Author, Screenwriter, and TV Writer Marc Scott Zicree Of ‘Space Command’ On Five Things You Need to Create Highly Successful Science Fiction Stories

…Celebrate Your Wins: Stop and value when you have a win. When you have a success, don’t just move on to the next thing. Be present to the joy of it, how wonderful it is to share your heart with others, and to have your work last. Science fiction has a way of lasting much better than other genres. For instance, they still have Star Trek conventions. Who’s going to Gunsmoke conventions or Mannix conventions? Those are good shows too, but they don’t have the same currency that science fiction does. I’m very grateful that science fiction is my home base because I love it, and it lasts…

I had the pleasure of talking with Marc Scott Zicree. Marc, an American author, screenwriter, and television writer, has carved a unique niche for himself in the world of science fiction and television, whose new film, “Space Command: Redemption,” is available now on Amazon and Google Play. With a career spanning several decades, Zicree has penned episodes for iconic series such as “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Deep Space Nine,” and “The Twilight Zone.” His work extends across a plethora of major studios and networks, including Paramount, Universal, Disney, and the BBC, illustrating a versatile and prolific portfolio.

Born and raised in West Los Angeles, Zicree’s passion for science fiction was ignited early in his childhood. His first memorable encounter with the genre was through Robert A. Heinlein’s “Farmer in the Sky” at the age of seven. That same year, he had a life-altering experience when he attended a library talk by Ray Bradbury, who emphasized the unity of life, work, and art. These formative experiences laid the foundation for his creative aspirations. Raised by a single mother, Zicree’s early fascination with “Star Trek” was further fueled by a personal interaction with Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura on the show, providing him with not just inspiration but tangible connections to the world of television storytelling.

Zicree’s academic pursuits in painting, sculpture, and graphic arts at UCLA were followed by a swift transition into writing. His first significant work, “The Twilight Zone Companion,” is a detailed exploration of Rod Serling’s classic series and has become a staple for fans and scholars alike. This project not only established him as a writer but also as a historian of television.

The trajectory of Zicree’s career is marked not only by his creative outputs but also by his innovative approach to production. With the advent of crowdfunding, Zicree spearheaded the “Space Command” series (starting with “Space Command: Redemption”), a science fiction saga that bypasses traditional studio systems by directly engaging with the fan community. This project has been supported by a successful Kickstarter campaign that notably raised over $220,000, demonstrating a strong fan base and a new model for independent media production.

“Space Command” features a robust cast including Doug Jones, Robert Picardo, and Mira Furlan, with Neil deGrasse Tyson appearing as himself. The series reflects Zicree’s vision of a hopeful, inclusive future, a thematic continuation of the optimistic ethos of early “Star Trek” episodes. The show’s narrative weaves complex moral dilemmas, emphasizing compassion and empathy as solutions to societal conflicts.

Aside from his creative work, Zicree is a mentor and advocate for aspiring writers and filmmakers, guiding them through the complexities of the entertainment industry. His book “Greenlighting Yourself” addresses the changing dynamics of the industry and encourages self-starting strategies over traditional paths.

Marc Scott Zicree’s journey from a young science fiction enthusiast to a respected figure in television writing illustrates a lifelong commitment to storytelling. His work, both creative and educational, continues to influence and inspire, positioning him as a pivotal figure in contemporary science fiction and television.

Yitzi: Marc, it’s an honor to meet you. Before we dive in deep, our readers would love to learn about your personal origin story. Can you share the story of your childhood and how you grew up?

Well, I grew up in West Los Angeles and have been a science fiction fan from as far back as I can remember. My first favorite book was ‘Farmer in the Sky’ by Robert A. Heinlein when I was seven years old, and the first writer I ever saw in person was Ray Bradbury when I was also seven. He spoke at a library, and I sat on the carpet in front of the front row looking up at this god. Ray said something that really resonated with me. He mentioned that ideally, your life, work, and art should all come from the same place, and he pointed to his heart. I thought that was really great. So, when ‘Star Trek’ came on when I was 10 years old, I recorded it on reel-to-reel audio tape just in case it never aired again, and this was before VCRs. I was being raised by a divorced mom, a single mom, and one of her boyfriends, knowing I was a huge ‘Star Trek’ fan, surprised me by taking me to Nichelle Nichols’ apartment. She was playing Uhura at the time. The show was still on the air, and I met her. She gave me one of her signed scripts and a signed photo. We stayed in touch and, ironically, 50 years later, I was able to write a scene for her in ‘Space Command,’ so we got her in the cast before her passing. I brought the Star Trek scrapbook I kept from when I was 10, and we sat down on the set looking through it, and it was great. Then I got to go on the set of ‘Star Trek’ as well. I was on the set for the last episode they ever shot, ‘Turnabout Intruder.’ I got to sit in the captain’s chair and stand on the transporter and see the little light bulb that was screwed in and all of that. So I knew very early on that I wanted to be a writer, particularly a science fiction and TV writer. The three shows that made me want to be a writer were ‘Star Trek’, ‘The Outer Limits’, and ‘Twilight Zone,’ the originals of all those shows. I noticed that they were being written by the same guys whose short stories and novels I was reading, like Ted Sturgeon, Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury, and Richard Matheson. As soon as I was a teenager, I started going to conventions, meeting my heroes who became friends and mentors. I sold my first short story at 19 and finished my art degree in painting, sculpture, and graphic arts at UCLA. By the time I got out of college, I knew I wanted to be a writer-producer working in TV. I started writing ‘The Twilight Zone Companion’ when I was 21, and by the time I was 22 or 23, I was writing for television. I was living the dream. All these decades later, I’ve written for all the major studios and networks, hundreds of hours of TV, starting in animation because that was my way in. My friend Michael Reaves was writing animation and invited me to collaborate with him. I ended up writing on my own for many cartoon shows, including ‘Smurfs,’ ‘He-Man,’ ‘Super Friends,’ and ‘Real Ghostbusters.’ Then I jumped over and developed ‘Captain Power,’ which was a live-action science fiction show for kids. After that, I was off and running with ‘Friday the 13th: The Series,’ ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation,’ ‘DS9,’ ‘Babylon 5,’ ‘Sliders,’ and on and on. So that’s the origin story. They put me in a rocket and shot me at Earth, you know?

Yitzi: As you know, writers today are so eager to get their first break writing for a studio. Can you share what you did? How did you make that happen?

Absolutely. I actually wrote a book recently called ‘Greenlighting Yourself’ because I noticed that much of the advice in these Hollywood guidebooks was either dead wrong or outdated. They would say, ‘You’ve got to write a great script.’ But how many truly great TV shows or movies are there? Clearly, there’s a lot of mediocre stuff getting made. So obviously, you don’t need a great script to have a career in Hollywood. Or they would say, ‘You need to get an agent and a manager,’ but you don’t. Science fiction never predicted we would all have video cameras in our pockets. It used to be valid when people said, ‘They’re not letting me have my dream; the studios, the networks are to blame,’ because it took millions of dollars to make anything. To reach an audience of millions of people, you needed a studio and a network. None of that’s true anymore. With the internet, crowdfunding, and accessible video cameras, you can make your dream come true. You can shoot whatever you want, pull it together, and that’s exactly what I’ve done with ‘Space Command.’ I didn’t go through a studio or network; I went directly to my fans. To date, they’ve given me over four million dollars. My advice to anyone who wants to break into TV, films, or even books is: first, don’t let anyone stop you. Surround yourself with people who support your dream. Keep asking people who’ve succeeded how they did it. If you can talk to them directly, that’s very good. Meet them in person, go to conventions, screenings, and learn from those who succeeded. Then apply it and see if it works for you. Keep applying different strategies until you find the one that does work for you because I promise you, there will be one that will work.

Yitzi: You probably have so many amazing stories from being on so many different sets and projects. Can you share with our readers one or two of the most memorable or interesting stories that have occurred?

Sure, well, one of the greatest moments was when two studios were shooting two of my scripts simultaneously. I was a producer on ‘Sliders’ and they were shooting a script I’d written called ‘Slidecage’ at Universal. I was also a producer on that show. The same day, they were shooting my ‘Deep Space Nine’ episode ‘Far Beyond the Stars’ at Paramount. I actually got photos of myself with both casts in the same clothes on the same day. It was really remarkable. My dream growing up was to write for ‘Star Trek,’ and to actually do that and create one of the standout episodes of that show was a phenomenal opportunity and an honor. I work with many of those same actors now. So many of the ‘Star Trek’ actors are wonderfully talented people. Also, for ‘Babylon 5.’ which I wrote for as well, working with science fiction actors is phenomenal. They are wonderful people to work with. But there are so many wonderful opportunities and experiences I’ve had. It’s very fun when you get to take something from your mind and make it real with an army of people and then share it with the world. It was funny, just the other day, I was having breakfast at a restaurant and they were showing ‘Smurfs’ on the TV. I pointed and said, “I wrote for that show when I was in my early 20s.” Here it is, all these years later, and people are still enjoying even the things I wrote when I was 21, 22, 23.

Yitzi: It’s been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Do you have a humorous story about a mistake you made when you were first starting out and the lesson you learned from it?

Yes, the thing I’ve learned is to not be timid. Initially, when I started, I was trying not to make mistakes. I was not asking questions or seeking out mentors as I did later. It’s funny because years later, I was nervous about going to a television conference in France. I called a friend of mine, and he said, ‘I have a saying on my refrigerator held there by a magnet. I’m going to walk over and read it to you.’ The statement was, ‘The bolder I am, the better things go,’ and the person who had said it was me! I had totally forgotten. So now, I keep that saying in my wallet: ‘The bolder I am, the better things go.’ Now, I’m very upfront about what I’m doing, what I need, and the process. If I don’t know how to do something, I call people. It’s fine to be vulnerable and open. People don’t think you’re stupid; they think you’re smart. A process of inquiry is how you grow. So, I’m very glad that I learned that lesson over the years and am not as timid as I might have been back when I was in my 20s.

Yitzi: You have so much impressive work, Marc. Can you share with our readers about the exciting projects you’re working on now? Tell us about the ‘Space Command’ series.

The fun part is that I rose up in TV from writer to story editor to producer to executive producer. That’s how writers gain power in television; writers run TV series as opposed to movies where it’s mainly the directors and the producers. So one day a few years ago, I sat down and thought, ‘Okay, what’s my ultimate goal? What has all of this been building toward?’ And I thought, ‘Well, I want to create and run my own space-going science fiction show that is inspiring and hopeful, like ‘Star Trek’ was to me when I was a kid.’ Because so much of the science fiction had been very dystopic and nihilistic, saying the future is going to be terrible no matter what you do. And I thought, ‘No, if you reach across boundaries and barriers, if you have an open heart, if you have compassion and you put it into practice, you can make a future worth living in.’

So, I thought, ‘Okay, well what are the steps between where I am now and having that?’ And I realized that if I took the networks and the studios out of the equation, I could go directly to what I wanted to do. I didn’t have to ask permission. For 30 years now, I’ve been running a roundtable for writers, directors, actors, and producers, anyone in film, TV, or books, and it’s just to create a supportive community in the entertainment industry. It’s grown to thousands of people around the world; it’s called the Table. It meets every Thursday in North Hollywood and via Zoom. It’s a very powerful tool, and I mentor many young people.

When I came up with the idea for ‘Space Command,’ some friends who are showrunners suggested, ‘Let’s take it in, let’s get a pilot deal.’ But I didn’t want to get cut off at the script or pilot phase. I didn’t want studio notes to wreck it. So, I thought, ‘Let’s see if I can trust my audience. Let’s see if I can reach out to my audience.’ So, we launched a Kickstarter campaign. I’d never tried to raise money before; the studios and networks had always come up with the cash. But in this case, I thought, ‘Let’s see what we can do.’ Our target was to raise $75,000 in a month, and we raised it in three days. Within the period of the campaign, we raised $221,000, and that was enough to open my studio and start shooting.

So over a series of Kickstarter campaigns and also selling investment shares for $7,500 each in ‘Space Command,’ I’ve been able to raise over four million dollars. The first two hours of ‘Space Command’ titled ‘Space Command: Redemption,” connects to the following ten hours of Space Command episodes and creates a larger arc. We just finished shooting hour six; we’re shooting 12 hours total for the first season. The first two hours essentially function as a backdoor pilot, so it works as a feature but also leads to more of the story. So, we just built my own studio, built spaceship sets, and all of that, called my friends who I’d worked with on ‘Babylon 5’ and ‘Star Trek,’ and they all said yes. And we were off and running. It was totally wonderful.

Yitzi: What lessons do you think our society can take from the motifs of ‘Space Command’?

I think the main message of ‘Space Command’ is that you can’t always take action without it causing some damage. Sometimes there’s a right answer and a wrong answer, but even the right answer might hurt people. You can’t be God over all of this, but you can do your best. If you act with compassion, if you act with empathy, that’s going to create a loving and inclusive world. I believe compassion has a ripple effect, just like violence does, and it’s the only counterweight against destruction and chaos. We must reach out to others. We must see that other people are not the enemy; they are the same as us. Everyone wants to raise their children in safety, everyone wants a better future for their children, and that’s something we can all unite on.

I’ve been very gratified that the people who’ve been supporting ‘Space Command’ aren’t just liberals like me. One of my investors, a truck driver and a Trump voter, shared this with me, and I said, ‘I’m so glad you told me that because we can meet in the middle.’ It’s not about politics; it’s not about ideology; it’s about our common humanity. The moment you stop being afraid and start seeing possibility, and realize that science fiction is a big tent, you see its power. Science fiction doesn’t polarize the way current politics does because it takes issues away from the heat of the moment. That’s what Rod Serling and Gene Roddenberry knew.

For instance, the original ‘Star Trek,’ which had a hopeful, inclusive message, featured black actors and Asian actors and all these different people from different backgrounds coming together and working toward a positive aim. People forget that that show was done during the Vietnam War, during the riots in the cities, the Civil Rights Movement — there was chaos in the streets. But Roddenberry had the vision and humanity to say ‘No, we can do better.’ Through that, he inspired millions of people to become scientists, teachers, astronauts, and to find ways to reach out and be open-minded and open-hearted. It takes courage to be hopeful because cynics will say, ‘Oh, you’re just being unrealistic,’ but their cynicism doesn’t win us anything worth having. But love, hope, kindness, and action bring us a lot.

Yitzi: This is our signature question. Based on your experience and success, can you share with the readers the five things you need to create highly successful science fiction stories?

Ray Bradbury became a very dear friend and mentor over the last decade or so of his life. Ray would always say ‘Don’t look outward, look inward.’ What he meant by that was not to imitate others or just copy what you’ve seen, which is a problem with a lot of TV shows and movies. Look inside — what do you care about? What makes you happy, sad, or angry? They say write what you know, but that’s not actually accurate. Write what you’re interested in, what you’re curious about. Writing can be a process of exploration, so you start with a question and hopefully come up with an answer by the end of the journey.

So, the five things I would suggest to have a career in creating successful science fiction stories are:

1. Get Mentors: Make a list of who’s doing the work you most love in film and TV, and meet those people in person. Go where they are, ask them questions about how they made it, because the official story may not be the real story. The printed story may be sanitized, whereas if you talk to them in person, they’ll say, “No, this is what really happened.” And that’s something you can learn from.
2. Don’t Stop: no matter what, just keep going. Persistence is key.
3. Work on Your Craft: If you’re weak in some area of your work, either get a partner who’s strong in that area or just get better at it yourself.
4. Get a YouTube Channel: Share your work with others. It doesn’t have to be perfect. If you start to get followers — whether a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand, or a million — that’s significant. For instance, I started a YouTube channel called Mr. Sci-Fi, and we’ve had millions of hits. I post every few days on anything I want to talk about in science fiction terms. It’s great, and I get a lot of feedback from my fans, creating a community.
5. Celebrate Your Wins: Stop and value when you have a win. When you have a success, don’t just move on to the next thing. Be present to the joy of it, how wonderful it is to share your heart with others, and to have your work last. Science fiction has a way of lasting much better than other genres. For instance, they still have Star Trek conventions. Who’s going to Gunsmoke conventions or Mannix conventions? Those are good shows too, but they don’t have the same currency that science fiction does. I’m very grateful that science fiction is my home base because I love it, and it lasts.

Yitzi: Marc, because of all your great work and the platform you’ve created, you’re a person of enormous influence. If you could spread an idea or inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

It’s interesting; I wrote a prequel of ‘Space Command’ that we’re doing as a graphic novel and an audio play, and we’re combining them into what we call an animatic, which is like an animated storyboard. I have a worldwide movement in that, because it deals with global warming and other issues that are going awry in our world. I have an activist rise up in Sri Lanka, where Arthur C. Clarke was based, and she starts a worldwide movement called ‘Sanity at Last’ This movement basically says we’re all human, we’re all connected, we’re all the same. Our leaders are crazy because greed has made them insane, and rather than addressing the issues that are endangering our species, rather than coming together as the human race, they’re using fear and greed to fracture us. What people have to do is rise up beyond their leaders and say, ‘Sanity at last! We are going to take care of our species as a United Planet.’ Everyone can be clothed, everyone can be fed, everyone can get medical attention, everyone should be safe and happy. We have the technology; we have the means to do that. The only reason we shatter apart into all these wars and petty differences is because we’re guided by fear. We must outgrow that. That’s what I would urge people to do.

Yitzi: Marc, it’s been an honor to meet you. How can our readers watch *Space Command*? How can they support your work in the future?

Absolutely! They can subscribe to my Mr. Sci-Fi channel on YouTube and invest in ‘Space Command’; we’re still selling shares. They can support us in our Kickstarter campaigns and can rent and buy ‘Space Command’ on all of the various platforms it’s available now. There’s a lot more to come, as I say, we’re shooting 12 hours of the show, and it’s very, very exciting. Mr. Sci-Fi is the best way to follow what I’m doing on an ongoing basis. I just love the fans; I’m the same as them, and that’s why I love being part of that community.

Yitzi: Marc, it’s an honor to meet you. I wish you continued success and good health.

Thank you so much. Thanks, I enjoyed this.