Jennifer Jo Enberg, died in 2015 of ovarian most cancers at age 52.

On Instagram, Brannon Braga, who took over for Taylor as Voyager‘s showrunner, referred to as her “a cherished mentor.”

“Jeri was beneficiant together with her knowledge and her time, she nurtured a complete workers of younger writers, which is a testomony to her persistence,” he continued. “I’d not have a profession with out Jeri’s intricate steering. She taught us all a lot. Her reminiscence will reside on in some ways, however maybe most of all within the character of Captain Janeway, who mirrored the most effective dimensions of Jeri herself. Jeri Taylor, we had been fortunate to know you.”